'Yours...' she had said.
'Forever and ever...'
And Ranma could tell she meant it from the feel of her Ki.
It had been barely five minutes since he had met the woman, Akitsu, and now she was throwing off phrases like those and gazing at him like her very soul hung on his next words. Behind his blank expression, Ranma cursed himself for his slackness and started casting out his senses in earnest to figure out the situation his messing around had landed him in this time. Even as lax as he had been, he had noticed the thread of Ki which had formed between him and Akitsu when she kissed him. Not only was it still there, it was strengthening as life-force flowed back and forth, making a bond of their combined energies. He felt certain he could sever the bond if needed, but held off from doing so until he knew exactly what would happen... for all he knew, she would keel over or go berserk. Instead, he left it alone to do whatever it was going to do, only keeping a mental eye on it to watch for problems or changes.
Of far more concern was the overwhelming, almost obsessive, sense of dependency he felt from her. That changed the situation from his initial simplistic plan of 'find bad-guys/squish bad-guys' to a more complex scenario that now included healing the woman who had just tied herself to him, and doing it without doing her further harm. That would be a real trick, considering how fragile she seemed at the moment.
Before he had started his voyages across space and time, Ranma would have been running in circles and babbling in embarrassed confusion in a situation like this. Now, however, he simply thought: 'Well... that was a short vacation...' before he took a focusing breath, closed his eyes, and decisively cast aside all notions of playing around as a kid again. In place of frivolous things, he brought forward the mindset that had protected billions of people when he was a member of the Z-Fighters. When he opened his eyes again, Akitsu blinked in surprise at the sharper expression.
Looking her in the eyes, Ranma projected reassurance and confidence through both his demeanor and his Ki as he declared: "Given what just happened, I really need to introduce myself. My name is Ranma Saotome, and while I don't know everything that is going on, Akitsu, I see you need help and protection, so you will have it."
The recently distressed damsel looked back solemnly, but did not seem inclined to speak yet, so Ranma went on: "The first thing you need to know about me if I am taking care of you is that I am much older than I look. I will try to avoid throwing too many things at you at once, so the details will have to wait until later, I'll just say that I have been through a lot of adventures that lead to me being in this form." Seeing her nod in ready acceptance, he continued: "I want to get you clothes, shelter, and a warm meal as soon as possible. Once you've had a chance to rest and recover, we will talk about what we will do beyond that point, OK?"
"Ah," Akitsu blinked some more as she processed that, then shyly said: "Yes, Ashikabi-sama. Thank you Ashikabi-sama."
Ranma repressed a twitch at the repeated '-sama,' gently saying "I am guessing you don't have anyone to call or go to in the area, right?" She nodded mutely while he considered some of his observations. "And... I have a feeling we can't just go to the police or a hospital, but feel free to tell me I'm wrong."
Akitsu shook her head violently, her expression clouding up. "They said... they own the police... I can't... I..."
As Akitsu's state of mind declined, Ranma quickly responded with a calming smile and put his hands on her shoulders: "Shh... shh... I didn't expect things would be that easy, so I will find a place for you to be safe, and it'll be soon." Thinking it over, he added: "I was just about to do that very thing for myself, so its just a matter of setting us both up now instead of just me. I was just considering a friend of my Dad's, but..." Akitsu needed stability, comfort, and understanding right now... all of which were in negative numbers at the Tendo dojo in spite of Kasumi's efforts, so... "yeah, that's out. I haven't taken time to convert what I have with me to local currency, so a hotel will have to wait for later... if ever. I could get the camper out, though I would need to find a place to park it where the police would not be an issue... meh, make that 'Plan B' for now. Say..." Ranma's smile turned a bit mischievous, planning to pass it off as a joke if Akitsu seemed overwhelmed or disturbed, "how does a spaceship with artificial gravity and absurdly luxurious accommodations sound?"
"Ah," she spoke as a placeholder, it seemed Akitsu liked to give herself time to think things out when she could. Ranma waited patiently until she said: "We Sekirei came here on a spaceship too, Ashikabi-sama."
"Oh yeah?" Ranma was barely surprised after everything he had seen. Even what mild surprise he had only existed because Akitsu felt mostly human to him in spite of calling herself 'Sekirei.' "Where from?"
"I don't know, I was only... an embryo when our ship crashed. MBI found us..."
"'MBI' as in 'Mid Bio Informatics?'" Ranma interrupted. Even on the road and not even seeing so much as an electric light for weeks on end, he had heard of the giant corporation. The reminders of their pervasive presence in Japan appeared in all the news and advertising would have reminded him even if he had actually forgotten about them after all these years away. "Sorry to interrupt," he hastily apologized.
