Chapter Four – Super Ninja Strike!
"Good Morning Ranma" Homura called cheerfully, Ranma sat up in bed, food! Jumping out of bed he bounded to the wardrobe and grabbed a plain black shit and pants. As Ranma struggled to pull his pants on, dash out into the hall on one leg and hold his shirt with his teeth, Ranma learnt an important lesson.
Floors are cold AND hard.
Grumbling, Ranma stood back up and put his pants on quickly before putting the shirt on and bouncing down the hall and into the kitchen. Homura was their setting out a meal and Ranma took two plates from the counter and set them on the table, it wasn't much help, but it was better than not helping the young man reasoned. "Good Morning Homura.." Ranma said replied belatedly.
"Did you sleep well Ranma?" asked the elderly woman, Ranma had been fairly nervous when he had returned the previous evening, in fact… the boy had been almost scared… and wouldn't tell Homura why.
"Yeah, like a log" Ranma declared cheerfully, yeah, no one had snuck into his room, there wasn't anyone hanging around outside… in short, the girls couldn't have been serious. Na uh, not a chance. "So… I'm getting a team this morning?" he asked between mouthfuls of breakfast- very nice bacon and eggs.
"Yes, would you like any information on your team mates?" Homura asked as she ate her own food with all the manners Ranma was ignoring. "It would be useful to have a broad overview…" although, it was always more interesting to find out the harder way.
Ranma paused in indecision, it was kind of… nabiki'ish to get information off someone like they were a potential mark or something… and Ranma really didn't like the thought of that. "…I'd rather not… Thanks though Homura." Ranma said finally before filling his mouth with food.
"As you wish Ranma." Homura said calmly, "in any case, they will be here soon." Ranma nodded at her and ate the last of his meal.
"Okay, I'll just go grab my stuff." Ranma said as he placed the used plates in the sink.
Homura nodded and stood as well, "I'll take care of the washing up Ranma."
Ranma nodded and bounced up the stairs to his room, inside he quickly strapped on his belt, fastened the shuriken pouch to his leg and attached all the kunai sheathes. Checking himself Ranma realized that he had forgotten something... "Bracers!" he muttered literally bouncing over to the wardrobe again Ranma opened shelf after shelf as he rummaged for the vital equipment. "Aha!" he declared as he attached the bracers around his arms. Sliding the sleeves down to conceal the arm protection Ranma smiled and checked himself in the mirror, his keen eyes could pick out the sheathe hidden in his sleeve, but the two down at his ankles weren't anywhere near as obvious.
"Ranma? They're here." Homura called out, Ranma grinned and walked out of his room, forcing his pace to be nice and slow, as he reached the top of the stairs he realised they were either outside or in the front room... so Ranma grinned and slid down the banister. At the bottom as he put his feet down on the wooden floor and slowed to a stop in the middle of the hallway he also realised that the people could see the hallway.
"Damn." Muttered Ranma as noticed everyone was looking at him. Chuckling lightly Ranma strode into the room and checked out the team. It was the two girls who'd been shadowing him last night, and an older guy wearing a black beanie and overcoat whose expression was almost as harsh as Ryoga's. "Uh, Hi?" Ranma said dumbly.
The man stepped forward and offered his hand; Ranma took it and ignored the weak attempt to crush his own hand. "Morino Ibiki, formerly head of ANBU interrogation, I was also the examiner for the last chuunin exam."
Ranma nodded clueless as usual, but if he was going to toss around names… "Ranma Saotome, master of the Saotome School of Martial Arts..." Ranma grinned, for the people in the know; those words eclipsed almost anything, only grandmaster earned more respect (and derision for those who knew the pervert). Besides, a master of a school was capable of doing stuff that no normal human could think of, in a tight situation Ranma could lift tons of weight, move faster than sound or do anything it took to win.
