Lost in Infinity
A Ranma 1/2 - Naruto Crossover
Chapter 4 (No more stupid names for chapters)
Author's notes at the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, and Ranma belongs to Takahashi. So there.
Ranma took his position in the comfortable mahogany chair that faced Sarutobi's desk. The old man gave him a once over, and sat down as well. He then sighed deeply, once again invoking Ranma's ever growing curiosity. Still, from past experiences, Ranma knew that it would not do to rush the Hokage, especially when his eyes twinkled mischievously. A patron of the art of drama as he was, Sarutobi let the silence permeate the air before beginning his explanation.
"Ranma, I'm sure you know that I know about your curse, yes?" he started not so subtly. The warning klaxons started to blare in the pig-tailed youth's mind, since every time Sarutobi-sensei mentioned his curse, bad things happened. Strange experiments involving water and chakra, resulting in the usual joke at his expense, and twisted humour (in Ranma's opinion, anyway) on the old man's end, reminded him to be cautious in his dealings regarding his curse.
'What are you up to this time, old man?' he thought to himself, merely nodding to show his positive answer to the question. He did give the older man a questioning glance, but knew that it would ultimately be revealed. Sarutobi-sensei really couldn't keep things like jokes a secret for long. The Hokage had a penchant for jokes, much like himself and Naruto, but some how had a compulsion to see the end result, usually with the blame openly pointing to himself. Ranma couldn't help but smile a bit at that thought.
"Well, one thing I'm sure this will be is good news," Sarutobi continued. "Actually, I had reached a breakthrough just about two months ago, but was saving this for a special occasion."
"Ranma, I think I have a cure for your curse."
The words rang through the corridors and alleys in Ranma's mind with the resounding tone of a large cathedral bell. He was slack jawed and his eyes were wide in shock at the revelation those words brought. He was free! FREE! Free from the curse of cold water finding him at the most inopportune moments, free from the gender bending moments and close scrapes that would have embarrassed him for the rest of his life. FREE!
Sarutobi leaned back into his chair with a look of amusement on his wrinkled face. He smiled as he watched the emotions play on the boy's face, remembering his own childhood, and much of the happiness and innocence that was all but lost now. He shook himself from those thoughts, realizing their discontinuity with the events transpiring before him.
"Now, if you'll stick your tongue back in your mouth and stop drooling on my floor, I will continue my explanation."
Ranma immediately sat ramrod straight, his eyes focusing completely on the Hokage before him, as if awaiting an oracle from a deity from on high.
"Before you jump to any conclusions, which I'm sure you have, this isn't a super cure that will remove the curse, rather something to contain it. The magic binding the curse to you is far stronger than anything I've ever encountered, and I think that perhaps what I've devised is perhaps the best I that I can do, without any samples of the water directly from the source of your curse itself."
Ranma felt a bit let down, but still, anything was better than the uncontrolled chaos that currently filled his life because of the curse. He nodded his ascent once again, and Sarutobi continued.
"The method is basically a Curse Seal. We'll bind the magics of the curse to a chakra seal that will be placed upon your body. The seal will have to manifest itself physically some how when activated, but we'll get to that later, as I already have some ideas."
That in itself was reason enough for Ranma to want to flee the room.
"The seal will use your chakra to dispel the curse when the transformation requirements are met. For example, if the seal is active, when the curse is activated, the seal will draw some chakra from you, and prevent the curse from working, effectively containing it, sealing it. Following so far?" he asked the boy, and upon receiving a nod, continued.
"Another thing that I had to incorporate was the safety catch, so to speak. The seal is a three part seal, which makes it a little tricky. The safety catch is there to make sure that the seal doesn't drain your chakra when it is near depletion. When your chakra levels are low, it will deactivate itself, instead of continuing to drain your chakra and energy, which would cause you to die." he said nonchalantly. Ranma was very grateful that the man had thought to put that feature into it, since he didn't want to die of something as lame as chakra loss.
"The safety catch is one part, the curse containment is part two, and the chakra moulding system is part three. One last thing, is that you can activate or deactivate the seal, as well as trigger the curse if you wish using the correct hand seal combination."
