Chapter Four
It Must Go on!
"How long is it gonna take?" Whined Ranma, sitting in the reception office on one seat lined up next to four with Akane right by her side, "Does Mr Antsy Pants in there always needs ta have a twenty minute therapy chat with Goldie locks before he can run the ants outta his pants?"
A moody glower formed on Akane's face while her hands remained neatly folded on her lap. After she and Naruto had taken the bruised Ranma to the infirmary, the nurse had asked if Ranma was a transfer student-of-sorts seeing as she had never seen her before.
One would expect the redhead to simply say, "No way!" And carry on in her merry way, yet that didn't happen. Instead she fumbled for an answer, rapidly shaking her head from side to side as if it would jumbo a magical, convenient answer for her.
Whether the blond actually liked having her around for Akane's sake or he simply pitied her, Ranma would never know, being that he blurted out that she was only now transferring to this school starting from today in a nonchalant manner, which immediately earned him Akane's fury.
The girl was so kind Ranma couldn't help but cling onto her.
"Ugh. I'm not sure what that knucklehead and vice principal Harou need to discuss! The idiot never tells me!" Akane loured, "For all I know they could be plotting to rule the world!"
"Hm. Don't ya need ta have a brain fer that?" Ranma quipped with a smirk.
The redhead's self-satisfied smile was mirrored by Akane, "Woops, how could I forget?" She chirped, her sarcasm not lost on the pigtailed fighter, "I can't even imagine how that idiot would go about taking over the world," She sighed, more for show than anything else, "Good thing he has vice principal Harou to be the brains to his brawns."
"Heh. Then it's Pinkie and the Brain two-point-o," Ranma continued on the trail of mocking Naruto and the vice-principal with a snicker.
Akane was still on the same page as her, "I wonder how many times they'll fail."
"Hmmm. 'Bout as much as the wild coyote and Sylvester fail to snatch birdies," Ranma smirked, "Actually, I take that back. Put Coyote's and Sylvester's losses together, times the total number a' times they've fallen flat on their faces by, hmm, let's say a thousand, and then you'll hit the jackpot!" Ranma released a mock-awed noise, "Whoa, that's a whole lotta times those losers will crash 'n burn trying to overthrow the world. At this point I'm jus' gobsmacked that they ain't burned from the inside out!"
Akane giggled, playfully knocking her shoulder against Ranma's, allowing it to stick there so she could put her head on her newest girlfriend's shoulder. Yuki and Sayuri would love her, too, this Akane was positive of, "Oh Ranma, you're so funny," Akane complimented the smartass redhead.
"Gee. Thanks," Ranma returned, rather shyly, being that she wasn't at all used to interacting with her own age group. Friends-deprived as she was, the redhead valued any-and-all forms of companionship, even on a minuscule level.
Hmm. Perhaps Goldie locks had done her a favour by flinging her pops away to Kingdom Come – even if she couldn't for the life of her get on her hands on some hot water…
Akane eased off of the redhaired young woman's shoulder, allowing the hilarity to drain away out of her system to discuss a serious matter with Ranma, "You know, Ranma, as much as I'm happy that you want an education, unlike some people I know,-" Her voice took on a sharp edge of annoyance, though she quickly banished it to make way for a comforting tone, "-It isn't too late to turn around and leave. I wouldn't want you to think you're obligated to start here just because Knucklehead said you're a transfer student."
"Meh." Ranma shrugged, folding her arms behind her head, "It's not like I got anythin' better ta do."
"What about your daddy?" Akane probed, a concerned expression coming to her face, "Won't he be worried about you?"
Ranma blew off that by making a farting noise and sticking her tongue out, "Ha, heck no. If Pops, by chance, is out looking fer me it's probably only 'cause he wants ta shove an engagement in my face!" She pouted, crossing her arms underneath her gorgeous bosom, "Come ta think of it, I ain't all a' sure myself why Pops even had this engagement cooking up in the works, when he made it clear girls are weak, st-."
The volume of shattering concrete cut Ranma off, eliciting an instinctual stiff small movement out of her, and a wince from her throat. With extended eyes of sudden shock, the redhead slowly turned her head in the direction of the noise, losing the colour in her face at the sight of Akane's fist wedged cleanly into the wall.
She gulped. The murderous intent was filling the room like an unbreathable solidified substance. The redhead felt running out of the school building to get as far away from the erupting volcano that was Akane Tendo as possible would've been in her best interest, yet she was frozen by the malice radiating off of the fiery, passionate girl in shades!
"A-Akane!" Ranma yelped spinelessly.
"Oh that sexist pig!" The fierce young woman roared. If she had chakra, the room would've been reduced to wooden and concrete smithereens. She didn't have chakra, but her tremendous killing intent was still scaring the pants off of Ranma, "I don't care if your father is some hotshot martial artist, I'll beat the stuffing out of him if he even so much of thinks lesser of me just because I'm a girl!"
"Yer sure are reaching fer the stars," Ranma intoned, though her sarcasm went amiss by the passionate preaching young woman, 'What a load a' hot air she's got stuffed up in her noggin. How does Goldie locks even cope with her?' She almost felt sorry for the poor bastard - key word being almost.
'Hehe. It's gonna be hella fun ta blow up Angry Pants here and watch her explode on Goldie locks,' Ranma thought deviously, smirking in a mischievous manner, 'Throw me into a wall, will he? Well let's jus' see how he likes having Akane on his butt like the she-hulk on a mission!'
Let it be known hell had no fury like a woman's scorn.
Ranma blinked owlishly from the sudden starry-eyed, determined smirk Akane sent her, "Ranma, I understand why you don't want to go back to that sexist pig who has the nerve to call himself your daddy, ugh!" The tainted words rolled off of her tongue like poisonous venom, "I think you're very strong to have tolerated your icky father without having resorted to the stuff a boy would've done. You're a good person, Ranma!" Akane complimented with a sweet smile.
It felt very backwards to Ranma in some ways, "Uh-huh. Thanks, I guess," At first she mumbled her appreciation with clear uncertainty in her voice, then afterwards her crossness showed, "What's that ta supposed ta mean anyway?!"
Akane blinked innocently, "What do you mean, Ranma?"
Ranma bristled, finding her own rage slowly, but surely bubbling to the surface, "Bout stooping ta the stuff a guy would do, duh."
Being that it was a (quote-on-quote) 'girl' who she was talking to, and not a guy, say Naruto, the redhead's rudeness was blatantly ignored by the martial artist-in-training. Instead, she gave off what she thought was a disarming laugh, "Oh, you know, boys!"
"O yes, of course. I know, 'cause I'm Mr flippin' know-it-all, huh? That's why I flippin' asked ya!" The rude-girl snapped sarcastically, her eyes lowering in boredom as if her amusement in a game was waning thin, "Why don't cha fill me in on the blanks anyway."
Akane viewed the raging inferno that was Ranma Saotome with a blank look of curiosity, not being able to comprehend why her friend was so mad. Sure she had spoken ill of a guy's mentality, but what normal traditional, moderately powered martial artist wouldn't after getting ganged up on by a group of boys who had deluded themselves that they could be her boyfriend if they had somehow subdued her?
The only boy who Akane had ever known to be a somewhat respectable and decent male human being had been her best friend, Naruto. Sure there was Doctor Tofu, but he was in love with her oneesama, Kasumi. She felt sorry for Doctor Tofu, because he could never talk to her properly, due to his shyness, and had to bare the heart-breaking torture of seeing the woman he 'loved' grow closer to Naruto.
Her heart went out for him. So, putting her own feelings on the shelf, Akane sought to help Doctor Tofu out by taking Naruto off Kasumi's hands, though nowadays she wondered was that such a good idea. Naruto wasn't a ladies-man by any means, but he was an idiot who didn't realize the effect his words had on people. The way he subtly complimented Akane on her femininity, something of which she was very insecure about, left butterflies in her stomach.
It wasn't even like he was trying to get with her either, being that he had straight-up told her this in a blunt manner after catching her fist when she had tried to lunge at him.
In Naruto's mind, he was just complimenting a friend.
Before she knew it Naruto had become one of her closet friends.
