Author: Riniko22

Notes: The Characters and Places within this story are not mine, and remain the property of their respected owners. As such, I do not own them, nor am I making any money off them. So sad, honored reader, this very tragic tale of penniless author that fell into the spring of drowned …

The characters in this story will likely not act the same as in canon (written or video), so do not flame me about this. Some will have grown up with different influences on them leading them to react in different ways. Advice is always welcome.

Hitotsu ni suru

Chapter 10

"Alright girls, before I pair you off, I want to get a baseline of Ranko's abilities first. I have already studied the files on the rest of you girls before the Hokage selected the teams, so that I could be prepared. But, none-the-less I will want to see what each of you girls can do in person," Kurenai said while briefly making direct eye contact with each of the four girls. Each of them knew that she expected them to give their best and not to hold back.

"Now, Ranko, I want you to begin by going to that mark and targeting the training dummy with your ranged weapons." Kurenai misunderstanding the look that came over Ranko's face paused to add, "Don't worry about the distance Ranko, I just want to get a baseline for now. I will have you move closer afterwards if you do not do well enough."

"What! No, that's not the problem sensei. If anything, the range is to close. Weapons are not my strongest point, but I understand the need for them." Ranko stammered out quickly, as she attempted to cover her embarrassment over having someone think that she needed to be closer.

"Let me be the judge of that Ranko. If you can hit the target at this range I will move you back to the next mark," Kurenai replied softly so as not to pressure the girl to much. She really didn't expect anymore from the girl than was average for the others and was beginning light so as not to put to great a pressure on her. She knew what the academy put out, and figured she would have her hands full retraining the girls to acceptable standards.

Ranko recognized that it would be a waste of time to argue the point further. Therefore, she reached down to the weapon pouches strapped to each of her thighs and palmed a handful of kunai and shuriken. Flipping one of each up into the air and catching them on their downward arc, she was able to gauge the weight and balance of each weapon. It came as a little surprise from her borrowed memories from Naruto how different they seemed from the ones he had always used. Their weight and balance were perfect, not fluctuating between each weapon with wildly different centers of gravity. She promised herself that the merchants responsible would rue the day that they cheated Naruto. At least the merchants that sold her these had never meet Naruto, they may have been no better, but at least she could pretend otherwise.

Kurenai watched her newest kunoichi charge reached down and pulled several weapons from her equipment pouch. She was mildly disappointed to note that her stance did not seem centered and that Ranko appeared to be trying to show off by using two different weapons at the same time. She expected the results to be a spread of badly thrown projectiles with only a few even striking the target. The girl's training had been worse than she feared.

The three younger kunoichi watched their new friend gauging the quality of the weapons in her hands. Then throw one of each weapon at the target one after the other. Once, it seemed that she was satisfied that they were going to land where she planned, her hands began to move at higher speeds throwing the weapons at the target as she began to flow though a complicated kata. Not one of the weapons that flew from her hands left with the same trajectory, but each impacted the target in a vital area, moving inward from non-lethal areas, like the hands and feet, and moving inward towards the central body. The elbows and knees were the next areas targeted, followed by the shoulder joints and hip joints, and lastly having a pair of kunai sinking deep into the targets eyes with several shuriken sinking into the dummy's neck before it separated from its body, just as she dropped into a finishing stance.

The three girls were left speechless after having watched the new girl move in ways that most of them had never seen. Of the three, only Hinata had had any exposure to anything like this before having seen her cousin Neji, a time or two practicing with his teammates Ten-Ten and Rock Lee. However, even that did not come close to comparing to the beautiful and deadly dance that had pasted before her eyes. It had surprised her so completely that she had even failed to activate her Byakugan.

An outside observer that knew Kurenai well would have been shocked by the expressions that formed on the usually emotionally controlled Jounin's face. She went from normal, to slightly disappointed, and then to a widening look of open mouthed shock. The girl, Ranko, had jumped from a young rookie fresh out of the academy in her eyes to someone displaying the skills of a special jounin at least. She had read the short briefing report that the Hokage had delivered to her and as he had done, dismissed the girl's claims of skill as bragging. However, from want she had just witnessed it now seemed that if anything the girl had been understating her abilities. She was pulling off moves that Kurenai was unsure that Guy would have been able to teach his star student Rock Lee. It looked like the girl was a master of taijutsu and if not also a weapons master she was at the very least an extremely capable user.