The weight of this new discovery sat heavily upon Ranma's shoulders. It wasn't everyday that someone came up to you, and said "here buddy, I've got a cure for your sufferings." Of course, it wasn't as if the curse was really a huge suffering. 'I suppose I've got it pretty lucky since I got the curse when I was young,' he thought. He had plenty of time to get used to his curse, and even now, it helped him all the time. Whether it was to escape prankees (people who had been pranked), or even get extra helpings of ramen and ice cream, his curse was very much a part of him now.
Still, the control that this solution would give him was something he was looking forward to.
"Sensei, when can you give me the seal?" he asked, as a horse looking at the carrot dangling right in front of it.
"Tomorrow, 6 AM. Be at my office and we will begin."
"But isn't there a debriefing tomorrow?" Ranma asked, his curiosity piqued once more, especially since Sarutobi had a twinkle in his eye.
"The truth is that there is no briefing," he explained, much to Ranma's dismay as the boy pieced the clues together, coming to a conclusion that would require a whole lot of effort on his part, "and I felt that it was only fair that the ring leader of the entire fiasco should be the one to be punished the most," he said as he smiled at the boy, almost laughing at both the look on his face and the thought of the task ahead of him.
"You are to find your accomplices and inform them of the change in plans. Dismissed."
Ranma bolted out the door, while promising his teacher pain for the situation he was in. It was already close to 1 AM, so he ran, his work cut out for him.
--
Ranma dropped on the soft, plush purple couch that secured its place in the Hokage's office. He sighed as his muscles groaned of the torture they had been inflicted with. At the very least, the couch provided some comfort.
After running out the door, he had a whole bag of trouble handed to him in his endeavour to inform his friends of the change in plans by the devil Hokage. He figured it was payback for all the pranks he and Naruto hatched and executed against the village. First and foremost, Sakura was a problem in herself. The girl loved her beauty sleep, and hated to be woken up for no reason. However, he knew it had to be done, else she turn up at the specified time and either learn his secret, or worse yet, have Sarutobi-sensei tell her some lie that it was Ranma's fault that there was no meeting. While the former only meant that his friend would learn of his curse and possibly start teasing him, he knew that Sarutobi-sensei was more prone to telling her a lie, and have her exact her own revenge on him for being the reason that she would have to wake up early without reason. It was a lose-lose situation.
After receiving a beating that would make some grown men cringe, he then proceeded to find his next target. Sasuke was a lot easier to deal with, since he preferred to know before hand, rather than after, and once he had been informed, went back to bed. It was, however, getting into the house that was a problem, due to the various traps set up in the near-abandoned Uchiha complex. Getting out was just as fun.
Last on his list was Naruto. Here was where all the time made up for with Sasuke was lost. It was near impossible to wake the boy up. After trying and failing for half an hour, Ranma decided to just leave a note for him. It was not like the boy would wake up anyway, so why bother, he thought to himself with a smirk. He then proceeded to head home to get what little sleep he could before the "ritual". Since it was only 3 AM, he could have gotten at least 2 hours of sleep, counting in time for other things like his morning shower and breakfast. It was not to be, however.
Upon reaching the Yamanaka abode, he was assailed by his parents, who demanded an explanation, and he had to retell the entire tale from start to end, from the note to his whereabouts for the past few hours. He sighed as he ended his tale, looking at the clock and realizing that he would not be able to get much sleep after all. It was at 4 AM that the inquisition was completed, and Ranma informed his parents of what the Hokage had told him. Suffice to say that they shared his joy at the news, and since it was late, he decided to just head to the Hokage's office and rest there.
And that was how he came to find himself in his current position, eyes half closed, lying on Sarutobi-sensei's couch, easing into the plush material, feeling it caress his skin. It was heavenly compared to the running about he had to endure. His mind completed its final lap and he was dead as stone, his snoring filling the room with a rather crispy rattling noise
--
It felt like barely a minute that he had found his centre, when the footsteps had broken his rest as his mind jumped into high gear. This in itself was a defence reaction built upon countless ambushes by his accomplice in crime, the blond half of his mini terrorist group. Not only did they prank the rest of the village in with a ferocity rarely seen anywhere in the world, they practised their pranking skills on each other, one world class prankster to another.
