Disclaimer: The concept of Ranma 1/2 and Naruto belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, and Masashi Kishimoto. This is a product of pure amusement values, with no profits made.
"Ouch." Ranma yelped, turning around on the small stool as quickly as his pain-wrecked body would allow. "Quit poking it, Orochimaru."
The paler man merely shrugged, not even bothering to look remorseful. "It turned red for a moment."
"Eh?" Ranma blinked, still wincing, his retort cut off as a soft hand was pressed against his back, sending a familiar burst of Chakra down his back. He tilted his head, smiling into warm golden-brown, "Thanks Tsunade, you're a life-saver."
Clang.
The three snapped their head to the source of the noise. The Hyuuga medic-nin slammed the tea cup down, and bowed slightly towards the trio.
"Pardon me, Orochimaru-san, Ranma-san…" A small pause, "Tsunade-san. My hand slipped."
Ranma felt, rather than see, the ash-blond woman tensing beside him, and replied quickly, "It's fine, thank you, Hyuuga-san."
Milky-white eyes looked away for a moment, gesturing to the steaming cup. "The ingredients are from several common herbs that grows near the village, they will help to ease the… strains… on your body through our sessions. Come back tomorrow, and I'll have a month's worth of supply for you."
"What are you insinuating?" Tsunade crossed her arms, her normally wide golden-brown eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
"None at all, Tsunade-san." The medic-nin picked up the cup and pushed it into Ranma's hands, bowing once more, "I am merely concerned for your personal well-being, since you seem to spend a good amount of your Chakra for something as simple as pain-killing… if you will excuse me, Orochimaru-san, Ranma-san…." Another pause, "Tsunade-san."
Black kimono swayed out of the room, leaving the three behind, one fuming, another amused, and the last greatly confused.
Tsunade gave Ranma a sweet, sunny smile, and he felt a shiver crawl down his back. The ash-blonde patted him on the shoulders in a deliberate cheerful manner before quickly following the Hyuuga medic's fading steps. "Well, I'll just be off, to do something… see you later, Ranma!"
"Eh?" Ranma blinked stupidly at Tsunade's retreating back, then the cup of tea in his hands, before turning to his silent companion, "Did I miss something?"
"She likes you." Orochimaru remarked casually, then hurriedly jumped back in an organized manner as Ranma spat out a mouthful of tea, gray-blue eyes widening in shock.
"What?!" The pigtailed man managed, after a loud bout of coughing.
"That Hyuuga woman." Orochimaru clarified, dry amusement, and something Ranma couldn't detect mixed into a complicated expression on the shinobi's face, before serpentine gold caught concerned blue, and shot him a bored look in return.
"Ahem." Ranma cleared his throat, feeling his face getting a touch warm, "Why would you say that? About Hyuuga-san, that is. She hardly ever…"
"She's a member of the main branch, I believe." Orochimaru cut him off, "Pure Hyuuga blood in her veins. Hyuuga Hiashi would never allow her to marry a member outside of the clan…" A sideway gaze, "Especially not… well, you get the idea."
"I do." Ranma grimaced, picking up his tea and gulped down the dredges.
A moment of silence passed.
"She said something to me once," Ranma started softly, gray-blue eyes glazing in reminiscence, "That because she was a ninja of the Hidden Leaf, her life, her choice were not her own, but the village's. The Hokage told me similar words too… to lose yourself so completely in a dream that can be easily shattered… I couldn't understand it, Orochimaru." Not anymore.
He trailed off, unsure of himself. I have changed.
A pale hand landed on his shoulder, thoughtfully gold looked down, and for a moment, Ranma saw something within the other man that resounded with his own dark despair over his feeble existence, "Neither could I, Ranma-kun, neither could I."
-------
"How is she? And what the hell happened?" He demanded, his body shaking from a mixture of shock and anger. The group of masked shinobi from his side kept their silence, though he could feel disapproval practically radiating from them.
The Hokage chewed on the ends of his pipe, a grim expression on his face. "She is alive, though the condition of her…" He sighed, shaking his head, "Captain Morino, if you could…?"
One of the ANBU stiffened, expressionless avian mask turned to Ranma rigidly. "Hyuuga-san was attacked near the outpost of the village while gathering herbs, her attackers were knowledgeable in the Byakugan to have taken her by surprise… her eyes were taken from her."
Gathering herbs…"The ingredients are from several common herbs that grows near the village… Come back tomorrow, and I'll have a month's worth of supply for you."
He choked back the shock, breathless.
"Hokage-sama!" The ANBU captain called out, all but dismissing Ranma's presence, "There is no time to waste, if we leave now, we have a good chance of catching her attackers and retrieving her eyes."
Akane's eyes were closed. He splashed more water on her, but her face remained serene… in death. A death caused by her selfless sacrifice to stand between him and a God… A Sacrifice to save him.
