Sasuke carefully clambered down the tree he had hidden in overnight, stepping from the trunk to the wall of the Tendo compound as his feet reached that level and leaping from the wall to the neighbour's garden. From there, he crossed two more garden walls to a narrow alley, where he found a nook between a garage, some dustbins and a compost heap to sit down and get over a bad case of nervous shakes.
Not for the first time, he contemplated taking up his second cousin Nabuyuki's offer of a job as a porter for a war correspondant.
The young master, who had set him to surveiling the Tendo home (round the clock) while he competed in a three-day Tendo tournament in Kyoto, would not be pleased to learn that the young couple had taken their relationship several precipitous steps forward, and would no doubt take the event out on the hapless ninja (for not preventing it). He would then attempt to take revenge on the Saotome boy, who would unquestionably defeat him in casually humiliating style. Even Sasuke, faithful retainer to the Kuno family in all things, was thoroughly convinced that no member of the family could ever triumph over the pigtailed martial artist, and in fact had a standing bet with Nabiki to that effect - not that he dared ever tell them that.
Unfortunately, Tatewaki had not thought to provide the ninja with either a mobile phone (although the ninja normally carried one for the purpose of calling medical assistance for his employers, the young scion of House Kuno had taken it with him so as to be sure Sasuke could contact him at any time day or night) or change for a public telephone (his pay was actually ten years in arrears, and he mostly survived on the leftovers from the family's meals and occasional snacks whenever Kasumi caught him). Few phone boxes survived in Nerima, anyway; the standard vandal-proof boxes lacked the durability essential in Neriman street furniture (the local park benches were manufactured from scrapped main battle tanks) and only the most inconveniently located ones lasted more than a few weeks. Therefore, his next task was to run back to the Kuno mansion to call the young master, where the young mistress would be having breakfast within earshot of the only telephone (modernisation being something the family approached with moderation).
She, also, would be unhappy with the news. She would probably attempt to torture the details out of him (it would never occur to her to merely ask), and would then immediately begin measures to redress the situation.
As he reluctantly pulled himself out of his malodorous cranny, he found himself hoping she would attempt to seduce the Saotome boy. It was the least likely of her many possible responses to succeed, and the one with the least hazardous repercussions if she did somehow manage to pull it off.
The aged matriarch of the Amazons watched the ninja descend the tree below her and snorted silently at his attempts at stealth. He hadn't noticed her presence, and he had been awake when she climbed past him.
She glanced again at the young couple. Briefly, she mourned the loss of Ranma to the tribe; but the gentle stirring of ki in the night had assured her well before she reached the compound that he had bound himself, all unknowing, to the Tendo girl, and she to him. She had recognised the developing effects of the Lust Dust as soon as it spread across the entryway to her restaurant, and a weakening of the barriers between those affected and the astral plane was well documented. With both of them affected, and considering their life over the last few months, the result could only have been lifelong hatred or lifelong love, and she was a fair observer of human nature; she wouldn't have bet on hatred.
Actually, the stirring of ki had been less than gentle, and she had been confused by the vigour of the interplay after the couple passed into sleep, and shortly frightened for their lives as their joint ki faded almost to nothing. The most peculiar twitch of energies after that, and the gradual fading to blonde of the two heads resting on the boy's pillow, indicated that even if the pursuit of Ranma was no longer in the script, the continual floorshow that was life in Nerima would continue to be - entertaining.
"Interesting times, you two," she murmured as she sprang from the tree to the roof and thence across the street towards her home. "Interesting times."
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(Posted Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:28)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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