As he sat upright in the second, his eyes took in the sight before him. The Sandaime Hokage stood before him, in his full-dress battle gear.
"Are you ready, Ranma-kun?" the Hokage asked the boy before him.
Ranma nodded his ascent, not in full control of his brain's higher functions at the moment. He wordlessly followed Sarutobi into a smaller adjoining room, when his eyes finally opened, as wide as they possibly could.
He had heard of seal constructs before, while at the academy, but what lay before him was far from any regular seal constructs he had ever seen. Sensing Ranma's shock, Sarutobi decided to illuminate his young pupil.
"The reason behind such a complex construct is quite simple, deshi. The magic of your curse is very powerful, and I'm not willing to have the backlash destroy the tower," he said with a smile.
"I'll remind you one last time, that many things could possibly go wrong. Are you sure you want to continue?" he asked Ranma. The pigtailed boy nodded, and stepped into the centre of the seal construct, and sat cross-legged.
"Just relax, and concentrate on your chakra. That will help my focussing."
"Hai, sensei."
Sarutobi began to form the seals that would create the 3-part seal for Ranma's curse. It was a very complicated jutsu, especially since the volatile magic of Jusenkyo was thrown in the mix. It was something that was completely out of this world for Sarutobi, and pretty much any ninja that would ever walk the face of the world they inhabited in this particular universe. Combining its uniqueness along with the fact that it contained very powerful magic, it was nothing short of a miracle that the Sandaime Hokage had managed to devise a method to contain it. Then again, he wasknown as the "Professor".
A low humming noise started to build up within the walls of the room, and the seal construct started to glow with energy, a bluish green hue filling the room. Ranma felt the pull on his chakra, and concentrated on holding it in, his brows creasing. Close to ten minutes had passed and Sarutobi still hadn't stopped forming the seals, even though he was going through them at an average speed. All of a sudden, his eyes flashed open, as he stopped his hands in the position of the monkey seal.
"Sanbun, Jubaku no fuuin!"
His shout was syncopated by a rippling sensation in the air, which suddenly erupted into a massive sonic boom, against the walls of the room. Sarutobi struggled to maintain his footing, but managed to hold himself there, continuing to pour his chakra into the construct.
Ranma felt a tingling sensation build up on his chest, which slowly morphed to become her chest, then his again. The transformation which was usually painless with water was now excruciatingly painful. He fought to scream as even his voice went from his high alto to a soprano, back and forth, changing once, then twice, numerous times. As the pain began to wear off and subside, his left arm felt like it was on fire.
The wind dropped, just as Sarutobi fell to his knees, breathing hard, taking in as much air as his lungs could to satiate his body. Ranma lay face forward, his legs a tangled mess. The Hokage of Konoha slowly stood to his feet, and walked towards the boy's prone form. He lifted him up, and brought him back to the comfortable couch of his office, and proceeded to pour himself a cup of tea while he waited for the pig-tailed youth to awaken. His patience was rewarded ten minutes later, when the body on the couch stirred, and a groan escaped Ranma's lips, his pain evident in his voice.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, deshi," Sarutobi said, with a soft smile.
"Maybe I don't want to be here, old man.." the boy replied, as he clutched his pounding head.
"Sit up, and I'll examine you," the Hokage started, "and have a cup of tea, it'll dull the pain."
Ranma sat up slowly, and took the proffered tea with a mumbled thanks. Sarutobi began to concentrate his chakra into his eyes, getting a feel for Ranma's chakra pattern. His eyes rested on Ranma's left arm, when he saw something that didn't even require chakra enhanced vision to see.
"I had a feeling it would materialize physically."
"What would materialize?" Ranma asked, curious as to the outcome of the sealing.
"Take a look at your arm, deshi."
Ranma looked at his right arm, and seeing nothing, looked back at his sensei's face in question.
"Your other arm," Sarutobi said, as he held his forehead in his hand, sighing.
Ranma's eyes tracked across his right arm, pausing just as he noticed something which was not there the last time he took a shower.
"Wow, that's some cool looking tattoo!" the boy exclaimed, much to the amusement of the village leader. Upon his inspection he found a jet black tattoo, detailing a very uniquely designed line forming a circle, the line's pattern akin to that of the massive chakra constructs he had seen earlier. Inside the circle was the kanji for female.
