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Ranma no Jinchuuriki
Prologue: Neko-ken Training
By: Ellf
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Disclaimer: I do not own any of the series mentioned in this fanfic.
A cold breeze blew through the Forest of Death. The dense trees quivered as if in fear... or perhaps it was anticipation. The sun wasn't even completely gone yet, but within the forest it seemed to be the dead of night. Only two things were audible near the Saotome campsite, the yowling of cats and the sound of a shovel striking dirt repeatedly.
Genma dug, cursing the cats for their yowling and bemoaning the hardships of what he had to do for his son to get good training. He had found the manual in Hokkaido in a small curio shop and began to read through it. Why a curio shop would sell a training manual was beyond him, but it did say on it ultimate technique. At first he was planning on learning the technique himself (in case the Master, on the off chance that it ever happened, came back), but according to the manual, the trainee could not be older than eleven years old. Thus he decided to teach his son the technique and this forest was closest to Hokkaido and the perfect place for the training. Genma continued to dig the pit, cursing the cats once more because he had no money to spend on sake due to them. He had bought the cats at a shelter, and it had taken all of his spending cash to get them for the technique. Hopefully the boy would be grateful for the hardship he went through. Thinking of Ranma, Genma glanced up out of the pit; the boy had agreed to learn the technique, like always, and he was tired from the training they did that day. Genma let him sleep; after all, Ranma would need all of his strength to learn the Neko-ken.
There, the pit was finished. It was time to load the cats in. Taking care not to wake Ranma, he grabbed the large kennel that he had loaded the twenty or so cats into. As one yowled and slashed at his finger, he noticed that they were ready for the following day. Placing a lid over the pit, he went over to go to sleep next to his peaceful looking ten-year-old child. Sleep quickly claimed Genma.
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"Daddy! Daddy! Wake up! It's time for training!"
Genma rubbed his eyes and saw his cheerful looking son and smiled. I can only hope the boy stays this enthusiastic throughout the trip. "Well boy, we're going to skip morning training for today. You are going to have breakfast and then we'll get you started on that new technique, the Neko-ken!"
Ranma's face fell for a bit at the statement about skipping training, and then brightened at the mention of food and the new technique. "Alright! New technique!"
After the two Saotomes finished their breakfast, Genma brought his son to the covered pit with a bag of fish sausage in tow. "Alright boy, are you ready to learn the invincible Neko-ken?"
"I can learn whatever I need to, Dad!" Ranma shouted this proudly.
"Alright boy, then let's get started." Wrapping the child in fish sausages, he picked young Ranma up.
"Daddy, I can't move."
"That's the idea boy. The manual was very thorough about this." Genma removed the cover from the pit. "I'll be back later boy. Hopefully you will have learned the Neko-ken by then."
"Wait! Daddy!" With that Ranma was thrown into the pit and his training for the Neko-ken was started.
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Darkness engulfed him as he fell in the pit with a dull thud. The smell of fish and fur overcame his nostrils. The only thing visible to him was twenty sets of glowing green eyes... all staring directly at him. Then he heard it, the dread sound that would haunt his dreams from then on.
"MREOWW!" With that, the pain began. As he felt claws and teeth tear into him, he wondered why his father would do this to him. Was it really all for a technique? If it was, then he would have no choice but to stick this out. Determination gripped him, but the pain quickly made it difficult to think of anything else.
How long had he been down there? An hour? A day? A month? He didn't know. All he knew was pain and a slowly growing fear. All he could hear was the yowling of the monsters in the pit, and he could feel their beady eyes on him as they continued to tear into him, and each other. Someone was screaming. It took him five minutes to realize that the person screaming was him as he drew in another sharp breath. When would this training be finished? How could he learn a technique this way?
A slot of light appeared. Finally! Salvation! As he was pulled out of the pit, he got a clear glimpse of the creatures that had caused him such pain. The cats were the monsters. The harmless little cats had caused him such pain! Now he knew to avoid cats if he were to avoid the pain.
"Well boy, did you learn the Neko-ken today?"
"N-no, d-daddy."
"I guess we'll have to try again tomorrow then, now won't we, Ranma."
Too bad his father had other ideas...
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It had been nearly a month since the boy had begun his training and as of yet he hadn't learned the technique. Each time he seemed to be more and more afraid of going in the pit again.
