Authors notes: Having trouble focusing on some other projects because of this idea, which has been getting seriously out of hand. I figure writing it down and posting it should keep my mind a bit more on track. Anyway, this is a crossover fic mainly between Ranma ½ and Naruto. Although some other series will show up more then likely Yu Yu Hakusho and Sailor Moon as they would notice a giant demonic presence in Tokyo...or at least I would hope so. Might throw in Inuyasha and Mamono hunter yoko for the same reason, or any other demon hunting group I can think of... All anime characters belong to their respected owners. Wait... let me repeat that....

DISCLAIMER: All anime/mange characters belong to their respected owners.

Yeah, that should do. On with the story. As a timeline note, this is before Ranma ½ starts and after the Zabusa/wave country story arc in Naruto.

Chapter 1: Three weeks

It had been three weeks since Naruto Uzumaki disappeared after finishing a relatively simple C rank bodyguard mission. There were quite a few people who were quietly celebrating the disappearance of the last traces of the Demon Fox from the village, however there were others who were more concerned over the idea that the Fox had run away from the village because it planned to attack it, not a very uncommon thing among missing nins. Only a handful of people were actually concerned over the whereabouts of the twelve year old Gennin that had disappeared. Kakashi sighed as he stared silently at the group picture of Team 7 he kept near his window. That was the unfortunate truth in the matter. Because of his past, very few were willing to help locate one missing twelve year old boy. Most of those who did help had been assigned to the task by the Hokage, who was one of the few outside of Team 7 that was concerned. From the pieces of information that had been gathered. Kakashi had a fairly good idea what had happened, but this didn't make the search any easier. After having escorted a client to a remote shipping village, he had let Team 7 wander the town. Seeing as how the ports only handled cheap foreign goods, and that travelers rarely came through these parts. The chances of running into trouble were highly unlikely. It wasn't all that surprising Naruto somehow managed to come across some. Exactly what happened was still a mystery, but somehow Naruto wound up in one of the outgoing cargo boxes, whether by choice or by force was still unknown. Kakashi had only figured this out after the ANBU recovered a Leaf head protector in a packaging crate. Since these protectors were a symbol of the village it wasn't likely one would just be lying around like the ANBU reported. The box that Naruto had been stuck in had traveled through sixteen different ports all across the world, and just to make things more complicated. Somewhere along the line, Naruto had obviously gotten off the boat. Kakashi sighed as his attention returned to the various shipping manifests that he had spent the last week paging through. None of this was going to help find Naruto. He sighed as he wondered where the boy was now.

At that very moment, the boy in question was lying on his back in an open field hundreds of miles away. He was wearing his usual combination of orange jacket and pants. Although he lacked his kunai and shuriken holster as he had long lost what little he had originally had. He still kept one spare kunai in the pouch on his waist though. Since his head protector was lost he had gone back to the mask like goggles he had worn during his academy days, although he rarely wore them over his eyes. Staring up at a cloudless sky he wondered what everyone in Konoha was doing. So much had happened in the last three weeks that Naruto actually had had his fill with big adventures...for now. He wasn't quite sure how he ended up on a strange ship miles out to sea, but that was the start of the adventure, and things simply continued to get stranger from there. He had tried to reason with the sailors to take him back, but apparently they were speaking two completely different languages and Naruto wound up stranded in another port...

Cue Flashback Sequence
Naruto sighed as he sat on a crate in the port. He still didn't have a single idea how he was supposed to get back to Konoha. Nobody here at the shipping port seemed to know of the port that Naruto had come from, or of Konoha, and a lot of people laughed at him when he said he was a ninja. As frustrating as it was, Naruto had a more pressing problem to worry about. Money. Even if he did find a way back home, he'd probably have to pay for it, and at the moment he didn't have enough money to afford a night at the cheap hotel that was in this lousy town. If he'd known he be stuck in the middle of nowhere when he left Konoha he'd have brought his savings with him. He grumbled darkly as he watched the sun set. He didn't even have the pack he had taken with him on the mission, having left it at the hotel with Kakashi-sensei before leaving to explore the harbor town. Worse still his head protector had disappeared. This upset him more then being lost, as that head protector was more then just a symbol of being a ninja to him. It had been Iruka sensei's head protector, and Naruto had treasured it a lot...