"Kinugasa Hikari… Genin..." She smiled at Ranma, and then it broadened to a grin. "And not checking you out." Hikari almost sighed in relief as the tension Ranma had been literally emitting since his entrance dissipated.
"Adachi Naoko, also a Genin." Naoko declared while rolling her eyes. "Unfortunately, I've got nothing impressive to add to it."
Ranma grinned, "Before I beat that dragon halfbreed I had the same problem." The pigtailed boy with a snicker.
Ibiki frowned a little, the boy hadn't been impressed at all with his position, and furthermore had thrown out something that the boy believed not only one-upped him, but also beat it hands down. And what the heck was a dragon halfbreed? "In any case Ranma-kun, we need to move out and do some practice to find out how good you are. Homura-San?"
Ranma opened his mouth to speak but closed it suddenly, Homura smiled, perhaps he could hold his tongue well enough to get along with the others. "Enjoy your day Ibiki-kun." Ibiki nodded and headed for the door, Hikari and Naoko started to follow quickly but Ranma was stopped by Homura. "Good luck holding your tongue down Ranma." She said with a mischievous smile.
"uh yeah.." Ranma said with a blush of embarrassment, "I almost started bragging then." Shrugged the pigtailed boy stepped quickly out the door and into the front yard where the rest of his team and Morino stood waiting. "Uh, sorry bout that?" Ranma said tentatively.
Ibiki shrugged, "No problem…we'll be heading out to the normal training area for today." The man seemed to sigh suddenly, "no missions for a few days." Ranma stayed silent, unsure if this was directed his way or not. "In any case Ranma-kun, Ebisu-kun refused to give me any information on your fighting skills."
Ranma suddenly grinned and the two girls both glanced at him curiously, "Well… I don't know how good you'd consider to be Ebisu to be…" Ranma knew very well that Ebisu was an elite trainer, and a jounin to boot. "But I managed to fight him to a stalemate in hand to hand combat… thought I didn't fair quite that well in the rest of the ways." Ranma shrugged like it didn't mean much.
"Amazing Ranma-kun." Hikari said in awe. "Fighting a Juunin to a standstill... that's pretty impressive…" Naoko nodded as well, it was damned impressive to the two Genin.
"eh, just call me Ranma." Ranma muttered, he had to admit, as nice as people being polite was…it was kind of nicer to have someone speak to familiarly.
"Sure stuff Ranma." Naoko said with a pretty smile.
"Alright team. Basic training exercise…" Ibiki had stopped in front of them, they were in a clearing now, two trees were near each other in the centre and about fifteen metres clear space until the forest began again. "I have two bells." Ranma fought a yawn. "You have to get them from me, begin."
Ranma suddenly felt very, very alone. Looking around he noticed the two girls had gone and hidden themselves. Sighing Ranma pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and twirled it above his head for a moment before dropping it and vanishing from view.
'An interesting technique…' thought Ibiki, 'complete invisibility, I can't even sense him.' Looking around the jounin noticed that the technique didn't cover the fact that Ranma had walked over to the bushes, near to where Hikari and Naoko had met up.
"Where's Ranma?" hissed Naoko quietly, they were both laying on their stomach's and watching Ibiki from beneath a low bush.
"I don't know, he vanished… damn, we should have told him to follow our lead before we got here." Growled Hikari angrily. "Damn, damn damn."
"Stop worrying, I'm here." A voice whispered from behind them.
Wriggling out backwards quietly Naoko smiled as she realised it was Ranma. "Thank god you didn't attack him by yourself." Ranma shrugged, he had thought of doing it, but Homura and Ebisu's advice on teamwork had come to mind in the nick of time.
"Okay Ranma, we're going to have to work as a team" Hikari whispered, "We're pretty good at Ranged attacks, but not so well at close combat."
Ranma nodded, "I'm best at close combat, but I can hit anything with any weapon, no problems." And he could too, after dealing with flying bandanna's, noodles, weird Frenchmen and most especially, Mousse… Ranma was confident he could catch and throw well enough to his target dead on.