She would do anything for Naruto; just like she was sure the blond would do anything for her. He was different from the other boys.
'It must be because of the way her icky daddy raised her,' Akane rationalized, giving the pouting redhead a calculating gaze, 'He must have filled her head with the nasty lie about girls being weak and that she must act all boyish otherwise she'd be weak! Ugh, that pig! I hate him!' Akane felt a deep seed of hatred swell up in the pit of her stomach for Ranma's father, despite not knowing the man personally.
Ranma blinked when both of her hands were brought up in a soothing grip, glancing oddly at Akane's hands, "Oh Ranma, I'm so sorry, I had no idea that pig of father you have has influenced you so badly, going as far as to have you refer to yourself as a icky boy."
"I know what I said damn it!"
"Well don't worry!" Akane declared resolutely, earning herself a bizarre look from Ranma, "I'm going to help you, because that's what friends are for, right Ranma!" Akane chirped, gigging.
'Aw, man. Now she's a gal on a mission!' Ranma moaned mentally, putting a finger to her temple to contemplate to herself, 'Should I tell her my secret?' If she did that she probably wouldn't be able to wind her up by making Akane believe she and Naruto had a fling going on.
It was just so funny getting Naruto into trouble with Akane so sue Ranma!
When a squeaky sound echoed throughout the air, followed by a mass amount of smoke spewing forth into the reception, Ranma and Akane ended up with their fists attempting to plug up hard coughs escaping their throats.
"Ack! Pee you! What that's smell?" Ranma asked with a grimace, "It smells like someone laid an egg in there 'n it hatched to reveal it was a stink bomb! Either that or Dumbo 'n Doofus in there decided ta put their plan into action!"
The dull thumping sound getting closer and closer let both girls know someone was approaching. Looking to the direction of the open door leading to the principal's office, Ranma exhaled a sigh of relief upon seeing it was Naruto who was sauntering out of the room.
"Well it's 'bout flippin time too!" Ranma yelled brashly, "What? Did'ya and dumb-dumb finally settle on a plan ta overthrow the world?" She hopped to feet with a challenging smirk on her face, "Well you'll hafta get through me first pal. 'N I'mma tell ya this, I was only taking it easy on ya the first time. Bet'ta start pickin' 'cause you're taking an all-expensive paid trip back ta America!" After Ranma's quip ended, the redhead winced from the soreness of her back.
"Ranma, take it easy!" Akane recommended, standing up to support the redhead with her arms wrapped around her waist, "The nurse said you're only free to walk around if you've got supervision!"
"Aw, man, this sucks!" Ranma complained, glaring up at the blankly watching Naruto, "What?! If ya got sumthin' ta say, Mr Big Cheese, then come right out and say it!" Yet Naruto didn't say anything; not at all. His eyes just lowered in a half-lidded way, with a lopsided, silly grin crossing his features. If Ranma was being honest with herself, she would admit Naruto made her skin crawl.
"Hmm. Goldie locks," Ranma started, unsure how to put this, "Ya kind of giving me the creeps," Even Akane didn't know what to make of her friend's odd behaviour. She was, however, annoyed like no one's business when Naruto plucked out one of his hands, delicately running his finger-tips through Ranma's hair, "Hey! The heck are ya doin'?"
"Such pretty red hair," Naruto mumbled cheerily, showing the confused girls a toothy grin.
"Uh-uh. Did'ya inhale happy gas while ya were in there, Goldie locks, or do ya jus' gotta fetish fer red?" Ranma quipped questionably, only getting a goofy guffaw from the cheery-looking Naruto caressing her hair, "Oh-kay, I guess I can say that's a bit a' both." She concluded dryly, but immediately felt grossed out when a masculine whisker-tattooed cheek was pressed up against her sulky smooth cheek with a pair of strong arms embracing her, "Hey, would-cha get off of me, ya brain dead moron!" Ranma demanded, trying to wriggle her arms free.
"Ahhhh! Naruto, what are you doing?" Akane shouted, flying off into a rage, "Let go of her now, knucklehead!" With her killing intent once again engulfing the room, basically straggling the terrified redhead, Akane flew from her position to get behind the-high-on-life Naruto, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and desperately trying to pull him away from Ranma.
"Ugh! I said let go of her, idiot!" Akane commanded, her face red from the stress of trying to pry Naruto from Ranma, but it was as if the blond was a rock because no matter how much Akane pulled, Naruto would not budge. Not even a little. "What's wrong with you?"
Akane was knocked back from the Ashura-reincarnation pulling away from Ranma, who was still quivering from Akane's murderous intent. Having been thrown back so suddenly, and against her will no less, Akane was in no position to gain control over her own momentum, made all the more evident by her rapidly flailing arms and wobbling form.
"Kyaaa!"
The youngest Tendo sputtered, aimlessly trying not to fall over, until a tender grip on her wrist halted on her fall in its tracks. Like a magnetic pull, Akane was sucked into a hard muscled chest so fast she ended up putting up her hands as if it would cushion the impact.
"N-Naruto!" Akane said, shyly turning her head away from Naruto, clearly not used to the close proximity the two of them happened to be in, "What are you doing? Someone might see?" Someone other than Ranma, who seemed more content to slow her beating heart down rather than watch Naruto and Akane spoon each other.
Naruto's face morphed into a huge smile of goofiness, "You gotta be more careful, Akane-chan. You could've fallen and hurt yourself, you know. And I wouldn't want one of my precious people to get hurt. No siree, not on my watch!" Nodding sagely to himself, Naruto distanced himself from Akane to journey out of the reception office.
An almost eerily-like silence settled in the smoke-clouded room; the kind of quiet a crowd of unwilling spectators would get after inadvertently witnessing an honourable showdown of guns wielded by two determined gunmen/women. The silence was so deathly and prominent that even if a minuscule sized pin-nail dropped onto the wooden tiled flooring it would echo out to immense proportions.
Once Ranma felt the last remains of Akane's killing intent leave the room she put her observational skills to good use, scanning Akane after the youngest Tendo's close interaction with Naruto. She looked uncomfortable and remarkably flustered.
Ranma's teasing predator instincts were kicking in now.
"So, ya 'n Goldie locks seemed ta be getting real cosy there, eh Akane," A starry-shaped sparkle gleamed in the redhead's eye from watching Akane flinch, 'Gotcha. Now ta go in fer the kill,' Ranma snickered, sounding very much like a mischievous little rascal in the recess of her mind, while Akane fidgeted nervously, "Hey, don't mind me. It's all fine 'n dandy, I was jus' wondering if yer two needed me ta buy yer a room fer the night."
"Ranma!"
Ranma grinned in a manner which gave Akane the (terrified, to her) feeling that it would quickly become her shtick: mock innocence.
"I don't hear an object."
"But I don't even like Naruto in that way!"
"That's what they all say."
"It's true!"
Instead of simply rebutting Akane with an immature 'Nuh-uh', the cheeky redhead chose to rub in what she believed was a definite fact in Akane's face in a way that could be considered even more childishly simplistic than just a straight-up no to someone who had told her the opposite.
She brought it back old school with a teasing song that would make anyone her age palm one's own face just out of the sheer ludicrousness of seeing someone else their age with the mentality of a six year old.
"Akane and Goldie locks sitting in a tree – - first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Akane and Goldie locks with a baby carriage!"
Akane held a finger to her temple as if it would soothe the arching headache she could feel coming on.
"Not another Naruto."
"'N since yer ain't objected, I'll rest my case."
"Ugh."
Ranma grinned.
She was gonna love teasing Akane and Naruto.
XxX
(With Naruto)
"Aw, shit." Naruto groaned, slowly trudging through the hallways, and climbing up the stairs on his way to the top floor, where his class was, mostly so he could clear his clouded head. After the buzz of being high wore off, it left his head rocking as if he had fallen off of a mountain.
"Stupid, doc; he could've waited 'till I had left first before lighting up a smoke. He knows how sensitive I am to that stuff. I didn't even touch that stuff, but I 'till felt like nothing could bring me down to earth."
