Neji watched as Ranma and Akane returned with an unconscious and battered Genma Saotome carried on the man’s back to be deposited roughly on the floor in front of the Konoha jonin.

Akane looked around, noting that Nabiki had already returned home with her ninja-bodyguard.

“There he is,” Ranma said grimly. “We’ll have to call up the Kumons again. They won’t be happy.”

“The Kumons should be getting a similar message as you did Saotome-san,” Neji said. “My wife should be arriving at their home any time now. Your sister apparently included them as a reference.”

The look in Neji’s face was clear to the Saotomes. He was wondering just how they had managed to completely vanish as they had. Neither Akane nor Ranma were about to explain the secrets of the Umisenken.

“Chi adepts,” Neji noted finally.

“Masters,” Akane corrected.

“That’s how you vanished like that,” Neji said. “Some how, you let your coils flow freely with the chi of the environment. There must be a risk to that.”

“That’s why it’s a sealed art,” Akane said, simply, ignoring the man’s analysis.

“You used a sealed art to take a single man prisoner?” Neji asked, curious as to how powerful the man that had escaped Konoha justice was.

“Oyaji would have slipped if we hadn’t,” Ranma said. “We’ve had ta fight this fight before, ain’t gonna let turn into a whole deal again.”

“If I may,” Neji said. “What is the history of your school?”

“There’s no secret to it,” Akane said, shrugging. “We didn’t agree with them meddling in how we ran the school they supposedly left to us.”

“Or getting our students killed,” Ranma muttered.

“Right,” Akane noted, wishing Ranma wouldn’t let information like that slip.

“Long story, short,” Ranma said. “We kicked their ass and made them promise not to try teaching any more on pain of extreme butt-kicking.”

“I see,” Neji said, arching an eyebrow at the “grandmaster’s” rather vulgar way of phrasing things. “In any case, would you be opposed to my waiting here for word from Konoha. I’d like to make certain that this man does not slip from our justice again.”

“Nah,” Ranma said. “We got space.”

“I’m going to go get Kasumi and Tofu,” Akane said, gearing up to walk out of the dojo compound. “You’ve got him until then?”

“Given what we hit him with,” Ranma said. “He should be down for the next few hours, an’ I ain’t untying him.”

“Thought so,” Akane said, smiling.

Ranma slowly turned around toward Neji, a particularly thoughtful expression on his face.

“Now, what can you tell me about my sisters?” he asked.

****

Ryoko hummed quietly to herself as she swept up the floor to the porch in front of the Uzumaki house. It was hard not to see how nervous she was, but, then again, it was hardly unusual for Ryoko to be nervous about something.

Most people that passed by wouldn’t have thought much of Ryoko’s chore. Most hadn’t seen Ryoko’s more extreme methods of self-training or how closely she absorbed and analyzed any motion that occurred near her. Any jonin that had contact with her for more than a few seconds recognized her attitude, and a handful of chunin.

However, for the most part, people, ninja or otherwise, tended to view Ryoko as a harmlessly shy young girl taken in by the Uzumakis. Some rumors about potential child abuse from her real parents had leaked through the village, but for the most part she just went unnoticed.

The young Saotome’s semi-meditation came to an abrupt end, however, as a figure walked up the street and stopped in front of the Uzumaki house, waving at her in a friendly manner.

“Morning, Ryoko-chan,” the man in front of her said, watching her near flinch as he caught her attention. “Is Kuren around?”

“Iie, Yuhi-sama,” she said. “I…I do believe that she is with her sensei.”

“Sen…” Kouki frowned. “I missed graduation didn’t I.”

“You were on a mission, Yuhi-sama,” Ryoko offered, as if it wasn’t anything that could be helped.

It didn’t help too much. Kouki Yuhi mother was Hinata’s first jonin-sensei as well as Kuren Uzumaki’s godmother. Kouki’s own sensei, Shikamaru, had been very close friends with Naruto.

That made the Uzumaki’s family in some regards.

Granted, he had treated them as any child would treat family friends until a few years back.

****

If there was one thing a fifteen year old young man hated, it was family obligations. As genin of Konoha, he had responsibilities to be using his ninja-skills to aid the village, not wasting time hanging out with his mother’s friends.

The fact that they were all ninja as well didn’t make it any better. Even if life were getting a bit quiet now, why would so many shinobi be spending a night just hanging together. Heck, the Uzumaki’s son had just vanished somewhere if he’d heard the gossip correctly, shouldn’t they be looking for him? Or at least the man who’d caused them to disappear?

Yet, here he was, at the Uzumaki house, watching and listening to a rather subdued party.

His mother was talking Hinata and his sensei was talking to Naruto. Shikamaru-sensei’s wife was handling Kuren and the other two girls, turning the whole thing into a sort of mini-lesson.

Temari-sensei was evil the way she snuck lessons into any sort of conversation with her.

As for Kouki, he had set up a go board in the hopes that he could at least get a good game out of Shikamaru-sensei. Not to be, however, as the old man was deciding to engage in small talk instead.

