Done with the meeting, Ranma put his hand to his forehead and blew out a big breath. “Whew, that was a lot of talking. Well, I’m gonna go check on the girls. Later.”
With that, Ranma did a clone release handseal and vanished.
Yamato looked to the Hokage. “So what do you think of his information?”
Hiruzen got his pipe out to have a nice relaxing smoke. “An informant gave us information on a mercenary ninja group called Akatsuki. The information wasn’t very detailed, but one of their members is someone called Zetsu, who resembles a man trapped in a venus flytrap and can travel underground without using jutsu. That information matches with extra detail, so do try to come up with counter techniques for something like your wood clones.”
The Mokuton user pondered that as his wood clones and techniques were very useful for tracking and observation. From the sound of it, this Zetsu might resemble his wood clones more than a person, so its abilities might be slightly different. “...and giving Saotome leeway?”
The Hokage lit up his pipe, taking a nice relaxing draw. Seeing the sharingan-wielder that Minato fought brought to justice in his lifetime would be very rewarding. There was a lot of Konoha blood on that man’s hands, his wife’s included. “Use your own judgement as his captain and his potential ANBU handler. Prophecies aside, he should make a fine shinobi.”
Eyes widening, Yamato remembered one other thing. “Ah, yes. Mitarashi-kun said during their spar today that he awakened the initial form of the Sharingan. When she told him she discovered his kekkei genkai, he said being an orphan it could be anything, but he hoped it wasn’t the Sharingan. Something about it being a cheap trick with emotional baggage.”
Sarutobi rubbed his chin in thought. “I see. There shouldn’t be any Uchiha orphans, although perhaps we could claim he was misfiled in the confusion of the Kyuubi attack if need be, and thus Itachi missed him. I’ll have to see if there were any reported pregnancies around that time that would match.”
Thinking on it a bit more, he decided to hedge his bets. “See if he will submit to a bloodline test, to see if he has any strangeness in his blood like being an experiment by Orochimaru or some other faction.”
Disturbed by the clone release and recovered from his little nap, sleeping tiger Ranma noted he was indeed Mihoshi’s body pillow yet again.
It was a lot to absorb, so he laid there soaking it all in. The clone watching Anko play with him. Talking with Nabiki and Yamato in their bunker. Talking with Anko and drawing the line with her. Talking to the Hokage. Yep, he’d gone ahead and done it, hadn’t he?
Opening his senses while remaining in the sleeping pose, it seemed that Anko was busy actually teaching Nabiki. If that was true, it actually worried Ranma a bit. He didn’t need Nabiki picking up any bad habits like snake summoning. Hidden snake hands might actually be worse than hidden cold feet.
After a bit, Mihoshi stretched away from her little nap, comfortably resting her head on his chest. A moment later, Mihoshi got distracted by what Anko and Nabiki were doing, so she got up and wandered over to them since Anko wasn’t in scary snake-lady mode.
Sitting up himself, Ranma finally got a good look at what Anko was doing, standing upside down, hanging from a high branch by her chakra coated feet. Nabiki was trying to run up the trunk, standard tree walking practice for chakra control.
Anko grinned when she saw Ranma sit up. “Well the sleepy head woke up, ready to practice gaki?”
Ranma merely got into the lotus position. “I’ve already mastered water walking Auntie. I could do that when I was ten.”
Nabiki shrugged. “It’s true, he’s like a freaking spider, he’ll crawl across the ceiling sometimes.”
Hanging upside down, Anko turned her frown upside down. “Not bad gaki, it’s nice having a prodigy. So what will Auntie’s reward be, mhmm?”
The boy smiled, having a relaxed chuckle now that she was acting somewhat like a sane adult. “Well, we finished up at the Hokage’s office, so Captain Yamato should be here soon. We might have something else to do tomorrow, but next time we do missions, Nabiki and I will pick the mission.”
Anko raised an eyebrow while maintaining her grin. “...and what makes you think a genin will get to pick missions gaki?”