He sat there on the box well after the sun went down. Without a place to go, Naruto decided to wander the deserted night streets a little. Perhaps he could find some place warm enough to sleep. With all the homeless people lying around though, he figured all the good spots were already taken.

"Jeez, Mikey, don't cha know those fights are rigged."

"Lee'me alone."

Naruto paused as he watched one person dragging someone who seemed to be half drunk out of what appeared to be an abandon warehouse. It was obvious by the light coming through the door as they left, that it was not as abandoned as it seemed. With nothing better to do, and curiosity running wild, Naruto decided to peek into the warehouse. The windows were blocked wither bordered off or covered in some other way, and the door had locked behind the two men who left. Naruto managed to find a crack in one of the walls to peep through. To his surprise, the warehouse was the location of some sort of fenced arena, where people beat each other senseless.

"and yet another poor victim to our mighty champion. Is there nobody else brave enough to stand in the ring against our Current Champion Shikyo? For the sum of 300,000 Yen? Is there..."

Nobody seemed willing, although Naruto hadn't seen it. The man they called Shikyo had all but folded his last opponent in half. He was a huge man, probably eight or nine feet tall, and made purely of muscle. By the rather empty look in his eyes, he wasn't entirely all there either. Not one of the regular fighters who came to these illegal pit matches wanted to tangle with him.

"I will!" A young man said as he materialized from the throng of people. While definitely not a meek person. He still looked like a twig before Shikyo. He wore a plain white training gi probably for Karate or a similar art like Judo neither disciplines seemed likely to help him in his next battle. The smaller man smirked as he watched the large man growl at him and flex his muscles. Out in the crowd bets were being made. The announcer motioned the two fighters to take their positions. People watched in anticipation as the fight started...and ended just as quickly. Shikyo lunged directly for the smaller man, who stepped forward to meet the huge man. The young man hit with enough force to knock Shikyo off his feet and leaving him gasping on the mat.

Jaws dropped.

"Definitely rigged..." Mutters were heard in the crowd.

"Uh...err...would anyone like to challenge our new champion for the prize money?" The announcer asked as four men came to drag Shikyo out of the ring.

"I would!"

People looked up into the rafter in confusion at the twelve year old boy standing there. Some people scoffed, while others jeered. The young man's smirk grew wider as he stared up at the orange ninja. This was all silenced when Naruto jumped down from the rafters and landed safely in the arena at a speed that was too fast for most of the people there to follow. The sudden insults stopped.

"and you are?" The announcer asked nervously.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Future Hokage." Naruto said confidently as he took up a ready stance.

"Ranma Saotome of the Saotome school of anything goes martial arts." The young man said as his smirk turned into a smile, "Bring it on."

The battle, if it could be called that, was very one sided. As good as Naruto Uzumaki thought he was. Ranma Saotome who had spent more then half his life training under the insane curriculum his father improvised. Was above and beyond anything Naruto could throw at him in the ways of armed or unarmed combat. Ranma noted the openings in Naruto's style. It was obviously self-taught from watching more experienced people, but the form was surprisingly good. If Naruto's reflexes were better then the gaping holes in his defense would be close to non-existent. They style it was based on, or the way it had been adapted, suggested a highly aggressive approach. Lacking much in basic defense, so Ranma continued to dodge until Naruto left himself wide open before gently counterattacking him. Seeing as how his Taijutsu techniques weren't working, Naruto decided to try a different approach. Ranma wondered what Naruto was doing as he stopped to making gestures with his hands, this left him wide open for attack. However, there was a sudden burst of chi followed by a puff of smoke.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

And then Ranma found himself surrounded by a crowd of Naruto's. Ranma blinked as his gaze traveled to each one. He had learned to sense an opponents presence from the same Chinese monks who taught him about Chi. This technique Naruto was using seemed unbelievable. All the Narutos generated their own presence and had their own Chi. All Ranma could understand was that this was a very convincing illusion. Then one of the illusions tried to sweep kick him, and when the foot brushed against the ground, Ranma realized just how real these things were. The better part of ten minutes was spent dodging the clones, much to the amazement of Naruto and the audience. Despite five Naruto's attack simultaneously, Ranma seemed to weave in and out of the melee without taking a single hit. His body always being just out of reach of any attack. Naruto gasped, his best technique having failed. When in doubt gamble...