So, he was sitting down and staring at the go board as he set it up to study a previous match he had had with Shikamaru-sensei.

Kouki was studying the board intently, trying to find a way to prevent the death that would strike one of his largest territories the next turn, when a voice broke into his thoughts.

“Ano…may I play?” the girl asked. “I’ll take black.”

Looking up from his examination, Kouki noticed the older of the two outsider girls that the Uzumakis had apparently taken in.

“Sure, why not,” Kouki responded with a shrug. Black was losing, that was what he’d been playing.

“Yatta!” the girl responded happily sitting down enthusiastically. “I play with Dad all the time. This is a very difficult game!”

As she spoke, she took a dark stone and placed it down.

Kouki glanced down at the board irritably. The girl’s move had saved the black side nothing.

The young man immediately went forward with the move that his sensei had taken in the original game, and black’s primary territory was gutted. The girl seemed unperturbed as she responded with another black stone. This continued for several minutes, with more and more black stones being captured.

The girl seemed remarkably passive in her playing, like she wasn’t trying to capture anything.

Slowly, Kouki’s attention was full immersed in the game and he failed to note as the other participants of the small party came around them to watch, Shikamaru’s eyebrow arching highly as he watched the game progress.

It was an hour into the game that Kouki started to notice that useful plays were becoming more scarce. He had counted three sekis in play before he held off on looking for a move to take and instead decided to take the whole board in, something he probably should have done much earlier.

There were a lot more than three sekis, in fact, if he had to lay his guess, the girl had been doing nothing but generating sekis since she started playing against him. More than a third of the board was taken up by stones that he neither side could make a move nearby without giving the other side an opportunity.

He looked up at the girl in surprise and then started experimenting.

“You’re paralyzing the board,” he said twelve minutes later. “You’re going to make a draw.”

The black haired girl flinched and bit her lip.

“Ano…” she said hesitantly.

“I’ve even given you three perfect chances to capture my pieces,” he noted indicating what he was talking about. “And you made sekis out of all three chances. Hell, on the last two, I spent several moves trying to prevent you from making it a seki and you still managed it. Are you going to try to win any time soon?”

“Ano…” Ryoko said. “I could not capture those pieces.”

“All you had to do was put a stone here,” Kouki protested, indicating the appropriate spot.

“But when I do that, the mice take the stones,” Ryoko said.

“The mice…what?” Temari asked.

“I put a stone here and then Father asks me to get him a drink or his pipe,” Ryoko noted. “And when I come back, many of my stones are gone. Father says the mice take them. So, if I avoid capturing pieces, then I can keep the mice from taking more stones.”

Several people stared at her in perplexity as the obviousness of her explanation came clear.

“Dad cheats when he notices she’s winning,” Joseibi explained bluntly.

“Imouto-chan!” Ryoko gasped in response to the younger girl’s explanation.

“So, what you’re saying,” Kouki translated through narrowed eyes, “is that you developed a strategy to play the game in a way that wouldn’t make your father feel like he needed to cheat.”

“Ano…” Ryoko said hesistantly.

“It’s an interesting strategy,” Shikamaru noted, looking at the board. “Forcing your opponent to tie his existence together with yours. Depending on the scoring method, and how much attention you pay, she could end up winning with it.”

“She takes hostages,” Kurenai agreed causing another wince from Ryoko at that particular description of her strategy.

“Ano…” Ryoko repeated, flushing brightly as her little strategy was so thoroughly analyzed after only one incomplete game.

Father had never noticed.

“Mind if I have a game when you’re finished here, Kouki,” Shikamaru asked. “I want to see what tricks she has up her sleeve.”

“Ano…” Ryoko repeated again, biting her lip hard.

****

Kouki smiled at the memory and then looked back down at Ryoko, comparing the memory of that ten year old girl with the sixteen year-old young woman in front of him. She hadn’t gained much height, but there was no questioning that she had matured a lot. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d started to attract attention from some of the boys her age around the village in the last two years.

“So, what’s been going on while I’m gone, Ryoko-chan,” he asked finally.

“It has been busy, Yuhi-sama,” Ryoko noted hesitantly. “There is a…visitor in town. She seems to have some connection with my family school.”

Kouki frowned at that. What he knew of Musabetsu Kakuto-Ryu was limited to the two girls, and Joseibi wasn’t the student of the art that Ryoko was, and their father.

“She says father is not allowed to teach students,” Ryoko continued.

Suddenly Kouki was much more approving of this unknown visitor.

“So what’s she been doing?” Kouki asked.

“Well…” Ryoko said. “So far, she has fought Inuzuka-sama, Akimichi-sama, Guy-sama, Kakashi-sama and both Lee-samas. They are repairing the arena today so that she can fight Naruto Uzumaki-sama and Hinata Uzumaki-sama tomorrow.”

Kouki stared at her, blinking.

“That is what she was here for,” Ryoko explained. “She seeks to test her strength and exchange martial secrets.”

Kouki nodded his head in understanding. The woman sounded like she was running her own constant chunin exam against herself.