An expert in riling people up, Ranma wasn’t going to let her calling him a brat get to him. Her teasing seemed somewhat fond by now. “I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now, that I’m not the one holding us back from higher ranked missions. That way we can get the highest ranked jobs that Nabiki and Mihoshi can handle.”
Annoyed with having to try and run up a tree and try to mark it with a kunai, Nabiki turned her frustrations on Ranma. “Are you insane? Why should we take more dangerous missions?”
Ranma merely grinned in reply. “Most C ranks are less dangerous than Auntie Anko when she’s bored. Also they pay much better. I might even go on some with just Auntie Anko and Captain Yamato, since I might have an idea of something you and Mihoshi can do alone in the village while we’re out.”
Nabiki gave Ranma a flat look, not wanting to admit that it might actually be safer to take C rank missions than doing D ranks with a psycho woman like Anko. Living with Ranma here had also made her appreciate just how much her father had spoiled her and her sisters. More money would be a very good thing, it was part of the whole surviving until they could leave thing. “Fine Saotome, we’ll discuss this later tonight.”
Ranma merely sighed a little at her reply. Nabiki sometimes used his given name when they were alone, but she tended to fall back to using his family name in public and when annoyed with him. It seemed like they’d be having a heated discussion tonight, so he’d have to save up a little energy for surviving that this time.
Getting up, Ranma decided to soften the blow by helping Nabiki. Getting her attention, he went up to the base of the tree trunk. “Watch this.”
Sticking his hands to the tree trunk, Ranma climbed up the tree trunk with his legs sticking out, simply keeping his hands at chest level. “Your chakra control is better through your hands, plus you can stick better on all fours. Learn it this way first and it should be easier.”
Having known about this training from the manga, Nabiki was upset with herself for not figuring out the better way to train. Glancing over at Mihoshi, the blonde tumbled down off of the tree, failing comically but ending up safe as usual. She wasn’t allowed to have sharp things like kunai of course, so she wasn’t doing the tree marking either.
Sticking her palms on the trunk and sticking herself to the tree with chakra, Nabiki dug in with the balls of her feet, imagining chakra spikes on her feet. Just like that she started to go up the tree, this method being vastly easier for her. Nabiki leveled her frown at Ranma after getting a few feet up the tree. “Don’t think this will save you tonight.”
Anko grinned, finding their interactions amusing. “Well damn girl, getting your ass saved by the team prodigy. You should thank him with some sexy kunoichi techniques tonight instead of nagging him like an old woman.”
Nabiki glared at the woman, but refrained from replying she should stop trying to seduce twelve year old boys. The crazy woman would probably up the difficulty by throwing snakes at her if she said it.
Luckily Mihoshi attracted their attention before Anko got bored and upped the difficulty anyways as Nabiki slowly made her way up the trunk.
“Ooh! Ranma! How do I get up the tree?”
Looking at Mihoshi, Ranma slapped his hand over his face. She was standing on the tree trunk, sticking out sideways like a branch and apparently didn’t realize it. Knowing her, she’d probably fall if he pointed that out.
Anko raised both eyebrows, whistling in appreciation. “Wow, that’s a whole new level of dense there blondie.”
Raising his head, Ranma hazarded a guess for how to deal with her. “Try doing a cartwheel.”
Halfway up the tree trunk, making slow but steady progress, Nabiki glanced over to see Mihoshi cartwheel up the tree. Even when she did things right, she did them wrong. Eyes narrowing, Nabiki realized that also meant Mihoshi was doing better than her in her own cheerful oddball way. Ranma was one thing, but being outdone by Mihoshi was unacceptable.
While Nabiki resumed her slow and steady progress of crawling up the tree, Mihoshi cartwheeled onto a branch, standing upside down like Anko.
Then to Ranma’s exasperation, Mihoshi jumped into the air and cheered. Which, being as she was standing upside down on a tree branch, meant she’d just jumped towards the ground.
Tragedy was averted by Mihoshi going in one portal and popping out another one at Ranma’s feet, landing a cheerful glomp on the boy. “Yay! I did it, thank you! You’re my extra-specialest best friend!”