When the last of the thrown weapons had left the girls hands, Kurenai watched as Ranko finished by twisting her body in midair and landed in a strange stance, facing the targeting dummy with her glowing hands cupped facing each other in front of her body.

'Glowing hands, what's going on?' She was loudly thinking, before the girl trust her arms forward as a ball of translucent flaming blue energy flew from her hands towards the target. When the ball of energy reached the dummy, the entire area around it ignited in flame, leaving a smoking crater where it once stood.

Ranko decided that after her new sensei had finished talking to her that at least she could make the test a bit more interesting. She had gauged the balance of the weapons and settled into a basic Anything Goes stance designed to throw off an opponent's guard. It was then that she started to pour her soul into the dance, for that was what the art was to her, a wild and at the same time highly controlled dance that could literally sweep away all the stress and worry from her mind and leaving her wholly refreshed afterwards. And, sweep her away it did, she had not realized just how stressed she had been until she started flowing through the moves. Before long, she had lost herself in the music that only she could hear. When her mind finally released her, she could see a somewhat familiar ball of energy leaving her hands and moving in the direction of the targeting dummy. She only thought for a second about how odd it was that the thing looked like it had white hair and a mask over half of its face.

In the office of the Hokage, a crystal ball was showing what was transpiring at that moment to the man sitting at the desk. The man likely would have been calling for his assistant to have Kurenai and Ranko brought to his office if not for one thing. He was out cold. He had been in this state for the last hour, after having pulled his scrying crystal out to checkup on the progress of his newest responsibility Ranko and her teammates. When he had focused in on the girl, she was partially obscured by a stack of empty plates at a restaurant that he had suggested to Kurenai. It had been at that point that the reality of the situation had hit, he had agreed to cover the team's bill.

Kaboom!

After the sound of the explosion began to fade into the sounds of small pieces of debris falling to earth, the five individuals began to react to what had just happened.

"What the hell, just happened?" Ino shouted at Sakura.

"What are you asking me? I'm just as surprised as you are." Sakura shouted back as she used her hand to brush some debris from her hair.

"I. I think that it was a result of the Jutsu that Ranko-chan's used just after she finished throwing her kunai," Hinata stammered out to the other two.

"It can't have been. She not any older than any of us and I know that I have never seen or heard of any jutsu like that being used by a Genin," Ino weakly replied.

"Well what else could it have been. I'm sure I saw Ranko forming her hands in front of her before that ball formed. And, the same thing happened earlier at the clothing store when I tripped and ripped the curtain down," Sakura countered.

"Like hell it did, if that had hit Kakashi-sensei, I don't think there would have been anything left of him," Ino said before she turned a little green at the thought.

Looking over towards the other three girls in her care, Kurenai checked to see that they were all right before running over to check on Ranko.

When she arrived, she could see that the girl was blinking her eyes and staring at where the target dummy used to be, as if she was just as surprised by the result as the rest of them. She reached out and hesitantly put her hand on the young kunoichi's shoulder before asking the girl a question. "Ranko-chan, what did you just do? I have never seen a jutsu like that before, or is it a Kekkei Genkai," she carefully asked.

"I've never had that much force behind my Moko Takabisha before. If I had been able to do that, Saffron would never have stood a chance." The girl weakly said.

"So, it is a Blood Limit ability," Kurenai asked. Reasoning that the girl's power in it had grown since the last time she had manifested the ability."

"I guess you could say that, I don't think anybody else could do that," Ranko supplied, coming back to her senses. Uh, sensei, I have a question."

"Yes, what is it Ranko-chan?" Kurenai answered back.

"Eh, does this mean that I passed the test?" Ranko asked her, while scratching nervously at the back of her neck.

AN:

Well, what do you think? Did you like it? I tried to keep most of the dialog somewhat in character. I do plan on extending the next chapter out more and it will still be here at the training grounds.