Power & Corruption

Chapter Three – Training the good... the bad... and the fugly.


Ranma snuck sneakily towards his third target, the target twitched and jumped to the side, Ranma held his breath for a moment, but it seemed the target was unaware of his hiding spot, or of him for that matter. Pulling out four shuriken Ranma took an extra moment to tie the corners of the small net to the centre of each of the shuriken; he had hurt himself a little last night, doing something he now realized was kind of stupid. As he drew back to throw the target looked up and around, Ranma grinned and threw his shuriken perfectly.

The shuriken whizzed through the air, dragging the net behind them, as they impacted around the target Ranma took a running jump from the tree he had been hiding in, down to the grass covered ground where he tackled the target to the ground, although the net had rendered that unnecessary. Grinning to himself, the boy picked the net up, and tossed it, and the entrapped target, over his shoulder.


Homura smiled politely, it was a midmorning tea time, and the committee was meeting, once again. "I don't believe the committee has ever had this many meetings before..." said Maharo-san, Homura looked the man over, he was dressed neatly, unlike his descendants, and wore the most un-combative robes and clothing Homura had seen for weeks. They were a kimono that reached down below his ankles, they would be close to useless if he had to run, or even walk fast in the brown clothing. "But until Tsunade arrives, I guess we don't have much choice." Homura nodded, that was indeed true, "But anyway Homura-san, I've been wondering, we really do need to make some decisions about Saotome-san about now," Homura tensed suddenly, and Maharo raised his hands in a placating gesture, "Don't worry so much Homura-san. I've been wondering, and Chimanu brought up a wonderful Idea, and that was to add Ranma to a Genin team that had lost a member."

Homura's eye brow rose inquisitively, and Maharo smiled, he had gotten her Hook, Line, and sinker. "The team I'm thinking of is Ibiki Morino's new team," the original team leader had died during the attack on Konoha, and as soon as it was announced that the new Juunin who would take over the team was in fact Ibiki, of ANBU interrogation squad, one of his team and quit being a ninja permanently, and the other two girls had required a lot of convincing to stay. "Ranma won't know about Ibiki's reputation, and from what you have mentioned of him, I doubt he would be afraid if he did know."

Homura nodded, Ranma would likely snort and carry on without care "He will do well with Ibiki I believe, Ranma lacks tact or any kind of person to person relationship skills, although he has managed to hide it well." Maharo nodded, taking that information and doing whatever he did with it all. "I will request for Ibiki-kun to take him tomorrow."

Maharo grinned suddenly and shook his head. "Don't bother, I've already asked, and he'll do it." Homura frowned, but Maharo continued anyway, "It needed to be done sometime, and I've only tentatively asked him anyway, nothing definite, but he will be ready to take Ranma-kun the moment you say so."

"Thank you Maharo-san." Homura began pleasantly, "But Ranma won't be available for a few days," Homura continued with a smile, "Ebisu has arranged to finish Ranma's training in Chakra in a three day straight training session." Ebisu had been a little reluctant, but after telling him Ranma had already tried to make a new technique with Chakra he could barely control just the night before… the trainer's face had paled and he had changed his stance immediately.

Maharo's eyes widened, usually only problem students, of a level that not even Naruto Uzumaki had reached, were sent on training sessions… they were rough things and usually the child either got back with the mission a success, or they returned and quit being a ninja. "Have there been some problems with Ranma-kun?" asked the committee member warily, perhaps Koharu's words earlier hadn't been as out as he had thought.

"No, not really." Started Homura, "Ranma just tried to emulate one of his techniques, he uses it with Body Energy, but it backfired somewhat and was quite painful."


"Good Day Ranma-Kun." Called out Ebisu cheerfully, Ranma grinned and altered his jump mid air, it amazed Ebisu how the boy could do that without Chakra, a fair few ninja's could use the energy intensive method of slowing themselves down or changing direction mid air, but Ranma had told him it was all about changing the direction of his body when the teacher had asked during the first lesson.

