After leaving the restaurant, Team Nine prepared to split up for the night so the kids could do the karaoke thing without dragging someone like Yamato along.
Before that could happen, Naruto happened to notice them, Team Seven following along behind him. “Hey guys. Where’s the boss at?”
Yamato raised an eyebrow, knowing the Jinchuuriki was a neighbor to his team. “Boss?”
Ranma slipped his left arm out the sleeve, wearing his shirt more like a sling as he adopted a disdainful leer. “Boss? Do I look like some sort of Yakuza to ya gaki?”
Naruto shifted to the side to stand before Nabiki, pointing a finger at the older Ranma. “Hey, who’s that guy you’re with?”
Nabiki slapped a hand to her face. Why the hell did she have to be trapped in a shounen manga with an idiot protagonist? “It’s a henge. It can be used for things other than turning into a naked pinup girl.”
“A henge huh?” Naruto rubbed his chin in thought as he considered it. “So who is it? It’s rare to see you two with a guy other than the boss.”
Sasuke rolled his eyes. “That’s Saotome dumbass. He just used henge to look older.”
Naruto stuck his tongue out at him. “Of course I knew it was sensei, I was just teasing Nabiki.”
Kakashi pointed a finger at himself. “Your sensei is over here.”
Naruto jerked his thumb at Ranma. “Nuh-uh, this guy actually teaches me stuff.”
Ranma poked Naruto in the head, casually giving him a slight reprimand. “Techniques are fine, but you three do need a lot of teamwork too. The other rookie teams for this year all naturally get along well, so your team needs that sort of work.”
Ranma brought his gaze up to Kakashi as he changed his tone. “However, Kakashi-san seems to be too lazy on the technique side. Sakura needs work on her stamina and actual combat techniques.”
Yamato put a hand on Ranma’s shoulder to calm him down. “Hey, that’s enough. There’s no need to talk to Kakashi-sempai that way.”
Ranma simply smirked. “Hmph, I bet he doesn’t even know their affinities yet.”
Angry from what she took as an insult to her abilities, Sakura was the one that spoke up, angrily shouting at Ranma as she pointed at Naruto. “What the hell do you know! You’re just some fool playing around with teaching a worthless idiot like Naruto!”
Ranma merely raised an eyebrow slightly to compliment his knowing grin. “Sakura Haruno, no special bloodline, only capable of E-rank academy techniques and you barely have the stamina for those. Still, you’re intelligent and book smart, so you can resist genjustu and dispel them pretty easily. You’re a yang type though, so you’re best suited for learning the Mystical Palm technique Shousen, the sooner the better.”
He then flicked his gaze over to Naruto. “Your so called useless idiot can create at least ten Shadow Clones, which is one of the highest level Bunshin techniques and indicates his massive chakra reserves as an Uzumaki. His control is rough, so I’ve focused on that so he doesn’t waste too much energy and tire himself out. He’s foolish, but he’s also unpredictable and won’t give in easily, so he’s a great tag-team partner for Sasuke, giving you an ideal team mix if you can get your team work together.”
Sasuke narrowed his eyes, wondering just how much Saotome knew. Sure, Ranma had been annoying perfect as a ninja in the academy, but all that seemed to be wasted on helping losers like Naruto and his own sad excuses for team mates. “Pfft, as if Naruto could ever be my partner, he’s just a drag.”
Ranma seemingly ignored him, focusing on Naruto. “It will take some time to learn wind release, but here’s a basic technique.” So saying, Ranma made a few hand-signs, took a deep breath, and blew Sasuke back a few feet with a sudden gust of wind, along with ruffling a few skirts further along the street. “It’s just a simple gust, but if you pair it with Sasuke’s flame techniques, the wind will enhance the flames and boost the size and power of the fire tech.”
Ranma’s searching gaze fell upon Sasuke. “Supposedly the best of the team, but has fallen into the trap of being a genius and started coasting on his success. He’s got some fire techniques every Uchiha knows and some decent Taijustu, but he doesn’t have the stamina to keep it up. Well that and he has some other issues holding him back.”
