Ranma Vs Ninja

by Lord Bishamon

Ranma's duty as a Martial Artist Really screws him over sometimes.

Chapter 1

Clouds drifted across a full moon obscuring it's eerie light from reaching the empty streets of the Nerima ward of Tokyo. Empty, but for one lone figure that walked along the street at a slow pace. This man was Ranma Saotome. He carried himself with a casual grace. Years of intense training in martial arts shining through in every step he took. Ranma himself, however, was a troubled individual.

"Six weeks." Ranma thought to himself as he made his way past an empty lot two blocks away from the Tendo dojo. He stopped to stare up at the moon as his hand reached to scratch the back of his head in frustration. It had been six weeks since the he had defeated Saffron. Six weeks since he had first taken a life, though in truth he hadn't really been all that torn up about taking it from somebody trying to hurt a person he cared about, still…

"She ain't woken up yet." Ranma said out loud. "It don't make sense. The docs say there's nothin wrong with her so why won't she wake up?" It was indeed a troubling situation. When they had returned from China Akane had been put in a hospital and treated for severe dehydration. It had been hoped that as soon as she was better physically she would come too. But days had turned into weeks and now the doctors were scrambling to find a problem, any problem, that could explain why she was still comatose. Cologne had even been there to see if she could find something wrong with her. But all the elderly amazon had come away with was that there was a deep wound in her spirit. What that meant she couldn't say.

Because of this Ranma had been given space, possibly enforced by his mother, to think about the past few weeks and. Try as he might, he couldn't think of how he could have done it differently. Saffron had been a tough opponent. Their very lives had been on the line, and considering how things could have turned out, Ranma thought the victory they'd achieved was much better than the alternatives... Akane was still alive after all, but that didn't make him feel any better. The duty of a martial artist was to defend the weak. If he couldn't even do that then how was he supposed to be the best? It was these thoughts that had driven Ranma to wondering the streets at night. Seeking an answer in the outdoors that the Tendo family and his father couldn't give him.

In another life Akane would have returned whole and healthy from China and she and Ranma would, eventually, go on to live a chaotic, but happy, life together. They would have had children and Ranma would have taken over the Tendo dojo as his old man wanted. But this wasn't that life, and because Ranma was outside on this night he bore witness to somebody go flying from a nearby rooftop; how they had hidden from his senses he didn't know, and slam into the side of the canal wall with their back, leaving a spider web of cracks as they fell into the water below.

"What the hell!?" Ranma shouted in surprise as he watched a huge group, thirty by a quick head count, leap from the same roof and chase after the unlucky bastard, who had by now started to run down the canal headed for a bridge in the distance.

It wasn't any of his business. Ranma had gotten into trouble in the past for sticking his nose where it wasn't wanted. "But I can't just sit here doin nothin!" Ranma growled to himself. That was all that needed to be said. He was a martial Artist. He had dedicated himself to perfecting his art and defending those in need a long time ago. Just because it hadn't always worked out quiet as well as he would have hoped was not enough of an excuse to just abandon those principles now. His honor wouldn't let him.

With that in mind Ranma Saotome, heir to the Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu, tore off down the road for the bridge in an attempt to head them off. Keeping his plans loose until he could better understand the situation.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kasumi knew better. Really she did. But for some inexplicable reason she had let herself relax after the destruction of D.O.A.T.E.C's massive headquarters. Some part of her had hoped that the civility she had been shown during the incident from her half sister was a sign of circumstances finally becoming better for her. Sadly that hadn't been the case.

Now Kasumi found herself racing across the rooftops of one of Tokyo's many wards cursing herself for a fool. She had been in her new apartment when the attack had come. This had left her without most of her supplies, though she had managed to retrieve her sword before having to make a run for it. Behind her in hot pursuit was one of the bigger groups of ninja she had seen since she had left her village. If it had been any other group of nin her skills would be more then a match for them. But they weren't just any other group. They were from her village. She had grown up and trained with these people. Killing them meant weakening the village as a whole, and while she was a renegade she was no where near close to contemplating killing her villages own ninja.