"Good day Ebisu-sensei!" Ranma called out cheerfully, angling himself to catch a little more air resistance Ranma slowed down mid air and fell to the street below, he wasn't meant to start with Ebisu for another two hours yet.

Looking Ranma up and down Ebisu catalogued the changes since yesterday's lesson, Ranma now wore a belt that held a row of the short handled throwing kunai, a pouch down on his right leg which was no doubt full of shuriken and maybe a kunai or two, there was also a not too obvious sheath to hold another kunai and under Ranma's long sleeved shirt he could pick out two bracers on the boys arms… and hanging from his back was a… "I see you have a rabbit, Ranma-kun…" Ebisu said in a little surprise, Homura had told him she'd take care of testing Ranma's stealth capabilities and Ranma would have a rabbit if he hadn't finished it yet… but still... it was a bit of a shock.

"Actually Ebisu-Sensei, I had three!" cheered Ranma; he had gotten bored after finding the first rabbit and went out to catch two more. "Homura-san only said one, but I got bored so I got some more."

Ebisu nodded, so that was the test, sneak up and grab a rabbit… it wasn't really a good test either… not really. "Was that all you had to do? Ranma-kun?"

Ranma shook his head, "Nah, it had to be put in a certain place, I got that done already."

Ebisu frowned, "Homura-san didn't tell me what you had to do, Ranma-kun."

"Well..." Ranma grinned, "You'll see… later." The boy grinned, he had placed the rabbit in Ebisu's office like he had been told to, there had been two other ninja there too, but they hadn't been a problem to avoid, mostly due to the fact they were having a game of cards. Ranma had initially been a little hesitant about using the forbidden schools, but he figured that this was one of the times where he could use parts of it without problem… besides, from what Homura had told him, the Hyuuga clan used a similar thing as the Yamasenken… and entire clan of people who had the ability to cause great damage by light touches… "Anyway Ebisu-Sensei, Homura-san said that we were going to do some sort of special training?"

Ebisu's eyes lit up "yes Yes YES!" WE are going on a training trip, for around three days…" the teacher declared in a most Gai'ish fashion. "And I heard this today, you'll be getting a new team as soon as we're done to begin going on your very own missions!" Ebisu posed as if this was a great thing.

Ranma frowned and tugged at his black shirt nervously, "uh, your sure that their not going to like slow me down or hinder my being able to learn stuff?" he asked a bit curiously.

Ebisu frowned, "Of course they will slow you down, but your going to be slowing them down too… the idea of teams is that you slow each other down a bit, but as a team you can do things no single person can do!" the teacher sighed, hoping that he didn't have another loner on his hands.

Ranma thought about that, Ryoga had taken Akane away in the last battle… that was teamwork wasn't it? And then when he had fought Kirrin it had taken everyone's help to get there…even that perverted lecher had helped out a bit. "Yeah, I guess your right." Ranma declared finally, "I never really thought of it as teamwork though, we'd always group up and head out together, rescue Akane and it'd all fall apart on the way home."

Ebisu smiled in bewilderment, rescue Akane? How many times had Akane needed rescuing? "But you managed to get the work done, as a group right?" the teacher pushed, already knowing the answer, Ranma nodded and Ebisu smiled again in triumph. "A group is only another word for a team, and so you've done teamwork before... this is just going to be a little more teamwork than you've had experience with, you'll learn to fight with each other and against each other, and most importantly... to support each other when you need to." Ebisu smiled, Ranma had gotten the message clear, and the trainer's doubts about the boy's ability thinned and vanished like wisps of fog in the morning sun.

"Thanks Ebisu-sensei." Ranma said quietly, "I probably would have screwed up and said something to my teammates about slowing me down or something similar if you hadn't have told me that stuff." The pigtailed man shrugged his shoulders; he would have screwed up too, especially if the team had girls in it. He would have to take a lot of care in making sure he didn't alienate his team.