"Why is the kanji showing female, sensei?"
Sarutobi was silent for a moment, deep in thought.
"I think it has to do with your curse, deshi. Currently you are in your male form, so it would make sense that your female form is held in check. Why don't you try changing, and see what happens?" Sarutobi suggested.
Ranma grabbed for the pot of water next to the tea pot, knowing the Hokage's habit of keeping both cool and hot water in his office. He poured a small amount of the water over his head, but the odd thing was, there was no tingling sensation. Ranma's eyes were wide, as he felt a warm feeling over the area where the tattoo was, the circle around the kanji character turning reddish.
He faced Sarutobi with his eyes wide and his mouth gaping, unable to express in words his shock. As much as he knew that this was the intended effect, it was still a total shock to the system that what he had once taken for granted was now no more, or at least temporarily. Sarutobi grinned at him, before speaking.
"Since that has been taken care of, you will need to learn how to control the seal, to switch between your gender forms. You will also need to know how to turn the seal off, in case you might want to do that."
"I also noticed," he continued, "that you look a bit dazed, aside from your surprise. That's probably because your body does not have a lot of chakra, and the seal has taken a lot of it to prevent the curse from activating and changing your body. I will also have to show you some chakra training techniques so that you can build up your reserves."
Ranma nodded, seeing that he felt it and knew what had to be done.
"We'll start now, so that we can finish in time for you to get to class for today. The team selection process will be proceeding today, so you'll definitely need to be there," Sarutobi said, as Ranma noted a frightening glint in his sensei's eyes. He sighed in defeat, resigning himself to what he knew would be a morning full of torture, followed by a tormenting afternoon at class.
Sarutobi patted his charge on the back as both of them retreated to the forest via the secret access way, Sarutobi and Ranma both carrying several scrolls with them as they left.
--
Ranma entered the classroom, silently trudging across the floor. She headed directly towards her friends once she spotted them, paying no heed to the Sasuke fan girls as she took her place next to him, avoiding the fighting girls. Sasuke sighed to himself, glad to be safe from the immediate threat since Naruto was sitting on his other side, and was now focusing on the topic at hand, which would be the team selections. Sakura found herself next to Ranma, as all the other girls glared at the non-combatants that stole their way next to their beloved Sasuke-kun.
The sight of a tired and bogged down Ranma, however, kept pulling at him from his peripheral vision. Ranma literally had bags under her eyes, and was in the worst shape he had ever seen her, save for how she would be after some of their nightly training sessions.
"What happened to you? You look like Naruto would if he didn't get his daily dose of ramen," he joked, wondering what kind of response he would get from the red haired girl, since her responses often mirrored her mood. It was to his relief once again that morning, that she chuckled lightly.
"The old man went nuts, and decided to torture me for a bit this morning."
Sasuke was about to ask, before she continued, "He finally came up with something to help me with my little problem," he picked out the emphasis she placed on the word, and his eyes widened as he realised what this now meant. "I'll explain it later, during practice."
They stopped talking once the instructor, Umino Iruka stepped in. The pony-tailed man explained to the class, once he had their attention, that they would be split up into groups of three based on their individual skill, as well as temperament towards their teammates. He then proceeded to call out the names of the students according to their groups, as well as the designated meeting place set by their Jounin teacher-to-be.
"Team 7 will consist of Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto," to which there was a soft 'Yahoo!', followed by a dull thud, "and Uchiha Sasuke." This was the part that got the attention of most of the girls in the class, save for a few. Sasuke looked relieved, since he knew that Sakura was not that infatuated with him, not with her emotions being divided between him and Ranma, and Naruto was a good teammate as well. Ranma, on the other hand, was a little disappointed, but figured that things would play out according to plan anyways.
After all, her parents, or at least her father, had been raving on about the Ino-Shika-Chou trio since forever, it was bound the happen. Not to mention that the old monkey also had a 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' when it came to assembling teams.
"Team 10, Yamanaka Inozumi, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Chouji." Ranma's eyes rested upon her teammates, noticing Shikamaru rambling on once again of 'how troublesome' things were. She rolled her eyes, and listened as Iruka continued, "your Jounin-sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma, and he has requested that you meet him at Training Field 7. You may leave now," he said.