This left Kasumi with a bit of a problem. Killing them was out of the question and she found herself doubting she had the skill, or stamina, to incapacitate them all without being seriously injured, it had been at least four months since they stopped sending anything but Jounin after her. All of these thoughts came to a screeching halt when suddenly three shinobi appeared in front of her blocking her path, and forcing her to stop.

"It seems you've finally hit a dead end Kasumi sama." Said a ninja that stepped out of the group that had just finished catching up with her. "Though I admit you did give us a bit of a chase, but in the end we all knew it would come to this." The man seemed almost amused with the situation.

"Maybe you did Isao." replied Kasumi. Keeping her back to him and her voice emotionless and steady. "But I still haven't given up yet."

The man, now known as Isao, chuckled. "Come now Princess. You are surrounded. We both know you don't have the heart to kill these men. We, on the other hand, have no such hindrances."

"You've certainly grown more arrogant since I last saw you." Kasumi said as she drew her ninjato. "Please leave," she pleaded, allowing emotion into her voice for a moment. "I don't want to hurt members of my own clan."

"You Have no clan!" He Snarled, rage lighting up his eyes with hatred. "You should have thought of this before you abandoned us. Kill her and bring me her head!" He snapped to his men.

As soon as he said it Kasumi was off like a bullet. From where she had been standing she was suddenly right in front of one of the men coming in at her from the right. He was able to parry her sword strike, but as soon as steel had met steel Kasumi had whirled around him and came in with an overhead chop that would have put him down, had he not dove into a forward roll.

Having lost her momentum, Kasumi spent the next several seconds frantically dodging as she was swarmed on all sides by her opponents. She was able to take one down with a knock to the head with the pommel of her weapon, but she return the sword to it's sheath after this as it was getting to become more of a hindrance then an advantage, and another when he had left himself open to a pressure point. But there were many to replace them, and all of them were just skilled enough to pose a threat in such large numbers. Another nin came at her from behind with a lightning fast combo of punches and kicks, the majority of which was brushed aside with contemptuous ease. Unfortunately she was distracted when a low sweep of a sword almost cut her legs out from under her allowing a fist to find it's way through her defense in her distraction and forcing her block. She took the force of the punch with her forearm and used the brief opening to brutally knock the wind out of him with her fist before sending him to the ground, out cold, with a sweep to the legs.

Another nearly got the drop on her from above with a foot stomp that could very well have crushed her skull and broken her neck, if she had still been there to receive it. But a quick concentration of her inner energies and a swirl of pink cherry blossoms and she was free of the center of the large group. Not waiting for them to come to her she jumped high over the group and came down in a flying kick that the nin she was aiming for managed to block. However as her foot had connected with his hand his vision was engulfed in pink blossoms, and then darkness as Kasumi put him down from behind. That was four down and a lot more to go.

Two more came at her from the sides and she was forced to dive for the ground in order to dodge. This was made more difficult when she was attacked before she could even return to standing by a nin armed with a length of chain. Kasumi lost her concentration when the man managed to wrap the end of the chain around her arm and pulled, before she could react she was attacked from the front with a brutal kick to the face that sent her skidding across the roof. Luckily she managed to regain control of herself and her feet before she hit the edge, barely missing having her head leave her neck via the help form a sword that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Though the hit she took to the face would leave a bruise it was hardly the most devastating blow she had ever taken, the force behind it had done more damage to her position in the fight then the actual pain. Her priority now was to get rid of the chain and regain her balance, or she would soon find herself in deep trouble. This was Unfortunate for the man with the chain as he was nowhere near Kasumi's league and in a show of sheer strength she yanked on the chain causing the poor man to lose his grip on the roof and come hurtling toward her, causing the chain to slacken, and then was sent crashing down into an ally between the adjacent building with a vicious kick to the upper chest, leaving him unconscious, and possibly a few cracked ribs. Five down and Kasumi was starting to feel exhaustion creep up on her.