When he had reached the top floor, Naruto gave a careless shrug to no one in particular, "Oh well, at least that ramen fantasy I got outta it was worthwhile. Hehehe. I was swimming in barbeque pork ramen," Naruto giggled, his backpack hung by his mouth since that where his two hands were, "Oh man! If only I could take a bath in ramen! That would be awesome!"
An idea spontaneously flashed in the deep, empty abyss of his 'brain' like a bright light bulb, and all thanks to Akane-chan.
On days where the sole survivor of the Uzumaki clan had wanted to skip school and do an lie in – which was like every day – Akane would tell him if he studied hard enough in school to earn himself phenomenal grades the time he graduated, he could finally leave the crap-hole that was his apartment and get himself a real posh suite – the kind of places where a badass would live in.
The martial artist kept reminding the shinobi of his goal to leave his apartment and better himself in life with a simple, "If you want out of here, then come to school," being that she had told him a million times earlier during his first few weeks of school if he came and studied phenomenally, he could be rolling around in the big bucks in just a few years.
Lots of cash meant lots of worthwhile stuff Naruto could splurge on himself, like buying a ramen Jacuzzi or something.
"Yay!" Naruto yelled chirpily, "I'm gonna bust my ass off in school to earn me top marks in all classes, so I get me a ramen Jacuzzi!" Now this was a sight for sore eyes, Naruto, aka the number one delinquent in school, sprinting to class as if his life depended on it, "Ramen, ramen, ramen!" The Child of Prophecy sang.
The world must be coming to an end.
After Naruto basically teleported with his outrageous level of speed, the unusual hair-coloured Uzumaki shinobi skidded to a stop outside of a door marked 418, "Alright!" Grinning widely, Naruto gripped the doorknob, swinging open the sliding door to be met with the deadpan stare of a pink-suited man as if he had been waiting for Naruto to do that.
"Yay, the number one ninja Naruto Uzumaki is late for the show, but is always ready to go," Naruto boasted.
Most of the other students allowed silence to reign supreme in this instance to just gaze at the blonde haired shinobi bizarrely, with only two adolescents clearly not on the Naruto-is-crazy-bandwagon not doing such. One was waving cheerily at Naruto, and the other just politely gave Naruto a flick of his wrist in greeting.
"Hehe." Naruto chuckled heartily, straightening his school bag on his shoulder, and rubbing his nostrils with his index finger, before switching his attention from his acquaintances to his unenthused teacher, "What's up, teach? I'm here to rock!"
"Mr Uzumaki," The teacher groaned flatly, knowing he was too old for this, "You're late…" He seemed to drone off, a listless gaze in his eyes, "Your excuse."
"You know, the usual." And Mr Slowpoke did know too, since the vice principal Harou had informed him already that Naruto would most likely be a tad late showing up to his class due to their 'meetings,' "Stuff."
"Very well," His teacher accepted with a drawled out grunt. "Take your seat."
"You got it coach!" Naruto began contently cruising to his desk, though he stopped to look over his shoulder at his teacher, "Oh, and don't worry about me dropping off today, coach! I'm pumped to ace this class, believe it."
The teacher's snort was the very definition of, 'Yeah right.' "Yeah." He said lowly, allowing a few seconds to pass for a pause to linger in the air, "That'll be the day."
Naruto pouted grumpily, but otherwise made his way over to his desk positioned right next to the window, where his only male acquaintances happened to be seated close by to him. One was sat right next to his desk with the other one sitting in front of him.
"Naruto, my man!" Daisuke was the first one to greet the blond being that he wasn't the one who was seated right next to Naruto, and that Hiroshi and Naruto were directly seated behind him. Though, like Hiroshi, Daisuke wore the official Furinkan High School uniform for boys, a navy blue blazer jacket with gold buttons, matched by trousers, and posh black shoes on his feet.
"Hey, guys," Naruto said, holding out an extended arm with an open palm to receive a couple of sideways high fives from Daisuke, followed by Hiroshi seamlessly, "How's it going?" Naruto took his seat next Hiroshi's, carelessly allowing his backpack to drop to the ground.
Daisuke turned around on his chair, leaning his elbow on the back of it with his eyebrows wiggling up and down in a suggestive manner, "Be honest with us, Naruto, you know you can. We're pals," He grinned, "Right?"
Naruto laughed slightly, setting his elbow on his desk to rest his cheek on his palm, "You better believe we are!"
"in that case," Hiroshi said, his own wide grin mirroring Daisuke's at Naruto's admittance to them being friends who could spill their juicy secrets to each other, "You have to tell us!" He firmly stated, a pointed index finger extended and a ludicrous serious expression on his face.
"Eh?"
"You weren't really with the vice principal, were you, Naruto? You were with Akane, enit!" The excited Daisuke declared as if it were a fact of life.
"Eh?" The blond just glanced at the two expectant boys oddly, who both gaped and turned towards each other.
"He did!" Hiroshi gasped with a gawk.
"Eh?"
"You sly dog!" Daisuke complimented.
"Eh?"
"Dude, you're so in there!" Hiroshi chirped with a massive goofy grin.
"Okay."
"You must teach me oh wise one!"
"And me!"
'So that's what they wanted to know,' Naruto internally said, a dull expression on his whisker-marked features, 'Oh brother,' He just hung his head with his two acquaintances beaming brightly at him.
"Ahem." The teacher's clear of his throat got Daisuke and Hiroshi to stiffen their postures, and instinctually spin around to face his flat expression with their hands cupped together on their desks, and their backs straightened upward in a synchronized order, "Zip it."
"Yes-."
"-Sir!"
Daisuke started, Hiroshi finished.
They had clearly been hanging around each other for far too long.
Once the teacher had turned back around to face the chalkboard, Hiroshi took his chance to get Naruto's attention with a tap on his arm, a mission which he proceeded in, "Get me Akane's sister's number, I know you're close to Akane's family. So you can put in a good word for me. Can't you?" Hiroshi whispered with a victorious grin which just screamed, 'You can trust me!'
"And me."
Naruto shook his head, casually taking off his glasses and shifting his attention from the two women-seeking-young men to the window.
'Well, they're better than no company at all.'
And they were nice people.
They get an okay in Naruto's book.
Believe it.
XxX
(A Few Minutes Later)
XxX
"Mr Uzumaki."
"Eh?"
"You were dozing off."
"H-Huh? What? You sure about that coach?"
"That I am." The dubbed Coach said in the same listless tone as he had been using for as long as Naruto could remember, "To my knowledge, I recall a certain rowdy, loud-mouthed self-proclaimed 'ninja' bragging about passing my class with flying colours," He gave his class a low, deep belly chuckle, "How ironic. Wouldn't you…" He paused, purposely slurring his speech with a half smirk, "Believe it…"
A chorus of awed-filled gasps echoed out from the majority of the class, except from one gobsmacked shinobi.
O…o
"Wow. Mr Fujimura just baited Naruto!"
"Ha! My man Naruto'll kick his ass!"
"Girls will be all over him for that!"
"As if!"
"Yeah. I'm not interested in a criminal."
"Jerks!"
"Pervs!"
"Do you think Uzumaki'll really fight Fujimura-sensei, Sayuri-chan?"
"Hmm. Well considering the fact he isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, I say that's a definite possibility."
"Hehe. Yeah, in some ways, I wonder why Akane-chan even stays with him."
"I know! She's so gorgeous. She could get any boy she so desires!"
"Yet she stays with a hooligan like him."
"Ooo. It's like a love story of a princess and a farmer!"
"So romantic!"
Both of Akane's girls – who could in some ways be considered the female equivalents of Naruto's Daisuke and Hiroshi – finished simultaneously, dreamy looks on their eyes.
Naruto snorted in bull-esque, not at all amused in the least at Akane's girlfriends' ridiculing of him or at Fujimura's little jibe at him using his own catchphrase, "Oh no you didn't just go there, coach!" Naruto roared, shooting up to his feet while rolling up one of his sleeves, "You want summa th-."
The slamming of the door cut Naruto off, "Don't even think about it, Naruto!" Akane's thunderous voice slicing through the tension depleted any fight Naruto had in him.
