Captain Yamato put his tea cup aside. “Very well then, let’s gather Mitarashi and the rest of your clones. We’ll go see the Hokage about your suggestion and revise your training schedule.”
Nabiki shuddered. Anko was the sort of person that could amuse Ranma, but was definitely hazardous to her health and sanity. “Can’t we just leave her to play with Saotome?”
Yamato actually took a moment to consider it. “No, we should bring her along as well.”
Ranma led the way, casually carrying Mihoshi in a princess carry. Not because she wasn’t physically capable, but because she was too stressed at the moment and needed her hugs.
When they found sleeping tiger Ranma, he wasn’t being attacked by Anko. Well, not in a violent fashion at least.
Instead she was laying beside him, with the boy’s face buried in her cleavage, held in place by her hand on the back of his head.
Deeply disturbed by the scene, Ranma decided to use a forbidden technique.
Feeling a tug on his sleeve, Yamato turned to Ranma, the twelve year old boy gazing up at him with big tearful eyes. “Uncle, that strange woman is touching me in bad places.” The cute act wasn’t something he could do only in female form after all.
Yamato gazed back at the admittedly improper scene of an instructor cuddling with a student and noticed that Anko’s other hand was actually in the boy’s pants. Sighing, the team captain spent a moment with his hand covering his face.
Mihoshi couldn’t read the mood, which was normal for her. “Ooh, that looks comfy. Can we have nap time now?”
Yamato sighed and recentered himself. Why was Anko the most troubling one on the squad? “Mitarashi-kun, practice is over. Please remove yourself from the boy.”
Anko opened her eyes and glared at the cold cucumber of a squad captain. She didn’t stop cuddling Ranma to her cleavage, giving a smirk in reply to Nabiki’s dark look. Eventually she thought of a good reply. “I’m doing important research here. He has no defenses against affection.”
Ranma rolled his eyes. “Duh, otherwise people would die from trying to sneak into my bed. The sleep fighting is defensive, it reacts to violence and danger.”
Ankle turned her glare towards the boy before grinning evilly. “Poor boy, don’t worry, Auntie will keep your secret about being unable to get it up.”
Ranma merely stared at her as if she were an idiot. “That’s my anti-pervert defense against girls that might jump me in my sleep. Also prevents morning wood, which is annoying.” Thinking about it, Ranma decided to twist the knife a bit. “Also yandere psycho-girls are one of my turn-offs.”
Nabiki couldn’t help but grin at the change in the tides. “Really Studboy? With all your girlfriends, that’s a surprise.”
Yamato had his hand to his forehead again. “Could we please move on now?”
Anko took her hand out of Ranma’s pants, but experienced some difficulty when she tried to pull away from cuddle time with the sleeping tiger. “Hey Duckie, your copy is getting clingy. You think you’ve got the balls for this?”
The Ranma holding Mihoshi in his arms grinned at her. “Aww, Auntie, have you figured out the difference between exploding clones and the regular ones yet? Oh, and careful Auntie, restrain those violent impulses.”
The tomboy kunoichi leveled her best glare at Ranma. “This isn’t funny!”
Nabiki couldn’t help but smirk. “Oh, it is. Let me guess, explosive clones are clingy?”
Ranma tilted his head to the side. “Well, if Auntie will promise to behave herself a bit so we can have normal mornings, I’ll even share the secret.”
Anko stopped squirming as her increasingly violent intentions were causing the Ranma she was cuddled up with to snuggle in tighter. “Fine!”
Ranma smiled, glancing over at Yamato. “Alright then, see, we can get along once we understand each other.”
To their surprise, Ranma walked over to the snuggling pair, taking Mihoshi with him. “First, to disarm the tiger.”
With that, he set Mihoshi down on the other side of the sleeping Ranma. The blonde snuggled up to the sleeping Ranma with practiced ease, getting him to roll onto his back and release Anko.
Winning smile in place, Ranma helped an annoyed Anko up to her feet. “You think I’ll let you go with this Duckie?”
Ranma met her gaze evenly. “There are limits to good taste Auntie. I enjoy playing with you, but Nabiki and Mihoshi aren’t as tough as me, mentally or physically. You go crossing that line too much and I’ll have to stop playing with you.”
Not wanting to give a point, Anko settled for being grumpy at the moment. “So what’s the secret?”
Ranma walked along, leaving Mihoshi with the sleeping tiger. “That’s easy. I haven’t made any exploding clones.”
Anko glared at the boy for toying with her. “Bullshit!”