Now armed with the chain she whirled it over her head to gain momentum and sent it at a nin in front of her. He dodged with ease. But a minor push with her Ki and a twist of her wrist caused the chain to loop back on the unsuspecting shinobi. He may have dodged it the first time, but he had forgotten that most weapons used by ninja were treated to be used with their life energy, forgivable in most cases since it took a fine hand at controlling Ki to be able to do anything useful with the technique. Unfortunately, for him, Kasumi did have such control over her energy. A fact he would come to regret as the chain redirected itself and wrapped around his torso. With an effort of strength she sent him, and the chain, sailing into the wall of a taller building not too far away. His body hit with a sickening thud and blew threw the brick, leaving behind a man shaped hole. Whether he was unconscious or not Kasumi couldn't say, but he didn't come out of the building so she counted him as out for now, as it turned out she didn't have much time to contemplate it. The ninja mob she had managed to break free of for a short while had already moved in to surround her and, once again, she was being rushed from all sides.

She had brought six of them down so far, not bad when up against such a large group of skilled fighters. But little by little the ninja were wearing her down and it was becoming harder and harder to avoid their strikes. This was made obvious when Isao appeared almost out of thin air with a kick she wasn't able to dodge, forcing her to block instead. There was more force then she had counted on, but it turned out to be to her benefit. The kick had sent her sailing though the air, off the roof, and into the wall of a canal. She winced at the force with which she hit, if she had been any less skilled then she was she would be dead now. Quickly adjusting her fall so that she would land on her feet in the water she started running down the length of the canal, quickly putting distance between her and her attackers, heading for a bridge she could make just make out in the moon light.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At the same time this was happening a figure observed the conflict from a storefront window on the opposite side of the canal. The store she was in was closed, but for a person of her caliber it wasn't much of an obstical. She stood at 5'4" with black hair cut brutally short to her skull. Once upon a time she would have been considered rather pretty. But now her face, neck, and hands were adorned with hideous scars, with hints that the scars continued down the front of her body, one would wonder how she was still alive. She stood rigidly in place with her arms crossed over her black shinobi armor, never letting her frigid eyes leave the fight on the rooftop across the canal.

She was alone, but not for long. As she continued to watch the fight a figure seemed to melt out of the shadows behind her and drop to a kneel on one knee, his face to the floor in a show of respect. "Mistress Kirika I bring word from team one." The figure whispered towards the ground, never lifting his bowed head.

"What do you have to report?" The woman replied. Her voice was rough and uncultured, the cause being the scar that ran from ear to ear along her neck. By her reaction it was obvious she hadn't been surprised at the appearance of the man behind her. She had sensed him before he had even entered the building.

"Our forces have blocked the ninja Ryu Hayabusa five blocks from here when he attempted to come to the Kunoichi's assistance. However we will not be able to hold such a skilled opponent down long before we start acquiring casualties."

"It doesn't matter." We're only to stall him long enough for the Mugen Tenshin Ninja to kill their little run away, and then we'll sweep down and kill the remainder." She said casually as she watched the fight move from the roof to the canal and start heading for the bridge not far away. "Have some men take care of the ones left on the roof, in the building, and in the ally. we don't want them coming too and surprising us from behind."

"Yes Mistress. I will do so with all haste." Having finished the man didn't wait for a verbal dismissal and quickly faded back into the shadows that he had come from, leaving the woman now known as Kirika alone once again to observe the coming violence.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Wind rustled through the small forest of trees that made their home on the rock walls that formed the valley that the Mugen Tenshin village was nestled in. For over one hundred years the ninja of this village had lived in secrecy from most of the world. Save for a few groups, their lives were far removed from the concerns of the modern world.

This would end today.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Daiki was tired. It was his third night on look out for the perimeter of the village and he was still new enough with the job to suffer from the pains of exhaustion. Still he wasn't a Tenshin ninja for nothing. So even as it threatened to steal his concentration on his duties he fought against it. He had worked hard to get where he was. Sure guard duty wasn't as glamorous as a hunter, or field agent, or even a teacher. But it was important never the less. With the growing number of people aware of their existence in the modern world the clan masters had determined it a wise move to step up the watch around the village. Hayate, the eighteenth master of the village, had been in agreement as well and so the perimeter watch had seen a modest growth in their numbers. Now instead of two Jounin who each led a team of five Chuunin, the ranks had swelled to five Jounin, each leading a team of fifteen. It was the greatest increase in numbers the guard had seen in years. Pity the situation that called for it.

