Chapter One – Maybe not home, but a place to stay.
Important note, I twist Ki/chi(which means the same thing), into two different things, Ki in this story means Body/internal Energy, and Chi means Spirit/External energy. So a chakra person absorbs half of their energy from outside, and uses half of the inside energy to create Chakra. So don't use this idea without asking me, or at least crediting me.
Ranma wearily opened his eyes, as his vision came into focus he noticed he was in a hospital, the walls were bland white, sitting up the young man scowled a little as he noticed the pain he was still in, it wasn't much true, but still.. the occasions were he woke unhealed were uncommon.
"Hello?" Ranma's head spun to the voice, but he groaned as the sudden motion caused a sudden wave of disorientation. "Oh, let me look at that." The woman said, Ranma glanced at her, careful not to move his head too much, she was wearing a nurse uniform, kinda, so it was probably okay. "lay down." Demanded the nurse as she took held of Ranma's shoulders and lowered him to the bed. Ranma's cheeks flushed as he realized he was grateful for the help.
"You've got a concussion," Ranma snorted a little and the nurse giggled. "You do!" she exclaimed, "you've also got some broken ribs, nothing serious now," the young man blinked and looked up at her and the nurse nodded seriously, "and you'll also not want to use your hands, or your right arm for a few days.."
Ranma's face twisted in surprise and shock, he was wounded that badly? How long had he been out for? It should have been at least three days or so.. "How bad was I when I got here?" he asked finally, he hadn't felt like he was that hurt at all until he had fainted…
"I'm not sure, I'm sorry." The nurse went to the end of his bed and picked up a folder hanging there, "hmm, it appears that you don't have a name here."
Ranma glanced at her, interrupted from trying to look at his bandaged hands. "uh, Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts." The boy said unthinkingly as he tried to pry the bandages up to see his hand.
"Stop that." The nurse barked out suddenly, Ranma jumped and glared at the nurse. "You can see them later when we change the bandages Saotome-San." Ranma scowled and she ignored his prickly manner. "You'll only have to wait an hour, so don't worry." The nurse said snappishly as she bid him farewell and almost stalked out the door.
Ranma snorted, women! After checking the door was closed Ranma sat up again, albeit slowly in recognization of his earlier movement problems. Pulling his legs up under the covers Ranma realized he was only wearing his smallclothes, well at least that was better than nothing. As Ranma finished moving into a meditative pose he hunkered down and began to guide his ki through his body.
"His name is Ranma Saotome from an Anything Goes Martial Arts school…" the nurse trailed off as she realized that her irritation with the boy had stopped her from getting any more information out of him.
The committee looked among themselves, the half dozen people who stood when their was no Hokage were having a very bad day. "So, Koharu-san, have you heard of that school before?" asked an old woman idly as she fiddled with her robes and sash.
"…well…no." decided Koharu, "I gather you also haven't heard of it either if you are asking me Homura-san."
Homura shrugged lazily and the committee laughed politely, "No, and I'll wager noone else here has either." And indeed noone else did know. "So it brings to the question, of what we're going to do with him?"
Koharu sighed, wasn't it perfectly obvious? "I will speak to him, and we'll tender a recommendation to Jiraiya when we ask him to be Hokage this afternoon." Koharu clasped his hands and leant forward slightly, "no objections?"
The committee nodded and acted or sheeplike until Homura spoke, "I'll come with you if you don't mind." The old woman declared cheerfully, Koharu nodded in reply and the committee moved onto other topics, it really was a pity that they were all so… sheep-like… although, it did make his job as Orochimeru's agent so much easier.
"Oh my." Homura showed a little surprise, but quickly returned her face to its neutral expression, Koharu looked at her oddly but looked through the doors window anyway, his eyebrows rose considerably. The man, young man, probably around fifteen or so, well, if just his height was an indication, and his face was youthful, the boy, was glowing, a bright blue aura surrounded him and leant the impression that he was on fire.
Koharu had never been a ninja, but he had seen them many times, and he remembered the day the now Jounin Gai passed his Chuunin exams and opened the heavenly gates to combat Kakashi, this boy Ranma Saotome seemingly had the same ability. The two committee members peered in at the meditating boy, "The wounds gate? Or the life gate?" whispered Homura.
Koharu shrugged, he didn't know. "It doesn't matter, eh, look, he's removing his bandages.." the bandages had been on his hands, which had been torn up very badly, sometimes Koharu wished for more people of Tsusanades healing ability, but there hadn't been any nearby.
"Definitely the wound gate." Homura declared quietly, the wounds on the boys hand which the female committee member had seen before he had been bandaged were now almost completely gone, there was only a few people in the village who could boast near the same speed of healing, and only the fox tails boy could beat it.