Having just arrived, Yamato crossed his arms and grinned. “Heh, if I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it. I guess you were right Ranma-kun, I’ll let you figure out Mihoshi’s training.”
Anko hopped down from her perch to face Yamato, smirking at the fact he was alone. “So what happened to your Ranma?”
Yamato glanced from Anko to where Ranma was dealing with a cheerful affectionate Mihoshi. “Yay! I get to be a ninja-maid now!”
Yamato shrugged. “Seems that one was a clone, dispersed after the meeting.”
Anko spun around and pointed at Ranma. “Ahha, so that one was the original all along!”
Nabiki looked down at Mihoshi’s cuddling up to Mihoshi in annoyance. The old Nabiki would have been in control of her emotions and never considered what flashed through her mind. After months of crash-course ninja training by Ranma, she wasn’t quite the old Nabiki anymore.
Most of the way up the tree, Nabiki jumped off the tree, launching her own flying glomp at Ranma. “Wo ai ni Airen!!”
Sighing, Ranma slipped free of Mihoshi enough to help catch Nabiki, collapsing to the ground with both girls glomping him. “Enjoying yourself Nabiki?”
Exhilarated from the thrill of doing something so wild and dangerous, Nabiki grinned at the boy. “Any complaints Ranma?”
Ranma shrugged. “Nope. Good job.”
Anko grinned at her students. “Atta girl, that’s how you do it!”
Nabiki glared at Anko. Somehow having her approval just spoiled the mood.
Anko merely grinned. “Well, now that I have the original and all the duckies in one spot, it’s time for Auntie to have her fun!”
As Yamato reluctantly prepared to speak up and regain control of the situation, Ranma grinned and made the clone release seal, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Nabiki glared at the older woman, having finally gotten into the mood to have some fun with Ranma. “Damnit Auntie, it was just getting good!”
Anko actually felt a little bad about that, not that she was going to say as much. “Well little girl, being slow is your fault, you live with the guy.”
Nabiki narrowed her eyes, feminine rage overwhelming her normal self preservation instincts. “Mihoshi, teleport her to the lake.”
Anko didn’t have time to react before she found herself ten feet over the water filled crater they’d created with yesterday’s chakra tests, although she did flip to land standing on the surface of the water. “Not bad little girl.”
Orientating herself, the jounin made her way towards where she’d left the girls. She’d have to congratulate Nabiki in her own special way for growing up as a woman.
Feeling the clone disperse, Ranma opened his eyes as he absorbed its experiences for the day, having a view of Hinata practicing from his perch in the tree.
He didn’t know why Anko hadn’t suspected his original self was no where near the training ground. She probably underestimated his range and control as he was at the nearby training ground Team Kurenai was using. His female clone was down there teaching Hinata a few Wudang style arts that would compliment her Gentle Fist and hopefully provide an amusing surprise for Neji.
That left three clones dealing with Anko, as he’d simply made a new clone to replace the one she’d defeated and sent him to join the battle from a discrete angle. He’d seen enough to get a good gauge of her abilities, plus test the stability of his own improved shadow clones. More importantly, by having them at a fifth of their normal power and engaging her one on one, he’d set her up to still underestimate him even after their spar.
Not that he was afraid of fighting Anko, it was just that he had important training to do that couldn’t happen with such a noisy woman disturbing him. By meditating and using his chi control, he’d started to get a feel for natural energy, but it seemed like it would be a ways off before he had the chakra reserves and control to enter sage mode. He didn’t even know if there was a non-frog sage mode, but he figured with his chi sense he had a decent chance of figuring it out.
Still, the chi circulation had been enough to offset the minor drain of maintaining the shadow clones, plus it was important progress.
The chirping of birds on Ranma’s shoulder brought his annoyed gaze around the happily chirping flying rats. Last thing he needed was birds pooping on him while he meditated.
His glare sending the birds flying off for new roosts, Ranma hopped down out of the tree, interrupting team eight with his mere presence since they were all sensors in their own ways. “That’s enough practice Hinata-chan, I need to release my clones now.”
Blushing a little, the shy girl backed up instinctively. “...Ranma-san? Oh, okay. Tha~thank you for the lesson.”