"Good, we'll pull back and set up what equipment we have for an ambush… and decide who goes hungry." Muttered Naoko. The three immediately bounded away through the trees to a hiding spot.
"And next week I'll ask for…" muttered Ibiki in boredom, he was filling out a small day planner for next week. "Hmm, Naoko and Hikari were faster than this last time…" but, this time they were integrating a third person into their group… Ibiki suddenly jumped to the side, the tree he had been resting in had an outline of daggers that had just barely missed him. "That's pretty good…" the man muttered, the shuriken were buried deeply into the wood, the ones that hit with one spike were dug in all the way until it came to the middle two spikes… "He's pretty strong." He murmured to himself, "and a good aim on the boy." Ibiki frowned; the boy was strong in both ranged and close up, good for the boy, bad for the teacher.
"Ready?" whispered Naoko, Ranma nodded and tensed up, he had Ibiki's measure and was ready to begin the plan. "Go!" she hissed and vanished behind him, Ranma pelted out full speed and Ibiki spun to meet him, Ranma grinned and dashed in closely, Ibiki frowned and swung at Ranma, who ran through the punch. Behind Ibiki Ranma hit the man at the small of the back with an open palmed strike, Ibiki flew forward and Ranma dismissed the Bunshin clone.
As Ibiki spun back to attack Ranma two Kunai came flying past him from behind, cursing the jounin jumped upwards to miss the net, Ranma grinned and jumped up to meet him midair, Ibiki's eyes widened and the elder man smiled… the smile vanished into a frown as the dozen blows which were exchanged pushed Ibiki back down onto the ground while Ranma's altitude grew higher.
Ibiki dropped to the ground and cursed as he sunk down to his waist, a pair of hands reached to his waist retrieved the bells, while a fist flew towards his face. Ibiki growled and was about to retrieve the bells when Ranma's foot forced him to dodge backwards, pulling himself out of the ground Ibiki swore again; as he jumped back… they had won.
"YES!" screamed Naoko as she extracted herself from the Earth Jutsu, Hikari also pulled herself out of the ground and stood on the grass for a moment until she realised what they had done. "YES!" she bellowed in delight, while genin teams did sometimes manage to get the bells during the exercise, the times when that happened was few and far between… and to make the occasion better, their names along with their teachers, would be posted on a plaque in the Jounin meeting room.
Ranma approached cautiously, they had won? It wasn't a genjutsu?
"Oh! Ranma!" Naoko and Hikari noticed him simultaneously and let loose a flying tackle. "We did it!" cried out Hikari as she let him go. Naoko let him go slowly as well, noticing Ranma's blush in the process… "Pervert." She muttered. "But… We won!"
Ibiki rolled his eyes, "Okay, You've won… two of you get lunch." Reality shifted… two of them get lunch, the third doesn't... Naoko had warned him about that, and overrode him when he volunteered to miss out.
Ranma frowned, "Can't we go home and have an hours rest or something instead of you shouting us lunch?" he offered, "after all, we did get the bells…"
Ibiki frowned, "no. Come on." They followed the jounin past the clearing to where two lunches were set on a row of three posts. "Who is missing out?"
"I am." Ranma and Naoko said simultaneously..
"Be quiet Ranma. I am." Naoko growled. Ranma opened his mouth to object but it was covered by Hikari's hand, Ranma sighed and nodded in acquiescence.
Ibiki tied Naoko to the pole efficiently. "Be right back, going to grab my own lunch." Said the jounin confidently, "If either of you feed her, I'll remove you from the team."
Ranma shrugged, just because he had followed advice and listened for a plan, and then had been unable to think of a better one didn't mean that he wasn't willing to lose the team.
"And I'll make sure you won't get on another one, Saotome." Ibiki finished with a growl. Ranma merely shrugged again.