"I'm going too." Ranma stated.
The Hokage blinked, surprised. The ANBU captain turned to him with a hiss behind the porcelain mask, "The Hyuuga woman stands a chance of restoring her eyes if we can retrieve them within time, speed and efficiency will be our main objective, I've no time to baby-sit the sick."
"I'm going." He repeated.
"Hokage-sama!"
"Shut up, Morino-san." Tsuande quipped as Orochimaru released the Genjutsu, the two revealed in the room with Jiraiya yawning behind them, "I'm going too."
She smiled into the stunned silence. "If Hyuuga got her precious orbs ripped out, I'm the best chance she has at recovery, I need to make sure you get them back in top condition… Besides, you don't have a medic in your team."
Jiraiya yawned again, loudly, cutting off the ANBU captain's less than pleasant retort. "Well, guess I better tag along too, keep the property damage down, eh?"
Orochimaru's voice murmured behind Ranma's ear, and the scent of reptilian musk permeated his senses. "It will be a grueling pace, Ranma-kun… Can you keep up?"
The pigtailed man looked into the waiting face of the Sandaime, and nodded firmly.
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Ranma snorted as the woman continued to screech out threats; the pigtailed redhead took a few more steps closer to the booby-trapped box, careful not to step on the bodies that littered the large room. A hand landed on her shoulder with enough force to slam her to the ground, or so it had seemed to her.
I owe you, Hyuuga-san. A year ago, she would have been thrown across the room from the simple contact. She staggered, her knees buckled, but stood straight. The avian mask was mere inches from her face, its wearer hissed dangerously to her ear, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Getting rid of the stand-off." Ranma replied, a touch of her past arrogance entering her voice.
No more sacrifices…
"You can't!" The woman snarled, an insane look entering her cobalt eyes. "The Chakra bonds on the box are triggered to explode if you so much as touch it! The Byakugan eyes are mine!"
"Hn." The redhead woman commented. She unfolded her arm.
Boom.
The container exploded, showering the room with splinters of wood.
Ranma smiled slightly into the stunned silence, carefully cradling the twin white orbs in her hand. "Triggered explosions usually have an one second delay. By the way…"
She raised her other arm over her elfin face, still smiling at the woman over the crook of her elbow, her eyes flickering from the needles the woman held in her hand to her shocked face. "You're the one who took Hyuuga-san's eyes, I take?"
Silence answered her. Ranma continued to smile, stepping closer to the woman, "I guess it's a yes then."
Not for me…
Movements behind her back, but Ranma ignored her companions, bringing her arm down, her hand slicing through the air with a whizzing hum, faster than the eye could perceive.
Thud.
Warmth splattered on her face and body, the red matching the color of her hair perfectly. Dispassionate blue eyes watched the two halves slide down against the wall slowly, leaving a larger smear of red against the once smooth white.
She walked back to her companions, one step at a time, idly wiping away a stray droplet of red that threatened to roll into her eyes with her free hand. The small group of ANBU kept their silence as she passed through them, and handed the twin milky-white orbs to Tsunade carefully. "Will she recover with these?"
"I… think so." Tsunade murmured, tucking them away in her pouch after wrapping them within a thick cocoon of Chakra, staring at her as if seeing her for the first time, her blood-splattered image reflecting in those beautiful golden-brown eyes.
"What the heck was…" Jiraiya began. Ranma cut him off.
"Great!" She gave her pigtail a firm tug, turning to the ANBU captain, "What next?"
Morino's commanding voice spoke up, thoughtful. "Grab all your weapons." They did.
"We need to destroy this place, wipe all traces of our involvement lest it be used against us." Pause, avian mask turned to her, "And when we get back, you and I need to have a good, long talk with the Hokage."
"Whatever." The redhead shrugged, raising an arm in the air, tendrils of green gathered around her, slowly spiraling toward her raised palm, taking the form of a fluctuating sphere. "Get out of the building."
The ANBU paused, his porcelain mask and uniform lightened in a sickly shade of green, a quick exchange of hand gestures, and the small group was gone from the room.
Jiraiya gave her a look, but poked Tsunade in the arm, the two slipped out from the window.
"Be careful." The smell of pine tickled her nose as a voice hissed behind her back, then the presence was gone as well. She was alone.
I can do this. Ranma took a deep breath. Blue eyes, awash by the growing green, closed in concentration.
Pain.
Perfect.
Guilt. Regret. Hatred. Anger. Despair.
"Shi Shi Hokodan."
The world crashed down.
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TIMELINE – Year Four, Mid-October.
A note of thanks to all the wonderful people on the anifics forums, who helped greatly with all the grammar and spelling errors this part previously had.
As for everything else... well, things are certainly setting in motion, are they not?