“How have the fights gone so far?” he asked.

“She defeated Guy-sama and Akimichi-sama,” Ryoko said. “She lost to Rock Lee-sama and Kakashi-sama, fought Inuzuka-sama and Sakura Lee-sama to a draw.”

“2-2-2,” Kouki noted. “Not bad. Does she use your school?”

“Hai,” Ryoko said. “She knows several of the secret techniques that belong to my father. She has said that she wishes to test myself and Joseibi, but Hokage-sama insists on waiting to hear vouchers of her good character first.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Kouki said not specifying whether he meant the vouchers or the test. “Do you want a spar to get ready, Ryoko-chan?”

“I do not think she will use genjutsu, Yuhi-sama,” she said. “Do you think it would help?”

“I’m a fair taijutsuka as well, you know. And a spar couldn’t hurt, besides, how often does someone around here challenge you to a spar?” Kouki asked with a shrug.

Ryoko’s returned smile was as wide and energetic as any of her nervous streaks tended to be.

“I shall just need to finish with the chores for the day,” she said happily.

****

Joseibi leaned her head down on the counter of Ichiraku Ramen as her teammates next to her likewise came up to get seats. Kuren was nearly as out of breath and sore as Joseibi seemed to be. Jubei Lee at least appeared to have not even been a bit worn down, but the two girls had caught him wincing several of the times he took a normal seeming step on his right leg.

“What kind of mission was that?” Joseibi muttered.

“Clean up the arena,” Kuren said wearily. “Gads, Joseibi, you’re going to have to spar the woman that did all that damage.”

“I’m quite certain that a master of that level will not do anything to hurt a student,” Jubei noted. “Still, I would like to have seen how they managed to bring down that pillar.”

“Ryoko says she channels chi into her ribbon,” Joseibi said wearily.

“You mean chakra,” Jubei corrected his teammate.

“She means chi,” Kuren responded before Joseibi could say something vulgar. “I know, I had to look it up myself. It’s another energy source, different from chakra. Joseibi’s sister seems to use it too. It took my parents a couple of years to see the difference.”

“What is the difference?” Jubei asked.

“I don’t know,” Joseibi said. “I can barely touch the stuff, I’m our genjutsuka remember? I use chakra like you do. And I don’t think Ryoko knows much of the difference either.”

“I think Mom tried to explain it once before,” Kuren noted, shrugging.

Jubei frowned at the lax manner of his teammates.

“Perhaps I should ask this woman for an explanation then,” he said.

“Be my guest,” Joseibi said, shaking her head and thinking back a few weeks towards when her team had tried to figure out just what a walk was.

****

“Okay,” Kuren said. “We’re supposed to go on a ‘walk’ and from what we got from Mom and Dad, when Kiba says a ‘walk’ he means a mission, but we still haven’t figured out just what sort of mission he’s talking about.”

“Well, why would you call it a walk?” Joseibi asked as she wandered around the training ground they had chosen to meet at.

“I think that’s obvious,” Jubei said. “A walk is something you go on with a dog. As Kiba-sensei is an Inuzuka, he obviously relates to everything in the manner of a dog.”

“So why do you go on walks with a dog?” Kuren asked.

“So the dog can go take a dump,” Joseibi responded, snorting.

Jubei shook his head at the Saotome girl’s crude behavior.

“It is obviously some sort of bonding exercise,” Jubei said. “Perhaps we should face each other in spars to have a better sense of each other’s abilities. In fact…”

Joseibi froze, hoping and praying that she was wrong about what was coming next.

“Saotome, I challenge you to match right now,” Jubei said.

“Oh damn it,” she said. “You said it.”

“I am given to understand, Saotome,” Jubei said with a smirk. “That your family takes it as a matter of pride not to turn down any challenge.”

“You told him that?” Joseibi asked, turning toward Kuren.

“Not me,” Kuren said firmly, shaking her head and waving her arms.

“Are you going to accept the challenge or not, Saotome?” Jubei asked with a smirk.

“Fine,” Joseibi said. “You get to try and kick my ass, let’s get it over with.”

Kuren stepped back away from the two as she watched them square off in the center of the training field.

“I’ve got winner,” Kuren called out.

“I plan not to hold back, Saotome,” Jubei said, smirking superiorly.

“Yeah, that’s a family thing too,” Joseibi admitted.

“Okay,” Kuren said, from a safe distance. “Begin!”

Jubei moved forward at speed, smiling broadly as Joseibi desperately started shifting through hand signs. The Taijutsu specialist had almost crossed the space to her when he blinked and suddenly she seemed to be far away again, as if he had just traveled back in time by a second or more.

Charging straight at his target, his run was suddenly interrupted when his feat swept out from under him and he rolled to a sudden and unexpected tumble into the ground.

Rolling back to his feet, confused at what had just happened, the shinobi turned to find his adversary. Already she was trying to form another hand sign, but this time Jubei was on her in a flash.