The martial artist carefully walked in to the classroom supporting a limping redhead, whom own shapely hips, and busty breasts got her ogled by a huge portion of the male populace of the class, and even a few females.
"Akane-chan!" Yuki and Sayuri greeted their girlfriend cheerily.
Akane returned their affection with a fond smile, though quickly discarded it to put back on a stern mask to calm Naruto, "Fujimura-sensei has enough on his plate without having to deal with you, knucklehead! So you better behave yourself, got that!" Sayuri and Yuki were simply left in awe at Akane's ability to ground Naruto.
"B-But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but," Naruto repeated aimlessly, but he knew he wasn't winning this one, so he dropped back down on his seat in a grumpy manner, arms crossed over his chest, "Okay, just don't have a cow!" He pouted, but despite his chatty mouth Akane still breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wow, Akane-chan's amazing!" Sayuri complimented.
"She keeps him so well-grounded!" Yuki added.
With a dull expression on his face, Naruto felt a nudge on his right side, causing him to turn his head to see what Hiroshi wanted. Needlessly to say, he was left uninterested by the tears pouring Hiroshi's eyes, "Dude, you're so in there!" The typical everyday student gave the shinobi a thumbs-up.
The shinobi decided to humour him, "Guess so," Naruto mumbled with a shrug, leaving it at that.
Akane huffed, straightening her shoulders to respectfully give their homeroom teacher her full attention, voicing an apology on behalf of Naruto, "I'm sorry about knucklehead over there, Fujimura-sensei."
With the exception of Daisuke and Hiroshi, the male-populace snickered mockingly at the blonde's expertise, while the female-populace – aka the fan-girls - of the class all squealed cheerily at Akane.
Naruto was able to silence most of the males of the class with a deadly glare, though he couldn't put a stop to the girls awing over Akane. In fact his glare over darkened at the sight of a little redhead's taunting grin, 'Humph. It's not that funny, I don't know what she's smirking about!' He sulked moodily.
'She's got ya whipped real good, enit Goldie locks,' Ranma's thoughts were directly solely on Naruto, and though he could do many things, like stop a guy from dying with a simple touch, or even glide through the very clouds themselves, he could not read minds, yet didn't need to in this instance.
Ranma's teasing grin told him all he needed to know.
Mr Fujimura hummed, though either Akane's mind was playing tricks on her, or she could've almost sworn she saw Fujimura frowning. It was hard to tell being that his face was so often just a mask of static strictness, "Hm." He got Ranma's attention as he gave her a scrutinizing gaze, "Who might this be?" As Ranma rose her fist up to her chest to confidently introduce herself, she was halted from doing so by Akane drawing her attention towards her with a tap on her arm.
"What gives?" Ranma inquired.
"Let Fujimura-sensei finish first, Ranma?" Akane said, giving Ranma the benefit of the doubt since it was her first day here.
Ranma blinked, "Eh? He's not done yappin' his gums?" While most of the males in the classroom winced at the redhead's ghetto speak mechanisms, the girls just seemed to be grateful to have another tough girl around school.
Akane just nodded the answer to Ranma's question, prompting her to turn back around to face the flat stare of Fujimura.
"Yes…" He said in a dull fashion.
The hidden guilt swelled up inside of Ranma's gut upon being graced with the knowledge that she had interrupted a slow talking teacher, even only inadvertently.
Ranma rubbed the back of her head in a sheepish manner, "Sorry 'bout this," She attempted to rid herself of the guilt attacking the recess of her mind with an unsure apology.
"Hm." Fujimura let out flatly, the silence lingered for a couple of seconds, "Never-mind," Again, another pause, much to Ranma's blinking curiosity, "You are?" Ranma opened her mouth to speak but chose to simply wait to see if the slow-talking teacher had another thing to say, "And why are you two fifteen minutes late?"
'Sup with Slowpoke? Did he get outta the wrong side of the bed or sumthin?' Ranma mused, and since he hadn't spoken up again she figured it was her turn to speak, "Ranma Saotome, first day."
Akane dipped into a small bow, "I'm sorry for our tardiness, Fujimura-sensei, but Ranma needed to go see the nurse first because a certain someone threw her into a brick wall," The proverbial bright yellow light of accusation was settled over Naruto's head whom found himself on the receiving end of a lot of flat glares.
"Eh? Why's everyone looking at me?"
If possible the deadpanned stares of the students deepened.
"Aw, screw you guys! Why do I gotta be the scapegoat?!"
"Naruto!" Daisuke whined comically, tears running down his cheeks, "How could you?"
"And to think I thought you were so in there." Hiroshi mumbled his disappointment with a shake of his head.
Naruto could only cement his hand on his cheek with his elbow pressed on the desk, a scowl on his whisker-tattooed cheek, "You know, you guys are a couple of jerks."
"I see." Fujimura said, closing his eyes, choosing to ignore the boys, "Will you be fit enough for the remainder of the lesson?"
"Course!" Ranma assured haughtily, "A little shove into a pile a' bricks ain't gonna be 'nuff ta keep me down ya' know," She winced silently from a rush of pain coursing through her body, but still managed a strained, confident smirk, "Yep, just say the word ol' Slowpoke 'n I'm good ta go."
Fujimura let out a low growl, "Smartass."
"She's so brave!" Daisuke gushed.
"I wonder if I can get in there," Hiroshi contemplated, fishing his cell phone out in the blink of an eye.
"Get in line, buddy, because I'm getting-."
"-Her number first!"
"Damn it! Stop stealing my lines, I'm getting her number!"
"No, I am!"
"No, me!"
"Me!"
Akane silenced all the perverted boys with a menacing glare, causing them to whimper audibly, while Ranma just chuckled tauntingly.
Ranma didn't particularly like being a girl, but it turned out she loved taunting boys, rising their hopes to new heights that losers like them could get a fine piece of ass like her, only to ruthlessly crush their hopes with an innocently teasing line such as, "Woops, did I forget ta tell ya, I ain't on the menu."
Revealing her birth gender to any boy thick enough to believe they had actually managed to convince her to let him take her out on a date was another fun thing she liked to do. Oh! That one gave her lots of kicks, watching a boy freak out with the scary realization that he had been hitting on the same sex as him left Ranma guffawing so much her insides would start to hurt.
"Very well," Fujimura murmured, inadvertently bringing a close to Ranma's underhanded thoughts, "You may take your seat," He grunted for a good few seconds, as if he was attempting to clear his throat, "Class won't be finished for another two hours," He explained for Ranma's sake.
"Thank you, Fujimura-sensei," Akane said appreciatively, dipping into another bow to which the teacher hummed off. Once she stood up straight she graced her newest friend with a sweet smile, "Come on, Ranma, I'll show you to your seat. You can sit next to me if you want."
Ranma gave a quick scan of the classroom, spotting two girls dressed similarly to Akane waving them over, 'Must be her buds,' She guessed, eyes still roaming around the room to come to a stop on a whisker-tattooed young man, seeing him idly looking at the window as if he and he alone was seeing something no one else could.
A flash of inspirational brilliance hit her.
"Well, actually," Ranma said, her mischievous snickers earned her a blinking look of confusion from Akane, "I'll park my butt in the space behind Goldie locks."
"What? Why?" Akane questioned, not quite being able to comprehend Ranma's decision, "Why would you want to sit near Knucklehead for, Ranma?" She raised her voice with a pout, eliciting gasps from most of the students barring Naruto and the boys, Daisuke and Hiroshi.
Naruto was clearly too busy with his head in the clouds to pay attention to what was going on, and his acquaintances were squealing cheerily that such a pretty girl was going to be sitting by them.
Ranma offered the perplexed Akane a shrug of indifference, "Whatever he's seeing out there I want in."
"But Ranma-."
"Please," Fujimura said, cutting off Akane, "May you two take your seats."
Ranma gave the sulking Akane a cheeky, bright smile, sweeping Akane's arms off of her person to straighten her backpack, "Well, ya heard the man," She jerked her thumb in the direction of her seat behind Naruto, "Ya go that way, and I go this-o-way."