Ranma snorted in reply. “I’m not that weak, if they were exploding clones, you’d both be dead. I revised the shadow clone technique to improve the chakra flow using certain chakra shaping methods I know. Because of the high density chakra, when I first practiced they exploded. Now they’re made safe, but can explode if they focus a bit.” Confident grin back in place, the young man glanced over at the annoyed kunoichi. “I just called them exploding shadow clones, Bunshin Daibakuha, and no one doubted it because of the results. See? I told you an actual secret Auntie.”
The older tomboy smirked at him. “Oh, I know another one of your secrets duckie. What an interesting bloodline ability.”
Ranma raised his eyebrows. “Kekkei Genkai? Mhmm, I guess for orphans anything is possible. As long as it isn’t something lame like the Sharingan.”
Anko grinned, finding this amusing. “You think the infamous Sharingan is lame?”
Ranma shrugged. “Too cheap for my tastes, plus all that emo baggage.”
Nabiki smirked. “Not as if you’d need it anyways.”
Staring off in thought, Ranma seemed to have jumped tracks as he thought of something new. “We’re going to see the Hokage? Then Nabiki, you stay here with Mihoshi and the tiger.”
A thoughtful Ranma was something that worried the former materialistic schoolgirl. “Stay here? What are you planning?”
Ranma glanced back over at Anko. “You’re way too happy about it... so it must have been the Sharingan.”
The snake-tastic jounin merely chuckled in evil delight. “Aww, such a smart duckie, reading Auntie’s mind even without your precious emo cheap trick.”
Ranma sighed, placing his hand over his face in exasperation. “Fine, you stay here and teach Nabiki some ninjutsu and chakra control. If you can do it like a proper adult, I’ll give you a reward.”
Manic grin creeping back into place, Anko was just enjoying herself too much. “...and if I don’t?”
Ranma sighed again, this time calming himself and closing his eyes. “I could just put you in the hospital and let you reflect on your actions, but the proper course of action would be to have you removed as assistant captain.”
The threat of removing her as assistant instructor was actually serious as it would hurt her chances of being proctor for the Forest of Death part of the chunin exams later. That would deny her the fun of playing with all of the little duckies. Such concern didn’t stop her from posing confidently with her evil grin in place. “You think crying to the Hokage will help you duckie?”
Ranma turned a cocky little grin of his own. “If they say no, then they won’t be able to complain when I respond in kind to deal with you.”
Anko merely grinned at the thought of him trying to get one over her. “Aww, duckie, you’re gonna make me blush.”
At which point Yamato decided he’d had enough and intervened. “Yes, well, anyways Mitarashi-kun, if you could review techniques for Tendo, we’ll go see the Hokage now. It seems Saotome-kun here has something else he wishes to discuss besides reassigning D rank missions.”
Seeing Nabiki’s glare and Anko’s grin, Ranma decided to give one last warning to also help explain things to Nabiki. “Nabiki had a little sister that was kidnapped by an immortal asshat to get at me. I was too nice and gave him too many chances to stop it from going any further.” Taking another deep breath, Ranma looked Nabiki in the eyes. “I’ll probably start racking up a kill count now as a shinobi, but I’m going to change Konoha’s future for the better.”
Anko, if nothing else, enjoyed taking pokes at her new favorite plaything. “Aww ducky, so sad, you let her little sister die, so now you’re gonna protect her from Auntie Anko. How brave. You know, brave guys like you are the ones that end up leaving their blood all over the forest.”
Ranma raised up one finger. “I have a kill count of one Auntie. One immortal asshat.”
Yamato took a surprisingly gentle tone. “You had a little sister Tendo?”
Nabiki sighed, realizing Ranma had phrased it in such a way to mesh with the fact they were orphans. That whole thing had obviously been a secret message to her that he’d take care of things. Changing the future was risky, but she could see the benefit. She’d just have to trust Ranma. “He brought her back alive. It’s my fault my little sister and big sister aren’t around, but I’ll see them again when I pass beyond this world.”
Taking a moment to get control of her emotions, Nabiki hid her face with one hand on her forehead to calm herself. “Fine, go Saotome. I’ll just have to trust you. You have no idea how much I hate saying that, so you’d better watch yourself.”
On their way to the Hokage’s office above the ninja academy, Ranma had one question to ask him after checking for any spies. “Does the Hokage’s office have a privacy seal? What I want to talk about is top secret. I’m not sure even the ANBU know of it, but I’ll trust you as well.”
Only a raised eyebrow betrayed the ANBU jounin’s interest. “Is it really that important?”
Glancing around again, Ranma moved in close. “I’ll tell you some of the secrets I know about you.”