"Anyway, Ranma-Kun, before we leave for our training trip, we've got to get ready." Ranma nodded as Ebisu continued, "We'll be out for three days, but pack for five in case we need more time, or I find some extra techniques for you to learn." Ranma nodded again, and Ebisu was silently thankful he wasn't taking notes like Lee had. "You'll only need two pairs of clothes, if you can't bear to wear em, wash em."

"Yeah, whatever." Mumbled Ranma, as if he hadn't stunk so badly before that he had scared a fox away. "I'll be there; at least I won't have to chase down dinner on this trip." Ranma finally decided that was a definite plus, and besides, Ebisu didn't look to be able to eat even half of what Genma used to.

"None of that Attitude boy!" growled Ebisu as he reinforced his words with a slap to the back of Ranma's head, "You've got ten minutes to get ready and meet me at the gate! GO!" Ebisu immediately vanished into thin air, off to his own office and Ranma sprinted to home.

"Why is there two Chuunin outside of my office?"

"Why is there a rabbit sitting on my desk?"

"Ranma… Your training trip SHALL BE FILLED WITH PAIN!"


Ranma packed his bags quickly, in went two sets of clothing, dashing out of his room he saw Homura, "Hey hey Homura-san, I'm off for a training trip.."

Homura smiled, "Yes, I know Ranma-kun." Ranma looked suddenly crestfallen in not being able to spread the word himself, "I've made a pack of five days worth of food for you, you should check it over before packing it however…" Homura smile faltered a little, the house was going to be empty again... even if it was only for a few days.

As if reading her mind Ranma spoke cheerfully as he sorted through the food on table, "Don't worry Homura... I'll be back in a few days." Homura smiled at that, he did mean well.

Quickly running through the food Ranma wrapped it all up and placed it safely in his pack on top of the clothes and to the side, returning back to the armory Ranma took another thirty shuriken and wrapped them quickly up in a square of cloth, as he checked all his own equipment, determined to make that a habit as soon as possible, Ranma grabbed another three normal Kunai and a half dozen throwing kunai as well. As he wrapped up the last of the replacement weapons Ranma paused and thought about what he was doing now, he was about to take another step forward to becoming a paid killer… Ranma had killed before, true, but when he had been on the road with his father, it was kill or be killed… and he hadn't ever forgotten the faces of those six people.

But what he was embarking out to do, was on a whole different level, he'd be killing not for protection of his life, and possibly not even to protect others… but just because he had been ordered to do so. His hand shivered a little, but there really wasn't much choice… do this, or be almost certainly trapped for ever after… if he did go ahead with this, there would be others with the same problems.. Others who could help. Ranma stood, his mind made up, as he placed his new filled pack on his back he walked out of the room slowly, "See you in three days Homura-san." Ranma said calmly in the lounge room.

Homura caught onto his mood quickly, and uttered a few calming words. "People change Ranma-kun, but how much they change is up to them… I have faith that you'll not get carried away."

Ranma smiled weakly and nodded. "Thank you." He said simply before moving out the door and to his meeting with Ebisu.


Gaara watched Temari engage the enemy ninja impassively, Kankuro was finishing off his opponent and Gaara smiled as the deathblow fell. "Kankuro, retrieve the scroll." Ordered Gaara, Kankuro opened his mouth to reply, but thought better of it and immediately sent his puppet onwards. Gaara frowned and stepped forward as Temari's opponent took the upper hand, the distraction of Gaara however made that short lived as Temari swung and a cut of air decapitated the hired thug who had identified himself as The Great Kamajii.

Gaara nodded to Temari as she turned around and they continued into the bandit's fort, ahead Gaara spotted Kankuro hiding behind a tapestry, in front of the tapestry stood the doll in combat with three bandits, one of the bandits- a man dressed all in black and probably a former ninja- spotted Kankuro and leapt forward to the kill, only to be intercepted by a spike of sand through the chest. The battle stopped immediately, Kankuro took the opportunity to kill the other two men quickly.

