The Dojo stood empty.

A girl walked inside, carrying two dozen or so bricks, stacking them in piles she hits each pile, smashing them into pieces. As the girl finishes, she is covered in sweat and has a satisfied look on her face.

She leaves the dojo.

The Dojo stood empty

A while later, another girl comes in - this one older than the first but still a young woman – she cleans the dojo floor and leaves.

The Dojo stood empty

And so, the next day…

The cycle begins again.


Ranma was relaxing at the back of the house, it was so frustrating. His two team-mates were irritated with him for not giving in, the others were irritated for not winning and the Jounin were irritated with him for fighting at the level he did.

There were days you just couldn't win.

But... at least tomorrow could be different, right?


"Hey Chouji." Shikamaru said warmly as he entered the hospital room.

Chouji looked up from the small bowl of thin watery soup and grinned, "Hey Shikamaru." His face fell a little as he continued, "I'll be out in another day or two…"

Shikamaru smiled, "I'll be glad to have our strongest team member back." Seating himself next to the bed the Chuunin arranged himself for a leisurely stay. Normally he would have just settled in and let Chouji speak and nod occasionally where needed, but the rank and responsibility had coerced the young man to become slightly more active for his team-mates and even extending as far as almost all the people he knew.

"I'm allowed to eat as much as I want now…" Chouji said happily, "But it's only soup, and not much thick soups either…" finished the boy morosely.

Shikamaru smiled again, "You'll be out soon, besides… just think of what would happen if you ate something good now and could never eat a full meal again!"

Chouji laughed and the two close friends continued on.


Ohh, he was soooo irritated. Ranma had taken him out waaay to easily for this Genin's peace of mind.

Well.

He'd fix that.

Learn a new technique and kapow! That'd show him. But… but... What to learn? His Jounin leader wouldn't teach him(he was always teaching the other guy in the team), and that left only two people.

The old pervert

And

The old hag…

Grinning to himself manically the boy ran off to find someone and to browbeat them into teaching him a new technique.


Homura checked over the report again, for the fifth time. Ranma's actions were a little disturbing but there was little she could do at the moment, besides, most boys that age were impulsive and hated losing right?


He'd spent so long… looking back on it now, he'd sacrificed so much… and for what? He hadn't succeeded in what he'd set out to do. The lesson's he'd taught to himself and those taught by him hadn't helped in life… indeed they had even hindered him, stopped him from having relationships with people he'd wanted to have them with, stopped him from doing anything but train… was it all worth it? Was he strong enough?

No.

But it had to be, or almost his entire life had been worthless… and he couldn't admit that.


He was cute… and paid attention to her, just because she… was herself. When she spoke, he listened, he didn't agree straight out, in fact he outright dismissed her opinion a few times. But he did listen and he always did consider what she said, even if it was only to point the flaws out to him before dismissing it.

So, why couldn't she just tell him?


If he couldn't figure out how Ranma managed to send him flying with a single blow he'd figure out how Ranma made Hinata fall unconscious with a single touch! and if he couldn't figure out how Ranma made Hinata fall unconscious with a single touch, he'd figure out how Ranma tracked them so easily! and if he couldn't figure out how Ranma tracked them so easily he'd figure out how Ranma made the whirlwind just by raising his fist! and if he couldn't figure out how Ranma made the whirlwind just by raising his fist he'd figure out how Ranma had made his arms move so fast! and if he couldn't figure out how Ranma had made his arms move so fast he'd figure out how Ranma could see tenketsu without the Byakuugan! and if he couldn't figure out how Ranma could see tenketsu without the Byakuugan he'd….

Well… he'd give up and go do some practice. And maybe ask his teacher for a new fighting Kata! And if…


The boy used an Aura.

He had thought that would be impossible without learning to use Chakra – and he was the foremost expert so everyone else believed that too - but the boy's aura was so finely controlled that he must have been using it for years…maybe even as long as a decade. And this was well before he'd learnt to use chakra. So if the boy could do that without Chakra, maybe Lee could too.


"Stupid git."

"Totally."

"He should have surrendered, cut his losses… there was no"

"You're wrong."

"wha?"

The girl shook her head. "He could have won, easily... You know it took two Jounin to step in and then fight hand to hand to knock him out…"

The other girl shrugged. "No way, he was up against too many people to have won."

"Gai told me that it was blind luck they managed to knock him out in so short a time," the first girl said distantly. "He was expecting it to be a fight of attrition, half an hour or more…"

"Well..." the second girl hesitated. "Maybe we should go tell him he did well then?"

"Kind of..." the first girl smiled slyly. "Homura-san said he was sulking in the back yard."

"And just telling him he did well won't cheer him up." The second girl said with a roll of her eyes.

"But… discussing about how our plan went wrong and where we should have made a new one might not be a bad idea." Said the first girl with a sly look.

"And then we tell him he did well?"


"He did okay in the testing, he seemed pretty angry after his team-mates were knocked out and became quite vicious." Kurenai reported quietly.

Tsunade rubbed her jaw as she thought about that, "But do you think he would have abandoned the mission and admitted defeat if he thought there was no chance to win?" this was the most important question out of all the ones the hokage had prepared.

"I.. I'm not sure." The red eyed Jounin admitted sheepishly, everyone knew the one team wasn't meant to win… well, at least they knew once they had passed the test. "I almost think that he thought he wouldn't lose, despite his team-mates 'death.' But then, he did destroy that summon of Shusaku's right? And we only managed to knock him out because he made a stupid mistake."

Tsunade sighed, causing the so far silent third occupant to snort amusedly – causing both women to jump a little from Jiraiyia's forgotten presence. "Well, at least we know he'll try and complete the mission... You might want to consider adding a clause in all his missions to return after sustaining losses unless he and his surviving team-mates are sure that they can still succeed without further losses."

Tsunade nodded her head, the perverted man was correct there. And if his dedication to his mission was higher than his regard to his team's life… well, that'd protect them at least. Such a pity the mission had ended like it did. "Well, that'll work until we can be sure." pausing for a moment Tsunade considered conning Jiraiyia into taking over Naruto's entire team - it would indeed be beneficial to Naruto and Sasuke and quite likely for Sakura as well – but dismissed the idea abruptly, he would be far too hard to put up with afterwards, the same reason she hadn't slept with him again when they were younger. "There's a mission to remove a small band of racketeers in a village nearby, "Tsunade said as she leant back in her chair. "Normally this is a B rank mission, but as it is low risk and considering Ranma's exceptional fighting skills, Ibiki's team will be sent…. Kurenai, your team will be covering the two missions that they would have done."

Kurenai nodded as Tsunade dismissed them both.


AN: I didn't particulary want scene's 6 & 7 to acknowledge the person they were about, each one at least relates to two people… at least and one of them could refer to four people… come to think about it, I'm not sure who it does refer too… I was thinking about all of them when I wrote those OO

I don't think any of the scenes actually name the character their about (except for last one), but most of them should be pretty obvious.