Daiki himself was new to the Chuunin ranks. It had taken him longer then he had expected to get there, but he had made it, and here was where he wanted to stay. While no slouch, when it came to being a ninja of his caliber, Daiki had no wish to push on for the higher ranks. He had seen the end results of the nightmarish battle's the elite of his village got involved in, and he was quite comfortable staying far removed form them. Indeed Daiki's choice would have been a smart and sensible one, but the poor nin had let himself become a bit lacks in his watch, he was one of the closer lookouts to the village, and thus didn't hear the silent figure creep up on him before it was too late. All Daiki knew was a sharp pain in his back then blackness.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Pitiful scum" The girl muttered to herself as she watched the dead guard land with a soft thud on the ground below her. Really she should have prevented his body from making any noise, but if that had drawn the attention of any guards in the area then they had already failed anyway so it was of little consequence. Still, she winced at the memory of being scolded by her master for being so lazy. He had once told her that the best way to not get caught was to take no chances, even when it seemed safe to do so. Sending a mental apology to her departed teacher she brought her hand up to the small device attached to her ear and tapped it in a predetermined sequence. Green, was the message she sent. It was soon followed by a host of others, each and everyone the same.

The channel that hooked her up to the rest of her team was silent for a minute before one brief reply was sent through.

Blue.

She allowed a small relieved smile to spread across her face, even though it was covered by the hood she wore. The move that had just been completed would have been entered into some kind of record book if the world ever caught wind of it, fortunately their clan was airtight. Nobody would know that seventy five ninja had just died without anybody noticing. Even for a clan as skilled and elite as hers, it was quite a feat. With confirmation of blue the girl took the dead guards post and waited for the signal to begin.

It would be a busy night.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Maybe this was a bad idea." Kasumi thought to herself, flinching at the pain caused by a kunai digging into her shoulder. She considered herself lucky that the it hadn't been poisoned, she would be dead by now if it had. A shadow just in the corner of her eye was all the warning she needed to leap into the air as a small batch of shuriken struck the surface of the water where her feet would have been had she not dodged.

The situation wasn't looking good at all. She was wounded in several places, nothing that was hindering her movement, but leaking blood was never a good thing. Her thoughts were interrupted when a nin that had been running along the fence of the canal came up to meet her while she was still in the air. At some point she had redrawn her weapon and now she used it to block his sword strike while using the force he had so polity given her to to whirl around him and bring a punishing elbow to the back of his neck. The poor man was sent crashing face first into the water at the bottom of the canal, and Kasumi winced it was a dangerous sign of how tired she was getting that she had misjudged the force behind it.

She hit the ground running. But at this point she wasn't seeing a way of escaping. The ninja's behind her were skilled enough to keep up, and some even took the opportunity to attack her when they saw an opening. Her strength was starting to fail her, and a small little part of her wondered at how likely it was that she would ever get to see her home again. All of this came to a screeching halt as Isao appeared out of nowhere in front of her with a flying kick she just managed to dodge by ducking into a roll under his foot coming up behind his landing facing him.

Isao, who had landed in the water just behind her, fluidly swung his entire body to face her, fist flung out to strike at her too fast for her to recover. It hit her on her right cheek and sent her flying into a straight kick to her stomach from one of the nin that had flanked her with him. She had to force herself not to throw up as she crashed into the water of the canal between the two hunter nin. The water was starting to turn pink with her blood she absently noted as she spit up a gob of the life essence from her mouth, "Wonderful, internal bleeding. That's all I need right now." Kasumi thought to herself sarcastically as she forced herself up into a sideways stance, in order to keep an eye on both sides.

"You have grown soft." Isao said with mild contempt heavy in his voice.

"Not all of us are ready to kill people from our own clan Isao." Kasumi fairly growled as she forced herself to calm down at the insult to her skills, it had been a long day and even she had a limit to her patience.

"You still refuse to face reality." He replied a hint of dark mirth polluting his eyes. " You have no clan. You are a rouge nin with skills and secrets that do not belong to you, it is our duty to make sure you pay for your theft."

"I am Mugen Tenshin!" Kasumi screamed in rage, something she had found harder and harder to contain as her talk with the nin had continued.