Stepping past the carnage Gaara entered the main room of the cave fort and came face to face with the leader of the bandits, a former Chuunin. Ignoring the dangers the man might possess the sand ninja reached out and took the ornate scroll from the ninja's slack hands. The bandit's eyes gained focus, and he looked at Gaara, his eyes widened with fear and Gaara smiled cruelly in response. "Your men could have hurt my people." Gaara whispered, just loud enough for the former ninja to hear. The ninja had wet himself and Gaara's smile turned into a sneer of disgust. "Desert tomb." The sand ninja whispered, sand flowed out from under the wooden chair the man had wet himself in, and from the gourd on Gaara's back.

"Please…no… don't." cried the man so quietly Gaara could barely hear it. Gaara's sneer morphed to a scowl. "You could have hurt my people." He whispered again as the sand raised over the mans face. Gaara stood and walked away, not even bothering to give the bandit leader a quick death.


"Hello Ranma-kun." Ebisu's voice was filled with a predatory smile. "How nice to see you…"

Ranma blinked, then looked around, aha! Ebisu was holding the rabbit! "Hey hey Ebisu-Sensei, nice to see you too." Said Ranma all too cheerfully, "Did you like your rabbit?" asked the boy tactlessly

Ebisu's eyes twitched, that boy was mocking him! "Why yes Ranma… in fact, I've decided that we'll keep it." Yes.. This plan would go out to perfection.

"Sweet." Grinned Ranma at the rabbit. "At least if we want some fresh meat we won't have to chase it down… me and pops used to do this occasionally." Ranma said with the best poker face he had ever managed in his entire life, he hadn't done this before of course, that was incredibly cruel to the animal after all.

Ebisu stared at Ranma for a second then dismissed the idea that he could possibly be serious. "Good, you're taking care of it, and if it shits in your backpack like it did my desk with the important papers to the Hokage… well, too bad."

Ranma blinked, important documents? Uhoh. "umm, Homura-san told me to put it there?" Ranma tried in a pitiful attempt to save himself from a fate nearly as bad as a fianc

Ebisu's left eye twitched, "rule of ninja! Don't try to sidestep the blame!" ha! That'll get him for sure thought Ebisu triumphantly.

Ranma blinked, okay, he could do that. "Okay, I put the rabbit on your table, so what are you going to do about it?" Ranma asked curiously, it could not be anything as bad as the time he admitted to taking the last ration of food from Genma.

"ummm." Ebisu was stumped, he wasn't actually meant to admit it, or to challenge him over it.. "aha! Training will be extra hardcore!"

Ranma frowned, "You mean like Hardcore wrestling? I don't know… the people who do that are kind of fake and stuff…"

"No! not like wrestling! Like Life or Death training! You'll die or pass!" Ebisu bellowed in a screaming fit that was disturbingly similar to Soun Tendo's Demon Head technique.

Ranma yawned, he had heard that before, the training to fall down a cliff, the training to swim, the training to catch trains, the… the.. yeah, all that boring stuff. "yeah yeah, so am I cooking the rabbit or are you?"

Ebisu cuddled the rabbit protectively, "don't worry mister rabbit… we don't let that big bad mean man hurt you my prrrrecccciousss." Whispered the sensei quietly to the rabbit.

Ranma twitched, Ebisu was mad… and probably a closet pervert too. "Come on already, lets go… sooner we go, sooner we can cook the rabbit." Ranma grumbled as he started walking out the gate.

Ebisu growled and caught up to take the lead in seconds.


It stung… no, it hurt… his arms hurt like the time he had been tortured by the Akatsuki. The man moaned and groaned in agony, "Ar.. My..Arm!" he was sitting up in bed, unable to use his arms to do anything, from wiping the drool off his own face to wiping his ass when he needed to go.

"Orochimeru-sama, the medicine! Quickly!" said the ninja who was taking care of him currently.

Orochimeru laughed pathetically and killed the man. Yes, that did feel a little better.

