Disclaimer: This is a Naruto and Ranma ½ inspired fanfiction.
Chapter 4: First Mission
"Alright everyone," said Kurenai, "I think you're ready for your first mission." She raised an eyebrow as the hats were placed back on the kitsunes' heads. "What's up with the funny hats?"
Ranma lowered her head in shame. "Don't feel down, Ranma," consoled Laira. "The hat doesn't look that bad on you." Laira massaged Ranma's neck as she turned back to Kurenai. "It was the gate guard's idea. He said it would help keep people from attacking them."
"Oh." 'I suppose that sort of makes sense,' thought Kurenai. "Well you can take them off now, I filed a 'do not kill' order with the ANBU for both of them."
"I'm keeping mine," said Naruto, pirate had slightly tilted over his eyes. Laira rolled her eyes and knocked it off his head with a kunai before lifting the pointed witch hat off of Ranma.
"I wish I had hands," sighed Ranma, thankfully out of hearing of Kurenai. Shikamaru, however, blinked at the statement.
"Tails are better anyways," said Naruto, twirling the torn pirate hat on his bushy red tail. Rather than the shimmering purple of Ranma's fur, his was a soft orange red that darkened to crimson and finally black at the tips. Watching the surprising dexterity of his tail Ranma couldn't resist trying to learn to do the same. With cautious movements she guided her occasionally rebellious tail around Nakomy's fallen quarterstaff. The moderately heavy object resisted her efforts until she managed to direct some ki into the unfamiliar appendage.
"Sweet," said Ranma.
"Ranma-san," said Shikamaru, "I've noticed you only have one tail, do you mind telling me how old you are?"
"Sixteen last Friday," replied Ranma.
"Hey, Nara," said Laira, "let's get moving, Kurenai's getting ahead of us."
Shikamaru followed silently, wondering if it was worth the trouble to uncover the secret the four were hiding. 'Trouble for another day,' he decided.
)In the Hokage's Office(
"Well, if it isn't the kitsunes I've heard so much about this morning. What can I do for you all?" said the Hokage.
"We're here for my team's first mission, Hokage-sama," said Kurenai.
"Hmm..." Sarutobi pulled forth a still warm bag of dango from his desk. Offering a couple to the kitsunes they eagerly devoured them.
"Any chance you have steak in there too?" asked Ranma hopefully.
"Alas, no, but I think I may have just the mission for you." Shikamaru had overheard a number of horror stories from various ninja over the dreaded chores that comprised D-rank missions. He couldn't help but feel the Hokage looked a little bit too happy. "Ranma and Flare, was it not? How does hunting alligators sound?"
"Alligators beware, Flare is here!" yelled Naruto. Ranma just looked queasy. 'Does he expect me to eat them? Maybe cooked but there's no way I'm biting something still alive and kicking.' Ranma thought over what Laira had told her on the way over. Would they really dissect her if they knew she used to be human? It made a sick sort of sense, really. People had always chased her for things her father had done, why would this be any different? Only the scale of the screw-up had changed. Besides, if they were telling the truth then all she had to do was improve her chakra and she could henge back into a human. Still, the talk of hand signs did worry her, but Ranma Saotome never loses!
Kurenai looked over the mission specifications. "Oh, I think this will be perfect. Come on crew, we're off to the sewers!"
"Sewers?" asked Laira, hoping she'd misheard her new sensei.
"Where did you think we were going?" Kurenai dragged Nara out by the collar and the rest of the crew reluctantly followed.
The manhole cover lifted to release an unpleasant odor, wrinkling Ranma's delicate nose as she turned her head away in disgust. Naruto, heedless of smell of danger immediately leapt in headfirst to land spluttering in the muck below. Nakomy, Laira, and Shikamaru soon followed, descending on the ladder to land on the stone pathway on the side of the sewer. "You know," said Ranma, "I think I may have been wrong about this whole ninja-ing business."
"Nonsense," said Kurenai, "it just takes practice!" And with that she was shoved into the waiting sewer.
"Eeep!" Drawing on her ki she lowered her weight to a tenth of what it normally was as her paws scuttled along the surface of the grimy water, never going more than a few inches deep as she raced for the walkway. Kurenai jumped down behind her, a small ripple ebbing out from where she landed gracefully on the water's surface. Leaving off trying to shake her paws clean, Ranma gaped at the sight. "Hey, how'dja do that?"
"I was about to ask you the same question," responded Kurenai. "This is, simply enough, called water walking. Done in roughly the reverse manner as tree walking, a skilled user can even walk on a stormy sea. But what you did was something different, no?" Kurenai's red eyes seemed to glow in the darkness and Ranma shivered, warding of memories.
"I lowered my weight with ki," she said, desperate to have those eyes stop their stare. Distracted as she was she did not notice at first the greater ease with which she had performed the trick.
"Hn." Kurenai's foot twitched away from the strike of an alligator, completely unconcerned. "Well then, best you lot get on with it. They only want you to kill and retrieve ten of them so get on with it."
"Aren't you going to help, Kurenai-sensei?" asked Laira.
"Now where would the fun be in that? Besides, you're supposed to screw up your first mission. Just do me a favor and don't loose a leg, it's an awful lot of paperwork." Ranma once again wondered if she hadn't made the wrong choice in trusting these kids.