As soon as he was gone, Ranma opened his bento and looked at the rice within, glancing at the other two people he spoke in an ominous tone, "Today, I will show you a technique so amazing, so awesomely powerful, that the nobility of france slaughtered over five hundred people just to hide!"
Naoko's eyes widened, "wow…. How did you learn it Ranma?" Hikari merely rolled her eyes.
"Well, Ranma said as he flexed his fingers and picked up the chopsticks. "My… friend, got kidnapped and it was found that there was an engagement between the two houses… I was substituted because.." Ranma blinked, he couldn't remember why. "I forget, but, I was substituted and forced to learn the family school of combat… combat over food."
Naoko blinked and looked sceptical, Hikari outright laughed at it. "No joke, they were pretty weird…" Ranma continued, "the school depended on someone having an extraordinary long tongue… well, as your about to see, I don't have one of those and I'm also incapable of detaching my jaw..." Ranma stuck his tongue out as far as he could, and indeed, it did not even reach the bottom of his jaw. "so, as I was ineffective in combat, I was forced to search for alternate eating means… "
Naoko giggled despite being tied up and hikari did as well. "The whole point of Gourmet De Fois Gras, which is the style of combat, is that instead of eating the food yourself . force the enemy to eat without them knowing…" Ranma smiled and looked down at his food. "oh, dear, it seems to be all gone.." he looked up at Naoko, "oops, you have a piece of Rice on your face." Reaching over with the chopsticks he removed it and ate it himself.
"woooow." Murmured Naoko, "that was awesome!"
Hikari nodded too, her eyes wide in awe. "I didn't even notice you move!"
Ranma grinned, "That's the idea, although during combat when you are moving real fast already, its much easier to use… but it took me almost all of the speech to get you fed."
"So you fed all of your food to Naoko?" asked Hikari suddenly, Ranma nodded "so you haven't eaten?" Ranma smiled and pulled out a half eaten packet of lollies. "I see Ranma.." hikari said with a frown.. "You really shouldn't have fed all of the food to Naoko.. you'll be tired and hungry when she's not."
Ranma snorted, "Not a chance," he shrugged lightly, "I had a huge breakfast this morning, and I never have had much of a chance to eat lunch during my training trip and even when I settled in Nerima." 'Nerima..'"so it's nothing off my nose, besides, I've still got two packs of lollies."
Ibiki was pretty impressed, despite the stupidity of announcing his ability in the technique, Ranma had managed to feed the girl.. and shown that he kept small amounts of rations on him even for the smallest of exercises.. always a good idea thought the jounin, who was munching on some fruit he had hidden in his coat. Lollies weren't a bad choice either, true, no long term energy.. but for short term exercises like this, they were excellent.
Walking out into the clearing he approached from behind Ranma, Hikari looked up at him and smiled tentatively. "Hello Ranma." Ibiki said in a cruel tone. "You haven't been feeding Naoko have you?"
Ranma grinned up at him as he stopped next to the two people standing in front of Naoko. "You know.. I knew that you were hiding only twenty metres behind me the whole time." Ranma shrugged again, he had suspected the purpose of the exercise when he had noticed there was only two bells. "A lot of my pops teachings were the dumbest things around you know? so when he said something, you were reasonably sure that he was wrong, stuff like kick someone when their down…" Ranma's eyes took on a steely glint, "ignore or forget those who don't succeed first up." And this one, was the bane. "and don't bother looking out for someone else."
Ranma smiled again and his eyes focussed on Ibiki, "but since getting here… It's all about teamwork and watching out for other people…everything is based on that here… this training exercise is too."
Ibiki nodded a little in surprise, he had figured Ranma to be a dumb jock who happened to be good at fighting, the behaviour had backed that up until now. "Your right. And you passed fine." Ranma grinned, "but don't make a habit of challenging your superiors boy."
