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.
"Hey..." He called out quietly to the dark silhouette, sandaled feet hitting against the roof tiles lightly with his landing. A few more steps brought him to the other's side, slipping the sake bottle into his companion's hands with a small nod before he sat down.
"How are you feeling?" Ranma inquired after a moment of silence.
"The quantity of high-profile missions assigned to me is getting tiresome." Orochimaru murmured, taking a moment to sip from the porcelain bottle. "Though I suppose I am thankful for the chance to get out of the village for an extended period of time."
He fidgeted with the edges of the Leaf band tied around his neck, before pulling the object loose and tucking it in his flack jacket. "How are you feeling?"
A slight twist of lips was rewarded from his pale companion. "Perceptive of you, Umino."
Blue eyes stared back in silence until gold glanced away.
"Annoyed, Umino, deeply annoyed. And concerned." Orochimaru hissed softly, serpentine gold narrowing in dark anger, pale hand tightening around the bottle until spider webs appeared on the once smooth surface of the porcelain. "Sensei's interest has been shifting elsewhere."
"Jai's old student?" Ranma murmured, recalling shock blond hair and blue eyes that had shed their innocence through the years, yet retained the sense of exuberance to life that had drawn his interest, as well as his desire to teach the boy in the first place.
Silence.
"Don't do anything rash, Ochi'."
A soft chuckle that tinged of resentment, familiar melody against his ears, echoing his own bitter humor, "When have I ever, Umino?"
-------
"Hey, you two!" He paused in the demonstration at the faint shout, blinking in confusion before realizing its source as twin blurs shot out from the trees, bouncing between him and his student in a clash of steel, as well as creative curses before battling their way towards the opposite side of the clearing.
"What the hell?!" Ranma yelped as a loose kunai was knocked his way, trying to match up the faces with the long list of students at the academy, silver-hair and red eyes...
He took a deep breath.
"Uchiha! Hatake! Get back here before you hurt someone!"
Sharingan-eyes glanced his way, and dismissed him just as quickly. Ranma snarled under his breath, and jumped back as another barrage of shuriken missed their mark, almost hitting him as the silver-haired boy danced out of the way.
"Sensei?"
He turned towards his current student. "Ibiki. You okay?"
The boy nodded, wiping away a smudge of dirt from his face, dark eyes looking past him towards the conflicting duo, his expression strongly reminding Ranma of the senior Morino during his analytical moments. "Hatake Kakashi. Age five, child prodigy, a genius among his peers in the academy, and envied greatly by them. Hmm... the other one is Uchiha Ob..."
"Come on, pig-boy!" He smirked at the other boy, dancing past the boulder smashing his way effortlessly, the massive projectile smashing into the building behind him in an explosion of debris and crumpling mortar. "Tell me you can do better than that!"
Ryouga glared back, a sickly green glow gathering around the palm of his hands. "Shi Shi Houkodan!"
BOOM.
"Sensei! Umino-sensei!"
He was snapped out of the reverie by Ibiki's shout. "Eh?"
The boy jabbed his finger towards the treetops. "They're coming back this way!"
Ranma bit back a curse as the two blurs settled once more into the clearing in an explosion of blinding dust. "You two, break it up this mo..."
"Evil Wind Shuriken, Shadow Windmill."
Blue eyes narrowed at the sound of whirring metal, cutting a sharp thrill in the air, closing towards him...
"Tousan!"
A small blur suddenly appeared between him and the closing shuriken, chubby arms held wide as if to ward off the coming attack.
What... No!
-------
He snapped up in attention as the door opened with a soft click, and quickly made his way to her side, gray blue eyes dark with worry. "Hyuuga-san, how is he?"
She gave him a small, resigned smile. "He's fine, Umino-san, it is good that I was called immediately. We have stopped the blood loss, and he's out of shock, though... the wound is deep enough to leave permanent scarring."
"I see." He breathed out a sigh of relief. "Thank you for your troubles, Hyuuga-san."
"You're welcome, Umino-san." She murmured, stepping away, "I enjoy the medic profession, though my Husband has been urging me to produce another heir..."
"Oh..." He frowned slightly.
"It's disconcerting, at the very least." She shrugged, wistful in her words, "But I'm learning to deal with his pride, and possessiveness to what he believes belongs to him. Though at times, I still wished that..."
"Husband!"
A whirl of cherry silk from the door, and the two were jerked away from their private world.
His wife's face watched him anxiously, doe-brown eyes clouding with a mother's fear. "I came as soon as I found out. What happened to our son?!"
Ranma winced.
-------
He sipped from the small cup slowly, tasting the warm and spicy liquid against the tip of his tongue.
"It's not the same anymore, eh?"
He blinked at Jiraiya, who downed his cup in a single gulp.
"Hmm?"
Jiraiya gestured to the empty seats, pouring another cupful. "Haven't heard from Tsunade for over a year..." Fingers paused around the small cup, then he added. "I think... Hmph, when will she realize that running isn't going to solve the problem?"
Ranma snorted. "But it's the only option for her, Jai. Stop blaming her."
"She didn't even say goodbye to me."
Ranma gulped down the content of the cup in response.
"And Orochimaru..." Jiraiya began after a long moment of silence. "He hardly ever shows his face anymore."
"Can't blame him either, Jai. Not with the way Sarutobi-san's been eyeing that student of yours, the one with the blond hair." Ranma added, seeing Jiraiya's blank look. "He's considering retirement, isn't he?"
Comprehension.
"Oh. Right."