Ranma looked at both Shikamaru and Chouji, and nodded. She mouthed to Sasuke to meet up later that night for training, and together, the three of them left the classroom, as Iruka continued to call out names. Once he was done, he put down his clipboard, and sat on at his desk, before noticing that there were three students still in the classroom, looking at him expectingly. At least, one of them was.
"Sensei, you didn't tell us who our Jounin-sensei was, or where to meet him," Sakura stated, leaving the question open.
Iruka stared at his clipboard, before sighing and rubbing his temples. "Sorry about that, Sakura-chan. Your sensei will be Hatake Kakashi. As for where to meet him, he didn't leave any instructions, so I think you should wait here." He shuffled about his drawer, before finding his target, a small rectangular object. He then threw it towards Sasuke, who caught it deftly.
"Better make yourselves comfortable, you're probably going to be in for a very long wait," he said, answering their questioning gazes, as he stepped out of the classroom, leaving three very bewildered children.
--
Ranma walked along the corridor with her team mates, as Chouji kept on muching on a bag of chips. Shikamaru was the first to break the silence.
"Guess we should have seen this coming, ne?" Ranma smirked.
"Yeah, we should. It's not that bad, is it? If there is one thing, and only one thing that Sarutobi-sensei gets right, its usually his team selections." Shikamaru nodded his agreement, knowing that his friends were likely the most compatible teammates he could find for himself, at least in terms of abilities.
After all, their parents had worked together for years as a team, their various skills and techniques, which they consequently passed down, being quite a match. While they were not their parents, they definitely had some coherency, and generally got along with each other. The trust that they had formed was quite an interesting dynamic, as Chouji even shared his food with them, on occasion, which was something no one else in the village could boast about, save for the rest of the Akimichi family.
"Well, let's get moving. The faster we finish, the faster we can head to the restaurant," Chouji commented. His friends rolled their eyes, and in not much more than a flash of a movement, they jumped out the next open window that they found, and rushed off to meet with their new sensei.
--
Training Field 7 was not too far off from the academy, and so they reached there in record time, only to find that there was no one there. Shikamaru sighed and found himself a tree stump to sit upon, while Chouji felt that the ground was more comfortable. Ranma on the other hand, being the training buff that she was, decided to get some extra work done, and was running through a tree jumping exercise she had developed.
This ensued for nearly ten minutes, when all of a sudden a puff of smoke appeared next to Shikamaru and his stump. Shikamaru, however, immediately jumped into battle mode, and dashed forward, his hand reaching into his shuriken holster. Ranma jumped off the last tree in the direction of the mysterious smoke cloud, gaining momentum, while rushing through seals with her hands. Chouji ran towards Shikamaru, to provide some cover for his friend.
It was a tense moment, as both Ranma and Shikamaru shouted their techniques in their minds, not requiring the some what archaic concept of shouting it out loud, which tended to help newly formed teams to work together.
"Kagemane no jutsu!"
"Katon! Goukyaku no jutsu!"
In less than a second, both techniques reached their target smoke cloud, intending to take out whoever it was that decided to shake them up. The fireball cause the smoke to clear, and to the astonishment of both ninjas, there was no one there. Shikamaru instantly released his technique when he noticed it, but both he and Chouji were too late.
A large man wearing a jounin's vest was standing behind them, a heavy hand on either one's shoulder. Ranma landed on the ground less than 10 feet away from them. The bearded man laughed a bit, before explaining himself to the three ninjas in training.
"Nice to meet the three of you. I'm Sarutobi Asuma," he said with a grin. The shift in stance of his new students was barely visible, but he noticed their relaxed state. He gestured them to sit down, and he found himself a tree stump.
"Sorry to have startled you," he started, grinning, while rubbing the back of his head, to the eye rolls of his students, "but I'm quite glad that I did. I've already got an idea of your abilities, and this will help me figure out what and how to teach you."
After a short discussion about their likes, dislikes, as well as some basic ice breaking, Ranma found herself with a slightly embarrassing predicament. It was not without great effort that she managed to inform her new comrades in arms of her special condition.