Curious, Yamato leaned in so they could whisper in a way Ranma could shield his lips as well, although he kept at the ready in case Saotome was playing a trick on him. “You’re ANBU, Kakashi trained you under the name Tenzou. You’re the only survivor of sixty kids Orochimaru experimented on to create a Mokuton user, and he doesn’t know you’ve survived.”
Pulling back, Yamato stared at the genin that was full of surprises. These were definitely things a genin shouldn’t know. Particularly the part where Orochimaru supposedly didn’t know of the experiment’s success.
Ranma nodded in acknowledgement of his surprise. “I want to start off by explaining to the Hokage about who I am with you as the witness. Fair enough?”
With Yamato’s nod, they continued on, getting Ranma his audience and an ANBU privacy screen.
Ranma made himself comfortable, sitting in the comfortable lotus pose he used for meditation.
After Yamato finished briefing the Hokage, Sarutobi leaned forward on his desk. “Alright, I’m listening.”
After having confirmed a lot of things in his explorations, Ranma considered just how to phrase things and just how much to tell. “I happen to know some things I shouldn’t know, like who killed your wife Biwako when she was acting as midwife for Kushina Uzumaki, so that he could set the Kyuubi loose on the village. Also the circumstances of your impending death in combat this year. I don’t absolutely trust my knowledge of these events, so just to make sure, is that how your wife died?”
Hands clasped before him, Sarutobi solemnly nodded.
Ranma nodded as well. “As you’ve noticed, my group is weird. That’s because we’re not from this world. Mihoshi somehow got herself turned into a genie and had to grant some wishes to make up for what she did. I got one of those wishes and went to Nabiki for advice. Mihoshi messed it up and sent us to the world in a storybook I read because it had interesting techniques, a story called Naruto. In about four years when I’m sixteen again, Mihoshi is supposed to be able to open a portal to get us home.”
Ranma glanced over at Yamato. “That’s what Nabiki meant by seeing her sisters again when she passes beyond this world.”
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at the boy, yet somehow he wasn’t surprised. “So, you know these things because you read the story of Naruto Uzumaki in your world, before coming here?”
Ranma nodded. “To settle Mihoshi’s screw-up with the least effort, they created versions of us here as if we’d grown up here, and we took over those lives a few months ago. From our perspective, we haven’t been here long and I suspect if you use a mind technique on us, you’ll only see those local minds.”
“Our world is fairly peaceful, Nabiki was a schoolgirl concerned about fashion and fun, now she’s struggling to learn what she can so she can survive here for four years. Death and violence are unfamiliar things to most people where I come from, just seeing a knife would be enough to send people running.”
Yamato could see the truth of what he was explaining. “Which explains part of the bell test, Tendo and Kuramitsu acted in a highly defensive manner. Then what of you?”
Ranma nodded and carried on. “I didn’t fit in there. People like Rock Lee, who can’t use ninjutsu or other supernatural powers is what most warriors are like there. People carry on their traditional martial arts, challenging other dojos to prove themselves. Me, I mastered all the major styles of combat by age twelve, plus ninjutsu and a few others things. By the time I was sixteen, I’d run out of challenges. My regular punching bag at that time was a guy that could punch his way through a mountain, so we had very high levels of taijustu compared to ninjutsu.”
Ranma shrugged. “That’s why we came here, this place is like paradise for me. Thousands of new techniques and styles to learn, almost unlimited opponents plus good cause to fight for.”
As they seemed to be waiting for him to continue speaking instead of asking questions, Ranma ventured onwards after collecting his thoughts. “Captain Yamato doesn’t join the story until about three years from now. He’s a busy member of ANBU until then, so it’s probably best if he mostly focuses on his ANBU work. Speaking of which, the masked man that used the Kyuubi to attack the village has a partner called Zetsu, a plant creature that works as a spy similar to Yamato’s wood clones. You should work on counter strategies against that kind of creature. It travels underground and does a lot of their spy work.”
The third Hokage leaned forward intently. “...and this masked man?”
Ranma closed his eyes and shook his head. “His identity hadn’t really been revealed in the story at that point, although I have my suspicions. He won’t come out into the open until about three years from now, so it’s not an immediate worry. Also I have to worry about changing some future events where good things happen, so I’m not just gonna tell you everything right now.”
Thinking of a good example, Ranma figured it was worth the risk. “When I read the forbidden scroll, I found out the details of Edo Tensei, including the limit that the souls must be in the pure realm. In the disaster ahead, an opponent summons the first, second and fourth hokages to help crush you. The fourth’s summoning fails because Minato used the Shiki Fujin seal on the yin half of the kyuubi. In the story, you use the same shinigami seal on Hashirama and Tobirama, plus you seal the arms of your opponent to make him unable to use seals anymore. I think there is some importance later to having all four hokages sealed in a way that prevents Edo Tensei from being used to summon them again, but that’s just a suspicion right now.”