"No! You are not!" He roared back. "A Mugen Tenshin ninja does their duty to their clan! Your duty was to lead! Not run off for petty revenge when we needed you the most!"

"You had the masters. You had Ayane. You didn't need me." Kasumi finished in an icy calm, having managed to bring her temper back under the rains of her waning control.

"It was not their duty to lead. It was yours and you abandoned it, and tonight you will pay for your negligence. Isao said solemnly as he drew his sword for the first time that night. "We will kill you Kasumi." He said with a surety in his voice that she was finding it hard to argue with. "Your days of running are finally at an end, at last the stain of your dishonor will be erased." With that the time for talking had finished and he dropped down into a sword stance, readying himself for the conclusion of a fight long overdue, the other nin with him following his lead.

Kasumi herself raised her Ninjato into a guard position and kept a wary eye on both sides of her, trying to guess where the first attack would come. As it turned out it came from neither the left or right as suddenly from above a massive Ki source lit up like a roman candle before a voice called out, "Moko Takabisha!"

Kasumi, who had looked up in surprise that somebody had managed to get the drop on them, "have we been that focused on our fight?" She wondered, was the only one who didn't have to dodge as a blue orb of pure life force smashed into the the ground to the left of her kicking up a geyser of heated water and chips of concrete. The other nin had dodged the moment the Ki had flared so the attack hadn't really hit anybody, but honestly who had the life force to just hurl around in big showy ball of destruction like that?

They got their answer a moment later when the initiator of the attack landed on the fence behind Kasumi. It was hard, at first, to tell any features of the new combatant, but gradually the mist in the air cleared and allowed the gathered nin to make out who the new guy was.

He was young, somewhere around her age from what Kasumi could tell, and was only a little taller then herself, with black hair pulled back into a pig tail. He was dressed in a red Chinese style shirt with black pants and slippers. Other then that it wasn't really possible to tell from that distance anything else. The moment of silence was broken when the figure spoke in a loud voice full of confidence, not a hint of doubt showing, and conceit. "I don't know who all you bums are, but it's not right to gang up on a lady all by herself at night." He finished. Leaving the rest of them blink up at him in mild astonishment.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A shuffling of bushes off to the side alerted her that somebody was coming. She cursed as she quickly, but silently, jumped up into the higher, thicker branches of the tree she had been resting in for the last thirty minutes since she had killed the guard and taken his place. Glancing down at the ground wearily she held her breath as she scanned the area for the person she knew was there. A minute passed before she gave up on detecting them the old fashioned way.

Focusing briefly on the river of life that flowed through her body she diverted some of it to her eyes and felt a brief tingle as the pupil elongated and the iris went from brown the gold. Suddenly the world was in dark purples, all except for the the human shaped red splotch that was crouched at the base of the tree she was in. She tensed for a moment before carefully bringing her hand up to the device at her ear. Changing to a different channel she proceeded to tap the device in a set pattern.

Pink.

It took a moment but she was relived when the figure at the bottom of the tree lifted his right hand and started tapping something at his ear, she couldn't make out the finer details when her eyes were like this. Soon the confirmation came, and she let out a sigh of relief as she silently dropped to the ground next to the figure. "Yasushi you really need to learn to signal first before you creep up on someone." She whispered to the invisible figure as she kept her eyes trained on their surroundings.

"My apologies Amaya. I tend to forget procedure when I'm caught up in my mind." the invisible figure said.

"Just tell me you have good news?" She asked as she took a moment to allow her eyes to change back to their proper state, after making sure the area was clear.

"Everything's good. I was able to place charges on most of the buildings. Only the armory and family compounds were too dangerous to get close to for obvious reasons. I would say this little live trial of mine was quite the success." Yasushi finished with mirth. It had been his idea after all. Technology had come a long way and with the deep pockets that their clan had nothing was really out of their reach.

"How does it handle anyway?" Amaya asked as she took a seat on the ground at the base of the tree.

He shrugged, though she couldn't see it. "About as well as expected." He said before his voice dipped into irritation. "The damn thing lights up like a sparkler if it comes in contact with water though. I'm going to have to talk to the techies after this about adequate shielding from the elements. As it is I'm lucky It hasn't rained for a few days."

