“Was all that really necessary, Saotome?” asked Nabiki, as the boy walked over to her. She had gotten out of the spars by being assigned to help Yakumo with her basic introduction to Academy Taijutsu. But hey, unlike Saotome, she was still trying to get used to the combined abilities, which was still throwing her coordination off slightly. And as such, she didn’t want to be seen taken down by a sucker punch.
“Eh, made me feel better,” he said with a smile.
“W-will they be okay?” asked Yakumo, as she slid into the third stance of a basic kata.
“Naruto’ll be fine,” Ranma said with a smile. That might not be true when he looked in a mirror, but for now he’d be fine. “And Sasuke… Well, that guy really needs elective surgery to remove that pole he’s got stuck up his ass.”
“Just wait till he finally activates his Sharingan,” groused Nabiki, as she paused Yakumo’s movements to correct her arm movement.
Ranma snorted again. “It could activate all he wants; he ain’t got the speed, stamina, or chakra to beat me.”
Nabiki slowly nodded. It might have sounded a bit conceited, but it was a good point. In terms of stamina and chakra, only Naruto surpassed Ranma in those—which she considered odd in that she knew why Naruto was so high in those attributes, but could think of nothing to explain Ranma’s developments. “Still should be careful, Saotome. The brat might pull a copy-n-paste of Anything Goes from watching you.”
“Not for a while,” he murmured, watching as several of Sasuke’s fangirls gave him glares that could kill lesser men while trying to ‘assist’ Sasuke back to his feet—if by assist one meant help up while checking his taste in boxers or briefs.
“But I thought the Uchiha were pretty powerful,” spoke Yakumo, as she restarted her kata from the beginning.
“Eyes are,” said Ranma. “But it’s like any other ability: ain’t worth shit if you can’t use it. He could copy all my techniques, but it don’t do him any good if his body can’t handle using them.”
“You remember Rock Lee?” asked Nabiki. Seeing Yakumo’s nod, she continued. “Well, Sasuke could use the Sharingan and copy Lee’s moves perfectly, but his body doesn’t have Lee’s stamina or training to pull off those moves for long. In a straight taijutsu battle, Lee would still win.
“Most Uchiha copied a move and that was it, no real training to make it their own. So as such, sure they could do it, but they never really polished it, understood it. So they might know a thousand moves and see everything clearly, but the lot of them never really made it their own, made sure they could handle it better than the person they copied it from.”
“Besides, it wasn’t powerful enough to keep them all from being wiped out,” sighed Ranma.
Yakumo paused in her kata, her eyes misted slightly, as she nodded. She shuddered to think what would have happened to her own clan had the Idou got loose. A bloodline was just as much a gift as a curse; it could make you great or lead to your own destruction.
“We won’t let something like that happen to you,” Nabiki offered quietly, noticing the pale girl’s reaction.
“T-thank you,” Yakumo said quietly, a smile returning to her face. It was nice to know she had such friends, it made such a difference.
“Saotome!”
“Hmm?” asked Ranma, turning back towards Iruka.
“A spar was requested against you.”
“… Really?” Ranma drawled, stretching a bit. “Who?”
“US!” cried a contingent of Uchiha fan girls. “We won’t let you get away with doing that to Sasuke!”
“Says the girl who was checking to see what sort of undies he was wearing,” smirked Ranma, sending the apparent leader into a deep blush.
“You won’t hurt them, will you?” asked Yakumo.
Ranma just shrugged. “Nah, I think I’ll go for pressure points. If I hurt them in a spar, my Mom would probably have some crazy-ass punishment waiting for me before we even got out of practice.” Smirking at the fun he was about to have, Ranma grabbed a water bottle and poured enough of it on his arm to trigger his curse, changing from a raven-haired male to a scarlet-haired female.
“We know you’re really a guy, Saotome!” cried Ino. “Don’t think just because this is a spar we’ll let you grope us!”
Ranma just snorted. “Please; like you got anything to grope.” With that, she adjusted her own outfit so it wouldn’t slip during the fight. “Besides, I’m much better built than any of you,” she finished, thrusting her chest out to show that yes, Ranma-chan was an early bloomer.
“Where did they get those mallets from?” asked Yakumo.
“Just a certain ability Saotome’s been known to bring out.”
“I am very disappointed in all of you,” said Iruka, glaring at his class. “Not only did the class degenerate into a free-for-all—”
Nabiki had to nod, that was true. Of course, it had at first been Ranma v the Uchiha fan girls, then Ranma v UFG plus Naruto who had finally looked into a mirror, then Sasuke woke up and jumped in, which of course gave most everyone else a reason to jump into the massive orgy of violence. Aside from Nabiki and Yakumo, only Chouji and Shikamaru had stayed out of it. Shikamaru because it was ‘too troublesome’ and Chouji because … well, he was eating.
Iruka continued. “—but you severely damaged Academy Training Ground 3. Do you have anything to say for yourselves?” he asked.
Ranma raised her hand. “I am the champion!”
“Well then Saotome, you can join the rest of your classmates with the exception of Yakumo, Nabiki, Chouji, and Shikamaru this weekend to help repair the grounds.”
Once again, Ranma ignored several glares sent her way. “Don’t blame me; I wasn’t the one who started using explosive notes.”
“S-s-s-sorry,” stuttered Hinata. It just hadn’t seemed fair how everyone was being mean to Ranma and Naruto in the fight.
Nabiki just shook her head, seeing yet another instance where that damned butterfly was flapping its wings. Either that or canon-Hinata had never come across a reason to unleash the forces of paper bombs on her classmates before.
It was still pretty cool to see.
“Um … Sensei?”
“Yes, Yakumo.”
“Is this … normal?” she asked with concern.
“No, Yakumo, it isn’t a normal day for us,” he said sadly, wishing he still had some alcohol in his desk. And he wasn’t even tipsy yet. Bet Mizuki’s been watering my drinks down again after stealing them … bastard.
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(Posted Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:15)
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