"It's... fine," Akitsu plainly was not expecting anyone to apologize to her. "Yes... MBI... They found us and caused us to grow." Akitsu's face did not shift by much, but it still clearly projected that she was upset with herself. "I'm sorry, I don't know any more than that, Ashikabi-sama."
"That's fine," Ranma said soothingly. "You don't need to worry, I was just asking to get to know you better. I'm just glad I can take you to my own spaceship without shocking you. Also, you don't need to call me anything but 'Ranma' or even just 'Ran-kun.' It kind of makes me think you don't want to be friends with me when you lay 'Ashikabi-sama' on me."
"Ah," Akitsu smiled and blushed faintly when she heard that her Ashikabi wanted to get to know her better and be her friend. "Thank you... Ranma...-kun," she said quietly.
Ranma nodded and said: "Now, another thing you need to know about me is that I have a lot of different abilities, mostly developed by advancing my martial arts to an... extreme degree. One of those abilities is Kage Bunshin. This will let me make a temporary copy of myself out of some of my energy that remembers what I do, thinks like I do, and can do a lot of the things I can do. Also, when the Bunshin disperses, I get all of those memories, so it is like being in multiple places at once. I want to make one because I do not want to leave you alone right now, but I need a few minutes to get my ship in orbit and stealthed before taking you there. Is that OK?"
The seated Akitsu stared up at the martial artist with wide eyes, unmoving for a few moments, until she slowly nodded her head. Ranma nodded back, then stepped back and deliberately went through the hand signs slowly, even though he did not need them, quietly saying: "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."
Suddenly a whorl of Chakra smoke formed to his right, almost instantly dispersing to reveal an exact duplicate. Both forms then stepped up and took one of the Sekirei's hands. "As you can see..." said the clone.
"...It is hard to tell which is which unless you are very good at your game," the original concluded.
"A...mazing..." Akitsu said softly, looking back and forth between them. She then examined the hands holding hers, rubbing her thumbs along both sets of fingers to compare the feel of calloused skin and steel-hard tendons. At last, she looked up and smiled with a peculiar gleam in her eye.
Taking this as acceptance, Ranma-clone sat down on the bench beside her, saying: "So I'll keep you company for a while while I also get the Dibella..."
"That's my ship's name," Ranma-prime interjected.
"...Right," the clone agreed. "So anyway, once I..." he pointed to his real body, "have the Dibella in place and ready, I will contacts us..."
"...At which point I..." the original Ranma pointed to his doppelganger, "will teleport you directly to it so you can either sit down to a nice meal or lay down for a nice nap..."
"...Whichever you prefer," the shadow-clone concluded, giving her hand an encouraging squeeze and eliciting a brief, quiet giggle. Immediately after, a loud growl issued from the Sekirei's midsection.
"Food," chorused Z-Fighter and clone as Akitsu nodded eagerly.
"I'll see you soon," Ranma-prime promised. Akitsu let out a small breath of a whimper when he let go of her hand, so Ranma-clone grabbed her free hand in addition to the one he still held. Ranma-prime raised one hand to his face, touching his forefinger to his brow and visibly concentrating before abruptly disappearing in a whoosh of air. To Ranma-clone's surprise, she did not react like most civilians would seeing Instantaneous Movement for the first time, it seemed to him that she had accepted his statements about his abilities as gospel.
Suppressing a sigh at the reminder of her submissiveness, Ranma smiled instead and said: "It should not be too long, then we can get you taken care of, just hang in there a little longer."
Akitsu nodded in her glacial way, then a faint frown turned down the corners of her lips. "I..." she said hesitantly, "I am supposed to take care of you... Protect you, Ranma-kun."
Ranma raised his eyebrows at her, then his smile widened and he cheerfully declared: "No you're not."
Akitsu looked perplexed for a moment, then offered: "They said... I should protect my Ashikabi..."
"MBI?" the martial artist asked, getting another nod. "Yeah... hell with them, they're wrong. Same people who you had to escape, who called you a 'failed product?' To hell..." He enunciated distinctly and forcefully, "...With them." Earnestly peering up at the taller woman, he said: "I may look like this now, but I am older than you, more experienced than you (especially in terms of combat,) and much, much stronger than you. Do you know what that means?"
"Ah," she paused to take in his sincerity, her breath and heartbeat coming a touch faster. "It means you... take care of me?" she queried.
"Exactly right," Ranma answered firmly.
"Oh..." she whispered and he kept projecting encouragement as she took her customary pause. "Thank you," she concluded, still in a whisper and eyes shimmering slightly.