"Should we interrupt him?" Koharu asked finally, the boy looked pretty much reposed there, it wasn't something Koharu was used to seeing, a person with the outward appearance of being at peace. Homura merely nodded and opened the door quietly, as they walked over Ranma's aura receded and vanished just as they sat down in some hand bedside seats.
"Uh… Hi?" Ranma said to the two people, they were both pretty old, but seemed to be in okay shape for people of their age. The old woman was wearing a white kimono covered by a black jacket and a white sash, whereas the man was wearing a black kimono covered by white jacket and a layer of cloth around his neck and shoulders., together it leant them quite an air of dignity that Cologne had never quite been able to achieve.
"Hello young man." Homura said with a smile, "This is Koharu-San, and I am Homura-San."
Ranma nodded, "I'm Ranma Saotome." Ranma grinned and bowed as much as he could from his cross-legged sitting position. "Pleased to meet you." Ranma found, to his surprise, that almost true at the moment, it was nice to meet someone who immediately gave him some base respect.
"Well, Saotome-san." Started Koharu and then paused, how was he going to put this without seeming rude?
"Ranma, please." Ranma said suddenly as he found those words uncomfortable. "Saotome-San has always been my father." And that was true too, although there had been a few people to call him Saotome-san, but most of those hadn't been too polite, or had left after mere minutes, and Ranma had a feeling this would take a while.
"of course, Ranma-san." Koharu said with a little relief, the young man was willing to be cooperative which would make this much easier. "I'm afraid this visit is quite, rude, we, the committee currently in charge of leaf village need some information about you."
Ranma blinked, they were after information, and while they did say they had to get it, they were doing so in quite a polite manner, which was… different. "Uh, sure, anything you want to know."
Homura smiled, the boy was quite polite, and for some strange reason he seemed surprised that they would be polite about asking for information. "Thankyou very much Ranma-san, all we need to know for now is some basic information, where your from, your age and some minor things like that, oh, and if your willing, why your here would be nice."
Koharu coughed a few times and Ranma gave him an odd look before replying, "sure, I'm from Nerima in Tokyo, I'm uh, seventeen and… how I got here's a kinda long story, are you sure you want to hear it?" Ranma shrugged, it was a long story, and while no doubt interesting for some, it was probably dumb and he didn't need to waste peoples time with it.
Homura smiled and nodded, "I'd love to, Ranma-san, after all its not every day you find someone who fell out of a sky next to a summon." Kohura was nodding too and Ranma felt a little welcome, they wanted to hear his story.
"Okay," Ranma began, "It all started in Nerima when….
"hehehe" Homura frowned, Jiraiya was still up to his old perverted tricks. Although, as a SenNin Jiraiya looked the part, at least when he wasn't being perverted, his long white hair, the antique style togs he wore and the ever present scroll of summoning that lay across his back combined to give him a look of seniority and power.. at least when he wasn't being silly.
"I see you still haven't given up on foolish things.. haven't you.." Koharu said after a moment, Jiraiya had been a student of his when he had tutored him in maths, the things he needed to know as a Chuunin..
"I'm just doing it once more…" Jiraiya said automatically, his teacher was always a pain in the butt, Jiraiya blinked and glanced behind him. "Homura Otchan, Koharu-Sensai Right?" Jiraiya said suspiciously, while giving them a drawn out sidelong look, "what business does a committee advisor have with me?" the SenNin asked, whatever the answer, it couldn't be good.
Ranma yawned, it had been nice talking to those people, and they had listened and made good questions about the story, it had been a bit painful at parts, Akane being kidnapped, the fact he was here on a place which had never heard of any country on earth… not good. The pigtailed man sighed and lay back on his bed, he wasn't sore anymore, but he was a little tired, he had to expend a fair bit of Ki to heal himself. The fight with saffron, and his desperate attack upon Saffron's energy had created some insidious side effects, as the demi-gods skin had healed right over Ranma's hands, the skin had ripped his own into shreds and replaced it, the doctors had noticed the skin wasn't his, and had removed it, but there had been a little left inside that they hadn't found. Ranma was good with his Ki, but even he had his limits, and while detecting a problem was within them, getting rid of the stuff wasn't quite as easily done..
"Saotome-san?"
The same nurse who had spoken to him earlier was at the door, Ranma smiled and spoke "Ranma, please." The nurse smiled back and entered the room and set down a tray of food, "I want to check your bandages first, before you eat." Ranma grumbled but pulled his hands out from under the sheets to comply, she scowled at him when she noticed they were quite unbandaged. "Ranma-San," she began firmly, "Didn't I ask you to wait for me to change the bandages?"