The old man stared at the boy, knowing that he did indeed know that seal and its usage against the forbidden technique of Edo Tensei. “So, you don’t know if you should stop the events of my death?” Seeing Ranma’s reluctant nod, Hiruzen smiled as he prepared to lift some of the burden off of the boy’s shoulders. “I would use that seal to prevent my elders from being abused in such a way yet again. If you can stop the impure resurrection, then it won’t need to come to that.”
Ranma nodded as a small smile returned since the Hokage seemed to understand him now. “For now, Yamato should mostly work with ANBU, and I can use him as my handler for arranging missions to take care of this stuff. Mihoshi and Nabiki can’t really keep up with me, plus we’re not needed for the events of the plot, so we could help the other genin teams. I have some training I want to help Hinata, Naruto and Rock Lee with, plus some other things. The first major plot event is when Kakashi’s team convinces him to take a more interesting mission, they end up with a mission to guard the bridge builder Izuna or something of the Land of Waves from bandits, but in reality their opponent will be Zabuza the Demon, of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. It’s an important event for Naruto’s and Sasuke’s growth, but I’d like to go along to see if I can make it have better results. Also there’s no need to worry about major events I can help with until after that mission.”
Sarutobi steepled his hands in thought as he tried to keep up with Ranma’s rapid explanation. “So you wish to work work in secret with ANBU for some missions, and help the genins with other missions? Including this incredibly dangerous mission where Kakashi’s team encounters Zabuza without preparation?”
Ranma grinned. “Who said without preparations? I’m already training Naruto so he’ll be able to keep up better. Him and Sasuke working together will be able to save Kakashi from Zabuza’s Water Prison technique so Kakashi can take down Zabuza in their first encounter. Sasuke also encounters enough tension to awaken his Sharingan.” Taking a breath he continued. “I also want it to be my first test of changing the future. There is a promising young shinobi encountered on that mission I would like to recruit, someone that would die otherwise.”
The old Hokage could definitely see the value in testing this if Ranma spoke the truth. Events unfolding as foretold would serve as some proof that he was telling the truth and was accurate with his knowledge of the future. “That sounds prudent. I’ll give tentative approval for this plan of yours to test your ability to change Konoha’s future and prevent tragedies.”
Ranma nodded in acceptance. “I’ll go over the details of training and formation for my squad with Captain Yamato, plus confide some details with him. I can’t trust really Auntie Anko while she has Orochimaru’s Curse Seal of Heaven on her neck.”
“The story was still being written when I left my world, so there is a lot I don’t know, but with a little information gathering I should be able to figure out some things like the identity of the masked man that set the Kyuubi loose. Before I go, there is the other reason I came to talk to you.”
Hiruzen raised both eyebrows, ready for almost anything now. “Other reason?”
Ranma nodded and grinned. “Assign the D rank missions to the academy students, either with instructors, promising students, or genin serving as their squad leaders. Hinata Hyuga for instance would probably do well with students while helping her self-confidence. This would give the academy students a better idea of being ninja and help the academy finances more. Genin could be free to do most of the C ranks, freeing up more chunins and jounins to do higher ranked missions.”
The boy glanced back at Yamato. “Was that about what I suggested at breakfast this morning when you agreed it was a good idea?”
The ANBU jounin nodded with a small smile. “Yes, and more well phrased this time Ranma-kun.”
Seeing the Hokage was considering it Ranma decided to elaborate. “The D rank missions are very simple, completing some of them could be part of the graduation testing. The older academy students shouldn’t have any problem with them. Team seven will be driven to madness by the boredom of D ranks, and Auntie Anko is ambushing us with exploding kunai to make our grocery fetch-quests more fun for her.”
The hokage resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands at hearing Anko was basically trying to kill her students to liven things up. “Very well then, I’ll discuss adding some D ranks to the curriculum with the instructors, plus raising the level of genin missions slightly.”
Ranma nodded. “If you need safe training missions, having squads play games against each other should work. Like a ninja version of capture the flag, or hunt and evasion missions.”
The Hokage nodded. “If that will be all for today, then I’ll leave Saotome in your care Captain Yamato.”
Yamato glanced at Ranma. “Will Mitarashi being an assistant be a problem?”
Ranma grinned. “I think I can get Auntie to come around. She might even be able to handle being our regular captain so you can go do ANBU work. If not, maybe our team could be assigned to help out at the academy for the time being so we don’t need a captain.”
The Hokage nodded. “Very well then. Dismissed.”
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(Posted Sat, 28 Sep 2013 09:25)
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