Joseibi found herself hard pressed to dodge the intense speed of the young man’s punches and kicks. She could only barely keep ahead of Jubei’s blows, and that only because of the Ja Jinku no Hebi. She had no way to get anything of her own done.

Of course, she hadn’t pulled out her Haoto no Suzumebachi yet either.

“So is this everything you got?” Joseibi asked. “I thought you were some sort of big genius of hard work or something. My scared cat sister wouldn’t even be phased by this.”

The words had the desired effect, drawing a growl from the taijutsuka as he launched a punch that overcommitted him to one direction. Dodging aside, feet taking her solidly past Jubei as he stumbled again past her, Joseibi rushed through her hand signs again.

She finished just as Jubei stood up.

“---nius of hard work or something. My scared cat sister wouldn’t even be phased by this,” Jubei heard as he launched his fist forward at the image of his tormentor.

Even before she danced aside, he felt something come out of nowhere to slam into his head, driving him off to the side.

He regained his balance and sought out his enemy only to suddenly have the sensation of dizzying pain whip through his mind again and again he had to recover his balance.

Exactly as he had small seconds previously.

He barely managed to block Joseibi’s strike out of nowhere this time.

Jubei frowned as he remembered that Joseibi had scored high marks on genjutsu theory.

That thought came a second time and he knew for sure what Joseibi was doing.

She was making his mind relive the past second or two of time, allowing her a chance to know what he was about to do.

This time he blocked the strike against him much more easily and, before the former outsider could move to make another genjutsu, he grabbed at her hands and twisted them around behind her back.

“Ouch!” Joseibi shrieked as she quickly found herself in a submission hold that kept her hands wide apart and unable to form seals. “Damn it.”

“Do you yield Saotome?” Jubei demanded with a smirk she couldn’t see.

If Joseibi were Ryoko, she’d have gone through pain-control training. Then she could easily dislocate a limb to got of a hold like this and push it back in later, trusting a quick healing time to avoid permanent damage.

However, there was no way that Ryoko would have put her younger sister through that training and so she couldn’t push herself through the actions she needed to take to push herself free.

Fortunately, Ryoko had a much less painful alternative.

Joseibi let herself turn totally slack and relaxed. Unprepared for the sudden dead weight, Jubei’s grip slipped fractionally and instantly Joseibi took advantage of it, pushing one hand into a pocket and grabbing a vial of liquid from within.

Suddenly, Jubei had, not a twelve year-old girl, but a small blonde fox stepping wildly out of his grasp, shedding her bundle of clothes along the way.

The shinobi had seen Joseibi’s curse in action before, of course, but he never expected the girl to actually use it as a tactic for escape, and now, his planned martial challenge had devolved into him chasing around a little fox that was jumping all over him and scratching and biting painfully wherever it could.

“Come here…damn…” Jubei growled. “You little…this is not a proper challenge! Gah! Stop biting me you little furball!”

Finally, however, Joseibi’s limited skill ran headlong into Jubei’s speed and accuracy and she found herself hanging from the scruff of his neck in the other ninja’s grasp as Jubei Lee stared at her, panting from sheer aggravation as his eyebrow ticked.

The fox in his hand likewise had its forepaws crossed and was staring at him with a grumbling expression as she growled bitterly.

“I think I have to call that Jubei’s win, Joseibi,” Kuren said.

“Of course,” Jubei said grimly. “There is no way that she could beat me.”

****

Joseibi shook her head irritably.

That had been one hell of a “bonding” activity, not to mention the second test that came the day after, but she think about that later.

That loss to Jubei had cost her an extra hour of training every other morning after Ryoko had heard about it. Her elder sister had her practicing escapes and grappling, not the black-haired girl’s best skill, but she was still better than Joseibi.

Beyond that, Inuzuka-baka had her running exercises in fox form. He was even promising a few techniques that would make her puny fox-form a worthy opponent rather than merely an annoyance.

****

“We haven’t heard from your sisters or their husbands yet,” Tsunade told Kurumi, “However, some of the closer names you gave us have already started returning word. So far your claim seems to bear out.”

The phrase “don’t offer to treat her to lunch” had also been repreated a lot, but, then Tsunade had realized that problem the first day that the woman had showed up in Konoha.

“That’s good to hear,” Kurumi said, nodding. “And I swear that I’ve never eaten anyone out of house or home, by the way. Whatever they say.”

“Right,” Tsunade noted. “Now, if you’re ready, while the arena is being repaired from your and Sakura’s…battle...”

“Hey, she caused just as much damage as I did,” Kurumi protested.

“…anyway,” Tsunade noted grumpily. “Naruto and Hinata are ready to supervise your testing the girls.”

“That’s good to hear,” Kurumi said. “The quicker we get this done, the quicker we know what to treat.”

“How do you plan to go about this?” Tsunade asked.

“There are several danger techniques I need to check for,” Kurumi said. “I’m going to be provoking their use, like I sort of did with the nekoken before. Even if he’s added something I should catch a hint of it. We’ve all had to do this before.”

“And who is we?” Tsunade asked. “Your school.”