"Oh, fine then!" Akane finally relented with a hard, frustrated sigh, but despite her annoyance at her friend's desire to sit elsewhere she was still consideration enough to offer her some advice with a batch of concern, "Just promise me you'll be careful getting over there. K."
Ranma nodded without hesitation, "Will do."
"Ohhhhh! She's coming over here!" Daisuke drooled, feeling time slow down witnessing Ranma limping over to them.
"I'm gonna be so in there!" Hiroshi grinned.
The two everyday students winced from the sharp, piercing glare Akane sent them, then cold sweat ran down their faces from the warning the aforementioned youngest Tendo gave them, "Don't even think about it!"
'I wonder how Sasuke's doing.' Naruto idly mused, a bored look on his face as his palm supported his chin.
After Sasuke had quickly tracked Naruto down when they first arrived here in this dimension, the Indra-reincarnation vowed he would find a way home so they could seal Kaguya, but that was a while ago, a good long while ago too.
"Hm." Naruto felt a pair of fingers flicking rudely off of his skull, his senses immediately telling him who was right by his side, so he averted his attention away from the window, and to a smiling redhead, "It's you," Naruto said with a neutral expression, "You okay, is something bothering you?"
"Just wanted ta let ya know it looks like we're gonna be neighbours, buddy," Ranma replied in kind, hiding her disappointment at having not annoyed Naruto with her flick off of his head.
Naruto gave Ranma a questioning stare but she only tossed her thumb behind herself in the direction of Hiroshi and Daisuke whose wide grins were all the confirmation Naruto needed.
"Well okay then," Naruto said, "Anything you need feel free to ask."
"O, you can count on it," Ranma said, her gleaming eyes gave Naruto the impression he didn't know what he had bargained for, but he would soon find out.
'Hmmmm. I don't like the look of that,' Naruto thought cautiously, defensively eyeing Ranma slide her backpack-straps out of her arms, before taking her place behind the blonde's own seat. With Ranma no longer in view, Naruto could clearly see Hiroshi giving him a thumbs-up with tears in his eyes.
"Dude, you really are in there!"
"When am I ever not in there to you?" Naruto said, more to himself than to Hiroshi, a deadpan look on his face. While Fujimura begin his lesson, Naruto rested both of his arms on his desk, using them as a makeshift pillow for his head, 'Well! I might as well get some shut eye until lunch time.'
"Okay, class. Kindly take out your textbooks and turn to page forty five." Fujimura commanded.
Excluding Naruto, while the majority of the class covered their desks with their school bags to bring out their textbooks, a hand went up into the air, "Yo, teach," Ranma called out in an unconcerned fashion.
"Yes, Miss Saotome." He growled inwardly to the reference of his professional, 'Another one.' A dark glare formed in his eyes, which were honing in on Naruto like an automatic missile launcher, 'One day,' His thoughts reflected the glooming fierce stare in his eyes, 'You'll get yours, Mr Uzumaki.'
Ranma cringed at the reminder of her current gender, but managed to suck it up; it would be all worth it in the end, "Ain't got a book." Ranma explained.
"Hmm." Fujimura droned, opening up a drawer, before fishing his hand in there, "You're in luck, I have a few in stock."
"Whoopee doo to me then," Ranma said sarcastically.
"Indeed," He stalled, looking at Naruto, "Mr Uzumaki!" He raised his voice to get Naruto's attention, though was rather disappointed when the boy merely rose lifted up his head slightly, a listless expression on his face.
"Eh?"
"Since you seem so bored, why don't you make yourself useful by bringing Miss Saotome her book?"
The shinobi straightened the upper part of his body completely, giving his arms a good stretch, while letting out a yawn, which came out prematurely due to the spike of killing intent the blonde's senses picked up radiating from the martial artist. He bashfully turned his head to the sight of a glaring Akane.
"Na-ru-to!" Akane gritted out, intensifying her glare with every profound of Naruto's name which slid begrudgingly from her lips.
"Whoa, Akane-chan's scary," Sayuri whispered sheepishly.
"I almost feel bad for Uzumaki," Yuki murmured, much in the same fashion as Sayuri.
"Oh boy, me thinks I'm in trouble," Naruto said, although he dreaded the inevitable scolded he would get from Akane, he still laughed humourlessly, "Hehe." He scooted out of his seat and looked over his shoulder, seeing Ranma grinning teasingly at him, "Leave it to me, Ranma! I'll have your book to ya in a jiff."
"Well ain't ya the gentleman," Ranma chirped sarcastically, leaning her elbows on her own desk, intertwining her fingers together to act as a makeshift resting place for her chin, "I betcha must get all the birds falling at yer feet, right maestro?"
Naruto cringed, "No," He nervously spared a glance at an ultra-fuming blue haired Tendo, "What makes you say that anyway?"
"Oh 'nuthin!" Ranma beamed, "I was jus' wondering what I should call ya, Johnny-on-the-spot or Casanova?"
Naruto shrugged to Ranma's supposed dilemma, "Johnny-on-the-spot sounds good." His neutral response earned him a surprised flinch, followed by odd blinking from the Saotome heir.
Ranma nodded casually, making a shooing motion with her fingers, "Then hop ta it." The blond shinobi saluted her, before marching off to fetch her new textbook, "Moron," She muttered, keeping it underneath her breath so only she would hear it.
Naruto completed his task to get Ranma's book to her in record time, unceremoniously dropping it on her desk, "One textbook hot on the rocks," The blond declared in a joking manner.
"Ta," Ranma mumbled her appreciation.
Naruto gave her a firm nod, and then retook his place by his own desk, shaking his arms as if loosening the tension within them. As he moved his arms to the surface of his desk, it clicked in his head that he was missing something, 'Uh-oh. I better get my own book out to make it look like I'm studying.'
With a sheepish giggle escaping his lips, Naruto lifted his two-strapped school bag from the floor, and to his lap, so he could unzip it, 'Now let's see here.' He fished his hand into his bag, 'No, no, ah! Bingo!' He pulled out a bright red book out of his bag before dropping it carelessly to the floor again.
'All right! It's a good thing I don't study, otherwise I wouldn't have been so sure I even had this thing on me or not!' Grinning sneakily to himself, Naruto opened up his textbook to a random page of a huge obese guy wearing old fashioned posh clothes, then placed his book on his desk to act as a cover for his resting head.
'Hehe. I'm so smart!' Naruto boasted with his head perched on his desk, snickering. He took in a few breaths, willing himself to relax, 'Now I can get back to counting ramen in my sleep, believe it!'
Before the darkness could fully carry him away to that awesome place known as the realm of sleep and relaxation, he felt a rough object bounce off of his spiky blond hair, causing him to mumble his lips, and scrunch his face.
Upon opening his eyes, Naruto saw a screwed-up piece of paper on his desk, "What's this?" He wondered, sitting up straight and gripping the balled-up paper in his hand. He unfolded it with a perplexed scratch to his hair, smoothing the paper out to make out the words on it.
*I know your secret*
With a deadpan look being written on his face, Naruto positioned his elbow on the back of the chair, and shifted his body, so he could interact with a smirking redhead face to face, "Really?"
"Mr Uzumaki." Fujimura said sternly, drawing Naruto's attention to the front of the class, "You know the rules, no talking in class," He jerked his arm in the direction of the classroom's door, "Buckets."
It left Naruto speedily poking his index fingers in the culprit's direction, who was just whistling innocently, "Eh? Wait! It's not my fault I swear it! I was fram-."
With a dumbfounded expression being painted all over his whisker-marked face, it fell on the blond-haired young man that he would be getting a free pass to skip class.
"Yeah, you're right. What was I thinking?" Naruto asked with a sly smile and a cheeky wink.
The blond picked up his sunglasses and left his now vacant seat in one smooth motion, "Buckets it is, then! Heh! That will show me real good, coach!" Marching contently towards the exit, humming a jaunty tune to himself, he completely disregarded the odd inquisitive looks of the other students and a grumping Akane.
XxX
(Tendo Dojo)
Soun Tendo, martial arts extraordinaire and master to the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, was many things.
A coward – sure; after all why take the option to fight, only to damage yourself if there was another, more simple, far less painful option to take?