"You're welcome, Akitsu," the seeming boy said in a low, gentle tone.
They lapsed into silence, Ranma giving his new companion time to process, only sidling up to her as a wordless show of support. He also quietly and invisibly expanded his aura into a large shell covering enough of the area they were in to ensure no one was inclined to approach, a trick he had learned from Baba Urenai. They spent several minutes like that until Akitsu started fidgeting, squirming on her seat slightly while she looked uncertainly at Ranma, though never letting herself separate from where they were in contact with each other. For his part, Ranma gave his best encouraging smile while waiting for her to speak up.
Instead, Akitsu slowly lifted the hand closest to Ranma, gradually moving it over and behind his head as if to embrace him, when she finally froze in self-doubt. Ranma carefully reached out with his own free arm and stopped in a welcoming stance, showing a sympathetic smile. Akitsu stayed frozen for a couple more heartbeats before suddenly glomping him. Ranma manfully swallowed his reflexive 'gllrk' as he found his face embedded in the Sekirei's improbably large cleavage. Gingerly, he turned his head until his mouth and nose were clear of the woman's bare skin they had been pressed against while returning her embrace.
"Hey now," he crooned, "Hey... it's alright. Hugs are nice, aren't they?" After a moment, he felt Akitsu nod into the top of his head. "Everybody needs a hug sometimes... and sometimes folks just really, really need one. Gods know I've been there a time or twelve." He rubbed circles in the Sekirei's back, calming her shudders and feeling drops water fall on his scalp. "And sometimes you just need a good cry," he added tenderly, which released the dam of the abused woman's tears. Saying nothing more, he held Akitsu until her quiet sobs passed, though he mutely promised a reckoning once he found out the details of her ordeal.
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'Well... that was a short vacation...' Naruto thought to himself in one corner of his mind. A somewhat larger portion of his mind was occupied with wanting to kick himself for following Jiraiya's advice to play knucklehead for a while until Konoha gradually got used to their new power levels through various demonstrations and dropped hints. Case in point was the decision to do things Tsunade's way instead of clearly informing her of his relevant abilities and convincing her to let him go after Gaara as soon as he knew there was trouble. Up until a few seconds ago when he had re-grown a brain and scanned with his gruelingly developed Ki senses, he had actually been unconsciously assuming that Gaara was more of a peer in terms of power, and that he had only let himself be captured in order to wait for a safe opportunity to drop a metric megaton of Ichibi-fueled mayhem on his captors.
The tragic fact was that Gaara was not playing possum, and he was only moments away from death. As such, the lion's share of Naruto's attention was focused on mapping out the best way to pass the fuuinjutsu barrier, annihilate the opposition, and get Gaara out of there in one piece.
"Kurama," The blond ninja barked suddenly, startling the Konoha locals, "We're back on the clock." The disguised bijuu perked up at the cryptic statement. "Gaara looks like this..." he briefly Henge'ed into taller version of his fellow jinchuuriki as he had last seen him, making his best guess as to what he looked like now. "He holds Shukaku and he is nearly dead. Anything in there that's not him... kill it."
"Now Naruto," Kakashi admonished almost patronizingly as he set his hand on the supposedly less experienced shinobi's shoulder. "You should really leave the plans..." was as far as he got before Naruto went to Super-Sage mode and blew him across the clearing.
"I have point, you have slack," Naruto continued as if he had not been interrupted. "My priority is getting Gaara out, so get ready to get wild when we're clear."
"Oh... hell yeah," Kurama acknowledged in a vicious purr, rising into the air just as his former jailor did. Four enormous spheres of spiraling Chakra quickly formed around Naruto, their purpose a mystery to the other humans present.
"Let's go," Naruto said, and volleyed four shots of his 'Spiral Siege Cannon' technique in pairs in rapid sequence. The tremendous pulses of energy streaked out at a couple dozen times the speed of sound, but they only seemed a little faster to the ninja left behind than their creator, who streaked toward the cave he could feel Gaara in, with his mystery teammate right behind him.
Kakashi had rolled to his feet after his unexpected trip just as the techniques impacted close to the four foci of the barrier at once. He was very glad his Sharingan was covered, as even his normal eye was dazzled by the resulting explosions. Seconds later, the ground shook and titanic thunder-claps rolled over their position, causing the shinobi to instinctively scatter and take cover. When they looked toward the the system of canyons cut though the region by the forking rivers, they saw four mushroom clouds roiling into the sky.
Gai had the presence of mind to form a half-dome of rock with a Doton jutsu. "Quickly, my Youthful Students and my Hip Rival! Under the shelter before the residue lands!" His sub-ordinates quickly obeyed, though Kakashi needed a discreet nudge before he could stop staring at the results of his most neglected and denigrated student's efforts and slide in under the stone roof. Moments later, a hailstorm of broken rocks and trees landed all around.