“Yeah,” Kurumi said. “Happosai and Genma’s methods are dangerous. Genma doesn’t think through the long-term consequences of what he does and Happosai doesn’t care unless it could hurt his goals. Both of them get ideas and then test out if it’s a good idea or not by putting their students through it.”

“Like the nekoken?” Tsunade asked.

“Ryoko and Joseibi’s brother went through the training repetitively from ages six to ten,” Kurumi said grimly. “But there are a few others. Hinako Tendo’s technique went amuck soon after she gave birth. That was…not pretty.”

“And your appetite,” Tsunade asked, arching an eyebrow.

Kurumi looked up sheepishly.

“Yeah, my appetite,” Kurumi admitted.

“Do any of you have problems with…exploding?” Tsunade asked.

“Exploding?” Kurumi asked.

“Ryoko produces a burst of energy when she gets too frightened,” Tsunade noted. “It appears to be harmful, to herself and the area around her.”

“He found something new,” Kurumi cursed. “We can fix the nekoken now, damn it. Any fear, or is it specific?”

“It seems to be any fear, but there is at least one definite trigger,” Tsunade said. “Scraping steel, like the sound of drawing a sword.”

“Have you figured anything out?” Kurumi asked. “From what I can tell, you’re more the medical expert than I am.”

“We don’t want to provoke an episode without more information,” Tsunade said firmly, making it clear that she wouldn’t tolerate anyone risking that either.

“Well,” Kurumi said. “I guess all that’s left is to track the girls down and see what’s what.”

****

Team Kiba were finishing their meal and preparing to head to their separate homes, shared in the case of Joseibi and Kuren. Those plans were stopped, however, as they found Hinata Uzumaki and their sensei coming up behind them.

“The day’s not over yet,” Kiba said.

“Mom?” Kuren asked, questionably.

“References came back on our visitor,” Hinata said seriously. “The Hokage gave her permission to test you and your sister.”

“But we just spent the day cleaning the arena,” Joseibi said.

“Yeah, and now you get to see it destroyed again,” Kiba agreed. “Come on, you’re not always going to get a good night’s rest between missions.”

Hinata gave her old teammate a brief disapproving look.

“She’s going to be testing your sister today, Joseibi,” Hinata said. “You’ll be fine to do this tomorrow, but let’s go support your sister.”

“Do you mind if watch this as well?” Jubei asked. “I’ve been wondering quite a bit about Ryoko Saotome’s level of skill given the way your daughter and her sister speak of her.”

“I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” Hinata said with a smile.

****

Naruto landed on a tree and looked down to see Ryoko and Kouki lightly sparring in the training field below. Well, lightly sparring by the definition of a Lee or Saotome at least.

He watched for a few moments, not happy about interrupting this. Sparring was generally one of the few times Ryoko was perfectly at ease. Still, he had his instructions.

The Spiral Sage leaped down between the two sparring partners, instantly breaking the exercise up as the two came to a rest looking on Naruto as he took them in.

“Sorry to bring this to an end,” Naruto said. “But the Hokage’s given Kurumi her permission. Ryoko, are you ready for this?”

“Hai, Uzamaki-sama,” Ryoko said. “I’m ready.”

“Then time to go,” Naruto said. “Kouki, want to go tell your mom?”

“Where’s it happening?” the shinobi asked.

“Well, Team Kiba just finished repairing the arena,” Naruto said with a smirk. “So might as well give them something to do tomorrow.”

“Right, destroying the arena again, got it,” Kouki said. “Good luck, Ryoko-chan. We’ll be there rooting for you.”

“Thank you, Yuhi-sama,” Ryoko said with a bow as Kouki reluctantly went off to go find his mother and probably Shikamaru.

“Are you really sure about this?” Naruto asked her when they were alone.

“Hai, Uzamaki-sama,” the be-spectacled martial artist said.

****

The arena was sparsely populated, but there were a few curiosity seekers beyond just those that the Saotome girls knew directly.

Jubei looked down at the skittish girl and wondered just what sort of amusing display the girl would be able to put forth. He’d seen Kurumi Tendo fight. The woman was an S-class foe, of that there was no doubt.

She was so far beyond a coward like Ryoko that the entire concept of this match was insane.

“So now we get to see how good she is,” Joseibi whispered. Even the blonde wasn’t sure whether she was talking about her sister or the Tadashita-ryu mistress.

Down below, Kurumi stood across from Ryoko and analyzed the girl’s stance.

On the surface, Ryoko appeared to be standing in a polite, formal posture more akin to beginning a tea ceremony than a fight, but Kurumi was looking deeper. The stance was different from the slouching posture most Musabetsuka used, old school or Tadashita-ryu, but still, there was no doubt.

The girl’s arms were at her side with the elbows angled inward to cross over her waist, but they weren’t merely hanging loose. No her arms were posed with the appearance of a relaxed stance. Likewise, she was resting lightly on her feet, weight evenly spaced over both and ready to shift to one or another in a moment’s notice.