"Sensei, there is something that I need to mention, that is classified information within the village," she started, and following Asuma's knowing nod, since he had been briefed on the subject before hand, she set off, "I have a special condition, not unlike a bloodline limit. Only that it isn't." Her teammates' curiosity was piqued, she could tell from their faces.
"Allow me to demonstrate," and with that she started off the seal sequence that would disengage the Curse Sealer that Sarutobi-sensei had developed. As she reached the final seal, she opened her eyes, and promptly took the hip flask that she carried with her. It was a special flask with two separate containers, one for cold water, and another for hot.
"My current body is considered my cursed form, as I am actually a boy." With that, she upended the flask, and sufficiently warm water poured out of it, triggering the transformation. The gasps of amazements from Chouji and Shikamaru cause Ranma to smirk a little. Asuma took in the sight of his now male charge, noticing his muscle build, noting areas to work on later.
"Now that the heavy business has been taken care of," he said, after clearing his throat to get the attention of his still open-jawed students, "we will be starting off on some basic D-rank and C-rank missions, as I'm not really into the bell test, and I already have the information I need," he said without elaborating, leaving his students slightly confused. Nonetheless, he proceeded on, "We will meet back in this clearing after breakfast tomorrow to start our work, as well as your pay," this statement getting some gleaming smiles. "Thats all, dismissed."
With that, he stood up, and with a slight puff of smoke, he was gone.
"That was rather anti climactic," Ranma muttered. "So, what now?"
"Well, I suppose we're done for the day. I'm glad, we don't have to waste time learning about each other and all that, since we're already 'family', as our parents keep professing," Shikamaru said, lying back down on the grass.
"Wow, I'm surprised you took the effort to come up with a whole sentence," Chouji chuckled, "must be imagining things since I'm hungry." His slightly wild grin showed his very white, very strong teeth. "Let's head out for some barbecue!"
Ranma couldn't help but laugh at that statement. It was thoroughly expected from Chouji.
"Sorry guys, I've got some training lined up for tonight. Care to join?" he flashed them a grin, knowing what they would say, or rather do. The groan came right on time. "Alright, I got you. I'll see ya tomorrow, bright and early." He stepped up, and started in a light jog towards the Uchiha estate, laughing slightly at the second groan, seeing they would have to be early tomorrow. When a ninja said, after breakfast, he didn't mean breakfast time for normal people. He meant 'at the crack of dawn'.
--
After a couple of runs at the obstacle course he and the others had whipped up, Naruto sat down on the grass, panting quite loudly. There were few who could completely conquer the famed Uchiha Groundbeater even in its hay day, and although he was proud that he could boast that he could survive it, even with their extended modifications, it still tired him out like nothing else did. Except maybe staying away from ramen for a week. Naruto shuddered. That was a really scary thought.
Ranma and Sasuke were winding down slowly, running through some of the kata that Ranma had thought them. The blond boy was glad that he had met Ranma. Not only was the other blue-eyed boy a great friend, but the amount of taijutsu he knew was incredible. The Art of Anything-Goes that he offered them was vastly superior to the standard Konoha taijutsu, not withstanding some of the specialized styles. It was enough to say that they were among the top of their class. Naruto was pulled out of his musing as his companions for the evening finally ended the wind down session, and decided to sit next to him, after each grabbing a swig of water from their containers.
"We've still got a long way to go before we can beat that eyebrows fella," Ranma sighed.
"That guy is nuts! Nuts I tell you!" Naruto exclaimed, all traces of his previous fatigue now gone.
"This coming from the resident ramen addict," Sasuke added. Naruto glared at him as his friends laughed.
"Well, I better get going. It's getting close to dinner time, and you know how my parents get," Ranma said, as he got up and began to put his clothes into his bag.
"Yeah, we've got some meeting with the pirate ninja tomorrow, early," Naruto said with a groan. Sasuke's following sigh showed his agreement with his teammate.
"Okay then, have fun!" Ranma shouted with a wink, as he sped home.
Author's Notes : I'm so terribly sorry for the super delay in getting this out. I just have no drive to actually write out the story as it is in my head. I've got a rough idea, but it's just the writing that's the problem. I'll try, but I can't promise anything, and I felt that I should at least post this chapter up, as unhappy about it as I am.