Amaya snorted in mild amusement before replying. "You should probably get back to the head quarters and report in, the rest is up to us."

"Right, I left the charges on a fifteen minute timer, so they should go off just as you get the signal to attack. Good luck Amaya." With that said Yasushi stood from where he had been sitting and made his way further north, she knew this by the rustling of the underbrush as he made his way. He may have been good at stealth, when he wanted to be, but Yasushi was careless when he thought there was no need for it and would probably get himself killed one day Amaya thought to herself as she returned to her place in the tree and started checking her gear.

It was almost time.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A night in Tokyo was almost like day. Sure most of the shops closed down, and the trains stopped running, but for the most part the city never really truly slept. As long as there was business to attend to and money to be made the city would always be awake. At this time of night two people sat in a quiet restaurant, a private room that had a rather nice view of the city, and talked of things not meant for pleasant conversation.

Well one person sat. The other was standing in front of one of the floor to wall windows and looking out at the city lights.

"You let the waiting get to you again." Said the woman sitting at the table calmly as she sipped delicately from a cup of tea her food almost untouched, she had never been a big eater. She had long, flowing black hair that came almost all the way down to her backside, and piercing blue eyes that she kept trained on the man at the window, a small shadow of the half blood that she truly was.

"I've always had a problem with patience." The man mumbled in reply. He was quite different from the woman. While she was small, only around 150 centimeters, he stood at a solid 195. Where she was slender and graceful, every move she made oozed with precision and grace, he was built better then most military's trained their recruits and had a ruff untamed feel about him, as if he didn't really belong in civilized society. She was dressed in a rather expensive, but very simple in design, Kimono that was solid black with a crimson Obi and a gold Butterfly motif. His clothes were just as expensive, but were rather plan in comparison. A white silk business shirt with the top few buttons undone for air, a pair of black silk dress pants held up by a black leather belt with a few empty loops sewn into it, and a necktie that hung loosely from his neck. He had short red hair that he religiously kept the way so as to prevent a handhold. and gray eyes that didn't once abandon their vigil of the city. He hadn't touched his food either.

The woman chuckled softly. "I received word that they will move in twenty minutes." She said reassured. "Be calm. This plan has been months in planing. Things will go well."

"What was that saying about plans and the enemy again?" The man shot back mockingly.

"Just because it is true does not mean that things will go badly. Just that it will not go completely as planned." The woman said with a slightly pinched face. She was a master of keeping her emotions behind a mask, but never would she consider doing so to the man with her now. She trusted, and owed, him more then that.

"You have too much faith in these ninja Chieko" The man said as he returned to the table.

"And you do not have enough Abaddon." She countered. "Or have you forgotten that I am ninja as well?"

Abaddon snorted in contempt. "You're a spy mistress and a poisoner. While you're skilled in fighting I wouldn't really call you a ninja, and I thought I told you not to call me that."

"Why should I not? It is you name after all." Chieko asked in mock indignation, ignoring the rest of his statement for the time being, after all, not all ninja specialize in fighting.

"Because I hate it. Simple as that." he replied in mild exasperation. They had, had this argument before, and would have it again.

"I think it suits you rather well."

"Ya? Well you don't have to suffer from weak little nerds giving you weird stares when they hear your name." He grumbled in disgust.

"Ahhh the curse of working undercover as the CEO of a major software company." Chieko said almost philosophically. "One would think you regret your position."

"Not regret so much as see no point in it. I mean this, so called, legendary ninja clan is backed by the emperor. What's the point in being this subtle?"

"Because the emperor is not supposed to have any major political power anymore." Chieko replied calmly. "If the people, not to mention other nations, found out that our lord had way more power over Japan then he is supposed to then we would have a major political snafu. One that would prove very troublesome. That is why we can not let even a hint of who you really are reach the wrong ears."

"And so I must sit in front of a room filled with old guys and pretend that I actually give a damn about their money." Abaddon sneered.

"If that is what it calls for then yes." She responded as she looked thoughtfully down into her now empty tea cup. "What time is it?" She asked absently.

Abaddon picked up a small cellphone that had been lying on the table next to his untouched plate and gave it a quick glance. "Eleven fifty five." He said as he put the thing back down.