Ryoko was in the Utsuro Kamae.

“Shall, we get on with this, kid?” Kurumi asked, cracking her knuckles as she smirked at her opponent.

“Hai, Kurumi-sensei,” Ryoko said with a deep bow.

As the girl bowed, Kurumi launched outward with a quick roundhouse kick which Ryoko easily dodged aside.

“You shouldn’t take your eyes off your opponent, Ryoko-chan,” Kurumi said as she pressed the attack, focusing on a succession of low kicks and foot swipes.

Kurumi found as Ryoko dodged each one, recognizing the movements of the original Ja Jinku no Hebi.

“Ano…” Ryoko said, lifting up her foot and then moving into a full hop and flip to avoid a sequence of Kurumi’s attacks. “Sumimasen, Kurumi-sensei.”

“Don’t bother apologizing for the mistake, kid,” Kurumi said. “Just start taking this seriously.”

“Hai, Kurumi-sensei,” Ryoko said as she started to slip past one side of Kurumi’s stance. “Onbin-Gegei Ippo ne Rei.”

Kurumi started to block that motion, but, as she did, Ryoko was already darting around her opposite side, a whirl of the girl’s wide sleeves obscuring her actions.

The Wandering Mistress had to appreciate the move, most people wouldn’t have been able to even see the motion. Their brains would have filled in an image of Ryoko continuing to the left or right and they would have missed her going around the opposite way entirely.

Kurumi had to stretch to avoid the foot swing at her ear and still maintain a position from which she can easily strike back.

“You think a little trick like that is going to work on a master?” Kurumi demanded with a smirk as she turned about with a flurry of near amaguriken speed punches.

“Ano…” Ryoko fretted. “I..I shall try to do better.”

Each of her strikes was blocked easily by a pair of fingers held tightly together.

That was the Mure no Suzumebachi.

No sign of the Haoto no Suzumebachi yet, however.

Kurumi launched out a slow, for her, kick and watched as Ryoko pressed herself to intercept it. Amazingly, the wandering mistress watched and felt as the younger martial artist’s hands tightened around the leg and Ryoko pulled against the anchor of Kurumi’s motion.

Forced into a forward roll to avoid the painful impact that Ryoko’s actions would have doomed most fighters too, Kurumi came to the floor and immediately was back to her feet, watching Ryoko taking to the air behind her.

“You stole my wind, little punk,” Kurumi said approvingly, smile wide. “And I wasn’t even off the ground.”

“Ano…” Ryoko said as she felt her stolen momentum fading even as Kurumi launched herself into the air to meet the Saotome. “I do not mean to be a bother, Kurumi-sensei.”

“Don’t play coy, kid,” Kurumi said, punching outward and waiting for Ryoko to steal the wind again.

Jubei was now watching rapt as the fight continued. Even though it was obvious that Kurumi wasn’t even starting to exert herself, the extent to which Ryoko was performing was beyond anything Jubei would have expected from the cowardly girl.

He wasn’t alone in his surprise.

Glancing around, several watching chunin and genin were gaping in disbelief as the older Saotome sister darted about the arena, only just shorter than the casually fighting Wandering Mistress.

As the younger fighter’s hand came out to grab for Kurumi’s attacking limb, the elder martial artist threw herself backwards in a flip towards the ground that launched the surprised younger martial artist straight upwards without her own control. The wandering mistress hit the ground and immediately launched herself upward again.

Predictably, the Saotome had control of her motion by the time Kurumi reached her again, thirty feet in the air.

“Ano…” Ryoko said as she avoided a hail of punches. “Sumimasen, Kurumi-sensei. I did not recognize that technique.”

“That’s because your brother made it,” Kurumi said as she systematically broke apart the younger girl’s defenses, not close to humoring her. “You don’t expect us just to use what came before, do you?”

Ryoko didn’t have time to land as she was thrust downwards with more speed than gravity alone could apply. Kurumi watched carefully as she drifted much more slowly to the ground. The black haired girl’s falls method was again, predictably, based on one of Genma’s dangerous ideas.

“Lion club training,” she muttered as Ryoko landed harshly, bending her body to avoid possible lethal obstacles, such as sharp stones, and absorb some of the impact.

Kurumi winced as she saw Ryoko land a little off and her shoulder push out of joint, but was surprised that there was barely a flinch from Ryoko. Kurumi was getting ready to call the test when Ryoko calmly slammed her shoulder into a wall to set it back into place.

Every martial artist, with rare exceptions, had a higher than normal resistance for pain. Several had body-hardening or avoidance techniques for preventing pain, but few could outright ignore pain the way Ryoko was.

“Moushiwake arimasen,” Ryoko said, bowing. “I was careless. I am still ready to fight.”

The tadashitaka was confused for a brief moment until she remembered where she’d seen this before. Any time Tatewaki or Kodachi took a severe blow, they acted similarly.

“He stole Ao Dah Jong from the Kunos’ father,” Kurumi cursed. “Wasn’t he happy enough with his own tortures?”

This time, Ryoko took the offensive.

