Ranma came to ground from the roofs when he spied the Kuramas walking leisurely along the street. Landing not far in front of them, Ranma gave them a jaunty wave. "Hey ya, How ya doin'?"
The parents just looked at him coldly, but Yakumo brightened upon seeing him. "Ranma-sama! What are you doing here?"
"You can just call me Ranma. No need for sama. Nabiki sent me to getcha, but I guess it wasn't necessary."
Yakumo nodded happily. "Yeah, we're on our way over now."
Ranma fell in besides the family. Opening his book bag, he grabbed a couple textbooks. "Here, why don't you carry these?"
Ranma didn't notice Yakumo's blush as she took his books. Her mother found the request strange. "You want Yakumo to carry your books?"
"Yeah, more weight so she can get more of a work-out walking."
Murakumo nodded. "So it's training, then?"
"Any time is a good time for training. When walking, you can try walking on something to improve balance, or work on speed, or go for distance. Also, you could carry weights or try walking through water."
"Why did you only give Yakumo-chan a couple of books, then?" Uroko was curious, in spite of herself.
Ranma shrugged. "I didn't want to start her off too fast until I knew what she could do. Also, I had lead weights sewed into my book bag; I think that would be too much."
"Wow! You have weights in your bag?" Yakumo was impressed.
Ranma smiled and nodded at her. "Yeah, a weighted bag and I wear weighted clothing too. There’s no shortcut to being the best."
"I want to be just like you, Sempai!"
Ranma could only pause at that; technically, they were the same age. He also never had anyone refer to him with so much respect. Damn, if she turns into another fiancče, that's another thing I'll blame Nabiki for.
Sarutobi sighed as he entered the council chamber. He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he would get from the council members.
"Why did you call us here on such short notice?" Most of them seemed to be grumpy; so that wasn’t too different from their usual reactions.
Sarutobi cleared his throat. "*Ahem* Ah yes, glad to see you have all made it. Now, to get to the business at hand."
"What business would that be?"
"I have had the most unusual meeting with young Master Saotome. He has ... how to put this? ... He has developed some rather unorthodox techniques."
One of the councilmen snorted. "And for this you convened us all here? What does this matter to us?"
Sarutobi glared at the interrupting politician before continuing his spiel. "I think we ought to observe these techniques to best decide how to rank them and which ones ought to be forbidden."
"What sort of techniques could a child come up with that would require us to evaluate? Really, isn't all of this overkill?"
Sarutobi shrugged. "Ranma's techniques were inspired by what was available to him. Most notably, the book Icha Icha Paradise seems to have inspired some of his techniques. As it is unheard of that anyone invented moves as found within that book, I think it is best we judge their usefulness and propensity to cause trouble."
The councilmen looked at Sarutobi as if he had finally lost it.
Hyuuga couldn't contain himself nay longer. "You don't honestly expect us to believe that an academy student has learned anything from that book beyond how to be a pervert?"
"Well, I find it hard to believe myself, which was why I requested a demonstration. But, for now, to answer any of our questions, I had requested the presence of Nodoka Saotome." He then motioned to some guards to let the woman in. "Please send in Saotome-san."
"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Nodoka bowed politely to the town leader. They were alone in his office, where they had adjourned to after the council meeting, to discuss some advice the Third had for Nodoka.
Sarutobi chuckled. "Please, you needn't be so formal, Saotome-san. Good luck talking with Ranma, I hope everything goes as we discussed."
Nodoka nodded. "I am sure Ranma will see the practicality in your wisdom. I must be off now, Ranma should be done with school by now, and I need to plan for dinner."
The crew arrived at Nabiki's house out of breath. Yakumo had asked what else they could do for training. In reply, Ranma tapped her and yelled, "Tag!" before running off. Yakumo gave chase, and her parents were not about to let her out of their sight, so they ran to catch up.
Murakumo knocked politely on the door, but Ranma just threw it open and walked in like he lived there. "Hey, Nab-chan, I'm here!"
Kimiko came out of the kitchen to greet her guest. "Hello Ranma, Nabiki-chan is out in the dojo, waiting. Ah, I see the Kurama clan is here. Please, come in."
The Kuramas entered, took off their shoes, and made polite greetings and small talk as calmer introductions were made.
Ranma had already quickly switched his shoes for house slippers and went to the rear door, where he put his shoes back on.
Kimiko smiled down to the young clan heiress. "Why don't you go find Nabiki and Ranma? I'm sure they're eager to begin."
"OK, thank you, Mrs. Tendo." Yakumo ran after Ranma.
Kimiko smiled. "My, she seems excited."
Murakumo bowed towards the hostess. "I apologize for her. I don't know what got into her. I have never seen her so ..."