Ranma smirked, "Only when I got proof that needs to be brought up." Ibiki frowned, "I'd have ended up a cold blooded thief and murderer if I hadn't have had that." Ranma said coolly, Ibiki nodded reluctantly as he removed Naoko's ropes.
"I can live with that."
The Third hokage's face was being repaired, the scar was being filled in with a combination of rock shaping jutsu and cement. Turning away from that sight Tsunade looked across the village. The buildings were bigger, and more modern than the ones that had been around thirty years ago when she had lived here… ten years, a long time for some, a pittance to others. For Tsunade however it was a chunk of her lifetime… and if she used the seal too many times to heal herself… it would be even longer.
But that was then, and here was now. "This village has changed quite a bit since I was gone…" murmured the blond bombshell. The people were now more confident than they used to be, Tsunade had never thought that they could recover from the Nine Tails attack. "…." The city was prosperous, and Tsunade was suddenly very glad she had returned. "Starting today. The village is my responsibility as…" those words sounded sweet, but not as sweet as the words which would bring true the dream of her two dead loved ones. "The fifth Hokage."
"Ranma Saotome?" Tsunade had never heard of him, or of the family name either, while that wasn't totally unbelievable considering there was over seven thousand people in konoha, every clan was known by its fighting style if not by face or name… and this Saotome clan specialized in Taijutsu to a point where some of the council was worried that the boy was too strong. It had been barely ten minutes since the team the boy was on had escorted their Jounin to the Jounin lounge and had carved their names into the steel tablet there.. and the committee was suddenly asking if he was physically as strong as Tsunade herself. "Never heard of him…. How long has the family been in Konoha?" asked the Fifth Hokage guardedly.
"Since Naruto fought Gaara, during the fight Gaara summoned something, which Ranma-kun killed." Standing at the door of the newly inducted Hokage's office stood Homura. Koharu smiled calmly at her, as did Maharo. "Congratulations on your grandson becoming Chuunin Maharo-san." Homura said with a smile before turning to face the fifth again.
"Ranma-kun was brought to our world by Gaara's summon, he remained after he finished killing the summon- who happened to be the phoenix king- and after Gaara was defeated." Homura paused to take a breath, and surprisingly Maharo stepped in to speak.
"We need him." Spoke the genius bluntly, Homura could almost not believe her ears. "The fact is, we have lost nearly half our forces and if my grandson was female I'd ask her to attempt to get to know him." Homura blinked, this was a very unexpected source and method of help. "His skills, if he is willing to share them, and if not, just by his presence, will increase our villages fighting power…" Maharo suddenly smiled, "besides, while I would rate him as nearly as smart as my grandson, he is focussed on the art of combat… and his code of honour will not allow him to betray his friends." The committeeman smiled and shrugged, "As is, I recommend that he be left alone for now… besides, the longer he's in his current situation, the more loyal he will become to not only Homura-san, but to the village as a whole."
Tsunade nodded, "Good, that's enough information then. He can stay where he is, we'll re-evaluate him in a month, and again in six." Homura sighed in relief, having someone do anything to the boy at the moment wouldn't be good, not that there was ever a good time for that, but now he was gaining trust for the village… Tsunade smiled suddenly, "Besides, he is under the command of Morino Ibiki-kun, he'll know if Ranma-san becomes less loyal."
"Agreed… I believe that's all that was urgent to address.. and Sasuke-san is waiting at the hospital for you.. Naruto-kun is quite loud downstairs." Said Homura with a small smile, the headache that boy gave her… hmph.