Ranma grumbled, "Yeah, but I had to check on them before I healed them and stuff, else I could have merged my skin into the bandages," Ranma had done that very thing the second time he had meditated to heal himself, the first time was an experiment, the martial artist had removed all the cloth covering his wounds to see them close, but the second time he had become so overconfident he hadn't cared, and so the inner layer of bandages on his thigh had become covered in skin, it had taken surgery to remove them and Ranma had never forgotten the humiliation of that. "and that really sucks when that happens…"
The nurse was looking very surprised as she ran her fingers along the places there had been cuts on merely three hours earlier when she had changed the bandages then, now, there was merely a half dozen pink lines where the wounds and scraps had closed. "wow, that's amazing, almost as fast as Uzumaki-San, although I don't believe Uzumaki-san needs to concentrate to use it."
Ranma looked up, that was an interesting titbit of information, he'd have to find this Uzumaki and see if he could learn the technique later.
"In any case, that was the worst of your injuries, well, the worst external ones, did this healing Jutsu heal your ribs as well?" the nurse after a moment, Ranma nodded and the nurse looked a little interested. "an interesting jutsu Ranma-San."
"Nah, not really, the damn thing won't work on anyone except the person who uses it.. and I don't know how to teach it," Ranma absently cursed his father, the young man did know how to teach it, or at least the brutal version of training which could kill someone.
'he's not very good at lying…' thought the nurse calmly, 'I don't think there's any need to tell the committee about that.. they'll see it the first time he tries.' In any case Ranma-san, should you ever find out how to teach it, please do tell me."
Ranma blinked, she had accepted it just like that? Oh well, better than telling her the truth he supposed. "Sure." This brought something else to mind, "umm, What's your name?" it was kind of rude asking, but…
"Oh my." She said embarrassedly, "Shizuno Mazaki, I'm so sorry, I completely forgot!" she placed both her hands on her cheeks in an effort to hide her blush. "Please call me Shizuno.."
Ranma nodded calmly, okay that was fine, she was using his first name, so it was okay, there was absolutely no romantic interest there. "Sure stuff Shizuno-san." Ranma looked around at the bare room. "Umm, there ain't much to do, and Koharu-san requested that I stay around for observation and stuff, but is it okay if I can go somewhere to practice or something?" Ranma looked a little embarrassed again, he had been slack, he really should have done some practice after the two committee members had left… but they had asked him to stay around to make sure he was okay.
"As long as it's not destructive, you can use the area in front of the hospital or the roof if you need some privacy, Ranma-san." Shizuno said after a moment, the boy's injuries did seem to be gone. And it also didn't seem likely that he'd leave if he was asking permission now.
"Thanks Shizuno-san" Ranma literally bounced out of bed, unmindful that he was in his singlet and boxer shorts. "uhh, um, do you know where my clothes are Shizuno-san?"
"I'm not going to run away, That's a little excessive to have someone watch over me." Jiraiya declared reprovingly, Homura smiled at him benignly, and Koharu snorted, "however, there is one person I would like to accompany me.." Jiraiya grinned widely, "I found an interesting new egg."
Koharu smiled slightly, "Oh, before you go, there is one thing, the person who appeared with the Sand Ninja's summon," Koharu sighed a little, this was going to be a touchy subject, just for the fact that Jiraiya had sidestepped becoming the hokage. "He has not returned, and I doubt that he will. Do you have any advice on what we should do with him? I cannot condone just killing him out of hand, and the young man already knows how to open at least four of the heavenly gates."
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at Koharu, and then glanced across to Homura, "I've got no idea." Jiraiya shrugged and looked completely unconcerned with the possibility that there was an unknown person who had the power to defeat at the very least a few chuunins.
Homura smiled, "Oh well, I think he might be okay to adopt into the village, temporarily at the very least, he is quite skilled in taijutsu, although according to him, he's never even heard of Chakra before." That caused Jiraiya to blink, and a smug smile rose on the old woman's face. "Only the matter of pride forces me to say that he would be defeated by our own village Chuunins. And If his story is mostly true, or more, even pride will be forced to bend to reality."
Koharu frowned, "Stop revving him up Homura-san, the sole lie the boy tried to tell us was pathetically obvious, and Ranma has a good heart, there will not be a single problem with him."
"He's pretty good..." Homura said quietly, she was observing Ranma through a window, he was practicing a style of some sort that involved not only a Kata, but keeping two rocks each the size of a fist up in the air, the tight training clothes which the hospital kept in plentiful supply didn't hurt either. "That involves precision, endurance, control and a little power, and that's pretty much everything bar Chakra."
Koharu frowned, "doesn't precision and control mean the same thing in fights?" they did right? They both meant accuracy..