"Sexy no Jutsu!"

Ranma blinked as Naruto suddenly turned into a girl. He blinked again. This caught him so much off guard that he failed to notice that the was still surrounded by four other Naruto's, who promptly attacked him. It was the only hit that Naruto scored that night, as Ranma quickly recovered and dispatched the bunshins as well as knocking out Naruto with quick well placed blows. Ranma was serriously, impressed with Naruto. His Chi control was amazing, and...Ranma blinked. Naruto had turned into a naked girl. An embarrassed flush crossed his cheeks, and he quickly scooped up the boy when the drooling audience (some with nosebleeds) began making catcalls.

"Ranma! Did you get the prize money?" Genma asked appearing out of a dark alley as Ranma exited the building. The happy expression on the lazy martial artist quickly fell when he noticed the boy slung over his son's shoulder.

"What sort of prize is that?" Genma asked blankly.

"Ugh, what hit me?" Naruto mumbled as he slowly regained consciousness. Ranma blinked, he could have sworn that blow would have kept Naruto out longer then that. Ranma set him down on his feet.

"Sorry 'bout that." Ranma smirked.

"Oh...OH! Hey, you're really good! How do you move like that!" Naruto asked.

"Lot's and lots of training." Ranma smirked.

"Uh...uh...I know this sounds kind of bad, but could I borrow some of that prize money? I'm sort of stranded." Naruto said quickly.

"Yes, boy where's the prize money?" Genma asked.

"Who's this?" Naruto asked eyeing Genma cautiously.

"This is my pop." Ranma explained as he scratched the back of his head. He didn't want to mention that in his haste he had forgotten to claim his prize money.

Naruto blinked as he looked at the overweight, bald, spectacled, elder Saotome, and the younger Saotome who he had just fought with.

"Oh, ah...so did you adopt Ranma?" Naruto asked Genma.

"You insolent BRAT!" Genma roared and chased after Naruto, who proved to be an elusive target.
Cue End of Flashback Sequence.
Naruto chuckled to himself and wondered what he would have done if he hadn't run into the Saotome's that night. After much pleading, he finally got Ranma to train him a little. In exchange he was teaching Ranma about Chakra, A task which proved to be surprising difficult. Chakra was made up of two inner energies. The body's energy and spiritual energy. While Ranma had a firm grasp on body energy, which he called Chi. His views on chi confused his understanding of spiritual energy, as in many cases Chi could also be used to enhance the mind. Since the brain was technically still a part of the human body, Chi could be used to enhance the mind and could be seen as being similar to a type of mental energy, but It wasn't the same as using spiritual energy, and Naruto wasn't sure how to explain this to Ranma. So for the past three weeks he had been working with Ranma on overcoming that particular hurdle, while Ranma trained him in improving his Taijutsu. To say the last three weeks hadn't been interesting would have been an understatement. After all, hanging around with Ranma was...interesting. Naruto smirked as he looked over to where the teen in question was beating the stuffing out of a giant panda who was waving signs about in a futile effort to get Ranma to stop. He wondered what Genma did to deserve this, but reasoned he deserved it. He decided he'd ask later and returned to watching the clouds.

Ranma Saotome wasn't really sure if he was happy with his father, or indescribably furious at him. Pops had wanted to take a side trip before meeting up with his old friend. It wasn't until later that Ranma found out the reason for this trip was to file paperwork that made Naruto legally a part of the Saotome clan. This was only problematic because the reason Genma did this was so he could engage both Ranma and Naruto to two of his friend's daughters who they were currently on the way to visit. It was times like this that Ranma really wished he hadn't been so curious about Chakra, because Naruto was more often then not dragged into a mess he shouldn't have had to deal with. Ranma could have lived with if it had it only been his problem, but he didn't like to be the direct or indirect cause to other people's problems. (Somewhere in the world a boy with too many yellow and black bandanas and fangs sneezed and blamed it on Ranma Saotome.) Naruto was a good kid, and he seemed to have a lot of problems of his own even before he met Ranma. Some of the stuff that Ranma had ended up dealing with in the past three weeks had only added to Naruto's growing list of problems...
Cue yet another flashback sequence
"Oh no is very bad if you fall in!" The guide yelled frantically waving his arms about in hopes of getting their attention. Naruto was perched on one of the Bamboo poles away from the fight, as Ranma and Genma had an all out free for all above the cursed spring of Jusenkyo. This fight ended when a high arching kick brought down on Genma's head sent him belly flopping deep into the pools below.