A while after the dangerous projectiles stopped thudding into the protective wall, Kakashi was still trying to process his astonishment, so he ignored the poke in the shoulder from his self-declared rival at first. That was until Konoha's Sublime Green Beast ventured to announce: "My Worthy Friend, as much as I like to see our Cute Subordinates' Youth Explode like Ten Thousand Shooting Stars... this might have been a little Too Much of a Good Thing."
Haltingly, like his head was mounted on a rusty hinge, Kakashi turned to direct an incredulous look at his fellow Jounin. Neji looked on stoically while Rock quivered in excitement, building up to his own voluble declarations. Tenten just desperately tried to suppress a hysterical giggle.
Before anyone could say anything, however, Naruto suddenly appeared near their position, Gaara's unmoving form held in his arms. "Neji!" he called out, turning and striding over to the Hyuuga. Glancing at the emergency bunker, he absently commented, "Oh, good start, but we're gonna need more." Two Shadow Clones appeared next to him even as his hands were full, the Chakra constructs leaping forward to rapidly expand and thicken the earthen defense. They also formed a ring of mud around the Konoha soldiers, which extended in a hemisphere underground to act a shock absorber.
"Neji, I need help with Gaara. Everybody else, brace yourselves on top of the safe zone," Naruto warned. "Kurama saw something in there that pissed him right off. He'll give us a little more time, but expect a biiig boomie real soon now." In the middle of the shelter, Naruto laid the Kazekage on the ground gently. Glancing up at the Byakugan user, he said: "Gaara's heartbeat is irregular and I think it is weakening. Can you use your eyes to monitor him while I try something to heal him? Let me know if his condition deteriorates and we'll slap a stasis seal on him and let Tsunade... er... -sama sort him out, though I have never seen a Senzu fail yet."
"I shall do as you ask," was Neji's calm response as he activated his doujutsu. "As you thought, his heart is in fibrillation and his Chakra network is in dangerous flux. The Chakra is only flowing fitfully through his major organs and they are about to shut down completely," the Hyuuga reported in an intense tone. "You should take action immediately."
Naruto quickly unsealed what looked like a single, ordinary Lima bean from what Tenten recognized as a security scroll that would only unlock for a particular Chakra signature. The incongruity between the contents and the containment was resolved seconds after Naruto forced his comatose friend to eat it.
"Naruto... his heart is stabilizing," Neji reported immediately with a rare trace of wonder in his tone. "His Chakra levels are rising and harmonizing with his tenketsu. Even the bruising of his flesh is fading." Shaking his head in astonishment, he asked: "He looks like he is in near perfect health already and he should be waking up soon. By the Sage," he indulged in very rare expression of shock, "what did you give him?"
"The kind of thing someone generally only gets one of, if that, in their entire life. Thank the gods the one worked in this case." Naruto sighed in relief, not mentioning that Korin hardly regarded him and the other Z-Fighters as general sorts of people, or the other Senzu Beans he had in reserve. Looking up, he hollered: "Just in time, too. All y'all hang on to yourselves!" Suiting action to his words, he braced himself over the one-tailed's bearer, using Chakra to anchor his legs to the ground, while covering Gaara's ears.
As he did so, the sky lit up as if it were a lightning storm at night, not broad daylight like it was. Everyone who had their eyes open at the time, which was all of them except Gaara and Naruto, were seeing spots and reeling as the shock-wave reached them. Still, their ingrained habits as shinobi let them cling to the pseudo-island as it rocked like a ship at sea, which was better that what was experienced by the rest of the area as trees fell and land-slides collapsed much of the canyon network. What their ears experienced was more like a gigantic, profound pressure than a sound, followed by rumbles of aftershocks barely heard over the ringing in their ears. The regular shinobi did not dare move for a while as more debris landed all about. Finally, the clones stood and signaled the all clear to the others while Naruto was checking over Gaara again.
As Team Gai and Kakashi staggered to their feet, Naruto's clones deconstructed the stone shelter. Due to so many trees having collapsed, they had a clear view of the former Akatsuki base. Or rather, they had a clear view of what looked like a smoldering hole in the world where the base used to be. The non-jinchuuriki stared in stupefaction at the destruction. Fortunately their Chakra reservoirs were nearly full from never having fought all day, so their eardrums were rapidly healing and their equilibrium was soon restored.
In the meantime, Gaara was awake, but disoriented and blearily peering at the blond crouched beside him. "Hey, Gaara, how'ya feeling?" Naruto greeted his friend.