"Onwards!" yelled Naruto upon seeing the raised eyes of the alligator in the light of the still open manhole. Ranma was treated to a spectacular and messy show as her fellow kitsune wrestled the aquatic creature as Laira skillfully slipped shuriken into the beast's hide, miraculously missing Naruto every time. Not one to miss out on the fun, Nakomy joined the fray. Balancing above the water on his quarterstaff he repeatedly kicked the alligator in the snout. It finally ended as Shikamaru walked up the wall to just below the open manhole. Yelling "Kagemane no Jutsu" the alligator abruptly ceased its fight, allowing a kunai thrown by Laira to slide in at the base of its neck.
A scent permeated her senses, working through the stench of the sewer until finally that iron-tinged smell reached her conscious mind. Blood. Ranma realized she'd unconsciously licked her lips and took a nervous step back from the animal's still bleeding corpse. Grins adorned the faces of her companions, even Kurenai and the normally frowning Shikamaru. Naruto, scratched and painted black by the water even went so far as to pose on top of what he deemed "his" kill. This place, this body, this dark sewer and Kurenai's red eyes so reminiscent of the pit her father had thrown her into as a child, it was all feeling a bit too real. Blood and grime spotted her fur from the violent battle, despite never leaving the sidelines. She stared at the ladder and fought the urge to scream. No hands to climb and the passage to freedom and safety the manhole represented to small for her to jump through it easily. Kurenai met eyes with each of the group in turn, granting them a smile of approval. She turned to Ranma last and under that glowing red gaze Ranma could not hide her shaking. "I have to go," she whispered, only Kurenai catching her words over the premature celebration of team 13. Ranma jumped towards the top of the ladder even as she lowered her weight with a massive expenditure of ki. Catching the bars awkwardly with her paws as her tail waved for balance she propelled herself rapidly out of the sewer, flying six feet into the air. The lioness-sized blood and muck covered kitsune erupting from below to land on the street caused a number of citizens to run in terror. Ranma barely noticed. The scent of fresh water drew her in like nectar as she walked in a daze.
How was any of this even possible? She'd seen a number of strange things during the ten year training trip, heck, with her ki she could even do a number of things many people would call impossible. But this? She had shielded herself from the sheer impossibility of her being here, in this Land of Fire where no one had even heard of Japan, through a combination of denial and the habit of thinking of strange or threatening things as just one more adventure. The tricks she had seen performed were amazing, and yet it sounded as if they were only the tip of the anthill. Ninja, everywhere, and all trained to a degree that in the modern world was all but impossible. Lightning had struck the pool she'd fallen into at Jusenkyo, just as she had fallen in. Was she dead then? Reincarnated somehow? Or had she truly been transported here, to this land of lethal ninjas, robbed of her humanity and, she had to admit to herself, if no one else, her manhood. She needed time to think.
Eyes unseeing, she walked to the edge of the hot spring. Bathers fled from the pool in haste, the few shinobi also frequenting the pool choosing what they would later term a strategic retreat in order to grab their full arsenal of weapons. Clouded eyes closing to the world, Ranma dove into the steaming pool, purple darkening to black in an instant. It would be several minutes before he decided to surface.
)Kakashi Land(
"I never knew there was so many Sasuke fangirls. And every single one of them wants to kill me!" Kakashi ran a hand through his silver-gray hair, sighing. "It's not as if I really even did anything. The council threw him on Asuma's team after one fool hurt himself bungee-jumping off the nose of the Hokage monument. For that matter, even pinky's doing fine. From what I've seen she's training harder than ever and will be sure to pass in six months. Her stated goal is to kill Naruto Uzumaki, but still, she's definitely dedicated after freezing up after Naruto sucker-punched Sasuke." Kakashi turned to his companion. "Jiraiya-sensei, how do you deal with the pressure?"
"I just remember the mission, Kakashi, I just remember the mission." Jiraiya raised his newest release of Icha Icha Paradise, caressing the orange cover softly before opening the cover. Signing it with a flourish using a pen carved in the shape of a succubus he closed the book once more and handed it to Kakashi. Their eyes met, and both gave a brief nod to the other, pervert acknowledging pervert in a silent gesture of support.
End Chapter 4:
Well then. Might have to change this back to drama. Knew I had that tag on there for a reason. There will still be a far amount of comedy, to be sure, but I didn't want to go any farther than this without reestablishing some of the firmness that existed in chapter one. Fluff is nice but it has its place, especially considering the plot line I have for this story. It will get lighter for a few chapters but it will get far darker by the end.
One little thing. Please, no one bug me about mistakes from canon. Frankly I've only made it to episode fifteen of Naruto, so most of my knowledge comes from reading about 80,000 pages of Naruto fanfiction and a judicious use of Wikipedia. Nearly all of that fanfiction stops at the Chuunin exam, so if there's some rule or another, or some plot line that wasn't revealed until after the exam, don't expect it to necessarily be here. Frankly, I intend to do a number of things in this story that no one, to my knowledge, have done before. What mistakes I make with regard to canon are likely intentional, and in most other cases I probably will not care. So if you decide to criticize this story, then do so by all means, but please limit it to grammar, continuity errors, Mary Sues, etc. Just remember, this is an AU, and just wait 'til you see what the third and final cross is going to be. Wrin. Do me a favor and don't tell them. One more thing – this is not a training fic. I've seen far too many of them. There will not be 300 pages of them learning jutsus, that, at least, I can promise you.