The female clone put her hand on her hip. “Man, already? She needs way more training.”
Releasing his clones, which now only included the female clone there and the other male clone still watching over Nabiki and Mihoshi, Ranma looked down at his body. His female clone’s memories supplied the missing bit of information as he’d forgotten he’d used henge to transform his main body into his original seventeen year old form. That explained a bit of Hinata’s reaction to seeing him.
It was all a part of his plan to improve his fighting style using shadow clones and henge. Because of his curse, he was familiar with fighting in different bodies now, so like Kiba with his beast mimicry he was more suitable than most to fighting while transformed. In his case, that meant a more adult form, plus taking advantage of his male and female forms having different natural chakra affinities. In the end he hoped to have some distinct specialized forms, plus use mastery of henge to negate the disadvantage of changing when splashed.
Ranma smiled and thumped his muscular chest. “Ah, did I surprise you Hinata-chan? This is what I’ll look like when I’m older. For us Taijutsu experts, the changing body proportions when we grow up or transform can throw us off. If you tried transforming into a more mature form, you might enjoy the extra reach and muscles. But only after lots of practice of course.”
Teenaged Ranma glanced over at Kiba. “Right? You have to practice in your beast mimicry forms for that reason.”
Shino surprised everyone by speaking up since the quiet boy rarely spoke up. “What did you do to the tree? My bugs like it.”
Ranma glanced back, noting that the tree he’d been sitting in was in bloom, which made it look out of place as the other trees merely had their summer leaves. “Huh, was that me?”
Kiba scoffed, the prodigy of their generation annoying him a great deal. “Yep, the mighty Ranma Saotome can make flowers bloom. Oh the terror, I’m sure the enemies of Konoha are quivering in their sandals now.”
Ranma glanced over at Kiba with a flat glare. “Can it mutt, sarcasm doesn’t suit you. You’ll hurt yourself with big words like that.”
Still, the flowering of the tree was odd. While it wasn’t a surprise if he was manipulating natural energy, that hadn’t been a feature of Naruto’s sage mode. Maybe it was a sign from Captain Yamato?
Blushing madly, Hinata stepped forward. “I... I think it’s very nice.”
Not quite pleased, Ranma grinned at Hinata anyways. Maybe he’d get the girl to pursue Naruto a bit, which might be an amusing change of pace. Playing matchmaker was fun afterall. “Ah, well I gotta go meet up with my team, take care.”
With that, Ranma vanished by using the ninjutsu version of the flash step, the body flicker movement spell known as Shunshin no Jutsu. The technique usually came with smoke or leaves as a distraction when used by Konoha shinobi, but Ranma’s produced flower petals this time.
Which caused Kiba to roll around on the ground belly laughing. “Ahahaha, he even vanishes in a burst of flower petals now!”
Pushing her fingers together, Hinata quietly muttered to herself. “It is pretty.”
Shino hummed in agreement. His bugs liked it as well.
Running along through the trees, Ranma could sense Anko doing the same from a different direction, giving off a slight sense of danger. Since his last observer clone had seen her be teleported away, he could guess she was rushing back for a bit of revenge.
Anko arrived in a blur before Nabiki, grinning maniacally since the run over had kept her riled up. “Well, well little girl, I thought you didn’t want to play with Auntie Anko! What a surprise. Auntie’s almost proud, but now she’ll have to teach you a lesson.”
Yamato sighed as he glanced over at his fellow jounin. It was hard to believe they were the same age when she kept acting so childish. “Mitarashi-kun, could you please restrain yourself? There are things I would like to discuss today instead of further training.”
Anko glared right back at him. “Like hell I will, the little twits think they can teleport me away just like that?”
Yamato simply stared flatly at her, meeting her challenging glare. “That same girl blew up two of my clones today, by accident I would assume. That she teleported you away safely is to be celebrated for the control and restraint demonstrated.”
Snakes slipped out of Anko’s sleeves to show her intentions as she prepared to use her hidden snake hands technique. “Yeah, well I...”
“Auntie, I thought we discussed this earlier.”