Sasuke glared at Ranma, especially annoyed this time by what he was saying and his attitude. “What do you think you know about the Uchiha?”
Ranma showed a bit of surprise as he realized Sasuke didn’t remember meeting his local self as kids. Well, not too surprising as they had only rarely seen each other, mostly when Itachi was visiting Shisui. “Shisui Uchiha was my adoptive big brother, so it seems I know more than you.”
Sasuke snorted. “So you were adopted for a bit and you think you know us.” Grinning, Sasuke twisted the knife. “Wasn’t Shisui the first one my brother killed?”
Ranma smirked right back at him. “Was he? Shisui-niisan and Itachi-san were both genjutsu experts, so the truth can be a tricky thing... but, they were best friends as well.”
Kakashi finally spoke up, glancing from Ranma to Yamato. “My my, isn’t this interesting. What have you been teaching this kid?”
Yamato raised an eyebrow as well before glancing at Anko. “Nothing yet, Mitarashi-kun is just now beginning to give up on trying to kill them.”
With the attention focused on her, Anko shrugged carelessly. “What? I was just testing their survival skills. Besides, he’s eaten so many of my snakes they’re terrified of him now.”
Kakashi’s eye widened a bit. “Ate your snakes? Isn’t this the one that put their first instructor in the hospital on the bell test?”
Yamato nodded. “Indeed, he’s a chakra sensor that defeated Mitarashi-kun’s surprise attack, he can spot ANBU, and they had multiple layers of defense on their apartment to prevent her surprise attack wake-up call this morning.”
Anko grinned. “He didn’t keep us out of course, but it was a good effort.” Her grin only widened as she remembered something. “Also, congrats Cyclops, your little ramen maniac got to first base with me this morning.”
Seeing his team look at him, Naruto crossed his arms and then waved them in the negative. “No way, she was in my chair at the breakfast table and I accidentally sat in her lap, that’s all it was!”
Eyes narrowing, Anko realized something. “Wait. How did you get in past those traps this morning? You weren’t even awake.”
Naruto stared cluelessly back at her. “What traps? I always come over for breakfast.”
Kakashi glanced from Naruto to Anko. “Didn’t you disable the traps?”
Yamato frowned slightly at the memory of how troublesome his new partner was proving. “No, Mitarashi-kun bypassed them by cutting a new doorway into their apartment the first day, and this morning she busted in through the ceiling.”
Kakashi glanced over their team, wondering which ones had laid the traps. “So an infiltration specialist like Anko decided to bypass them, yet they were idiot-proof as well?”
Not liking the idiot remark, Naruto changed the subject by getting in Ranma’s face. “Hey, you gonna train me tonight?”
Ranma waved him off. “Nope, karaoke night, then we’re gonna go home and study. I’ve got some new moves I need to research.”
Putting his hands behind his head, Naruto kicked at the ground in annoyance. “Man, when are you going to teach me something new?”
Ranma wagged his finger. “Soon enough.” The young man glanced over at Kakashi. “Would you mind if our teams trained together? Our captains can help train your team until you decide to show up fashionably late, that way they’re not wasting all that time waiting for you.”
Kakashi glanced over Team Nine, considering the snippets of information he’d been given so far. “You guys meet up in the morning at their place?” Getting a curt nod in return, Kakashi gave them a lazy one-eyed grin. “Ah, well if you wouldn’t mind handling them until noon, they can just meet you there in the morning.”
Yamato gave him a quiet smile in return. “Not a problem sempai. Our Ranma-kun has professed an interest in being an instructor. I’m interested in seeing what happens.”
Kakashi relaxed a bit as he lost interest. “Ah, so that’s the reason for the evaluations. Why my team?”
Yamato nodded slightly in acknowledgement of the question and its implication. “He’s evaluated the other genin teams as well.”
Sasuke glared at Ranma, recalling enough about him now to remember he’d been unofficially adopted due to his abilities as a ninjutsu prodigy. Not only had he been annoyingly perfect at the ninja academy, he was also that brat that hung around with his older brother and his friend. The one his father had disliked so much, yet insisted on comparing him to when he didn’t make fast enough progress in his training. “Who would want to learn from you?”