"It has been a long time since the Oniwaban has gone to war with another ninja clan." Chieko said sadly. "In five minutes we will see just how much our skills have wasted away."

"It'll be fine." the man said, feeling a little strange at being on the other side of the conversation for once. "They may not be able to hold a candle to me, but they should be able to pull this off."

Chieko snorted in good humor. "I think you may be setting the bar a bit high."

"You think so?"

"Definitely." She responded before glancing around the room with dull, unfocused eyes. "I am bored. I say we call it a night, we will be busy tomorrow."

"That's a good idea."

"Walk me to my room?" Chieko asked softly as she got up with her back to him.

Abaddon stared at the back of her neck for a moment before shrugging. "Sure why not."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Silence rained over the small battlefield as every eye had turned to stare at him in mild surprise. As ninja they were used to dealing with the unexpected, but a random passerby interrupting a fight was pretty far out there on the list of things that didn't happen. Still for all of that they were ninja, and they reacted accordingly.

"You just made your last mistake," Isao muttered, motioning for a few of his men to move into position.

Ranma remained silent as he was surrounded, mapping the positions of the men in his mind. It was hard getting a position on them. Either they had very low Ki, an impossibility since Ranma had seen the stuff they were able to pull off, or they knew something he didn't because it felt like they weren't there. He was almost tempted to pull the Umi Sen Ken, but that would have been a waste. While they were definitely skilled they weren't in his league. He would have to figure out how they were erasing their Ki without becoming invisible, because that looked really useful. The Umi Sen Ken was a major drain on his Ki, which made it impractical for long term sneaking or drawn out fights. The idea that a more practical version existed would have made Ranma's mind dance at the possibility's had he not been in a situation at the moment. "Something to figure out later," thought Ranma as he gave the man in charge his best shit eating grin. "I've been told that by chumps much more threatenin then you are buddy, and I'm still here," he remarked voice full of the confidence he always showed his opponents.

"Not for much longer," came an instant refute. "Kill." The surrounding men attacked as one.

Ranma had only a brief moment to go wide eyed at that order before he was forced to dodge back onto the street or be forced to part with his head when a sword came swinging in from the left. "Dangerous." Thought Ranma as he dodged a strike from a nin wielding a vicious claw weapon on his hands. "It's like fightin ghosts." He continued to analyze as he put his fist deep into the gut of one nin that he had grabbed by the arm. The poor man didn't stand a chance as he was then mercilessly kicked in the face and sent hurtling into the fence running along the canal. He hit with crushing force and flipped over and belly flopped into the knee deep water below. Ranma winced, that looked like it had been painful.

He was prevented from further thought on the matter when a nin from above, and one to his right attacked in tandem. Had he been Ryoga he would have met their attacks head on, as it was he dodged, and only after did he realize that if he hadn't he might have been dead. As the arm blade the ninja in the air wielded swiped through the space where he had been before Ranma saw the blade split down the middle to release a small amount of goo, that when came in contact with the face of the other nin that had attacked Ranma, began to sizzle and smoke. Said ninja immediately started screaming in pain as he desperately clawed at his face. Ranma ended the whole problem by heaving the poor bastard into the canal where, hopefully, the water would dilute the acid. "I can't take these guy's easily." Ranma mumbled to himself as he separated himself from the now weary group of nin watching him.

Perhaps he would have taken the fight more seriously after that. Unfortunately the only warning Ranma had was the widening eyes of his opponents before something clamped down on his shoulder, and then it was lights out.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kasumi would have loved to have done something for the young man that she had inadvertently dragged into her problems, she suspected that he didn't quite know just how much trouble he was in, but Isao had made that impossible as he had attacked her straight after giving his men their orders. Half had left to fight the kid while the rest remained with Isao to help him with her, the cold and calculated part of her mind was disappointed that the rest had not gone to help their comrades. Still the odds had definitely shifted in her favor and both sides knew it.

Isao came charging in with a clear left handed punch, his sword remaining in his right hand. Kasumi wasn't so inexperienced to fall for such a simple trick and dodged the attack by a wider margin then most would have thought needed. She was then forced to put two nin down that tried to take her from behind and then countered Isao's sword with her own. The two danced up and down the canal, for the moment focusing on their sword fight, and Kasumi punishing any nin foolish enough to try and interrupt.