"No, not at all, precision is the ability to hit the target," As she spoke Ranma's foot came out and kicked the rock, Homura winced in sympathy, it did look painful. "And control is how much power you use, he has to not only hit that rock in the right place, but he has to do it exactly hard enough so it lands when he's in a position to kick it again…" Koharu's eyes widened in admiration, the Kata did look complex, but that explanation lent meaning to it. "In any case Koharu, as you can see, he's using his hands to keep one rock airborne and feet for the other… the person who came up with this Kata would be quite interesting to meet."
Koharu yawned, "Come on, we need to talk to him." The elderly man said cheerfully as he walked outside without waiting, Homura grumbled at him as she followed the committee member.
"Good Afternoon Ranma-San."
Ranma missed the kick he was going for, and the rock hit the top of foot instead of impacting lightly on his shin, rolling down and being flicked up by his toes. "Kuso!" the young man swore and bounced around on one foot for a moment before ignoring the other rock as it impacted in the ground nearby. Ranma picked up both rocks and carried them over to under the tree where Koharu-San and Homura-San sat. "Good afternoon Koharu-San, Homura-San"
Homura smiled, and surprisingly Koharu smiled a little as well, Ranma hadn't pegged him to be a conversation or congenial person, Ranma didn't mind being wrong in this case though, it was nice to be proven wrong about some things.
"How is your day going Ranma-san?" Homura asked politely, "That Kata you were doing looked quite interesting." The committee woman wondered momentarily if she'd be able to coax him to teach it to someone, but dismissed it after a moment.
"Okay I guess, it's only been two hours, so not much has changed…" Ranma stopped and thought for a second, "I saw some people in black bouncing around over there, they kinda looked like ninja's or something."
Koharu chuckled, "We are a ninja village..." Homura chuckled wryly at that irony, one of the least ninja like men in the village, declaring the villages skills.
Ranma's eyes widened, a real ninja village? But.. what happened if they had crazy laws like amazons? "You don't have any weird laws do you? especially about losing fights… cause I ain't gonna marry anyone, and I don't want anyone to have to kill me by law if I beat them in a fight or something."
Koharu blinked and glanced at Homura, that was quite an odd question, "uh, not that I know of.." he said with another laugh, "If your up to it, I'd quite like to know where you came across a place with laws like that, but later, we have something to talk about first."
Ranma looked a little curious as Homura figuratively stepped in, "We'd like to know what your intending on doing, from what you told us earlier we're fairly certain that you are from a… different world, we always knew summons were from somewhere else."
Ranma sat there for a moment, "I want to get back to the Tendo's.. but.. I want to become stronger too, and I've already heard of a healing technique better than mine.." Ranma was wracking his mind, he did want to go back.. but.. there was so much here.
Homura spoke again, "From what you've told us, you don't have the basic training to do most of our techniques." She paused dramatically and folded her hands in front of her sorrowfully. As the woman suspected Ranma's face showed horror from this revelation. "However, it won't be too hard to teach you.. and there are summoning techniques known to the higher members of the village.."
Koharu grinned, Homura really was a wily woman. "Don't forget Ranma-san, it would take a few years to get to the point of being able to get access to the scrolls, we're only committee members, and you'd need to prove yourself to the next hokage and probably be at least a Chuunin first. It will take time."
Homura looked sharply at Koharu, was he trying to drive the boy away or something? "I have not found any other way for you to get home Ranma-San." She had looked a little, but there was nothing in the way of chakra to send a summon to where it came from.
Ranma looked between them, long experience with Cologne and the Tendo's made him aware she wanted him in the village, but it didn't appear to be to get his blood. "I suppose your right, and I guess I can always resign and leave if I don't like it here."
Koharu smiled cheerfully as he inwardly contemplated what had been achieved, the young man would not get too attached to the village, at least not very quickly, and that would let Orochimeru-sama check him out to see if he would be of use. "Excellent, Ranma-San." Homura looked a little odd as she smiled and congratulated Ranma as well.
"Ranma-San, we will acquire a teacher for you to learn about Chakra and see if you can use it." Homura had a sudden idea, this would help keep Ranma in the village for now. "I'll check you out of the hospital, unless of course the doctors object, and you may stay at my house tonight."
Ranma started a little, she must have a grandchild or daughter she wanted him to marry! "uh, I'd rather not impose Homura-san."
"Nonsense, since my son moved out the house has become quite empty with just myself there." Homura declared gruffly, her firm expression and those words effectively killed any resistance Ranma was willing to erect. "Besides Ranma-San, I make a mean ramen."
Ranma chuckled lightly, that was a convincing argument indeed, there wasn't a girl there, and there was good food. "Okay Homura-San, you win." Homura and Ranma both chuckled at that, and even Koharu gave a bit of a laugh.
Authors Note: yeah, I could have used the Energy/Heal Gate for Ranma, but I wanted him further along.