Ranma saw the look in his eyes, recognizing it as one of the downsides of being so awesome, returning a grin of his own. “Who said I’d teach you? Just a waste of time with that attitude.”
Kakashi merely chuckled at the exchange. “Oh, they’re getting along already. Well, I’ve got my report to turn in. You guys meet up with them in the morning.”
With Kakashi leaving, Yamato took over, happy to play team leader. “Can you two meet us at Saotome’s at seven in the morning? We actually meet there earlier, but it would be unreasonable to ask Ranma-kun to cook breakfast for two teams.”
Ranma shrugged. “It’s just two more people, as long as you help with the groceries it’s fine.”
These times were far earlier than the times Kakashi used, causing Sakura a bit of panic. “Would seven-thirty be okay? My parents like me to eat breakfast with them.”
Ranma shrugged again. “Eight is fine for meeting, I can get back on schedule of doing morning training again.” Ranma glanced over at Sasuke. “That okay with you Rooster-tail?”
The Uchiha heir merely glared back at him. “Whatever.”
Feeling the urge to strangle the spoiled brat, Nabiki had to wonder what any of the girls saw in him.
Anko glanced between the six genins, finding their interplay of personalities interesting. Mihoshi and Nabiki trusted Ranma with apparent good reason, but this new mixed group would give her plenty of chances to have fun.
Yamato merely nodded, interested to see how Ranma would handle things. “Very well then, we’ll meet at Saotome’s apartment at eight in the morning. It’s right beside Uzumaki’s, so you should already know where it is.” With that said, he turned to Mihoshi with a smile. “With that, I’ll leave you kids to enjoy yourselves.”
The adults leaving, Mihoshi’s enthusiasm finally boiled over as she launched herself at Sakura. “You wanna come sing karaoke with us?”
As Sakura tried to find a polite way to say no to the bubbly blonde, Naruto took a sudden interest in the fun. “Karaoke eh?”
Nabiki smirked, enjoying a chance to tease Naruto when she got the chance. “This is a girls’ night thing ramen-boy, and your Sexy jutsu won’t cut it.”
Seeing Naruto’s clueless look, Ranma made the signs for Henge, switching over to his own female form. The bonus of doing it this way instead of using water was that he could make his clothes and gear fit as well. “If you could make a female form with clothes, that would work.”
Hearing her own voice, Ranma realized something wasn’t quite right with her own female transformation. Her voice was richer, more womanly, not quite the sweet voice he liked to use for singing. The sensation of swaying breasts brought her gaze down to what was far too much cleavage.
Feeling vindicated, Naruto pointed at the busty red-head with an abundance of adult charms. “Hah! So you have been working on the Sexy jutsu. You thought you could keep it a secret from me?”
While not as obsessed as Neji, Sasuke wouldn’t pass up a chance to snub Ranma. “Pervert.”
Nabiki restrained her own impulse to tease Ranma, noting that his new female form bore a striking resemblance to a red-haired Tsunade. “You copied that technique too well Saotome.”
Touching her forehead where the tiny incomplete Byakugou no Yon seal was, Ranma figured out what had happened. “Ah, I didn’t set a female form for this body, so it’s using the stats for the male form for height and size. The rest is coincidence I think.”
Eager to learn whatever the technique was, Naruto failed to follow the partial explanation. “What? Explain that so I can understand it.”
Sighing, Ranma lifted up her Konoha headband to show the small pearl white dot on her forehead, actually two overlapping diamonds of four tiny white dots. “This is one of the new techniques I’m developing. It’s a chakra storage method that I’m experimenting with to reinforce my clones and henge so they don’t fail when hit or take any effort to maintain.”
Naruto smacked his fist into his palm. “Oh! Really? That’s awesome.”
Ranma nodded. “With this, I was able to create clones tough enough today that Anko-neechan couldn’t tell they were clones because they could take plenty of hits without popping. I experimented by changing my real body to a more adult form, but since I didn’t set a female form, it’s just sticking the adult part on my girl form.”