A sloth – well, why do something today that you can do tomorrow? It helped when your daughter was an extremely independent strong young woman due to the fact she had followed your training program.
Overly dramatic – perhaps, but what single father wouldn't be? Bottling your emotions up was quite foolish if Soun Tendo said so himself.
Too chirpy – He had to put on the happy face for his three lovely daughters now to give off the illusion everything was going to be okay despite the loss of their light.
The darkest, most depressive day of Soun's life was the death of his beloved wife. Oh, how could fate be so cruel, throwing him and his family such a tragedy at such a high point in their lives? Akane had just grasped walking so well to the point she'd run all over the place, buzzing around so jovially it warmed her family proud.
But then the dark time hit like an abrupt period. Mrs Tendo was rushed into hospital after collapsing spontaneously in the kitchen while tending to her housewife duties. The doctor deduced that she was terminally ill, and that even their best medical doctors would not save her in time.
Soun didn't care. He demanded they try everything within their power to save his precious wife, but it seemed even Soun's wife had accepted her inevitable fate.
It filled Soun with an overwhelming sense of sadness hearing confirmation from his wife's very own lips that her demise was approaching, yet he stubbornly denied it. He grabbed her hand, dramatically vowing her that she would live no matter the cost.
And thus was the founding of the guilt that pegged at Soun's soul when the doctors informed him the very next day his wife had given up the fight for survival, the illness had won.
The loss of his wife was so great it destroyed any inspiration Soun once held for the art. This wasn't to say he didn't hold love for martial arts, and his school in general anymore, he just couldn't bring himself to train or dedicate his all into finding all styles, be it pro wrestling or the ways of the ninja, Soun would pick up what he could from those styles to merge them with his own.
After all if he couldn't even accomplish his goal of safely curing the illness which took his dear wife then how could he even hope to take his school to new, unreached, glorious heights?
He couldn't fulfil his goal, but a younger, more invigorated heir could.
He needed Saotome's son to marry one of his lovely daughters, so he could carry on their legacy. Even before his wife died, Soun had been well aware of his age. He knew eventually as time goes on, he'd soon lose his power as old age claimed him.
Soun Tendo – current master of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts – was many things, but a liar, he was not. He was positive Ranma was a boy, she…he had to be. Ranma just had to. Saotome wouldn't play a joke on him in a matter of such great importance as this!
No! Never! Soun would not believe it to be so!
Saotome knew as well as Soun did that their school was slowly dying out after they had *ahem* 'disposed' of the founder of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts.
Though at a time they would've loved nothing more but to blossom the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts' reputation, they knew their limits, as humans. Humans grow old and frail, that was a curse of being human. The one positive about being human was that humans could reproduce, thus passing down their knowledge and skills to their progenies, so they could continue on their legacy.
It was decided even before Ranma or anyone of Soun's daughters came into fruition that Soun and Genma would marry their kids to one another so they could carry on their parents' legacy.
Akane was a great martial artist and all, but in this stay and age the males dominated in all categories. People would be more inclined to study elsewhere, under what they believed to be a more competent male teacher rather than risk studying under an inferior female instructor, in their biased opinions.
It was sad, but no matter how much Soun trained Akane he still needed a male heir, for only a male heir would truly take the Anything Goes style to new heights.
'Saotome, where on earth could you be old friend?' Soun contemplated, taking a drag of a lit up cigarette. He had only just woken up, finding himself covered in a blanket with a pillow resting underneath his head.
After waking up Soun retrieved his cigarettes from the hidden compartment in the living room and moved to position himself on the edge of the porch, sitting in seiza there with a cigarette held in between his fingers, finding the inhale of tobacco momentarily coursing through his system soothing.
It was exactly what Soun needed in a time as stressful like this, the time of deep contemplation. Oh, the horrors! But a last it must be done.
Oh how could God's almighty divine will be so ruthless to him? It made him want to cry, but no! He wouldn't shred a single tear, not when his precious daughters needed a strong father around the house.
Another drag was needed to settle his rampaging emotions threatening to spiral out of control. It was as if all of his current worries were being lifted off of his shoulders, but sadly, the moment of tranquillity was only temporarily.
"Did Saotome get… side-tracked along the way here?" Soun felt a deep, cold fear weighing the equivalent of ten hippopotamuses drop lifelessly inside of his empty, tunnel-like, stomach, with the sound echoing out for miles.
From what he could recall of last night's mini controversy, Kasumi and Naruto didn't run into a 'middle-aged' man, but a panda, as stated by Soun's lovely daughter, Kasumi.
"I say, wasn't there a panda on the back of the postcard Saotome sent me," Soun prodded. Admittedly, it was quite the ridiculous thought; his old friend – Saotome – as a panda. How would he accomplish such a feat of transforming himself into an animal?
"Haha," Soun chuckled chirpily, "What an absurd idea that is, Saotome as a panda!" That was about as believable as the evil master suddenly reappearing as a changed man. That was impossible. After all, one couldn't teach an old dog new tricks.
But Soun still couldn't shake the feeling he was missing something. It was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn't quite get it. It must have had something to do with that letter, because after all, why would Saotome send a postcard with a specific picture of a panda on the back if he wasn't allied with the savage animals?
"Hmm. Perhaps I'll check that letter Saotome sent me one more time," Soun decided, placing his cigarette in his ashtray to pat himself down, trying to tell by touch alone what part of his gi he had placed the postcard inside of, "Now that's odd, I could've sworn I had it on me." Soun picked himself up off of the ground and made his way into the living room.
"Now where'd I put that blasted thing?" Soun enquired rhetorically, clear frustration lacing across his brow. He scattered from one place of the living room to the other, with his hands a blurring motion the whole time, sorting through their valuables in the hope he could find what he was looking for.
"No," Soun stressed, a hand grasping the side of his head, "Where could it be?" Realizing there was one place in the living room that he hadn't checked, Soun dropped to his knees, crawling over to the table to search underneath its confines using his hand.
"Ah, father. You're awake." Soun paused in his searching for Saotome's letter at the sound of Kasumi's relieved, cheery voice. Glancing up, Soun found his eldest daughter standing in the entrance of the living room with a basket full of clothes in it.
"Ah, Kasumi-dear," Soun said, rather startled by Kasumi's sudden appearance. He struggled to explain his actions, "I was just looki-." Though he realized in the long run the explanation didn't matter being that he could just ask the oldest Tendo sibling had she seen the letter Saotome sent him.
"Never mind, dear," Kasumi blinked curiously at her coughing father, "You wouldn't happen to have seen Saotome's letter, have you dear?" Soun gave his daughter a hopeful, chirpy wide grin.
A look of understanding drowned on Kasumi's face, "Oh, Mr Saotome's letter," The Tendo patriarch just managed to hold himself back from squealing happily upon seeing Kasumi's smile of tenderness, "I placed it in your studies."
"Oh thank goodness," Soun breathed a sigh of relief, "I'll go take a look at it now."
"How come father?" Kasumi enquired, a blink of innocence catching Soun's eyes.
Soun stepped beside his daughter, "Well, it's," He paused, finding it difficult to put into words to piece together his theory, "I have a hunch that nice fellow you and Uzumaki-kun met with Ranma-kun… yesterday may, in actuality, be Saotome himself," Soun explained, calm for the most part other than cringing slightly at adding an honorific more suited for males than females on the end of Ranma's name.
"You mean Mr Panda?" Kasumi queried.
"Yes, that fellow," Soun confirmed with a straight-face.
"Are you sure, father?" Kasumi enquired softly, not wanting to come off as rude to her father by bluntly revealing his theory sounded quite farfetched, "He was only a nice panda."
"-A panda that was with Ranma-ku… Ranma around the time you and Uzumaki-kun met hi-. Her," Soun pressed on, hastily correcting himself.
His near-slip-ups were not messed by his innocent daughter, who gained a small knowing smile on her face, "Father, I think," She paused to sugar-coat her statement to her father, "-You may still consider Ranma-chan as a boy," Soun's wince was all the confirmation she needed, "Why is that? Do you still want one of us to marry her?"
