Chapter 4:
Meanwhile, Ranma roasted a curiously well-toothed super-racoon over a fire as she let herself drift beneath the surface of a pond beside her campsite. She closed her eyes, muscles relaxing for the first time in days...
A crocodile eased up behind her, ending her meditative trance beneath the water. A punch to its snout scared it off but the peaceful spell had dissipated. Lifting herself from the water she squeezed the water out of her hair and snatched her meal off the spit. Not bothering to sit down she tore into it ravenously, the flavor like heaven on her tongue for all that it was unseasoned. Tossing the remains to the lurking crocodile she jumped backwards in a ki-assisted glide to land back in the center of the pond. Scrubbing the last of the grease from her face she absentmindedly kicked aside a giant toad on her way to shore. "Oye!"
Ranma's head ratcheted to the left. 'Did that toad just talk?' A man's giggle came from the bushes. Ranma's eyes widened as she dropped herself back to her neck in the water. "Hey, show yourself you pervert!" Normally Ranma wasn't the most bashful of girls when it came to showing her chest, but now that she'd noticed him the sheer level of perversion would have had her hiding behind a lead wall if she hadn't had dealings with Happosai. Her estimate of the man was confirmed as his long, spiked white hair emerged into the evening light. After all, if teenage boys were bad, old men were unfortunately worse. The lighting wasn't great but she noticed a pair of red lines beneath his eyes. 'Wait... is he drawing something?' She had to restrain herself from firing at the notebook. He'd probably think she was attacking him, and justified or not she already had enough enemies in this dimension.
His introduction was not what she expected. "Have you not heard of me? I am no ordinary pervert, I am the legendary super-pervert Jiraiya the Toad Sage. Would you like an autographed copy of Icha Icha Paradise?" He held out the copy, just far enough away that she'd have to come out of the water to grab it, not that she wanted it in the first place.
"What? No! Go away before I beat you up!"
Jiraiya calmly placed the erotic novel back into a pocket. "My lady, are you aware you have fox ears?"
"What's it to you?" Ranma's toes dug through the mud, searching for a firm grip if she had to fight.
"I think it would be best if I brought you to Konoha." The humor in his voice was rapidly draining away.
"You're awfully blunt, aren't you? I almost think I prefer it to when Sakura tricked me and landed me in prison." A ball of ki formed on her hand, as of yet unreleased. "I'm not going back to that cell, old man."
"Gamakichi, grab her." A tongue flew out from the talking toad, wrapping around her knees. Ranma swung her arms in an attempt at vacuum blades but the water slowed her and stole their cutting edge.
"Mouko Takabisha!" The pulse flew at its head but missed as it darted underwater. Jiraiya merely looked on, doing nothing for the moment as Ranma struggled against the slimy tongue's grip. As she lost her purchase on the ground she flopped backwards underwater. Anger flared before cooling to sharp steel. 'Don't look down on me!' She dropped into the Soul of Ice, a barely perceptible smirk forming as the toad's tongue drew back as if burned. Leaping skywards the water crystallized into a milky ice-exoskeleton around her body, cracking at the joints as she turned in the air. Ice crunched underfoot as she came down, landing on the miniature glacier that had formed in her wake. A quick pulse of ki shattered the ice from her face, leaving her staring soullessly at the toad sage like a deadly doll.
"Not bad." Power flared as he bit his hand. A brief stab of panic penetrated Ranma's Soul of Ice as she began to understand the extent of this man's power. 'Is there anyone normal in this universe? If things were a little less deadly I might actually enjoy this place' Bending her knees she prepared to spring into the air for another quick escape. "Toad Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind!"