Anko came up behind Ranma, hefting her melons out of her kimono top as she licked up Ranma’s neck with her long tongue to the blushing girl’s ear. “Oh? Anko-neechan is impressed, just look at these melons. Are you sure you’re not trying to be the big sister here?”
The expected reactions didn’t come as the group quieted and looked to Sasuke, the lonesome boy’s eyes locked on Ranma’s exposed boobs as a trickle of blood escaped his nose.
Ranma shrugged free of Anko and closed up her kimono top. “Not cool.”
Naruto merely pointed at Sasuke as the other boy recovered himself and tried to hide his nosebleed. “Ha, Sasuke is a closet pervert!”
With Sakura still trapped in Mihoshi’s hold, Nabiki grinned as she finally got to take a poke at Sasuke. “Heh, looks like it’s not long hair that he’s interested in. Just another big boob maniac.”
Having thought Sasuke was one of those cold pickle types that was immune to the Sexy jutsu, Naruto now knew there was a chink in his cool facade. A secret that his sensei most likely knew. “How did you do that?”
Ranma stared at Naruto with half-lidded eyes, having no desire to teach Naruto how to be a sexy girl. Akane’s accusations aside, Ranma did have some standards and would much prefer Naruto take being a ninja just a little more seriously. “Fine. Turn into a cute girl version of yourself. Cute, not sexy, including an outfit.”
While most everyone else could tell Ranma was annoyed, Naruto took it seriously. “Cute eh?”
Making the appropriate hand-seals, Naruto transformed in a small puff of smoke. Ranma eyed the blonde girl with a critical eye, looking for flaws along with judging Naruto’s sense of style for making a cute girl. Petite and slender, her body pulled off cute except her breasts were a little too large, obviously drawing from Mihoshi and his own female form. The outfit wasn’t bad, a smaller version of his orange jacket over a pair of orange shorts with black black stockings on her legs. The look was okay, and his stability in the form seemed okay. “Better than I expected. I’ll give ya some pointers later tonight so you can put it to use on missions instead of just being a prank.”
Still upset by Sasuke’s nosebleed, Sakura had to settle for verbally ripping the transformed boys apart since Mihoshi had her in a glomp. “How would that be useful on a mission?”
Ranma rolled her eyes. “Henge is like Kawarimi, even though it’s an academy level tech, you can practice it and make it better. Unlike the various clone techniques, Henge and Kawarimi are upgraded through practice instead of learning a higher level version of the technique.”
The busty red-head pointed at Sasuke. “You’re on a mission and need to sneak into town to get into position. Turn into a girl our age to blend in.”
Getting out a bandage to stop the bleeding and clean up his bloody nose, Sasuke glared at the transformed Ranma. “Bluk ewe.”
Ranma merely shrugged. “Ah, well, if you can’t do it... guess your team will just have to depend on Naruto for the subtle infiltration work.”
With that said, Ranma left the group to lead them towards the karaoke bar instead. Reaching the relative privacy of the karaoke lobby, she turned around to check her group. Anko, Nabiki and Naruto had followed her in while Mihoshi had managed to drag Sakura along as well. There was also an annoyed looking Ino still dealing with a bloody nose bringing up the rear.
Instead of heading for the counter to rent a room, Ranma turned around and thumped the annoyed Ino on the chest, turning her back into Sasuke with a puff of smoke. “First problem, in the academy you just had to transform for a moment while standing still. Maintaining the technique needs focus and chakra, moving around and doing stuff raises the difficulty level, and not losing it because of a little shock takes some practice too.”
With Sasuke pinned to the wall, Ranma continued her lecture. “Naruto not only gets practice, he’s done something the rest of you haven’t. He came up with his own form instead of just copying others. There are times when copying someone is useful, but having your own alternate form ready is good too.”
The groundwork laid, Ranma moved in for the kill. “Joining karaoke night means coming up with a female form, maintaining it and doing something as surprisingly tricky as singing in a different voice. I guess all that is beyond you, but I’ll give Naruto some pointers so he can handle this complicated stuff for you on missions.”