"That it, pop?"

"Oh....." The guide wined anxiously. As a giant black and white blur popped out of the spring that Genma had fallen into. Ranma blinked as he stared at the giant panda now perched in a crane stance on a nearby bamboo pole. The sight would have been comical, if Ranma hadn't noticed the fact the panda was wearing his father's training gi...

"That is spring of drown panda! There is very very tragic legend of panda who drown here two thousand years ago. Now whoever fall into spring take body of panda." The guide explained a bit too late, as the panda leapt at Ranma.

"Aaaack!" Naruto yelped as he leapt down to dry land. There was no way he was going to fall into one of these springs.

"You never said anything about..." Ranma began, but he was too distracted yelling at the guide to dodge the panda's much larger then fist sized paw. He was smacked soundly into a nearby spring.

"Ranma!" Naruto yelled as he quickly made his way over to the cursed spring Ranma had fallen into. Unfortunately for him, in his haste he failed to notice his pants leg get caught on a bamboo pole. The fabric was strong enough to resist being torn too much, but that was more then enough to bring Naruto's momentum to a halt in midair, right above one of the cursed pools. Flailing his arms about wildly, Naruto failed to catch anything that might have prevented him from landing in the pool with a gigantic splash. Ranma surfaced in time to see, and hurriedly pulled himself, now herself, out of the water. Ignoring the new weight on the front of his body, and his sudden drop in height, he ran over to the spring and peered into the water. There was no way he was going to touch that water, he sure hoped Naruto was okay. Ranma was on the verge of ripping out one of the bamboo poles to use to fish the water for Naruto, when a small dog like creature managed to claw its way onto the muddy bank. Ranma scooped it up without thinking.

"You fall in spring of young girl. There is very tragic legend of girl who drown there one thousand five hundread years ago. The other one fall in spring of drown fox.... Not so sure if legend tragic or not, more then likely is, of fox that drown in spring nine hundread years ago."

"Some great idea this was." Ranma growled as he checked to see if Naruto was still breathing. To his great relief he was, "Is there anyway to fix this?"

"No known cure. But! Hot water reverse curse temporarily. Change back again with cold water though." The guide explained producing a kettle out of nowhere and pouring it on top of the two youths.

"Okay, I suppose that isn't so bad..." Ranma blinked.

Of course the unexplainable mysteries of the universe kicked in at that moment, as it choose that moment in time to have a sudden torrential downpour across the entire valley, a rare event in Jusenkyo due to its magical nature. Since heavy rain would risk flooding the springs. It lasted no more then 2.3 seconds. Ranma's eye twitched as he found himself a she again. It was probably then that Ranma decided he hated his curse, however there was another problem. Naruto seemed to be in a daze. He wasn't talking, and he wasn't moving. Genma would have left him behind if it weren't for the fact that Ranma had no trouble carry Naruto in either form. Currently, Ranma was carrying a human Naruto piggy back style. Considering the way it choose to rain while they were at Jusenkyo, he doubted this would last very long.

"Come on...what's wrong?" Ranma asked as they headed towards a nearby village. Naruto didn't say anything as he stared blankly at nothing in particular.

"Come on! Talk to me." Ranma frowned. He had never seen Naruto this quiet before.

"I spent all my life wondering why people in the village hated me. I thought it was because I was just another orphan, but then I found it was because I was connected with a fox demon that attacked the village. I've never even seen the demon before, I doubt it looks anything like what I turn into now, but when I go back home...they're going to see it. Even if it's not the same thing...what will they think? What will they say?" Naurto said talking to no one in particular.

Ranma continued on in silence. That was a surprise. He hadn't heard Naruto talk about this side of his childhood before. He talked a lot about his two friends Sasuke and Sakura a lot, and sometimes pranks he played when he was younger.

