“You’re angry?”
“A little,” said Nodoka, as she poured a small saucer of sake for Jiraiya, the duo now outside the house and sitting along the outer porch. “I didn’t want Ranma to learn that technique yet.”
“Speaking of the kid; where is she?”
“Upstairs with most of the others, including Kimiko,” Nodoka replied. “Yakumo’s points wore off. They asked Hinata to scan her chakra pathways to ensure there was no damage being done to them before Ranma reapplied the technique.”
Jiraiya nodded, sitting down beside the redhead. “Makes sense, even your child’s technique isn’t as good as their eyes. With two weeks left before the exams, she might even be able to pull off the needed taijutsu exam.”
Nodoka nodded, sipping from her own saucer. “There is still some doubt as to if this will allow her some minor ninjutsu skills as well. The medic-nin who questioned my son seemed to believe that, at least.”
“You can’t do genjutsu without an ability to perform ninjutsu,” offered Jiraiya. “The simple fact is all of her chakra was being focused into her mind. If her pathways can be developed quickly enough, it might allow for her to become a balanced ninja.”
“Already, Gai has asked if Ranma might be able to offer something for Rock Lee,” she continued. “I do admit it would be a good chance for the young man, but there is a grand difference between the two cases. For now, I would prefer Ranma to focus on passing his exam.”
“Ranma could pass the Genin Exam with ease,” stated Jiraiya. Off in the distance, he could spot a familiar mop of wild blond hair trying to climb a tall tree via chakra with the assistance of an equally familiar mop or red hair. “She left a Kage Bunshin to teach Naruto after half an hour of trying to master it.
“No-chan, Ranma should have graduated before this,” he commented. “You and I both know that kid picks up techniques fast, almost as fast as an Uchiha with their Sharingan and definitely faster than Genma ever could.”
“I know,” said Nodoka evenly.
“Nodoka … are you holding Ranma back on purpose?” he asked.
“I want my child prepared for the world,” she replied, gazing at the duo in the yard. “I want Ranma to be smarter than what she can read off some scrolls, smarter than what any teacher could teach her. I want Ranma to be … old.”
Jiraiya slowly looked towards his friend, noticing that for once, Nodoka’s usually bright eyes now dimmed, showing a woman who had been hurt by the world, a woman afraid of losing her only child. “And you think hiding all those techniques, skills, and teachers will do that?”
“If it teaches Ranma to be able to look beyond what she knows, it will be,” said Nodoka.
“And my books?”
Her face flushed at that.
He could only chuckle. “I see.
“Well, at least I’m helping the next generation,” he said with a smile.
“I do want my child to know the proper methods of chasing the opposite sex.”
Jiraiya just continued to smile. Even as a mother, some things never changed. “Should I assume you already spoke to the Old Man about Ranma’s eventual team assignment?”
“No need,” she said with a smile. “Nabiki-chan already did that when they brought in Yakumo. I have to admit, I was a bit worried about those two. I always thought those two were at best had a brother/sister relationship. But lately, they seem to really be developing an interest in each other.
“It’s why I had to change Ranma’s graduation present,” she replied happily.
“I assume it is more than simple access to your scroll stash,” he mused.
“Well, there is also signing the Cat Summons scroll,” offered Nodoka.
“And?” he asked, smiling. “Come on, No-chan; I know there’s more to it than that.”
“Now that … is a secret!”
Ranma-3—the third Kage Bunshin created by Ranma and the other two were assisting the original with Yakumo’s treatment—shivered as she heard those words. Her normal hearing hadn’t been that good, but one who had a good enough grasp on Fūton could use it to enhance nearby sounds. It wasn’t as acute as say what the Inuzuka clan could pull off, but it worked well enough.
Mental note: don’t come home after graduation. Mom is planning something very bad… There was one thing both mindsets of Ranma Saotome—Nerima and Konoha—could agree upon: Nodoka Saotome of the Hidden Leaf was a much scarier mother.
Nerima-Nodoka wanted him to only peep on Akane, the girl—apparently the one she accepted—was only okay because they were engaged. Ranma remembered the assault when he had changed back to a guy at the hot springs and Nodoka jumped into battle assuming he was there to ‘assault’ Ranko. Perversions were okay as long as you were in a committed relationship and only with that committed person.
That was not true for Konoha-Nodoka. Maybe it was because Ranma’s father was dead, maybe it was because of how she was raised in this world, maybe it had something to do with that damned butterfly Nabiki was always mumbling about.
Truthfully, she didn’t know. Ranma never knew that much about her mother’s past in either world. The closest had been her Old Man’s story about how the duo got engaged. She never really knew how much of that was truth and how much was the panda’s usual bullshit.
So she was left to assume that in this universe, her mother was somehow the daughter of whatever passed for this universe’s Happosai and probably related to Jiraiya in some manner.
But hell, Ranma wasn’t engaged to anyone from her parents in this world, so she could let most of those … oddities slide.
“This is boring!” whined Naruto, as he leapt off the tree once more. The newest paint mark on the tree—her mom did not want any damage to her trees via kunai—showed the blond had made it an extra foot. “Come on, Ranma! Teach me Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!”
Sighing, Ranma glared at her friend. “You know the rules! Mom said I can’t teach you it until you got the water-walking down!”
“Oh come on!” pleaded Naruto.
Ranma’s glare intensified, making Naruto back up into the tree and instinctually climb a few feet up it in fear. Man; Ranma’s scary like that!
“You wanna deal with my Mom?” asked the redhead. “You remember what she did when she found out I taught you how to make cook without doing the basics? Cause I’m pretty sure ninja-stuff is going to get us both punished a lot worse.”
Naruto slowly nodded. Ranma had tried to show him the basics, starting with boiling water—always good for making ramen!
But Naruto wanted something better, so he swiped a difficult ramen recipe and tried it.
The good news was the fire was contained and Auntie didn’t kick him out permanently because of the damaged kitchen.
The bad news was she had the duo scrubbing the kitchen with toothbrushes—ceiling to floor—as punishment. There was no telling what she’d do for teaching ninja skills without proper preparation.
Well, he’d learn it after tomorrow anyway. Auntie had him demonstrate a variant of his Oiroke no Jutsu, which she seemed really excited about—something about full transformation. Anyway, she had offered to give him some major pointers in water-walking plus a free trip to some hot springs just outside the village. It was going to be so totally awesome!
Okay, so Ranma was coming too—something about heat being good for cramps or something. He didn’t know and he wasn’t stupid enough to ask Ranma what sort of cramps she had. Maybe I can get Kiba to ask…
Ranma-3 shivered, wondering why she felt a sense of impending doom. Okay, ain’t coming home tomorrow after school.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by The Demented Redhead
(Posted Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:16)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.