"Exuberant?" Kimiko waved off his apology. "Don't even mention it. I am pleased she is excited. And it is my clan that owes yours an apology. I don't know what came over my daughter either. I only hope it's a phase she is going through. She must get it from her father’s side; he was such a hell-raiser in his day."
The Kuramas nodded their acceptance. "If it is alright with you," Uroko politely requested, "we'd like to see what the training will be."
"Of course, I can completely understand. I'll show you to the dojo."
Inside the dojo, they found the children doing some simple warm up exercises. Ranma was now a girl, and wet. She was also glaring at a smirking Nabiki.
Noticing she had an audience, Ranma clapped his hands, once, to get attention.
"OK, we'll start off with seeing what you can do. First, I want to see how many push-ups you can do in one minute, then sit-ups; but only after we finish warming up and stretching out. Then, after I get an idea of your abilities, we'll move into seeing what forms you know." Ranma-chan was in her element, the dojo was her domain.
"OK, Ranma-sama." Yakumo beamed a happy smile. Nabiki chuckled into her hand.
Ranma rolled her eyes. "What did I say about calling me Sama?"
Nabiki, unable to contain herself any longer, started to tear up from her laughter. "You know, we may have another Kodachi on our hands."
Ranma shot her a dirty glare, but the grown-ups were just confused. Yakumo thought they were talking in code. A kodachi is a short sword, better at defense than offense because of its reduced reach. Maybe Nabiki-sama means I would be better in a more defensive role than an offensive one. Makes sense.
The Kuramas scowled, thinking the duo was planning something perverted. Kimiko took note that her daughter was already designing codewords with Ranma and upgraded her estimation of Nabiki's feelings towards the young boy. She must have been planning to team up with Ranma for a while now, if they already devised codes. I wonder when she first started to notice Ranma. Maybe I'll give Nodoka a call, and arrange for a little Omai meeting between the two of us. We had always joked about how nice it would be if Ranma married one of my girls.
"We'll start by jogging in place to get the blood flowing. Begin."
Kimiko blinked, frowned, and wondered where that thought came from. I've been hanging around Nodoka too much, it seems she's rubbing off on me.
Jogging, jumping jacks, toe touches, stretches, and light calisthenics was how Ranma began the training. Then, Ranma tested Yakumo's fitness level while making Nabiki follow suit. Finally when she was satisfied, she called for a halt.
"Take a water break. Next, I want you, Yakumo, to show me which martial arts forms you know already." Yakumo bowed to Ranma before running off to join her parents, a large, radiant smile on her face.
Kimiko had already left and returned with a large pitcher of ice water and glasses while the kids were working out. Pouring out three glasses, she handed them out to the young ones.
Drinking her own glass, Nabiki was mulling over how much more fit her body was in this reality. I'm not nearly as winded as I thought I'd be. Though, my new memories show that Ranma is going easy today; he/she usually drives me harder. Yakumo's presence must be tempering the usual zeal.
After about five minutes of rest, Ranma clapped her hands to get attention. "Alright, time for forms."
After Yakumo walked out into the middle of the mat, Ranma began calling out forms. Yakumo demonstrated them as best she could. Midway through her third kata, Ranma squinted suspiciously. Walking up to Yakumo, Ranma poked her in the chest.
"Hey, keep your ..." Murakumo Kurama began to yell at Ranma, but his protest died when he saw his little girl pop out of existence. Instead, she was sitting in the corner, exhausted, next to some canvas painted with a scene of herself doing a kata in the dojo. Yakumo was never without her supplies; even going so far as to conceal them under an illusion when she had left the house. It was easy enough to hide them in a corner of the dojo, and when no one was looking during break, she began painting. She was very tired.
Ranma tsked as she approached the heiress. "Exercising your illusions won't benefit yourself physically."
Yakumo hung her head. "I know, I was just so tired. I only wanted to rest for a bit."
Ranma shrugged. "Well, today it’s alright. I just wanted to see what you can do after all. I'll tone it down some more, but I think we'll be focusing on your physical fitness at first. Though, tomorrow, I do want to see if you can do some Academy basics like tree walking and water walking. And what genjutsu you know."
Yakumo nodded. "Yes, Sempai."
Ranma rolled her eyes. "You know you don't have to call me Sempai. Just Ranma will be fine."
"Yes, Sempai."
Nabiki giggled.
"Looks like nothing more can be done for the day," Uroko commented. "We'll be going now. See you same time tomorrow, Tendo-san." Uroko and Murakumo bowed politely at Kimiko. "Come along, Yakumo."
"Bye," Ranma bowed at the Kuramas. "See you tomorrow." Nabiki bowed and said her good-byes as well.