The two girls were a little shy of Ibiki, Ranma hadn't exactly figured out why yet, Ibiki didn't look tough, although the beanie and black trench coat gave him a thuggish look. But in any case, Naoko and Hikari didn't want to ask… but they were game enough to ask him to ask Ibiki… "Ibiki-sensei?" Ranma begun tentatively, "We were wondering if we could learn some new techniques or do a different sort of training exercise with the rest of the afternoon…"
Ibiki smiled down at Ranma, "What type of different things?" Ranma shrugged, and Ibiki carefully made sure his smile didn't get any wider. "In fact, It's a little curious that you would ask for different things, when you've not experienced the normal things…" Ibiki inwardly chortled, the expression of surprise on Ranma's face was pretty good. "But if Naoko or Hikari were to ask, they've surely done the normal things…" Ibiki stopped in the middle of the street and Ranma took an extra step before stopping. Naoko and Hikari stopped a few steps behind them and Ibiki smiled, "While I have no doubts the scrawny lunch I provided has left two of you full and Naoko hungry…" Ibiki paused to chuckle at his own joke, "But I'm hungry for dinner, foods on me there." With that, the former interrogator walked into the restaurant they had stopped in front of.
"Ranma? What did he say about exercises?" asked Naoko before Ranma moved.
"You need to ask him yourselves, he won't let me be the scapegoat because I haven't seen the normal exercises…" Ranma said with a grin, he had warned them, but they hadn't believed him then- he was pretty much the best ninja in their eyes- but she didn't have a choice but to listen now. "Come on, food.." Ranma strode in, Naoko and Hikari followed quickly on Ranma's heel.
Ranma looked up from his meal, the five empty stacked plates said everything that was needed about the restaurant in the boy's eyes., "Damn…" he murmured. Ibiki frowned, what was Ranma doing? "Ibiki Sensei? I need to go… I'll be back in a little while." Ranma stood up and stacked his plates carefully while muttering under his breath, only just loud enough that Ibiki could pick it out. "Not even Ryoga could get so lost as to end up in another dimension right?" after that he nodded to his team-mates and teacher before bolting from the restaurant.
"I'm going to follow him, here's money for the meal." Ibiki said suddenly as he handed over a wad of notes. "give me the change tomorrow or whenever we see each other next." Ibiki didn't bother acknowledging the questions they threw his way as he dashed out after Ranma.
Ranma was perched on a building, across the street and high up on a building, although a little lower than the roof where Ranma perched, sat a boy was seated on a cushioned bench, a crutch next to him… he was letting of an aura of well trained ki-body energy, and it was nearly as depressed as Ryoga on a good day. The boy was dressed in green and had the freakiest hairdo ever… Ranma wasn't willing to bet that the boys face didn't match the rest of him. But.. he really should go over and check it out..
"Hello?" said Ranma tentatively, the boy jumped a little, on closer inspection Ranma could see shards of something under the boys skin, looking at his covered hands he couldn't particularly pick out anything, but the boys fingers showed extreme training and they had the shards under the skin there. "Want to chat?" asked Ranma, "you look like you could need it."
The boy turned his head away. "I don't need your pity…" he said quietly.
Ranma rolled his eyes. "It's a good thing I didn't offer it then." Said the martial artist coolly. "Your hurt, pretty badly if you need a crutch, but you've got your Ki… I mean, Body energy, under good control, why haven't you used it to heal yourself?"
The boy looked at him. "huh?"
Ranma blinked, it was pretty basic, almost the earliest thing he had learnt to do with his ki.. before he had even arrived at Nerima he'd learnt how to do it. "Uh, you know? push your energy throughout your body while meditating and it just takes care of the rest?"
"My name is Rock Lee." The boy said, "I fought using a forbidden technique, the Hokage said that I can't be a ninja anymore du the injuries..."
Ranma stiffened, okay… "As a Kid, the first time I opened the limit breakers, my bones shattered… Oyaji taught me this technique to heal my bones, they were shattered beyond medical repair… their was bone shards throughout my body and I was barely able to walk with a pair of crutches." Ranma flexed his arm and glanced at Lee, "As you can see, I don't have that problem… I can teach you."
Lee's eyes lit up, "You'll be able to heal me?"
Ranma frowned, "No, but if you can learn the technique, you'll be able to heal yourself… although I can teach you in a minute, it will take months for you to finish learning."