Turning around, Ranma joined Nabiki at the counter since buying things was generally his responsibility. “Get a room yet?”
Nabiki looked back at the assembled group with a sour expression. “We’re not treating them.”
Ranma shrugged. “I’m not the one that snacks at these things.”
Turning around to take in the group, Mihoshi still had Sakura in her enthusiastic embrace, while female Naruto was grinning at the new female Sasuke. Considering that Sasuke’s idea of an original form was to copy Naruto with a black haired dark gothic style, it was little surprise Naruto was amused.
Nabiki sighed and waved the group on. “Come on, we got a room for an hour.”
Ranma simply grinned. “We’re not paying for your snacks, and if you want to sing more, you guys’ll have to cover the extension.”
Reaching the karaoke room, Ranma paused at the door, performing the clone jutsu instead, creating a normal female clone. “Well, have fun, I’m gonna go take care of some stuff.”
Naruto was upset as she realized what was going on, pouting at the situation. “Aww, you’re gonna go train aren’t you? Man, now I don’t know which one of these I want to do.”
Ranma and Nabiki both stared at Naruto, although it was Nabiki that spoke up first. “Did you forget you can make clones?”
Naruto continued pouting. “Yeah, but only one of us gets to enjoy it.”
Ranma flicked her gaze over to the rest of Team Seven in turn, before settling on Anko. “They don’t know how Kage Bunshin works? When do they teach that anyways Anko-neechan?”
The older woman was relaxing with her arms wrapped possessively around the shoulders of the transformed boys, Sasuke and Naruto. “Mhmm, high chunin extra studies I’d say. Most jounin know about it, but there aren’t many that can actually do it. Not something a genin is expected to know.”
“Ah.” The older Ranma grabbed her more petite clone from behind, affectionately hugging her. “Well, Kage Bunshins are basically real. Multiple clones are dangerous because they divide up your chakra evenly, which is why the multi-clone technique is forbidden, most that can do it don’t make more than three clones.”
Ranma then grinned at Naruto. “So, have you been doing those exercises I gave you?”
Naruto nodded, looking cutely serious in her current form. “Uh-huh. Made clones, did the tree climbing thing. Got as far as treetop shadow sparring.”
The red-head’s grin deepened. “...and you still haven’t figured it out?”
Naruto resumed pouting, knowing there was something her sensei was expecting of her. “Figure what out?”
The petite Ranma grinned at him. “It’s a technique for spying, not combat, it uses too much chakra for that. As soon as I vanish, all my chakra goes back to the real me, plus all my memories.”
The original more adult Ranma continued with her own grin. “So since you have about four times as much chakra as Kakashi, if you divide into twelve, then each has about a third of Kakashi’s chakra. Still a good supply, but not your usual excess you can just waste. Also you effectively get twelve times the experience training, although the stress will build up faster too.”
Naruto’s eyes widened before she suddenly turned confused. ”Wait, what? Do I have more or less chakra than Kakashi?”
Ranma sighed, sending her clone into the room with a push on her rump. “Just make a clone and leave her here, then come with me and I’ll explain it so you can understand it.”
Since that simplified things, Naruto made a clone of her current self, although she was left a bit confused since the clone was standing up and she was still being held in her seat by Anko. “Hey, I need to switch out. Time out or something lady.”
Ranma patted the Naruto clone on the shoulder. “Kawarimi.”
Getting the idea, the clone nodded and performed the body replacement technique, swapping places with the original Naruto.
That done, Ranma gave the thumbs up to her own clone. “You have fun and make sure to walk the girls home.” That done, Ranma faced Naruto’s clone. “Same for you, just do the release when you’re done for the night, okay?”
The Naruto clone saluted her. “Understormed Sensei!” The clone only held the serious pose for a second before she collapsed into giggles at her own joke.
Playfully annoyed, Anko wasn’t going to just let the two shadow clone users escape the night’s fun. “And where are you running off to now?”