"I've been on the road with my old man for as long as I can remember, always moving from place to place training with pop. I can't even remember what my mom looked like, I kind of wonder what happened to her, but whenever I try to talk about her pops always changes the subject. I didn't really get a chance to make much friends, and nobody wanted their children to be friends with a martial arts bum anyway, especially one like pop. Still, I did have a friend a long time ago. We'd play together everyday, but then we had to leave and I had to say good bye. I haven't had much luck convincing people I'm not like my father, and then you came along. I still remember the first thing you told my father back on that pier when I introduced him to you. The point is there will be people in your life who will like you for who you are. Not because of what people think you are like." Ranma grinned as they continued along. Before Ranma could say something to ruin the rather profound moment, he managed to walk into the rising mist of a waterfall they were passing.

"Damn it!" A pissed off red head growled as a small red fox rolled off her making sounds akin to giggling.
Cue end of flashback
"If only Jusenkyo had been the end of it..." Ranma thought as he watched Naruto shuffle through his pack in search of his umbrella. After Jusenkyo they had come across a village of Chinese amazons, one was currently trying to kill Ranma, and claimed to want to make pelt trophies out of her panda and fox pets. So they spent a lot of time running from her. One fine day in china last week, Naruto had mistaken a bowl of soup for ramen and had finished it off with a speed that not even Genma was capable of. The fact that this soup caused hair to grow at a phenomenal rate turned out to be a rather nasty hair raising problem. As a result Naruto now sported a short ponytail that was tied with something special to seal the effects of the soup and prevent the hair from growing. He had tried to braid it like Ranma's but found it too difficult and just let it hang loose. Then there was the numerous things Genma pissed off on a daily basis, merchants, shopkeepers, fisherman, demons, ferryman, ancestral guardians, gamblers, bartenders, dragons, farmers, wild animals, children, and god knows what else. All of which eventually came back and made Ranma and Naruto's life more complicated. Still, Naruto took it all in stride, and seemed to enjoy the adventure. Wait... Naruto was looking for his umbrella?

Ranma cursed and rushed for his pack, but was drenched by a sudden downpour feet from it Ranma mentally chided himself, less mental reflection more action. Like most sudden downpours, it stopped only after Ranma had given up trying to get an umbrella out. Ranma sighed, and shook water off his pack while Naruto put his umbrella away. They waited for the incredibly lazy panda to come around before setting off once again for the Tendo dojo.

"Wow...this village is huge!" Naruto gasped as he looked around in disbelief. They were roof hopping their way to Nerima, but as far as Naruto could see there were only buildings. Not even Konoha was this big...

"Welcome to Tokyo, although Nerima is pretty much on the edge of Tokyo. The main part of the city is over there where all those big buildings are."

"Those are buildings!?" Naruto asked in disbelief. He thought there were some sort of ornate mountains in the distance. They were too tall to be buildings....weren't they?

"Yeah, maybe one day we can go visit the city, but there's something I think you should know." Ranma frowned.

"What's that? Is this what you were fighting about earlier?" Naruto asked as they continued to leap from rooftop to rooftop.

"Yeah... well you see, the reason my pop wanted to make that stop was to mail some papers. He ...uh... adopted you into our family." Ranma explained.

"Really?" Naruto blinked, then his expression brightened considerably, "REALLY!? Cool! Wait...then...why? Was that the reason you were you beating him up?"

"No...well yes...he did it so he can say you're a part of the family and marry you to one of his friends daughters we're going to go meet." Ranma explained.

"WHAT!?"

Genma sensed approaching doom. It was one of those senses ingrained into his reflexes by constant training under ... the evil that must remained unmentioned and hopefully sealed deep, deep, deep in the earth. His son must have told that brat the plan, and no doubt like the role model he idolized, the brat would copy his ungrateful son and beat the crap out of him too. Genma sighed, and turned around to face his punishment. To his surprise, neither were there.

'Those two, ungrateful brats...' Read the sign that the panda turned Genma had pulled out. Before he sighed and chased after them.

Closing Author Notes: If you choose to be picky and complain about me using Chi instead of Ki, there really isn't that much differance in the two concepts. I believe there are slight differance in the exact theories, but Ki is the Japanese interpretation of Chi. I see a lot of people who say it's Ki in the fan fic domain. I also see Chi being swapped about in place of it in translations. Since they're basically the same energies. You may refer to it however you like, I choose Chi, because Ranma tends to have a lot of chineese motifs. Til, next chapter.