Kabuto opened the door and stepped into Orochimeru's quarters, there was blood everywhere from the ninja who had been assigned to take care of their master. "Please take the medicine immediately…" Kabuto said coolly, he was almost the only man who could get away with speaking like that to Orochimeru. "Ahh, I have to clean the room the moment I get back?" the former spy asked himself.

Orochimeru scowled and licked his lips clean of drool before facing Kabuto, "…That kind of crappy medicine, Don't need it." The snakish man declared sullenly, he needed Tsuanade, after she healed him, it would all be alright.

"I mixed the medicine myself…" grumbled Kabuto, "It make you feel at least a little better." Finished the sound nin as he pushed up his glasses on his face.

"arr" murmured Orochimeru as Kabuto approached slowly, "… The burning pain in this arm…. I never expected it to be this much." They had experimented on that arm, in an attempt to fix it, but had failed miserably and paid with their lives for it.

"Sarutobi… The third hokage master." Murmured Kabuto snidely, "the wound comes from his final curse… No wonder its painful." And it didn't help that the ninja medic's had tried to fix the arm without kabuto being around.

"No need for further explanations…" growled Orochimeru in a most un-snake-like fashion. "By the way.. The woman.. did you find her?" asked the bed laden person with more than a little hint of desperation in his voice.

"…yes." Kabuto said finally, "… it seems that she's at a place called Tankzaku-gai." Why wouldn't orochimeru trust him enough to try to repair just one of the arms?

"….Tanzaku-Gai…." Repeated Orochimeru to himself, "…….. is that so.."

Kabuto stayed silent for a moment, unsure if he should speak or not, "However,, it won't be easy to capture her…"

Orochimeru snorted, "huh.. the best cure is always the hardest to find… right?" said Orochimeru mockingly, Kabuto had said the same thing to the snake man merely days before.


"What is that burn on your hand Ranma-kun?" asked Ebisu curiously, the burn he was talking of was along Ranma's right hand and vanished up his sleeve… was this the training accident Homura mentioned?

"uh.. training accident." Muttered Ranma all to quietly.. he had thought that Chakra would work the same as ki.. but it hadn't, when he had put it in his arms to attempt the chestnut fist, his arm had slowed incredibly… and his hand got pretty burnt from being in the fire too long.

"A training accident? You must tell me Ranma." Said Ebisu with an evil smile, this would teach him to be mean to mister rabbit! "after all, Ranma-kun.. if you don't tell me, I won't be able to teach you how to avoid it or similar things in future.."

Ranma scowled, this was horrible.. and it wasn't like they were doing anything but walking, it had only been half an hour of that. "Well.." 'I may as well tell him' "I was trying to replicate one of my techniques with Chakra right?" Ranma begun, Ebisu nodded, that wasn't out of place. "and well, this technique, the chestnut fist, it makes you able to unleash hundreds of punches in a second…" Ebisu looked impressed with that, and it was, there was no ninja who could do that sort of thing. "To do it you need to pump a whole lot of ki, I mean, body energy into the arm or leg you do it with and then it enhances your muscles and tendons so you can do the technique." Ebisu frowned, he could understand that.. kind of, it just wouldn't work with Chakra. "So, I tried to do it with Chakra… and it slowed down my arm so much I got burnt when I started the Katchuu Tenshin Amagauriken…"

Ebisu snickered, that was one of the most lame-brained things he had heard of. "Ranma… Chakra doesn't really do anything to the body until it's outside of your body." The elite trainer stopped and looked around, they were in a clearing and were far enough away from the village for now. "We'll stop here and I'll show you." Tossing his backpack down carefully and staking the rabbit's collar to the ground, Ebisu motioned Ranma to follow him.