"Why did you come up here?" asked Lee suddenly, "What reason do you have to help me?"
Ranma shrugged, "I thought you were someone I knew, I've never met anyone who was as depressed as he always is… I've never seen him happy for more than a few minutes, at most." Ranma looked Lee in the eyes, "As to why I'm helping you… Ryoga developed a technique based on his depression… it never left him… I made the mistakes that turned him into what he is now… and if I can help another person not go onto that path…" Ranma sighed, "My debt will begin to be paid."
Lee nodded, "So how do I do this?"
Ranma smiled and leant forward.. "this is easy if you've ever used the Limit Breakers before?" Lee shook his head in the negative. "They are eight limits on the body, with the breakers off, you can perform far beyond the normal."
Lee suddenly smiled at Ranma, "Like the eight heavenly gates right?" Ranma blinked and Lee continued, "The first gate is the Open Gate, the second the Energy/Heal Gate, Third the Life Gate, Fourth."
Ranma cut him off, "Yes, that's them, the Limits… Okay Lee-san, as you know of them, all you have to do is open the second one…don't open the third, or you'll go overboard with your healing… which is bad." Ranma grinned, "This will still take you almost a month to heal though, unless someone does surgery halfway through or something… that's what my old man had done to me."
"That's all?" Lee asked in confusion, it sounded so simple…
"Well, you do have to keep the gate open for extremely long amounts of time while concentrating your energy to flow along your body… and you can't really open the other gates while its on.." Ranma shrugged, "Besides, you called it the energy/heal gate right? How do you think it got that name?"
Lee nodded in surprise. It did make sense… "Okay, I can do that…" the green clad boy stiffened suddenly, "Tsunade-sama has asked me to take an operation… but it has only a fifty percent chance to live through it…"
Ranma snorted, "Take it, you'll live through it without a problem, especially if you have the gate open while you do it… your body will see what the doctor's doing and then mimic it." Ranma stood up, ready to leave. "Another reason I'm so confident in your living is that once the limits are broken, or gates opened, a little of the healing stays with you… and the people who can't handle that healing? They die as soon as they break the limit."
"you never told me your name?" asked Lee suddenly.
Ranma shrugged, "Ranma Saotome… I'll see you around." Declared the young man before launching himself off the balcony and vanishing into the street below.
"Thankyou Ranma." Murmured Gai under his breath, he was standing just around the corner and it looked like his pep up talk wasn't as desperately needed as it was before.. although, no harm in giving it to him now anyway.
"Interesting." Murmured Ibiki, he had been sitting on the roof above them, although the Jounin had been caught off guard by Ranma before, it just showed that the boy could pierce Chuunin level hiding jutsu. Before jumping off to follow Ranma, Ibiki landed on the balcony behind Lee and gave Gai the thumbs up mid way during his speech. Gai ignored it and integrated a reply in his next pose, Ibiki nodded and fell backwards, resuming his tailing of the boy.
"Here he comes." Muttered Kidomaru quietly.
"Sasuke-sama?" asked Jiroubou.
"Of course moron, who else could we be waiting to leave Konoha?" growled Tayuya angrily.
"Be silent." Ordered the fourth person, and they were.
"Who is Sasuke?" asked Ranma, Naoko and Hikari had been talking excitedly about his missing status since arriving at the meeting spot, Ranma couldn't see the problem, after all… how many teachers had he had over the years? Ebisu , Khu-lon, happosai, Genma, Soun had even taught him a trick or two.. Ryoga, lin lin and lung lung… Ranma considered anyone he had learnt a technique from, or due to them, as a bit of a teacher, when he tallied it up, the list cam to over two hundred names.
"Sasuke-kun? He's the last Uchiha!" Ranma blinked and shrugged as if to ask what the hell that was meant to mean to him. Naoko groaned and rolled her eyes. "He's an awesome fighter, and he can use the sharingan to instantly learn any technique after seeing it just once!"