Ranma smirked right back at her. “Well, some crazy woman busted in my ceiling this morning, so I gotta go check on repairs and other stuff. Maybe help the police capture this psychopath for the good of the community.”
Anko grinned and waved. “Ah, how terrible. Good luck kiddo.”
With that, the original Ranma and Naruto left, both still in female form, leaving everyone else including their clones to enjoy karaoke night. Well, perhaps not enjoying it, Sasuke was looking like she was regretting getting goaded into karaoke, although Ranma suspected she would secretly enjoy it.
Well, now that Ranma was mostly free, she could concentrate on other things now like training. With that thought in mind, she ran up a building wall instead of walking along the road. Naruto followed her a moment afterwards, having to scramble up the side of the building since so far she’d only practiced on trees. Ranma grinned at the blonde, girl Naruto’s two ponytails swaying in the early evening breeze. “Well, you up for a little ‘The Ground is Lava’ on the way back while we talk?”
Naruto bounced along, acting a bit perkier as a girl. “Sure. You’re gonna teach me now, right?”
Ranma moved along, casually walking along the edge of a flat roof. “You can’t tell what your clone is doing now, right?”
Naruto followed along, picking her way more carefully along the rooftop as she wasn’t used to traveling this way. “Right, don’t know.”
Ranma paused at the edge of a roof before jumping across the street. “You can send a little chakra to your legs to give your jumps a little more oomph if you need it.” Hopping across the street to land on the opposite roof, Ranma waited for Naruto to make it over, catching her hand and pulling her up when she didn’t quite make it. “When your clone ends, you’ll get that chakra back, plus all of her memories, so you’ll know what happened then.”
Naruto stared as they continued along, gradually getting confident with quietly going along the rooftops without causing a ruckus. “Really?”
Ranma nodded, happy to get Naruto up to speed on roof hopping as well. “You probably haven’t noticed because you have your clones work together, but it was made for spying. Say you needed to track three different targets, you could send a clone after each target, then when they’re done spying, they cancel and you get their info.”
Starting to enjoy making her way over the rooftops, Naruto glanced at the taller girl. “Cool. How did you know all of this?”
Ranma chuckled at her question. “You just learned the technique didn’t you? The scroll had this sort of info plus why it’s forbidden. Well, I’m impressed enough you learned the technique on your own in one day.”
Naruto realized something as they ran along the rooftops. “Wait, didn’t you read the whole scroll? What sort of awesome ninjutsu did you learn?”
Ranma merely grinned, jumping into a tree and using it as an island between rooftops, bursting out to lightly step along the wall before landing back on the rooftops. “This and that. Since you’ve done so well, I guess we can start your training to learn new some ninjutsu.”
Naruto bounced up to her, eager to learn something new and cool. “So what is it?”
Ranma held up a leaf, which after stiffening for a second split and then disintegrated.
Naruto was not impressed. “That’s it?”
Ranma held out a few freshly plucked green leaves. “To do elemental techniques, you have to learn to mold elemental chakra, called an elemental release. This is the basic training for wind release.”
As Naruto took the leaves, Ranma continued her education. “Some clans like the Uchiha are gifted in an element, Uchiha learn fire techniques as kids. Kakashi and most other jounins can do two or three elemental releases, Kakashi can do lighting, earth and water. Wind and lighting are probably the most rare of the main five.”
Naruto looked at the leaves. “So how do I do that?”
Ranma merely grinned and moved on. “Let’s get home first, then I’ll show you. You can do this training whenever you’ve got the spare time.”
Naruto laughed confidently in reply. “Hah, I’ll have this down in no time, then you’ll have to show me those cool techniques.”
Ranma grinned at her. “Oh, and you’ll have morning and evening taijutsu lessons too.”
The blond girl barely made her next jump, the dread of the announcement almost sending her crashing to the street below. Taijutsu lessons with Ranma were like being mauled by a tiger, making Naruto wonder just where Ranma got his enthusiasm for martial arts. Well, an affection tiger perhaps, Ranma could be a little too enthusiastic at times when it came to his art.
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(Posted Thu, 10 Oct 2013 23:49)
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