Walls of flesh red flesh surrounded her, tendrils springing from the floor, twining around her feet. Kicking free of their creeping embrace she jumped to the ceiling only to be met with a renewed attack. Balls of flame struck her even as she freed herself, blasting her down the stomach of the beast. Her Soul of Ice was wavering but she had weathered that first attack well, though much of her icy armor had been stripped away, leaving her stomach bare to the world. Rolling as she landed she let her ki burn through her feet. Hovering in the center of the esophagus her eyes began to glow with fury as she unleashed wave after wave of vacuum blades at Jiraiya and any tendril that came near her. Fiery-hot blood dripped from the ceiling, traveling inches from her skin as she tilted herself in between the drops. Smoke cleared from where Jiraiya had stood to reveal him... utterly unharmed. "Why won't you just let me go!" A pair of shuriken spun towards her, which she immediately caught and flung back at him. Batting them aside casually with a kunai he seemed almost disappointed. Her mind, adept at tactics and honed to a knife's edge in combat was now floundering as she desperately sought for some way to turn the battle in her favor. Her ki had already dropped below fifty percent and hovering like this would have her drained soon enough even if she wasn't battling. "Jiraiya, can you do something for me?"
He paused, curious. "What?"
"If I don't survive this, tell Sakura I'm sorry, and that I forgive her." Before Jiraiya could discern what suicidal technique the sexy fox-eared girl was planning to use she was gone, blinking into non-existence.
"Wow," she whispered. 'So this is what the inside of Weapons Space looks like." Sitting weightlessly in a bubble Ranma watched entranced as a planet that looked very similar to Earth spun slowly below her. Three-fourths of what she could say lay in shadow but the sight was still breathtaking. Her bottle of water and manga books careened around the small space of the bubble thanks to her sudden arrival, but proved insufficient distraction to keep her from watching the clouds dance beneath her godlike perch in the sky. 'Could it be possible?' "If I broke the bubble and flew down there would I find myself right back in modern Japan? Could it be that easy?" Easy, of course, was a relative thing. She recognized that the vacuum and distance the journey presented would be a difficult thing to overcome. Still, it meant that if she worked hard to get stronger she could still try and go back if she chose to. 'Maybe I could hijack a space station.' It wasn't much, but with just this much she was feeling better. Nerima might not be the nicest place but if things didn't change in this crazy ninja place she might take a shot at being the first martial artist to fly through space.
"CraACK" The sound exploded in Ranma's eardrums as the bubble began to split. 'K'so he's probably still waiting for me out there, I need to stay in here a bit longer.' Another web of fractures started on the planet-side portion of the bubble, fraying further at Ranma's nerves. 'What happens when the bubble breaks? Do I go back to where I was or do I get launched into airless space?' She wasn't willing to chance it. Performing her normal release on the Hidden Weapons Space she sighed in relief as it opened as normal. Glancing backwards as she shot out with a flare of ki she held the window open a second longer, watching as the fractures retreated across the bubble. Letting the window fade she felt confident her ki was once more feeding into her Weapons Space properly again, restoring the damage.
"Focus!" She slapped herself on the cheek. Looking around she didn't see any sign of the super-pervert, and her surroundings were back to normal. Brushing the remaining ice off her skin she walked back to the fire pit. Somehow or another it had gotten smothered during the fight. Moving her hand towards the ashes she hoped there were still enough embers to boil some water.
In disbelief she finally dug her hand directly into the pile of ashes. "This is really weird." Sun shined on her bare back, driving away her skin's chill too slowly for her liking. "And since when is it it noon!" Her blank-eyed stare did its best to drill its way into the ground, unbroken even as her foot swung out to knock a charging crocodile back into the pond. 'I guess it forgot I was off limits. Exactly how long have I been gone!'
End Chapter 4:
Translation k'so means kuso means... well, you can guess.
Because Naruto is built for time skips, am I right? I assume no fans of super-powered Ranma are upset that Jiraiya beat him? He is rather formidable in his own right, so it's not like I'm placing Ranma at Genin level or lower as I've seen a couple fics do. P.S. I don't think Ranma will ever acquire Chakra. Ki really doesn't seem to have an exact counterpart in Narutoverse, and for all that crossovers generally put it as being one half of Chakra, it honestly seems like ki in Ranmaverse is relatively complete in itself. And to give Ranma chakra is basically just to pave over most of his problems. He'll definitely pick up a few new ki-adapted skills of his own making but he won't be Ranma of the 1000 jutsus. P.S. Next chapter features MALE Ranma, oh my! P.P.S. 1 croc = the time necessary to forget your face. 10,000 crocs until the Croc-king of Peter Pan world comes to conquer the world for Croc-kind. Someone who knows something about crocs post the time equivalent for a 1 croc in a review please for reference.