SMST: The Village Hidden in the Moon! – By DS Wynne
Disclaimer: "SM", "R1/2", "ST" and other properties belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre story.
Part 11
It was a few days later that Team Seven and Team Jiraiya had teamed up on a special mission involving the son of an ally of the Hidden Leaf Village. Ranma was upset that he had to play the role of "Ranko Uchiha" again, since it brought up some questions over the fate of the Uchiha clan. Not that Sasuke minded. In fact, whenever Ranko was around, he was at peace with himself, since he did have family with him. And since Ranko and the rest of her squad were present, Kikashi Hakate—the instructor for Naruto's squad—could be used for other missions. Still, the team-up was NOT without the usual friction.
KLONK!
"Ow!" Naruto yelled, as he held his head.
"I TOLD you, NARUTO," Sakura yelled. "Just because you are my fiancé, that doesn't mean you get to touch me…LIKE THAT."
"Ah, that brings back memories," Ranko says, as she helped picked up garbage along the road to that leads to The Village Hidden in the Waterfall. The son of the ally of the Hidden Leaf Village—Shibuki---was being escorted back to his village. Upon nearing the entrance, Ranko told everyone that they should at lend a hand to clean up the place, since it was within the domain of tourists. When that happened, children from Shibuki's village, who saw him as a hero even if he tends to jump at everything that moved, greeted the arriving shinobi. Even though the mission was "C-Rank", Hokage Tsunade was concerned about rumors of a possible hostile takeover, or, at the very least, the theft of the legendary "Hero's Water". Hopefully, the rumors will prove to be false. Still, it was nice to spend time with family…
"Yep, like old times."
"Really, Ranko-sama?" says Byakko, the White Tiger of the Western Heavens, as she (in cub form) sits on top of Ranko's head.
"Yeah. You can ask Ukyo more about it, if you want."
"I can't wait to hear. And thank you for allowing me to hang out with you today."
"No problem. I'm just glad you recovered from your injuries, thanks to those bastard, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse."
"Well, that day did teach me that even I have a lot to learn in order to protect others. Plus, I want to teach you more techniques."
"Now THAT I am looking forward to."
Meanwhile, Ukyo was preparing lunch on her portable stove. She then turns to her teammate.
"Hey, Haku!" Ukyo yelled. "You got that fish ready?"
Haku says nothing, as he observes the waters below…
FFFT! FFFT! FFFT-!
Expertly, the shinobi uses his needles to hit his targets.
"I have a few," Haku says, as he gathers his catch.
"I can do THAT," Sasuke says, as he looks at the waters below…
FFFT-FFFT!
"See?" Sasuke says, as he gets some fish of his own, after using his kunai. "Piece of cake."
Haku looks at Sasuke's catch.
"Very nice," Haku says. "Take a look at MINE."
Sasuke takes a look at Haku's catch. Technically, Haku's attack had been much more precise that Sasuke's, when the needles hit the prey's nervous system.
"As you can see, I'm better."
"Huh, for NOW."
"It's hard to believe that Haku is not a real girl," Sakura says.
"Tell me about it," Naruto says, as he places an ice pack on his head. "Well, at the moment…he really IS a girl!"
Sakura looks over at her fiancé.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, since he is Pop's grandson, he inherited the family curse."
"Oh. So that means that Haku can become a girl whenever he is splashed with coldwater."
"Yeah, so I'm told."
Silence.
"Wait, doesn't that mean that YOU will have the curse, too?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, you are Lord Ranshin's son, right?"
"WHAT?" Naruto exclaimed. "That can't be right. POPS!"
Ranko turns to "her" son's voice.
"Yeah?"
"Is it true that I'm going to be girl…for REAL?"
Ranko sighs.
"Byakko, can you keep Ukyo's company?"
"And miss this family moment."
"I'm sure she'll feed you a fish or something-"
ZIP!
And off Byakko goes.
Ranko chuckled for a moment. She then goes over to her son.
"You want to go for a walk?"
"Um, yeah."