Coming out of his fog, the Suna leader rasped: "Naruto, how...?"
"Here, have some water," Naruto summoned a canteen from Stuff-Space and Gaara dutifully started sipping from it. "Your village called us in to help out, just like you helped us when Sasuke was defecting. Your brother got a little messed up, but Sakura is fixing him right up. Temari is handling perimeter patrols and was doing fine the last I saw."
"The village?" Gaara inquired in a low, intense tone.
"A few dings here and there, but that's it from what we saw as we passed through," Naruto reassured him. "You did it, Gaara! You protected your village like a true Kage!"
The redhead closed his eyes and sighed in relief. "Thank you, Naruto," he said sincerely.
Naruto's grin became a bit embarrassed as he said: "Sure, man, anytime. Now how about you answer my question... how are you feeling?"
Gaara blinked for a moment as he assessed himself. "I feel... good. Really good, actually," he elaborated with some surprise. "Even Shukaku is quiet."
"Shukaku got zapped. Hard. He's probably not up for much but curling up a in a fetal ball and twitching for the next good while," The Konoha jinchuuriki informed him. "It would probably be an ideal time to improve you position in relation to him, by like... a lot. Some work done by a seal-master like..." for a moment Naruto looked shifty eyed, then directed a significant gaze at Gaara, "...Jiraiya, someone who knows a lot about the subject, and you'll be in great shape."
Gaara slowly nodded, resolving to find a chance for a private conversation with his first friend to find out what he wasn't saying. "I'll do that, I am sure Hokage-dono will allow it as well as we have been getting along the last couple of years."
"Cool," Naruto enthused. "So are you ready to get out of here on your own two feet like a bad-ass would?"
Gaara stood up along with Naruto and said: "It does not appear that I will have any difficulty."
"That's great news!" Kakashi eye-smiled from where he suddenly loomed over the blond's shoulder. "Now we get to address a case of striking a superior officer while on a mission! Won't that be fun?"
Tenten and Gaara both were looking right at Naruto's face when Kakashi spoke, so they saw the fleeting glimpse of steady contemplation in his face before he took on a quizzical expression and he looked back at his erstwhile teacher. "What do you mean, Kakashi-sensei?"
"I mean, Naruto," the lazy Jounin drawled with overblown patience, "that when you knocked me down it was a case where you could face disciplinary action when we get home."
"Haaah?!" Naruto's demeanor was the very portrait of comically confused, before it changed to self-righteousness. "Hey! Tsunade told you to test us, you should have expected to take a hit or.... Wait a minute!" Naruto leapt a little ways away to land facing the Copy-Nin, pointing melodramatically, "You jerk! I didn't even hit you during the test! Just ran you down until you ran out of Chakra-dattebayo!"
"That's not what I was talking about, my cute and oblivious little student," Kakashi mock-sternly set his fists on his hips as he corrected the younger shinobi. "I meant that when you activated your Chakra-cloak, you launched me almost to the edge of the clearing."
Naruto's jaw dropped in response and his pointing finger wavered toward the ground. He then straightened, rubbing the back of his neck and grimacing sheepishly. "Aw man, I totally didn't notice that. My bad, Kakashi-sensei... I didn't even think it would be a problem. I got to used to being around people who could ignore that sort of thing like it was nothing." He made a fist and comically knocked himself on the head. "Jiraiya did the same thing by accident, too. Now I feel really bad-dattebayo..."
"That's OK," the eye-patched Jounin said with a condescending tone as he waved it off. "But we are going to work on your control and situational awareness when we get back home, right?"
"Right, right... you got it Sensei!" Naruto promptly agreed.
"Still the hyperactive, most surprising knuckle-headed ninja, aren't you?" Kakashi chuckled complacently as he pulled his trusty copy of 'Icha-Icha' out.
Tenten made sure to keep her incredulity off her face as she looked around to see how many people realized that Naruto had just effortlessly talked his way out of a possible fine or brig time. Gai and Lee were as clueless as usual, already off on one of their tirades about training ever harder in the face of Naruto's and Kurama's performances. Neji was looking... exceptionally bland. Even as hard to read as he was, she thought he knew something was up, but was willing to let it pass without comment. Gaara, of course, wasn't going to say a damn thing about the guy who was more responsible than anyone else for the Kazekage's current status. The weapons-mistress mentally shrugged and decided that if Kakashi was so much of a flake that he missed what happened, she wasn't going to point it out. However, she planned to do some investigating back in Konoha for the sake of her own curiosity.
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(Posted Fri, 16 Oct 2015 05:31)
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