Once the family left, Ranma's stomach growled. "I think I heard it say, 'feed me.'" Nabiki said as she poked Ranma in the gut.
Ranma smoothly and quickly took Nabiki down to the floor. "What, you think you get off easy just because we're training Yakumo now?" Ranma asked Nabiki as she pinned the other girl down. "Time you got a real workout."
Kimiko cleared he throat with a meaty *ahem*. "Children, remember Nabiki is grounded. Also, I'm afraid, in spite of what Auntie Nodoka says, that I am indeed much too young to be a grandmother." Kimiko almost giggled at how quickly the two children blushed and scooted away from each other. She should have felt guilty for teasing them so, but they were starting to become the age where they might do something foolish if she didn't keep them off-balanced.
"Ahh," Ranma stammered sheepishly, "I better be going now. Momma is probably finishing up dinner."
"You know you are always welcomed to stay for dinner," Kimiko told Ranma as they started to work there way back to the house. Once they had reached the front entrance hall, there was a knock at the door.
"Hello everyone," Nodoka Saotome greeted as she let herself into the house. "Why aren't you training Kurama-san?"
"Hello, No-chan. Things ended a bit early; Yakumo became too worn out to continue." Kimiko greeted her old friend. "Would you like to stay for dinner? I cooked plenty." She then gestured that everyone should take a seat in the family room.
"That sounds superb. I have had a long day with the Hokage and hadn't had anytime yet to cook."
Kimiko nodded. "I was wondering where you were when you didn't stop by to visit earlier."
Ranma's interest was piqued. "Oh? What did the Hokage want?"
Nodoka sat down in an armchaior, wearily. "We were planning your demonstration, actually. It is tomorrow, by the way. I'll write you an excuse for school. Well, if the Hokage hasn't already."
"That soon?" Kimiko was astonished at how rapidly things were moving. She settled in another armchair near her friend's.
"No one wanted to wait too long, and most didn't seem to expect much of a demonstration. I think they hoped getting it over with quickly would waste less time."
Ranma didn't seem to be too concerned. "Run through everything I know, then? Or just the Icha Icha ones?"
"Not quite," Nodoka shook her head. "This was one of the topics the Hokage wanted to discuss. He advised that we should choose some moves to hold back as clan secrets and all. And you also can reserve a few moves to only be known by your team. That was my idea. We can call them clan secrets, but I'll authorize the few to be shared with Nabiki."
"When will we get to see those," Kimiko asked.
"Tomorrow, afterwards, if you like. You should try to see the main demonstration first if you can. Save on repeating moves. But once that is done, Ranma can hold a private demo here any time that works best for you."
Nabiki nodded from her place on the couch, next to Ranma. "We ought to invite Yakumo as well."
"Of course," Nodoka agreed.
Ranma looked at Nabiki. "We better figure out which moves to hold back then."
Nabiki riffled through a drawer in the end table for some paper. "Here, make a list. And no doing any of the ones that level mountain tops in my dojo."
"Your dojo? Possessive, aren't we?"
Nabiki answered simply by sticking her tongue out at him.
Nodoka wondered about the levelling mountain tops comment, but explained it away as Nabiki teasing Ranma.
Kimiko watched the two and remembered when they had first met as little kids. I wonder if they still see themselves as best friends or like cousins? I don't think there was ever any doubt they wouldn't be on the same team, we just hadn't had given it any real thought before. But Nabiki must of realized how close that was coming and worried about not being with her best friend.
"Should we list stomach of steel as a technique?"
"Hardy-har-har, Nabs. Maybe we should list extortion for yours? You still owe me for the bum wish."
Nabiki snorted in annoyance. "It wasn't my fault your genie was so brain damaged she'd give the wish to just anyone. So it is your fault for finding her to begin with."
"Oh yes, it's always my fault, isn't it?" Ranma crossed her arms over her chest.
Nabiki nodded. "See, I knew you could be taught." Then the two started giggling, revealing the argument was in jest and not real.
The two parents were left wondering what the kids could be discussing. "What are they talking about?" Nodoka asked Kimiko.
"No idea, but they were like this all day; speaking in code. Children, could you try to speak plainly and in the clear when you are not on an officially sanctioned mission."
Ranma and Nabiki had the grace to blush and look away.
Nodoka shot Kimiko a 'told you so' look and smiled smugly. Kimiko rolled her eyes. She sees everything as proof that there is something going on between those two.
"Well," Nodoka rose to her feet, "let's go get dinner ready, its been a long day. I'll help."
Kimiko got up too. "Yeah, we better finish dinner."
"After dinner, I want to see a list of what you know to do," Nodoka told Ranma over her shoulder as she left for the kitchen.
Ranma groaned. That was going to be a long list, and he did not know where to start.
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(Posted Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:37)
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