As Ranko and Naruto walk away from the waterfall, Sakura turns to Sasuke.
"You think Naruto will be okay?" Sakura asked.
"Eh, that loser may be many things, but a survivor he'll always be," Sasuke says, as he picks up a soda can. "You would think that tourists would be careful about leaving their trash in our prefecture…"
After a bit, Ranko sits on a large rock.
"Okay, so what's up?" Ranko asked her son.
"Pops, am I…going to be a girl?" Naruto asked, as he sits down besides his "father".
"What brought this on?"
"It's just that…Haku seems so…comfortable being so girly. I figured that if I have this family curse, I'd end up like him. You know, all girly."
"As oppose to those times when you use the 'Sexy No Jutsu' technique on your instructors."
"Well…it's just a distraction technique."
Um, yes. Well, putting THAT aside, you shouldn't care if you become a girl or not. How you behave while a girl is more important. And believe me, I have had a LONG time to deal with me being a girl half the time."
"Oh. Um, so do Kenshin and Genshin have the curse?"
"Yep. All the males that come from me have the family curse. And don't ask me why that's the case. I've been trying to figure that out for years, and I STILL have no idea."
"So NONE of my brothers or whatever have the curse?"
"Hmmm. Well, there is your brother Orion, but his is a special case."
"How?"
"His…father separated the curse from him, and that 'curse' became your sister Atalanta."
"I never heard of this."
"Well, that's because…Orion and Atlanta are no longer with us," Ranko says sadly. Technically, only Orion was killed in battle recently, while Atalanta was sent to live in the future. In fact, Lady Styx had managed to escape from her confinement, and thus has continued her support of the mysterious "God-Killer"… the person who is slaughtering the gods of the Fourth World's "New Genesis" and "Apokolips". As the queen of Apokolips, known simply as "Tiggra", Ranko wonders if this "God-Killer" will soon be showing up on HER doorsteps…
"Oh," Naruto says, as he looks away.
"Yeah, you would have liked Orion and Atalanta. But anyway, my point is that no mater what you look like, you'll always be 'Naruto Uzumaki', the son of Minato and Kushina…who happens to be me and your Mom in a previous life."
"Oh."
Silence.
"How come Mom…doesn't want to be 'hokage'?"
"Politics, son," Ranko says. "Politics-"
"Okay, you can all leave now," says a voice.
Suddenly, Ranko turns her head towards the source. It was the newest "kage" of the Hidden Falls Village, Shibuki.
"What?" Naruto yelled.
"I don't want you guys around here," says the young man.
"Big brother…?" says one of the kids. It was a boy named "Nin", who was with his sister "Ren". They liked meeting new people.
"No, they have to go."
Ranko gets up.
"Sasuke?"
"We already know about the entrance to your village," Sasuke says.
"What?" Shibuki exclaimed.
"Your father was a good friend to the Fourth Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village," Ranko says. "As such, we made a blood oath."
Truth was that Usagi (as Minato) won a drinking contest with Shibuki's father, and became drinking buddies ever since…at least until Usagi "died" fighting the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox.
"Well…FINE," Shibuki replies. "But don't follow us."
"Well, don't WANT to!" Naruto yelled.
"Good!"
"Fine!"
"Humph!" Shibuki and Naruto say together.
Ranko sighed. She was about to say something when she sensed something off. Haku and Sasuke immediately picked up on the same thing.
"Hey, what's going on-?" Naruto began to say. And then-
"AHHHHHH!" Ren screams. "Mommy!"
All eyes turned to an older woman, who lumbered out of the clearing.
"Th-they attacked the village…"
Ranko immediately went to the woman's side, as did Sakura.
"Easy, ma'am, I have you," Ranko says, as she examined the knife.
"It's purely a superficial wound," Sakura says.
"Good," Ranko says. She turns to the others.
"Ukyo, you and Sakura deal with treating this woman."
"Alright, Ranchan," Ukyo says, as she shuts down her grill.
"The rest of us will escort Takikage Shibuki into his village," Ranko says.
"Right!" the others says in unison.
Tbc.