This caught Ranma's attention, the ability to copy any technique once was a good one…Ranma was good, any technique that was similar to his own, or used similar premises even he could copy after seeing it once and given an hour or two of time… but to do it instantly… that was impressive indeed. Just as he was about to ask more of this sasuke boy and cause the fic author to be permanently inundated with yaoi fangirls, Ibiki arrived, much to the authors delight.
Looking at his group Ibiki spoke short and to the point. "I'm going on a B rank mission, your staying behind, take care of yourselves.. bye." Before vanishing as he left at full tilt.
Ranma groaned, but suddenly looked up, "I'm going to go meet someone for a while okay Naoko? Hikari?" the two girls nodded and went back to chatting, Ranma thought they'd be there all day talking about the wonders of some guy who ran away looking for power. As he jumped up and over the village wall Ranma met inside Lee, who was looking very chipper indeed. "Hey Hey Lee." Ranma said cheerfully.
Lee grinned back, his smile widening to a point Ranma was sure his overly large eyes would pop out from the pressure of his rising cheeks. "Ranma-kun!" Lee started enthusiastically, "The surgery was a success! And Tsunade-sama was impressed that my body had healed so much on its own but I didn't tell her about the technique in case you didn't want anyone to know or if it was a secret technique or something like that!!" blurted the younger boy excitedly, Ranma groaned internally, Lee had a serious case of Hero worship. "Anyway, the team who's gone to recover Sasuke has left only a little while ago, and if we run fast, we can catch up…" Lee said quickly, "I'm really worried that they won't be able to handle it if trouble comes there way… and the Hokage said I could go and take anyone who I thought could help.. and I thought of you straight away Ranma-kun, so ready for a mission?"
Ranma blinked as he mentally sorted through the words, Hokage said Lee could recruit someone to help the other team.. Lee chose him, are you ready.. "uh, sure?" hedged Ranma tentatively.
Lee posed and gave Ranma a thumbs up, "Okay, lets go!" he said, bounding away before Ranma could even move.
"Shit." Muttered Ranma as he caught up, "How far away are they?"
Lee shrugged, "Not more than three miles… I can do it in under six minutes.. you?"
Miles… miles… how long was a mile? Ranma shrugged, he'd be able to do it no matter what. "Easy, lets put on the speed." Lee grinned and stopped suddenly, reaching under the ankle coverings he wore he detached two sets of weights, one from each shin. Setting those carefully next to the gate he stood up, flexed and started running at a steady pace, Ranma watched Lee bounce along the treetops for a moment before joining him.
"Chouji!" hissed Lee angrily, chouji was leaning on a tree, there was an arrow above him pointing towards the sound village and they had just passed the man Chouji had defeated. "Do you have any food Ranma?" asked Lee desperately, Ranma silently handed a bag of lollies over to the green ninja who grinned and opened the packet, Chouji immediately leaned forward and bit the bottom of the packet, somehow managing to suck the majority of the lollies into his mouth.
"Shit." Muttered Ranma in surprise.
Rock Lee just grinned and muttered quickly to Chouji, "Okay, we're going on ahead to catch up with the team, you'll be okay?" Chouji nodded. And the two leapt off.
They passed another three people. each time Lee muttering they would be fine, finally they came to a clearing and found ahead of them an orange clad boy fighting a man who appeared to be using his own bones in combat. "Naruto.." muttered Lee while pointing to the orange clad boy. "I'll take on his enemy, you go with Naruto and protect him while he chases Sasuke."
Ranma opened his mouth to object, but shut it instantly, he couldn't think of a better plan, so he would follow Lee's. "Agreed… hurry." Grumbled Ranma as he dashed off, behind him Lee inserted himself into the fight as Ranma circled the clearing to the opposite side where he'd intercept Naruto and join forces.
Authors Note: and so, I catch up to the Manga, almost… and soon.. all new territory..