"Kasumi, why I never would've imagined such a day would come!" Soun exclaimed dramatically, though after a moment's thought, he nodded his head in understanding, crossing his arms over his chest, "Well, I suppose I'm partly at fault for not telling you of the legacy Saotome and myself had been building before any of you, my lovely daughters,-" He cooed with a chirpy smile, "-Were even born. But, regardless of the fact of whether you had knowledge prior to our decision to carry on our legacy through our children, it must be passed down to our children. The Anything Goes School of Martial Arts is near extinction, dear. Saotome and I will do everything in our power to see to it that our school lives on for many happy and joyous years to come… even after our deaths."
"Oh father," Kasumi sighed lightly, fidgeting a little to avoid her tiring limps falling asleep.
"I hope you understand, dear," The blank, bland expression that quite obviously betrayed none of Soun's thoughts or emotions were more clear than a thousand words explaining precisely the same point.
He meant business.
"But father, I really don't want to marry a younger girl," Kasumi reluctantly confessed, her voice little louder than a murmur.
"Nonsense! If Saotome can hide as a panda, then I see no reason why the lad wouldn't dress up as a girl!" Soun reasoned happily, smiling victoriously. He didn't even need a reason for why Saotome and his 'son' would pose as an animal and a female. Just knowing they did was enough for him.
"I would much prefer to marry an older man," Kasumi mumbled her admittance.
"Then Nabiki will have to marry the lad!"
"Do you really think Nabiki-imouto will have any desire to settle down with one man, father?"
"Ah! Good point! Well that just leaves Akane-de-."
"Naruto-kun won't like that."
Soun cringed, slumping his shoulders, while glancing depressively at his daughter's bland expression, "Oh! How could fate be so cruel?" He moaned in exaggeration, sobbing.
"I'm sorry, father," Kasumi whispered in an apologetic fashion, wishing her hands were free so she could offer Soun a few comforting strokes on the back. She just continued to murmur soothing words to her sniffling father, "Things may be look bleak now, but I'm sure the future holds many happy moments for us all, so please don't be sad."
Soun rubbed his eyes, straightening himself, "You're right, dear. There's still always Nabiki-dear. Although she may not like the lad right now, but I'm confident she will if Ranma-kun proves he's a well-mannered lad with lots of,-" money, "A-Assets," He filled in the blanks sheepishly, "Yes. Why, she might even grow fond of the lad!" He ended with an optimistic chirp.
Kasumi could only sigh deferentially at her father, "Oh father."
Soun nodded his head firmly, "Now if you'll excuse me, dear, I must head to my studies to check the letter Saotome sent me. I'm sure he would've been here by now had you and Uzumaki-kun not met Ranma-kun yesterday."
"Naruto-kun wouldn't hurt Mr Saotome."
"Then why hasn't Saotome arrived here yet with Ranma-kun? What was the panda doing with Ranma-kun in the first place?" Soun attempted to reason. He didn't want to challenge his precious daughter, being that he could never find it in him to castigate anyone of his beautiful daughters, but he was desperate to prove a point.
Kasumi smiled, "Well they were fig-." Her smile fell off of her face, a reluctant look of sad acceptance taking its place.
"I hope I've made my point clear, dear," Soun said, his voice mild.
"But maybe Mr Panda and Ranma-chan were sparr-." Kasumi stopped her defence when a remembrance of Naruto protecting Ranma from Mr Panda's sneak attack flashed through her mind. Even she knew, one simply doesn't throw themselves in harm's way in a practise match.
"Yes, dear."
"It's nothing father," Kasumi conceded, forcing a smile on her face.
Soun nodded, "Splendid," He began dawdling away from his oldest daughter, "Then it's settled! I shall have Saotome and Ranma-kun here in a week… I hope. Fear not! This is the beginning of a happy future for Ranma-kun and Nabiki-dear, I can assure it!"
"Of course, father," Kasumi agreed dutifully, waiting until her father's footsteps were out of earshot before letting out a sigh, "Oh, I do hope father won't be too disappointed in me for debating with him in this matter," Kasumi pivoted on her heels, traipsing towards the kitchen, "I do hope father won't be too sad if Nabiki-imouto doesn't want to marry Ranma-chan."
She would cling onto the small hope that her father would forget all about chosen heirs and heiresses to live a happy life.
XxX
(Furinkan High School)
XxX
"Hmm-mmm, on bucket-duty, yes siree. And I'm gonna do my very damn best at it!"
Another one of the finer points of Furinkan High School, standing outside of the classroom holding two buckets filled with cold freezing water. Score!
The oddly hair coloured shinobi of the most traditional redhaired Uzumaki clan had to use every last ounce of willpower coursing through his veins to keep himself from doing a crazy, silly victory dance in the hallway.
Oh! Who was he kidding? He did dance and more, all to give Fujimura-sensei a reason to leave him outside, instead of recalling him into class to be apart of the snore fest. Boring!
Would he be getting a scolding from Akane-chan? Well, yeah! That's obvious, but is the eventual ear full from Akane worth it to miss one boring lesson?
Hell yeah!
You better believe it!
Not to say he didn't try and pay attention in class, being that he told himself he would, it was just so boring. This school was almost exactly like the academy, with the difference being a big one, and one that Naruto didn't particularly like.
No training. At all.
Normal blows.
Learning to fight like a badass ninja in the academy had easily been the best part for Naruto in his tedious time in the academy. That was what Naruto dreamt about in his sleep back in his early childhood years; going to the academy to be taught to run off walls, learn cool jutsus, kickass fighting styles, and other cool stuff, yeah!
But then the handwritten stuff came up, ugh! Just thinking about studying was enough to sour Naruto's mood. It was so lame; right up there with chakra control, sitting perfectly still with a green leaf on his head. That!
Though, if he was being honest with himself, Naruto would admit the day when he and his fellow delinquents sprinted out on Iruka after the chunin-trainee had instructed them to keep leaves on their foreheads using their chakra as a way to help improve not only their control, but also their concentration.
'Yeah. We really slacked off back then,' Naruto thought with a sigh of fond reminiscence. He remembered the day, as if it was only yesterday, of him and Kiba reading manga in the training hall, with Choji stuffing his face with crisp, and Shikamaru… Heh. He was just chilling, and that was putting it mildly.
The guy was probably riding clouds in his sleep.
Those were the days.
Before nostalgia could truly submerge Naruto in its endless sea of memories, a rough cushy object bounced off of his whisker-decorated face, abruptly covering his sunglasses-clad eyes, and obscuring his view of the window displaying the wonderful outside world. With his face as blank as a cleaned up chalkboard, he picked up the sounds of snuffing followed by a thud.
"What's this?" Naruto wondered, finding his answer himself just by turning his head downward, "Hey, my schoolbag!" This, now this right here meant a good sign; the indication that class had ended. Booyah!
Naruto turned his head at the sound of an annoyed huff, grinning widely at Akane. Only now did he take notice to the students rapidly filling the hallway to head elsewhere, "Hey, Akane-chan!" He greeted perkily.
"Oh, now you want to talk!" Akane questioned with her fury increasing, making Sayuri and Yuki grin nervously behind her.
Naruto winced, silently wishing he could at least knock the taunting grin off of Ranma's face, "Well… you se-."
"Just save your excuses for the jury, bub-!"
"-'Cause the judge's already declared ya guilty!"
Akane rewarded the quick witted redhead with a prideful smirk, "What she said!"
Naruto held out his arms to the sides, disappointedly shaking his head from side to side as he basically folded in this round, "So, I guess it's lunch time, huh?"
Akane fumed, "I bet you would be happy about that huh!" It was more of a statement than a question.
"Can't lie there," And Naruto easily admitted such in a simple relaxed fashion. He turned his head to the left with a look of understanding being painted on his face, "So I'm guessing the guys went on without me, huh?" Ranma lifted a eyebrow, looking a cute kid with a face of curiosity.
How did Goldie locks know the guys from his loon squad had headed in the direction?
"Obviously!" Akane just groused, "Honestly, if you wasn't too busy zoning out you would've known they decided to play soccer in the playground! They were waving their hands in front of your face Knucklehead!"