It hadn't taken him long to run out of fish sausages. Upon seeing that they didn't help Ranma learn the technique, he scoured for other fish products. Fish paste, fish cakes, whole sardines, all the while spending his sake money to help his son learn this technique. Who knows, maybe today would be the day the boy learned the Neko-ken. Maybe it would be tomorrow. His son would learn the technique.
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Trapped. He was trapped. Ignoring the other cats in the pit, he considered a way out. Pain on his right flank. One of the other cats had decided to attack him. He batted it against the wall of the entrapment and hissed at it, frightening it into submission. It knew full well who the alpha was.
There! The ceiling. He could break out of it easily and free himself and the rest of the pride. Tensing his legs, he busted through the wooden plank that covered the prison and landed outside. A voice caught his ear. It was male, older, human.
"Congratulations, boy! You've learned the Neko-ken! I knew you could do it."
Turning to face the voice, the man's face struck a memory within him. This was the Tormentor, the one who had caused him pain. His eyes narrowed as he reached out his claws and slashed at the man, leaving marks on his clothing and not much else. He felt something calling to him, deep within the forest. Taking one last glance at the Tormentor to hiss at him, he bounded off.
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The old woman was cleaning the steps of the shrine when she saw the boy. He bounded through the trees with such a grace that she hadn't seen since her days before she was asked to care for this shrine. As he approached, she noticed that the boy was walking on all fours.
There's no way anyone is actually stupid enough to teach that technique.
However to her dismay, the child indeed was Neko-ken trained. Never again would the boy be able to interact with normal society. He would have to be kept under lock and key in order for- what was the boy doing. The boy in his Neko state walked into the shrine and began to weave through it as if he were being led somewhere. No... not that thing's remains. She rushed to the room that contained the remains of the thing she was supposed to guard, and she saw a glowing aura surrounding the sealed box as the seals were burned away by an immense chakra. The chakra then seemed to be transferring from the box to the boy's body. There was only one thing the woman could think of to do now; she rushed over to the boy after the lightshow was finished, forming seals with her hands the whole while.
Dog. Rabbit. Dragon. Monkey. Dog. Rat. Tiger. Snake. Dog. Boar. She was doing seals so fast in an order that had only been done few times before. When she was finished with the seals she cried out, "Ninja Art: Four Element Seal!" She thrust her hand into the child's body, expending nearly all of her own chakra to contain the demon within the child. The child's Neko-ken induced state made him a prime target for the demon to possess him. Now with that seal that she made, the demon and perhaps even the Neko-ken would be kept under control. Glancing at the child, she noticed that the poor boy had already fallen asleep, the experience taxing him. Slowly but surely, the seal used on the boy began to fade from the area it had been put - directly on his exposed chest. The seal was simple in design, a spiral made out of two lines, with four kanji surrounding it. As it faded, the kanji stayed in view for a little longer than the spiral, and then the child's chest held no evidence that the seal was there at all.
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Ranma woke up. The last thing he remembered was being in the pit with those monsters. However this time was unlike the last in that he blacked out from the fear and the pain. He obviously wasn't in the pit any more, but what looked like a room at a shrine. He felt a bit of a tingling at his chest area, but other than that he felt great. Walking outside, he smelled some rice, tea and pork cooking and investigated the smell.
"Ah, I see you're awake, child, and apparently back to normal it would seem." The voice was a kindly elderly woman's drawl, and came from what was obviously an older woman. The woman had a smile on her face as she continued to speak. "Would you like some breakfast?"
"Yup!" Ranma said, food temporarily deterring him from the onslaught of questions that he would ask later. In which he would be answered that he had indeed learned the Neko-ken, and that was how he ended up here, that the older woman had no clue where his father was and he would be allowed to stay with her for a few days until his father came to retrieve him, and that this was a shrine built to honor those who died during the legendary fight between the Kyuubi no Youko and the Niibi no Nekomata, and was rumored to house the remains of the Cat Demon within it. All of this and more he would learn and eventually forget when his father picked him up, but for now, food was more important.
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(End of Prologue)
Author's Notes: Well, I started yet another story to add to my repertoire. Half an Age Chapter 3 is indeed being worked on, albeit slowly, as is another prologue to another fanfic that I've started. I have way too many ideas and way too little time to write them all down on paper.
Fukufics only Author's notes: I expanded it, added in a few scenes and removed a few others. The only reason that the "Four Element Seal" is in English is because I got lazy and didn't want to look it up in Japanese. Besides, I don't think they ever give that name in the Anime or Manga.