Isao himself was starting to let his aggravation get to him. He had never really like Kasumi when she was part of the Mugen Tenshin. She had always been so kind and gentle to everybody in the village. Hardly a fitting attitude for the sister of the future eighteenth master. The fact that she went out of her way to befriend the demon child Ayane was just further proof that she wasn't up to snuff. Then master Hayate and been reduced to a paraplegic and Kasumi had shunned her duty to her clan for simple revenge. Those days had been tumultuous and full of uncertainty, and he would never forgive the rouge princess from abandoning them.

Finally he had, had enough of their little sword fight. With a snarl of uncontrolled rage, rather unbecoming of a Jonin, he let his Ki flair from his tight bonds. Kasumi's eyes widened in surprise before she ducked to the right. Just in time to dodge the small, but deadly, bolt of energy that left a gaping whole in the fence and building that the shot and plowed into. Had she been hit by it Kasumi's head would no longer exist, to say nothing of her life.

"You've improved quite a bit since we last fought Isao." Kasumi said quietly as she kept a weary eye on his form.

Isao forced himself to calm down somewhat as he resisted the urge to wipe the sweat form his face. He shouldn't have let his emotions get to him like that. While he could pull Ki attack like that off, it drained him fast and right now he couldn't afford to waste the energy. "I will kill you." He gritted out though his exhaustion. By this point in the fight the rest of his team had been taken down, the ones who had stayed with him to fight Kasumi at least, and he was standing on shear will power.

"I don't think you will." she replied as she looked at something behind him. "I'm sorry it had to come to this Isao." Kasumi apologized softly.

"What do you..." Whatever Isao was about to say would never be known. He crashed into the water at their feet out cold. Standing behind him, the kid that had tried to help her resting over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes, was Ryu Hayabusa, the legend in the making dragon ninja himself.

"It's good to see you're keeping yourself entertained." Ryu said as he repositioned the kid on his back to a more comfortable position. "But you really need to be more aware of your surroundings when you're in a fight."

"Ryu san, it's good to see you again." Kasumi said, a small smile of relief spreading over her face, choosing to not reply to the gentle chastisement. She had yet to meet anybody able to pick up on the Dragon Nin's presence when he didn't want them too, to say nothing of doing it in a fight.

"We must go." Ryu responded. "There was a third, unknown, party watching this fight. I don't think I got them all."

"What about the man who tired to help me?" Kasumi asked with a look of concern.

"You know as well as I do he won't be safe if we leave him here. He's seen too much."

Kasumi released a sigh of sad resignation at Ryu's words. "Another life ruined by my hand."

"It was his choice to get involved." Ryu said quietly. "Come we have to leave now." Kasumi made a small sound of confirmation and then the two were racing across the rooftops, Ranma in tow.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Kirika frowned at the appearance of the demon slaying ninja. She had sent a veritable army to deal with him, or at least hold him off long enough for the rouge Tenshin princess and her attackers to deal with each other, and allow her team to pick off the remains. If he was here then....

"Mistress please forgive me!" A tortured voice shouted as it was accompanied by the loud bang of the back door of the shop being thrown open. Standing, or leaning, in the doorway was the ninja that had reported to her before. He was ripped to pieces. Sword wounds covering most of his front, and it looked like he was holding in his intestines with only his hands and the scrap of flesh that was once called his stomach. At some point he had, had his eyes gouged out, how that had happened was anybody's guess, and what was left was two bloody sockets with a nerve tendon hanging from the right in a grotesque display of the violence that had been inflicted upon him. Really it was a miracle he was even alive right now.

"We're retreating." Kirika said out loud to the shadows. "Alert the others and meet at the rally point." With that she personally approached the wounded nin and hoisted him up in a bridal carry, so as to keep his guts where they needed to be. "Make sure you get somebody to clean up the mess the Dragon Ninja left behind." she said to the shadows once more.

And then she was gone.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Amaya perked up at the sound of explosions in the distance, and allowed herself a little grin as she got a confirmation over her team's channel.

It was time.