Now that look of surprise which appeared on Naruto's face was worth more to Ranma than a trip back to China, "Woops," He knew goofed, 'Was I that out of it?' He shrugged, 'Oh well, it's not like I wanted to play soccer or anything. I would rather just chow down on some ramen now,' He chuckled.
"No matter, I'll catch up to 'em later," Naruto decided, bending to swoop his backpack before coolly positioning it on his shoulder, his typical easy-going foxy grin on his face, "I'm starved," Turning his back on the ladies, Naruto rose his hand up, "So if you don't mind I go-."
"Not so fast you!" Akane curtly demanded, washing Naruto's face clean of any anticipation or happiness, leaving an expression of clear lack of response.
"S'up?" Naruto asked.
Akane stiffly turned away from Naruto, tossing a thumb in a grinning redhead's direction, "You're taking Ranma with you?"
Ranma casually ambled forward, "Looks like ya'll have someone sitting at yer table Goldie locks," She quipped in a teasing fashion.
Naruto's head fell to the one side with a clueless look, "Eh?" Akane rolled her eyes, "Not that I'm not happy that you want to eat with me but… why?" Naruto enquired, arms now crossed over his chest and eyes squinted, searching for the right words to phase his explanation, "Yeah, let's go with that? Why?"
Ranma just offered him a shrug, "Akane said ya chow down on the rooftop, right?"
"Right."
"Seems like a swell spot ta stuff yer face in ta me, and yer my ride anyway, so yeah," Ranma laughed as if she knew herself she wouldn't buy this even on her worst day, though she looked at Naruto with a shining gleam in her eye, "'Sides, a little one on one sounds right 'bout up my alley, now. Whaddya say, pal," Her lecherous tone may have not gotta her desired response from Naruto, it was still enough to get Akane to whirl on her with a disbelieving expression on her face.
Sayuri and Yuki's expression could basically be related to two audience members viewing Jerry Springer front row-and-centre.
Naruto, for the most part, let out a long drawled out hum, complete with his patented squinted eyes he did whatever he was in deep contemplation or just outright frustrated. He came up blank even with Akane's heated glare honed on him.
"Alrighty, then," Naruto said, pivoting on his heels so his back was facing Ranma, "Hop on the Naruto express."
"First class here I come," Ranma retorted with a smirk, leaving Akane sputtering aimlessly, while Yuki and Sayuri both let out anticipated noises which left Naruto perplexed, 'Just like hopping on a bike.' Ranma thought wearily to herself, positioning her hands on Naruto's shoulders. With a quick deep breath, Ranma hopped once, ignoring the surge of pain to instead clamp on her legs on Naruto's hips.
"You okay? Did you have any problems getting on?" Naruto questioned.
"Yuuup…" Ranma said in a high pitched voice, mustering up a pained grin and a shaky thumbs-up, "I hardly even broke a sweat." When Naruto nodded, Ranma dropped her smirk to glare grumpily at the top of her carrier's crown, 'Just ya wait, Goldie locks. Wait 'till I'm finished with ya. Ya'll be begging me ta cover my tracks! Hahahaha! There's just no stopping this crazy genius!'
"Cool," Naruto said with a grin, Akane settling for a moody scowl, "Now we can get going!" Excitement was surging all through Naruto who couldn't stop, but a chirpy humming tune on his starting few steps to the cafeteria, "I'm hungry, and only a fresh served happing batch of ramen can settle my hunger!" He drooled.
His declaration of ramen caught Akane's attention whom expression symbolized that something had clicked within the recess of her mind, "Oh, yeah! That reminds me!" With her anger pushed aside, Akane rose her arm up, "Hey, Naruto!" She called, dropping her arm to reach into her handbag.
Naruto stopped, half turning his body to get a look at Akane fishing through her handbag, "Yeah Akane?" He said inquisitively, "What is it?" He winced silently from a neatly wrapped small rectangle object shoved into his face, "Oh, it's that?" He laughed humourlessly, "Yay."
"I made you dinner!" Akane declared cheerfully, a sweet smile on her face.
Ranma covered her mouth with her two hands, trying to strife her snickers upon picking up on how bipolar Akane was, 'She's 'bout as two-sided as a coin.'
"Mmm, yeah," Naruto said, a nervous sweat building on his face, "I… err, hmm."
"Well!" Akane probed hastily, her smile still glued on her face.
"It's, uhm, not that I don't want to try your cooking, Akane-chan," To Ranma's curiosity, Naruto took two steps back, holding up his hands, still offering his confused a sheepish grin, "I-I… uhm… ya' know, just had a craving for ramen. Otherwise I would totally chow down on your cooking any day."
Naruto gave Akane what he hoped was a winning smile.
It didn't get bought. Buying his explanation was the furthest on Akane's mind. Instead, she lowered her head with an almost sad look on her face, "So that's it huh?" The blond winced sharply, folding up his lips, "You'd rather prefer to stuff your face with your precious ramen than save yourself some money by eating the cooking I worked hard to make… just for you!" She got teary-eyed, eliciting sympathetic expressions to appear on the faces of Yuki and Sayuri's faces, whom both stepped up to flank her on either side to comfort her.
"It's alright Akane-chan. He doesn't know what he's missing."
"Yeah. Jerks like that never appreciate anything."
"N-No!" Naruto was quick to attempt to clear up any misunderstandings, "It's not like that… I swear!"
Akane gazed back up, her sadness left the stage and her fury came sliding back out on its knees in full effect, "What is it then?"
'Flipped!' Ranma smirked, her cheeks puffing up from the failing attempt to hold in her snickers.
"It's just…" Naruto weakly tried.
"It's just what!?" Akane bellowed. The stubborn girl shot out her arms in a forward motion with a stern look, "I worked hard to make this for you, knucklehead! The least you could do is try it!"
"Yeah! You should be grateful to have someone as kind and well talented as Akane-chan looking after you."
"Jerk."
Naruto held a palm to his forehead, wincing at the bento box practically shoved in his face while Akane expectantly waited for him to take it, her firm stance never yielding, "All right," The blond folded, grasping the box with both hands, before pulling it away from Akane, "I'll just stuff my face with this, then." Naruto relented, 'There's just no winning against Akane-chan.'
"You're damn right you will!" Akane stated as if it was as true as the sky being blue and the grass being green. While Naruto let out a sigh, Akane looked up at the redhead perched contently on his back, a smirk on her face, "And I'll be checking with Ranma to make sure you've eaten every last bite mister!" Her tone went sweet as she addressed Ranma, "I'm sure I can count on you for that, right Ranma?"
"Oh, do you even need ta ask?" Ranma said with her own smirk.
"Nope!" Akane chirped, "You hear that, Naruto? I've got my eyes on you!" She smirked in an exceedingly arrogant manner.
Naruto sighed, "Fine," He mumbled, offering up a painfully obvious sheepish laugh, "I… didn't even want ramen anyway. Yup. This is all I need…" He gave Akane what he hoped was a reassuring grin but apparently she saw right through it since she huffed, looking away from Naruto.
With a sigh, Naruto turned around, dawdling away from the girls, "Let's get going Ranma."
"Heh. I betta buckle up then!" Ranma gushed jokingly, "'Cause the first stop cafeteria!"
"Eh?"
"What? Did'ya think you were the only one who could eat a horse?" Oh that was cute, "Betta think again bud? I got 'nuff room in this guy a' mine ta pack away a mansion! Now I wonder what I should go fer that can satisfied me?" She made a show of placing her finger to her chin, humming in thought, "I know," A excessively wide wry grin developed on Ranma's face, "Yep. I know just the thing that'll do the trick."
The suggestive way Ranma was talking after Naruto with a dreaded feeling deep in his gut as a mystified expression on his face, "Hehe. You don't mean…" He swallowed hard, too not wanting to finish in case by some chance Ranma wasn't contemplating his all-time favourite meal.
"Hey, yer not as dumb as you look."
That confirmed it.
Now Ranma just had to play the waiting game with an expectant smirk on her face.
"In three, two, one…"
"Nooooooooooo!"
Ranma snickered.
"Okay! That's never gonna get old!"