Part 3: Gymnastics.

Akane stood bellow the uneven bars, spotting for her friend Yuki. Today's task on the uneven bar, was to switch between the bars. Nothing fancy, just switch back in forth between the bars. Well, Akane had thought it was simple. Yuki missed again, and Akane caught her, breaking her fall.

"You can do better, Yuki," Akane said, as Yuki climbed out of her arms.

"Sorry, Akane," Yuki replied, returning to the side, so the next girl could try.

"Problem, Akane?" Ranma said, coming over from his station by the rings.

"Yuki can't seem to ever make the switch," Akane said.

"Yuki, try again," Ranma asked, motioning his classmate to the bar. Once again, Yuki missed the bar. "I see what's wrong. Yuki, you need to grab the moment you feel that bar. If you wait, you'll just keep falling. Try again." This time Yuki was successful.

"Good job, Yuki!" Akane said, as Yuki finished. Ranma had already moved to the next problem.

Sensei Ogawa relaxed in her office. Every once in a while she'd look out at her fourth period class. In the past week Ogawa had gradually retreated as Ranma showed his talent at teaching. She had expected the young boy to quit and declare that he couldn't do anything with the class. After all, this class had some of the worse students she'd ever seen. But when Ranma had taken over, he was getting more out of them, somehow. He still had lots to learn though.

Ranma said that he wanted to become the best martial artist of his generation. Ogawa was fine with that, but she had other objectives for the young boy. After all, what good is being the best martial artist if you can't pass it along? She knew Ranma's father from back when he was still dating Nokoda. How Gemna Saotome had managed to teach Ranma up to this point was a mystery to Ogawa. Gemna Saotome had to be the craziest teacher she knew. Well, aside from Mr. Kuno.

As she had required of him, Ranma entered her office after class. "Reporting as ordered, Sensei," Ranma said.

"How did you think class went today, Saotome?" Ogawa asked.

"Pretty good," Ranma said. "Yuki had some trouble on the uneven bars, but Akane seems to have solved the problem. Hitoshi, Takeshi, Naiki, and Norio were awful on the pommel horse. Rintaro is simply amazing on the rings, I'm going to have him start helping out at that station. Kodochi reports that Mayo and Sakura show promise on the floor exercise."

"I've noticed that you don't tend to compliment your students when they do well, Saotome," Ogawa said. "Why not?"

"Dad never does," Ranma shrugged. "I've never thought of it."

"Try it," Ogawa said, turning back to the window. "You may go."

Ranma was sparring with Akane in the Tendo Dojo. Akane had lots of power, but very little finesse behind it. She tended to follow the forms a little too closely. Ranma was trying teach her a little more variety.

"Akane, if you try that combination one more time, I'm going to put you on the floor," Ranma said.

"Oh? Let's see you try," Akane replied, launching the combination.

Ranma slid down, launching a kick at her feet. Akane fell. She rolled out of it, knocking the hand that Ranma had used to balance himself for the kick out from under him. As a result, Ranma fell on her. It was at this point that Nabiki made her presence know, with a flash of her camera. The picture she took would later make it appear that Ranma was just about to kiss Akane. Akane's gi had opened up as a result of her roll, and Ranma had chosen to practice in just shorts. They separated quickly.

"I see martial arts isn't the only thing you two are practicing," Nabiki said, as she leaned against the Dojo entrance.

"We fell, Nabiki," Akane said. "I hope you get a boyfriend soon. You need something to take up more of your time."

"A boyfriend is a waste of time," Nabiki said, turning to leave.

"Great," Akane said in a dull tone.

"What was that about?" Ranma asked as they resumed their sparring.

"Nabiki likes to embarrass me," Akane said, beginning a new attack "She takes embarrassing pictures of me then says she'll spread them around school."

"You shouldn't let her do that," Ranma said, dodging, and returning the attack, before Akane got a hit in. "That was good. You can get her to stop."

"Not really," Akane said, building on her success with a flurry of attacks. "She's really sneaky. I liked it better when she practiced the art a couple years ago. Then a sparring session could settle it."

"Was she any good?" Ranma asked, turning the battle back in his favor.

"We were about equal," Akane said. "It wasn't Nabiki's favorite thing to do, but she wanted to impress Dad."

"Why doesn't she do it anymore?" Ranma said, suddenly on the defensive again.

"Dad lost interest in teaching when Mom got sick," Akane said, concentrating more on pressing her attack than what she was saying. "I don't think Dad noticed when she stopped practicing. Nabiki took over the money matters, so she still gets some attention from Dad, not that he does much more than cry now."

"Well, if she publishes the picture, let's invite her for a little sparring session," Ranma said. "Time to stop."

"Agreed," Akane said. "Who gets the bath first?"

"Your turn," Ranma said. "You're getting better."

"Thanks, but I don't think I'm pushing you yet," Akane said, as they walked to the bath.

"Akane, I spent the last three years in intensive training," Ranma said. "You shouldn't be doing as well as you are against me."

"I have a good teacher," Akane said, entering the changing room.

Ranma was doing a kata when Akane's voice called out, "Your turn, Ranma." It had only been five minutes. He quickly entered the changing room and undressed. He opened the door to discover Akane just getting into the furo. "Nabiki."

"I'm going to kill her," Akane said. "This is what, the tenth time she's done something like this."

"Sorry," Ranma said, embarrassed.

"Go ahead and shower, Ranma," Akane said. "It's not like we haven't seen everything thanks to Nabiki."

"We really should do something about her," Ranma said.

"What can we do?" Akane said, relaxing in the furo.

"Well, we can make impossible for her to pull this trick on us again," Ranma said. "Whose place do you want to study for the Math test?"

"Yours," Akane said.