As they approached a tree Ebisu lashed out and struck the wood with little effect, a mere handprint from where the bark had been ripped off. "That's without chakra at all.." Ebisu started before his arm glowed lightly with chakra. He then punched the tree in slow motion, this did even less damage than before. "The chakra takes space in my arm, so it slows movement and weakens power in my punches… you need to use the minimal chakra possible… so when using chakra, you put it in your fist, and emit it from your body like this." Ebisu showed his hand glowing, the rest of the arm was dull and lacking chakra, he drew his fist back slowly for a large punch and Ranma's eyes widened as he punched the tree causing a twelve inch wide-fist deep crater. "you saw what I did then?" asked Ebisu calmly.

Ranma nodded. "Instead of using the muscles to throw the punch, you used the chakra to do it.. the chakra controlled your fist and your body just followed along.." the method, Ranma had to admit, was efficient.. it would use less chakra than he used ki.. but it had it's disadvantages, the chakra dispersed after being used, Ranma could keep on punching with the chestnut fist for near half a minute before being forced to slow back to normal speeds… but the chakra version was much more powerful when it connected… and the energy expended if it missed wasn't much. A bit of a tossup on which to use. "It's good.." Ranma finally admitted grudgingly, "But as you emit chakra through those points you weaken the end punch… that's not really good."

Ebisu smiled, that was a good tactical point there, "ah!, but you can convert more energy to chakra and push it into your fist as a trade off, lose a little speed for a lot more power."

Ranma nodded, that was an okay tradeoff, if he had been able to do that to Ryoga it would have been much easier to defeat him- being able to dodge all the hits coming his way, while being able to deal damage equal to the human tank…it was better than okay. "I understand that, is it the same basic rule for everything?" Ranma asked, it was important to find that one out.

"Well, almost." Ebisu started, "if you have enough chakra, you can emit it all, cover your body with it and then use it like that.. but while you can be fast and powerful with it, every step or movement leeches chakra away." The elite trainer shrugged, there were a few people who could get away with doing that, the fox… Naruto, could do it.. and Jiraiya had been able to manage it for a few short moments. "but, onto more practical information, walking on any surface bar liquid requires a certain amount of chakra in your feet… we'll start off doing that, then you'll walk on water on that river over there.. and finally we'll do a few ninjutsu… like the replacement technique."

Ranma grinned, he'd do all that in one day for sure.


Four days later.


A little wiser Ranma looked at the village, it was a welcome sight which he hadn't managed to see before, but it screamed to him one word. "Home." The boy murmured, he couldn't wait to get back to the house and have a nice long sleep, and a good meal.. and.. some peace and quiet. The last four days had been hellish, Ranma had ran, jumped, bouncer, beaten trees, walked on water, practiced enough to even make his arms sore… and then came the techniques, when he was tired enough he was losing control of his own ki, let alone merging it to make Chakra and then using the chakra.

Ebisu grinned, he was far more worn out than he could have possibly anticipated, but it was worth it… Ranma had taken to Chakra techniques like a fish to water, despite the boy's own disgust with the level he had achieved, Ebisu knew that only the Uchiha or Hyuuga clans could outlearn the boy as a group… and even some of those vaunted families would learn slower. Ranma and Ebisu both wore torn clothing, they had sparred at one point and Ranma had literally fought Ebisu to a standstill while they both were using taijutsu.. in Genjutsu Ranma had been almost ridiculously easy to fool at first until Ebisu had tried to tamper with Ranma's emotions.. the genjutsu had seemingly instantly collapsed at that point and Ranma had been hopping mad… he hadn't fallen for a genjutsu since which was quite admirable.

Ranma grinned back at Ebisu, they had gotten pretty friendly over the four days… they both called each other by their first names now, Ebisu had proved to be equal to Ranma in combat, which Ranma was quite happy with, it meant that at the minimum, he had one sparring partner. Unfortunately Ebisu was far out of Ranma's league once they had started in on techniques, especially ninjutsu, where Ranma had been smacked down at the beginning but after the time was up his last practice fight had left him only with minor disadvantages, such as not being able to get the seals off quickly enough or lack of practice.