“Sumimasen, Kurumi-sensei,” she said hesitantly. “Onbin-gegei Bikou Odori.”

Kurumi grimaced at the continuing apologies as she blocked the initial strike, and then Ryoko was behind her. Still operating on a lower level to avoid outright obliterating the girl, Kurumi tried to follow Ryoko’s motion, but failed to bring the girl around in front of her.

The younger martial artist was less than a foot behind Kurumi, moving something like a living shadow. Kurumi’s entire back was open to the younger martial artist as the girl proved almost impossible to dislodge, almost as if she were attached to the master like a shadow.

Kurumi rolled with each strike coming at her as she tried to force Ryoko out of her position without turning up the heat, as it were. She let herself immerse in the flow of the chi about the arena and followed the trails of chi from one position to another.

Which showed something very interesting.

Kurumi’s chi flowed into her and out, straight into Ryoko.

Ryoko was attached, exactly like a shadow. She could read every bit of Kurumi’s intentions through the chi that came off the Tadashita Mistress. The attunement wasn’t as efficient as it could be, even for one of Genma’s students, Ryoko’s chi was clumsy, but she had managed to find the part of the flow that was colored by Kurumi.

The Wandering Mistress smirked and immediately dropped into the soul of ice.

“That was a neat move there, Ryoko-chan,” the mistress said. “But not enough.”

The rapid change of chi broke the connection Ryoko held and, before the girl could re-establish the attunement, Kurumi rolled about and came behind the younger lashing out with a kick that pulled Ryoko’s feet out from under her, and sending the younger martial artist into a defensive roll.

Kurumi pursued swiftly, expecting the girl to roll out and regroup as she had herself earlier. Then the two legs slipped out and nearly clipped Kurumi’s chin as Ryoko pushed her roll backwards leaping back over the elder.

“Ano…” Ryoko whined. “M..must we continue this, Kurumi-sensei.”

The apology brought Kurumi’s teeth grinding again. When was the girl going to start using a proper Haoto. This apology after apology was really getting on her…

“Wait,” Kurumi said as she caught a fist from Ryoko and switched into Tetsu-Nigiri, a Tendo-ryu grappling technique that Ryoko apparently had no access to.

“Your Haoto no Suzumebachi is…apologies?!” Kurumi practically shouted in surprise.

“Sumimasen,” Ryoko gasped from within the one armed grapple that Kurumi had just put her in. “I…do not mean to be disrespectful.”

“Disrespectful,” Kurumi shouted in disbelief. “Girl, you’re devious! I was prepared for insults and boasts. But I’ve never been set off my game by apologies and stuttering.”

Jubei turned toward Joseibi, a question on his face. He wasn’t the only one looking to the younger Saotome.

“What does she mean by Haoto no Suzumebachi,” Jubei asked. “What is this ‘buzzing of hornets’?”

“One of the basic tenets of Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu is to set your opponent off balance,” Joseibi said. “Psychologically and spiritually as well as physically.”

“You’re saying that one of your family’s basic techniques is insulting your opponent?” Kurenai asked, surprised.

“Or apologize to them in Ryoko’s case,” Kouki noted.

“Moushiwake arimasen,” Ryoko gasped. “But your Haoto no Suzumebachi involves praising the opponent for near successes.”

“I suppose we’re not that far off,” Kurumi said shaking her head. “Do you have anything else you want to try out, because I think we’re done here if you are.”

“No, Kurumi-sensei,” Ryoko said from her position in the hold, a hold she wasn’t finding anyway out of. “I have nothing else to show you.”

That said, Kurumi let Ryoko go and stretched out casually as Ryoko panted to try and catch her breath.

“Ano…Kurumi-sensei?” Ryoko said as people started to come down to the arena floor. “What rank am I?”

“That really depends, Ryoko-chan,” Kurumi said. “In some skills you’re disciple-rank, but in other skills you’re barely a student. You have nothing of the Tendo-ryu whatsoever, and those are important skills for the complete art.”

“Hai, Kurumi-sensei,” Ryoko said, sounding disappointed.

“But I’ll have to talk to you about your Onbin-Gegei,” Kurumi noted. “That’s looking to be a top-notch avoidance style. Where’d you pick it up?”

“Ano…” Ryoko said. “I copied Father. He uses something similar at times.”

Kurumi narrowed her eyes as she asked the next question.

“Does he use a large piece of cloth when he does this?” she asked.

“Hai, Kurumi-sama,” Ryoko said, drawing a shaking head from the elder martial artist. “I…is something wrong?”

“Your father’s been using a sealed technique,” Kurumi explained. “Something that’s only supposed to be used in the most extreme or important of circumstances.”

“Ano…” Ryoko said, nervous.

“Don’t worry about your Onbin-Gegei,” Kurumi reassured her, reaching out a hand to ruffle the girls hair. “It’s not the same thing. Now, go to your friends.”

“Hai, Kurumi-sensei!” Ryoko responded as she moved quickly to go speak to the Uzumakis and her younger sister’s team.