Hearing an oddly rich but familiar voice of a young man, Anko turned around to find a young man a few inches taller than her that bore a striking resemblance to an older Ranma. “You think a henge will help you gaki? Dodge!”
So saying she tossed two more kunai with explosive tags at Ranma’s feet, knowing the boy could handle such a thing. Those expectations were succeeded as the kunai flickered when they neared him, sticking in the ground some distance away before exploding. Anko’s eyes narrowed, wondering if they’d been deflected with body flicker speed kicks.
The older Ranma simply stood there as he was framed by the explosions, his simple kimono and pants fluttering in the breeze. He glanced at Yamato instead of addressing his assailant. “Well, do you think she’s suitable to be on a team? I don’t think I’d take her on an A rank mission.”
Yamato put on one of his starker expressions. “Mhmm true, although she is supposed to be a jounin.”
Anko looked at Yamato in surprise. “An A rank mission? The gaki is kidding, right?”
Ranma grinned, amused by the set-up. “I’ve got a lead on Zabuza the Demon, and I’ll be hunting him sometime soon. Got permission from the Hokage to prepare for the mission as I see fit today.”
As Anko turned her intense glare on him, Yamato had to admit Ranma had chosen an interesting way to tell the truth there. “Indeed.”
After putting up with Anko for the past few days, Ranma was more than happy to twist the knife. “Your messing around on missions will hold us back to D rank hell. Also you’re interfering in my training of myself, my teammates and other worthy genin. Finally, your teamwork is non-existent.”
Shocked by the sudden evaluation, Anko glared at him and jabbed her thumb to her chest proudly. “I’m the jounin vice-captain here gaki, you’re the fresh-outta-the-academy genin fodder! I’m the one evaluating you!”
Ranma met her posturing with an even expression. “That doesn’t give you an excuse to do whatever the hell you like.”
Looking at stoic Yamato, Anko knew the kid probably had some weight behind his threat. That didn’t mean she was going to let it drop. “What the hell do you know ya brat!”
Ranma crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “I’m known for my strength and skill in combat, but I was raised to take over a dojo. My specialty is in learning and training, my skill and strength is just a reflection of me applying that to myself. Jounin like you and Kakashi are strong and good on missions, but you’re not exactly good at teaching.”
Yamato decided it was high-time to end this madness. “He’s right, I saw him create the new Tree Climbing training method for Tendo and figure something out for Kuramitsu on the fly. We’d never think of that method of crawling up the tree because it’s useless in the field, but as an initial chakra training method it’s ideal.”
In many ways Anko was a lot like Ranma, a boisterous tomboy. Admitting she might be in the wrong chafed her just as much as when Ranma’s ego popped out. “Well, he’s still just a genin.”
Ranma sighed as he continued his lecture, but she’d walked into that one. “Kakashi Hatake was a jounin at my age, but during peace times like this, academy graduation is set for age twelve. I can create at least ten shadow clones and I’ve already revised the technique to improve it. I’ve developed three chakra natures already and can perform wind, fire and water techniques. I’ve already mastered the pinnacle of chakra shaping, an A rank technique and I will advance it to S rank when I’m ready.”
Uncrossing his arms, Ranma pointing at a small white dot the size of a grain of rice on his forehead. “This is my attempt to reverse engineer the pinnacle of chakra control, another S rank technique. Anyways, that’s about half the stuff I worked on this month, but I’ve still got a few more surprises in store.”
Nabiki couldn’t help but stare. “You’re developing the Strength of a Hundred seal? Do you really need that much fucking strength? Do you plan on fighting a kaiju?”
Ranma recrossed his arms and shrugged. “Well, it’s yang chakra instead of yin chakra, plus it’s more like the strength of eight right now. I’ve still got a ways to go, but it’s more for the support abilities, the super strength comes from the chakra control... and yeah, I plan on being able to take a tailed beast by the time I’m fourteen.”
With that bombard of information, some of which she’d confirmed today, Anko could see how her genin remark might be a little off. Still, this was a bit much. “You’re kidding, right?”
