The wind ruffled Ranma's hair as he sat at the top of the cliff, meditating. Below him, carved into the very rock itself, were four faces.
He had been looking for a way home for more than five years, now, he realized. Ever since the "accident" with Happosai and the stupid Nanban mirror. Not that Ranma really believed that anymore - it had been a tad too convenient. In his search, he had wandered far and wide in this new place, which seemed hauntingly familiar in some ways to his home reality, yet disturbingly different in others. Take this whole "ninja" business - trained martial artists, every one of them, but using their skills for what? Assassination? Spying? At least the bunch in the "village" - more like a small town - below seemed to have decent morals when it came to what kind of missions they'd accept.
The techniques they used were different, too - at first glance, rigidly styled in the extreme, what with the long series' of hand seals and called out attack names. Yet when one probed deeper, those simple techniques turned out to be just building blocks that could be combined in nearly infinite ways. He'd made a serious attempt to learn the style, once he had figured that part out, but it was hard to learn something like that when the only teachers were too suspicious of you.
At least he, as an outsider, had it better than the poor kid that was attempting to sneak up on him right now, unless he missed his guess. Whatever the kid had done, nothing could possibly justify the shunning the rest of the village had inflicted.
"I know you're out there, kid. It's okay to come out," Ranma spoke after sighing over the stupidity of the matter.
There was a very slight rustle behind him.
"Who're you callin' a kid, punk?" aforementioned kid challenged. Ranma grinned wryly - the kid's voice spoke of a confidence that almost rivalled Ranma's own, despite everything.
"So what should I call you then?" Ranma asked, turning around to face the boy, who turned out to have short, yellowish blonde hair and what appeared to be whiskers on his cheeks.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm gonna be the next Hokage! I'm gonna make all those stupid people notice me!" the kid proclaimed proudly.
Ranma choked down a laugh at Naruto's tone of voice. He sure had the spunk for the job.
"Hey! Are you laughing at me? If you are, I'll beat the crap outta ya!" Naruto yelled. Ranma just shook his head.
"Naah. I was just imagining the look on their faces when they have to call you 'Hokage-sama'." The kid couldn't be much more than seven, maybe eight, and he was picking fights like this? Aaah, what the heck...
"I'll make you a deal - you show me you can do well enough in school to become the Hokage, and I'll teach you some really neat stuff no one else knows," Ranma offered. He didn't have much else to do, and it'd give him a chance to settle down. And the kid could use some help, after all.
"Whaaat! Whadda I have to go to school for? Only stupid people go there!" There was a brief pause. "What kind of stupid things could you teach me anyway, you're not even a ninja!" Naruto demanded suspiciously.
"Well, there's always this," Ranma began, taking out a set of five red balls and starting to juggle them around. Naruto just stared.
"That's kids stuff. Anyone can do *that*!"
"Ah, but look again." The balls never stopped moving, but suddenly they were all white, then blue, then red again. For a little while, the balls seemed to blink in different colors. The boy's jaw fell open.
"How did you do that?"
"I switched the balls out, really really fast," Ranma explained, putting all fifteen balls on the ground. "If you think you can hack it, I can make you just as fast - but you'll have to go to school if you want to learn." Naruto mulled this over for a while, then cheered up.
"Okay...sensei!"
Ranma chuckled.
"If only Pop could have heard that... If you're going to call me sensei, I'll have to call you Hokage-sama, and I don't think that'd be very popular. So you'll just have to call me Ranma. Saotome Ranma. And to seal our deal, how about some food?"
"RAMEN!" Naruto yelled, and took off running for the path down to town.
Well, he sure ain't lacking in enthusiasm, Ranma mused.
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(Posted Tue, 29 Jun 2004 03:10)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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