"Ready for a good nights sleep Ranma?" asked Ebisu with a wider grin, Ranma chuckled in response, if either of them had woken during the night, they had attacked the other… Ranma had come out of that better than his trainer, his ability to sleep through attacks were phenomenal, and Ebisu had eventually resorted to foul play.. waving food near Ranma.

"Ha, I got plenty of sleep Ebisu, an old man like you probably needs more than me anyway." Snorted Ranma jokingly, Ebisu coughed heartily. "Anyway, do I see you tomorrow?" asked Ranma curiously, Ebisu had mentioned something about getting a team but Ranma hadn't followed it up.

"Nah, although we can spar occasionally if you need it, but you're teammates will probably pick you up or something in the morning." Ebisu said calmly, he had been picked up and done the picking several times over the years.. Ninja's didn't die often… but disasters like the nine tails or collapsed houses etc did happen.

"Okay… Ranma said grudgingly, "I suppose I'll see you around sometime." Ebisu nodded and bounded through the gates and onto a roof before vanishing . Ranma sighed and started jogging through the streets to find Homura's home.


"So, what do you think?" asked Hikari.

Naoko frowned, "He hasn't detected us."

They were two girls, following Ranma from rooftop through the streets. They were both dressed sensibly, wearing not quite tight long sleeved shirts and pants, both were in dull colors, Naoko in a mid range brown shirt with darker pants and Hikari was wearing matched grey clothing. The duo had been sitting near the gate when they'd heard the two people identify themselves, Ranma Saotome was supposed to be the guy who was replacing Akiko, who'd chickened out when they found out Morino-head of intelligence- was stepping down to become a leader for a group of Genin, and worse, had chosen their group.

Hikari suddenly frowned, "I think he has known we've been here for a while now."

Naoko smiled, "You really think so?" she asked eagerly, it would be nice if the replacement was as good at detecting people as Akiko had been.

"Yeah… I think so." They both looked at each other and smiled, he was probably going to be okay.

"Think we should go down and introduce ourselves?" asked Naoko, Hikari frowned and shook her head.

"Now, I don't think so, if he hasn't detected us he'll find out in the morning, and if he has, he'll know who we were and why we did it in the morning anyway." Hikari said, it was true.

"So… uh.. what are you doing?" asked a voice from behind, they both spun around and drew a kunai each, before them on the rooftop stood the boy they had been following. Glancing backwards Naoko noticed that the boy was still walking along the ground heedlessly. "Bunshin no jutsu." muttered the girl angrily, why hadn't they noticed?

"We're checking you out." Hikari said suddenly, "You're pretty good looking."

Ranma's face suddenly developed a nervous tic… and then he ran and jumped from the roof, as he hit the ground Ranma sprinted into the distance.

"Shit, now look what you did Hikari!"


Authors Notes:

Hey Hey, check out Cory D. Rose's story at www.fictionpress.com /read.php?storyid=1538601

C. is one of the major inspirations for this series, and pretty much all the ones I write… I can guarantee if he had not helped me to improve my writing, this story would not exist!

It does seem like Gaara is going a little overboard with his new protect the precious (cough Gollum cough)

And while I'm on the track, I'd like to thank the reviewers who not only reviewed this story, but went ahead and read my other stories, and better yet, reviewed them… Katie, One Winged Yagami…

Especially Katie though, you reviewed my vignette! worships that's worth much Kudos!

And super extra special a whole line to yourself mention for the people who gave me large in depth reviews! Yes! You're brilliant!

Syncron, who reviewed from Chapter two back!

Zsych who also reviewed from Chapter Two!

Malichite who reviewed from chapter two… (am I sensing a pattern here?)

Victor-Ko from chapter Three! (the first review for the chapter too!!)

C.Rose from the third chapter,

And finally the man who's reviewed it all (over msn unfortunately)

Kung Lou!

Two new characters joined this… Adachi Naoko and Kinugasa Hikari (clan name first as per Japanese method of speech.)