The young man remained impassive, partially a result of his meditation and chakra control since it took so much focus. “No, I have stuff to do and I need to be strong enough to do it. Oh, and my taijutsu is way stronger than my ninjutsu. I’m actually a taijutsu specialist.”
Anko shuddered a little, having been reminded of that earlier in the day when the kid busted open her earth prison with raw strength like a certain unmentionable mysterious beast of the village. If that meant what she thought it meant, she shuddered at the mere thought of it, especially paired up with all the kid’s other abilities.
The hairs on the back of Anko’s neck stood up as she heard a certain overenthusiastic man. “Ah, hello there Team Nine. I hope I’m not interrupting your training this fine day, but I was hoping to speak with Ranma-sensei.”
The snake-expert jounin couldn’t help but ask. “Ranma-sensei?”
His team following behind him, Guy flashed his best grin at the uneasy woman, creeping her out further. “Yes, my dear student was most impressed by him, so I came to judge what sort of taijutsu expert he is.”
Anko glanced at Ranma, convinced that this had to be a setup. It was just too much to be a mere coincidence.
Nabiki’s reaction was a little different as she saw the grin on Ranma’s face. He hadn’t been that excited since Ryoga had blasted him in the face with the Shi Shi Houkudan and gave him a new technique to puzzle out. “Mihoshi, get us out of here!”
Mihoshi blinked innocently, smiling at the happy scene before her, Ranma and Guy both smiling for entirely different reasons. “Why? There’s nothing scary here. Ranma looks so happy right now.”
Nabiki knew better, even though she’d missed out on seeing some of Ranma’s bigger fights, he could have only gotten more insanely superhuman since coming here and starting his quest to master all ninjutsu as well. Grabbing Mihoshi’s kimono top, she lifted the blonde off the ground in desperation to shake some sense into her. “Teleport us home now! Before those super-beasts start a fight!”
Ranma grinned and turned around, facing Might Guy while teasing Nabiki. “You make it sound like I can’t control myself.”
His battle aura snapping into existence said otherwise as the pillar of ghostly blue light caused a sudden outwards burst of wind followed by a lazy swirl of air about him. To the jounin it seemed like he’d just slammed open the first five inner gates, except the young man was calm instead of a red-skinned oni of destruction. Guy was somewhat surprised to see him open the gates, mostly because there was no physical reaction or strain in his body. “You can open the inner gates?”
Ranma raised an eyebrow and withdrew his battle aura, having learned something interesting. “Oh sorry, I got a little excited. And no, I don’t open the inner gates in the crude explosive way your style uses.”
Anko backed away, no longer wanting to play this game. He hadn’t said no. Quite the opposite really, he’d just insinuated he could do it better. Tendo’s terror seemed genuine and she didn’t want to know what Ranma going super-beast meant, mostly because like a lot of Konoha shinobi, she didn’t like dealing with Might Guy’s exuberance.
Lee brought things to a stop with an innocent observation. “I do not see Ranma-sensei here.”
Neji rolled his eyes, although the gesture didn’t come across quite right with his pale eyes. “That is him, he can use Henge, unlike you.”
Lee brightened up and bowed. “Oh, please excuse me Ranma-sensei. If I might ask, why are you in that form?”
The young man stepped forward, holding his fist out towards Lee. Understanding the gesture, the two martial artists bumped fists together, Lee lighting up form the contact. “Oh, yes. I see now. And so. Oh? No, I do not think Neji can do that.”
Neji’s short fuse around Ranma became apparent as he glared at Lee. “I can’t do what? Are you two honestly talking through your fists?”
Lee blinked innocently at the enraged boy, his thick eyebrows quirking upwards. “Yes, for that is that thing which I said you could not do. I am not as competent as sensei, but I can get the gist of the matter. This form improves his reach and power.”
Guy crossed one arm across his chest and brought the other up beneath his chin in a thoughtful pose. “Henge? Is that a good idea? Maintaining the henge is one thing, but adapting to the form is another.”
Ranma shrugged then grinned at the older martial artist. “I can handle it. So, you wanna spar a bit?”
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(Posted Tue, 01 Oct 2013 05:58)
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