"'Sides, you're always off on missions too."
"Nowhere as busy as you with the academy brats."
Silence.
"What happened to your hair, by the way?"
Ranma grimaced, and brushed a hand over the chopped ends.
It's not the same anymore..."Bratty kid with a big shuriken, Jai."
"Heh. Getting slow in old age, eh?"
"Not a chance, Jai." His fists tightened in remembrance of crimson and copper.
A curious gaze. "What did you do?"
Ranma shrugged, gulping down another cup.
"Ah well... You look good enough this way, with the graying and all that." Jiraiya cracked a small grin at him, giving his own messy whites a good tug. "Going to keep it short?"
Ranma snorted, still fingering the frayed edges of his hair. "No way, Jai. I'm growing it out. The day I get rid of my pigtail is the day I die."
-------
...though of course, Jiraiya was right in his own way. Things weren't the same, and they won't last forever.
Tsunade had kept to her promise that she would never return to the Hidden Leaf, and in a way, I am glad for her, because she is finding a way to escape her pains. I hardly see Orochimaru anymore, since he tends to keep to the shadows, though I feel his resentment towards Sarutobi-san would soon drive him to do something drastic.
There had always been a war around us, and Jiraiya has been constantly pulled away for missions. It saddens me, to watch helplessly as the four of us slowly breaks apart, but life goes on. Such is living... and moving on.
I owe them much, for their companionship had helped me retain my sanity until I was able to walk on my own, though the price I pay was the life of Saotome Ranma.
I missed you in every moment of my existence, but that is of the past. I have lived on without you...
"Cough. Cough."
Ranma sat the brush down, but did not bother to look up, focusing his attention to the open parchment in front of him, a slight frown on his face as he re-read everything he had written.
"Ahem!"
Shaking his head, he grabbed the scroll, the still-wet ink smudging all over, and tossed it into the metallic trashcan beside the desk. Closing his eyes, he grimaced, focusing a tendril of Chakra around his hand, and expelled it in a single burst of heat on to the scroll.
Voom. The paper browned and crumpled as the green-turn-red fire merrily ate its way down.
"...Umino-sensei."
Ranma looked up, his face impassive as always. "Yes, Hatake Kakashi?"
The boy scowled at him from the corner of the room, holding two little buckets filled with water in his hands, and another bucket on his head. "This is a stupid punishment, Umino-sensei."
Ranma gave his newly assigned student an amused smile. "Who said anything about 'punishment', Hatake? If I recall correctly, you were merely... 'defending yourself from an unwanted challenge that got slightly out of hand'."
The scowl grew more visible under the fabric of his mask. "This is a stupid training then. I have been standing here for six hours, Umino-sensei."
"Patience is a virtue, Hatake Kakashi." Ranma shrugged at him from over the desk, brushing a hand over the back of his neck, the absence of his pigtail keenly felt.
"... It was not entirely my fault, Umino-sensei."
"Of course not, Hatake." Blue eyes stared back casually. "Had it been you who initiated the brawl, it would have been your parents whom I... visited... in regards to the... proper education in raising their children to be less of an arrogant brat."
The boy cringed at the mention of the 'visit', and nodded at him. "But I still don't think this is fair, Umino-sensei."
"But it is, Hatake. Despite the fact that the challenges were unwanted, you nevertheless encourage them with your behavior. Instead of going to the proper authorities to stop them entirely, you took it upon yourself to 'handle it', and even going so far as to bait those who have lost against you to 'try again when they get better'."
"It was my problem." Hatake Kakashi retorted, adding a belated, "Umino-sensei."
"Not when innocents are hurt because of your inability to handle them."
Kakashi mumbled something.
"What was that?" Ranma inquired politely, though his accurate hearing had picked up the words with little difficulty.
"...Nothing, Umino-sensei."
He stood up from the desk, stretching out his legs. "If this still feels unfair to you, Hatake Kakashi, why don't we just have a little match to settle..."
The boy gave him a look of absolute horror, and Ranma closed his mouth quickly to prevent the burst of laughter. That's right... I forgot, he was there too when...
"Uchiha-san." Ranma began formally, a neutral expression on his face, even as tiny flakes of ice began to form around him. "Since you made such a... vigorous and... polite... argument regarding your son's punishment for insolence against a staff of the academy, disobedience of direct orders from his senior, causing havoc during class time, and almost killing my son by bringing his private vendetta to the public ground..." He paused, and flashed them a smile that was all teeth. "Why don't we just have a little match to settle this?"
"I don't believe Uchiha-san and his clan members have left the hospital, though the doctors did mention the casts will be taken off soon..." Ranma gave his student a sidelong look. "But don't worry, to make this fair, I won't lay a finger on you, and all you have to do is to hit me once. So how about it?"
Clang. Splash. The buckets went flying.
"Let's go!"
The two disappeared out of the window, neither caring how one of the buckets had spilt its watery contents into the trashcan, dousing the Chakra-induced fire. A single sentence remained, barely visible amidst the burnt paper and sodden ashes...
...life goes on. Such is living... and moving on.
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TIMELINE – Year Eleven, early March.
In which yet another familiar face is introduced. Have I been ignoring the readers, by the way? I mean, I've seen some questions and speculations placed up, but since about all of them will be revealed as the story progresses along, I didn't bother answering them... so...
Oh! On another note, Ranma is NOT pining for Akane... well, he is, but not to that degree! For goodness sake! Think of his flashbacks as something beyond Akane, more importantly, what she represents.