The hokage, appearance still that of a twenty-year old woman, walked up to Kurumi as Ryoko moved off with the others. Beside her were a couple of medics with notepads, ready to listen to Kurumi’s diagnosis. Among them was the pink-haired woman that Kurumi had drawn against just recently.

“Well?” Tsunade asked.

“Ja Jinku no Hebi, Mure no Suzumebachi, Lion’s Club Training and Ao Dah Jong,” Kurumi listed off. “Those are the worst ones. Everything else probably uses the same training techniques we do minus safety concerns and watching for training accidents.”

“Those are either his own creations or obscure techniques,” Tsunade noted. “Since I don’t want to waste time looking them up, can you give me a run down?”

“Most of them are unique to our school, so you won’t find them anyway,” Kurumi said. “Ja Jinku no Hebi is our advanced footwork technique. Genma tends to jump right to the deadliest level of training.”

“And that training?” Tsunade asked, noting that it involved something to do with snakes.

“The trainee is required to run katas on a ground filled with poisonous serpents,” Kurumi said. “With us, the trainee has to have passed four levels each of speed and mastery before training with actual snakes and they have to request it for themselves and show that they know the risk. Also, we have an age limit and one of our disciples breeds de-venomed snakes especially for the exercise.”

“Any long term effects of Genma’s version?” Tsunade asked.

“You might want to test for neurological damage from the toxins, though I think she escaped that,” Kurumi said. “We think the poisons stunt growth as well. She’s probably not getting much taller and she’s a good foot and a half shorter than either of her parents. At sixteen, you might be able to give her one more growth spurt if it can be corrected.”

“All right,” the hokage noted, turning toward one of her assistants and nodding.

“What about the others?” the pink-haired woman asked harshly. “The Mure no Suzumebachi for instance.”

“Created for her brother after he’d already had speed training,” Kurumi said. “The highest level of training is complete when you can stun every bee or hornet in a swarm before you can be stung even once. That was all right for amaguriken-trained disciples, but we had to adapt less lethal methods for initiates and others. Some of Genma’s younger students that went through it ended up with severe allergies to insect venoms.”

“I’m liking their father less and less,” Sakura muttered.

“I’m hoping Lion Club training isn’t what I think it is,” Tsunade said.

“It is, unfortunately,” Kurumi said. “She was probably dropped off a fifty foot cliff sometime around eight years old and expected to either climb or leap her way up to the top on her own. We don’t use this at all in Tadashita-ryu. Genma uses it ostensibly as a way to teaching how to handle long falls.”

“We’ll have to check for old injuries,” Tsunade frowned. “Flaws in the spine, minor skull fractures. Things we wouldn’t look for on a normal check up.”

“That just leaves Ao Dah Jong,” Kurumi said. “It’s a demon-hunter technique used by the samurai of the Kuno family for a long time. It is, pure and simple, pain tolerance. Subjecting yourself to dislocated joints and terrible injuries. It requires both keeping active with them and being able to treat them on the fly while still fighting.”

“Calculated and precise torture,” Sakura gasped. “On his own daughter. Why didn’t you just kill these people? How could let even the possibility of this happening again.”

“Compassion is a key philosophy of the school,” Kurumi said. “We feel we have to hope others can be redeemed and forgiven. It’s one of the main things that separates us from…” she glanced back to Ryoko. “…the old school. For the most part it works. Some of our biggest allies used to be deadly enemies.”

“Our first check-up didn’t find the sort of damage we’d expect from repeat dislocations,” Tsunade noted.

“Chi-enhanced healing handles some of that,” Kurumi said. “But you may also want to check to see if she can actually feel pain rather than just ignore it. We had a training accident once with one of the Kunos that could have been avoided if she had been aware that her body was giving out ahead of time.”

“We’ll look into it,” Tsunade said. “Your overall diagnosis?”

“She’s survived,” Kurumi said. “She’s her brother’s sister. Creates her own techniques, adapts techniques to her own needs. She already has a firm grasp of chi, though she doesn’t do as much with it as she could, and she’s clumsy with it. Maybe related to the other problem you told me about?”

She took a deep breath and looked over at the girl.

“The girl’s going to need a lot work on her emotional backbone,” Kurumi continued, “but I’ve seen you guys already working on that. It is strange, most people Genma trains come out arrogant, not meek. Still, it probably means she’ll be more cooperative with her treatment or training or whatever you want to call it.”

A few yards away, Jubei was questioning Ryoko exhaustively. Naruto and Hinata were expecting that Rock Lee and Might Guy would be paying the girl visits in the near future, but it wasn’t top on their lists.

Hinata, byakugan active, whispered quietly into Naruto’s ears as she lip-read the discussion between the hokage and the Tadashita-ryu mistress. Naruto’s frown turned deeper with each new diagnosis.

The Uzumaki mood was about to get worst as he noted a shinigami in the distance bearing a message in his hands. The spirit’s expression was not pleasant.

Oh yes, Genma Saotome would wish he was never born fairly soon.