Chapter Six – Mock Combat, Right?


"Morning Ranma-kun." Chorused Naoko and Hikari, Ranma froze mid leap and shuddered before he landed and skidded a foot or so. That was entirely too freaky.

"Good Morning, Naoko, Hikari…" Ranma mumbled, "Is Ibiki-sensei here yet?"

Naoko nodded, "He's been and gone… he said we'd be doing blunt weapons practice against three other teams this afternoon…" Naoko was obviously looking forward to this.

Hikari nodded quickly, "This will be a great chance to show them out teamwork.."

Ranma sweat dropped... Although they had managed to get the bells, it hadn't been due to high levels of teamwork, just their ability to carry out a plan successfully. "Our Teamwork isn't all that high." Ranma mumbled, he really didn't want to do this.

"What do you mean, Ranma?" asked Naoko as her eye twitched

"Yes, Ranma, do tell us." Asked Hikari coolly before Naoko had even finished speaking..

"Well, in the middle of a fight, we wouldn't have time to tell each other the plan.. We won because we all followed a preset plan that had a good chance of success.." Ranma cringed momentarily, expecting something to happen, but nothing did, the two girls were nodding their head. "And so while we succeeded due to teamwork, our teamwork wasn't really high... if Ibiki hadn't forgotten about searching your presence while fighting me, we would have had to change our plans on the run… and we couldn't have done that quickly enough to keep up with a Jounin, or even another Genin team who has been working together for a while."

Naoko sagged back "You're right, but what can we do about that this morning?"

Hikari nodded, "Is there enough time to do anything that won't leave us exhausted for this afternoon?"

Ranma nodded, "We can play games… stuff like juggling between three people or we do something like play Go, where the three of us against someone else in one game, and each of us takes a turn and has to anticipate not only your enemy, but the other people on your side." There was some other exercises, such as tying everyone together for a while, but that wouldn't be useful in short term, especially between two girls and a guy.

Hikari suddenly looked up, "I've got it, we'll go hunting as a team, we spread out and find a target while maintaining communication, we then encircle and strike… and after that we can have morning tea and then do something else… maybe tell each other about our pasts?" Hikari smiled devilishly at Ranma who immediately became very nervous indeed.

Naoko jumped to her feet, "Excellent! Let's do the past thing first though!" Said the Genin happily, her dark brown hair bouncing as she pushed herself up on the very tips of her toes in excitement.

"I think we can do the hunting exercise." Ranma blurted quickly, he really didn't want to do that other exercise at all... but a long forgotten quote came to mind. 'If you don't want to do something, find out why, and if that why isn't because it won't help you... do it.' Sighing Ranma caved in to inevitability, "and we can do the other thing later if you really want to."


"Call." Whispered Naoko into the microphone, throughout the exercises so far, Naoko had emerged as the teams' leader, although two years younger than Ranma, her group commands were quite good.

"Ready."

"Ready."

"Go." Barked the black haired girl as she dashed forward towards their target. Ranma and Hikari reacted instantly to Naoko's call and also sprinted from their positions, the target, a young orphaned wild pig, squealed and ran to escape. Seeing Ranma approaching the pig turned and ran the other way where it saw an incoming Naoko, dashing to its left it squealed in victory only to be lifted into the air by Hikari.

"Score!" cheered Hikari, Naoko grinned at her, this was the fourth pig they'd caught, during the Sand village's attack, a pig farm's pen had burst open, there was currently about fifty of the immature little swine running around causing havoc, but due to the shortness of personnel they hadn't yet been rounded up. After giving the pig to Ranma, who had shown a disturbing pleasure in putting the small swine into a burlap bag and carrying them around, Hikari took out the book and wrote the ear tag number down carefully… the team would get a bonus for picking up the pigs, not much, only a few dollars for each pig.. But that was enough for a meal at one of the ramen stands or something similar.

"It's midmorning." Naoko declared as Ranma started looking around to add more pigs to his burlap sack.

Ranma sighed theatrically, "No more pigs?" asked the pigtailed man dejectedly.

"No, but your going to have to tell us about why you hate little pigs so much." Hikari butted in, "I mean, their so cute? How can you hate them…? I just wanted to cuddle that last one... it was so cute."

Ranma's left eye twitched, and then it twitched again before launching into a series of shudders and blinks as the words slowly penetrated his mind. "It's really embarrassing and a little dishonourable… I'd rather not tell you..." Ranma suddenly recalled something, he had made that promise to the next door's dog... not the pig… and it wasn't like he'd likely ever meet Ryoga again… and perhaps it might be a good idea to show that he made mistakes too, they hadn't seen any of his big ones, and one of his mistakes would surely come and bite him on the ass sooner or later. Besides, they were giving him the puppy dog eyes… "If you really, really, can't live without knowing however. I could tell you about it... but you won't like it."

Hikari laughed, "Of course we'll like it, and it can't be that bad!"

"A guy I know was cursed to turn into a pig every time he was splashed with cold water…" Ranma started as the trio began walking back to the main gates.

"Cursed?" Naoko said curiously, "What type of curse? And how can it turn someone into a pig?"

Ranma scratched the back of his head uncomfortably, this would be a little awkward to explain, they had no magic here. "Kind of like a seal that changes someone's shape and appearance when activated?" Ranma hazarded.

Naoko and Hikari nodded slowly "There's a high level Jutsu which can do that." Said Hikari quietly, "It's Jounin level though…"

Ranma nodded interested in this technique, but soon tucked it away for later use. "Well, he didn't want this curse on him right? And it was kind of my fault he got it… and so every time he'd get splashed with water, he'd turn into a little cute pig with a bandanna wrapped around him..."

Naoko frowned, "So what's so horrible about that?" the girl shrugged her shoulders, "It's not like he was sleeping with your wife or something…"

Ranma sweat dropped immediately. "Uh, actually... He was sleeping with my fiancée while a pig… and because of a promise I gave to him, I couldn't tell her outright."

Hikari's jaw dropped "You… you bastard!" she screeched and tried to slap Ranma, only to be stopped as Naoko grabbed her arm.

"There's got to be more to this Ranma… Tell." Ordered the girl calmly.

"Yeah, I used to call him P-chan in front of her, which was what she called his pig form, and he used to use the stuff she told the pig against me." Ranma sighed and Hikari blushed and looked away in embarrassment. "It didn't help that she saw anything and everything I did as being perverted, so she automatically disbelieved anything I said." Ranma shrugged, "And the guy used to attack me all the time, and she's always hit me when I defeated him…saying I shouldn't…" Ranma narrowed his eyes and made his best impression of Akane's voice. "Pick on poor Ryoga-kun!"

Hikari's lips were trembling; she looked really embarrassed, "I'm sorry for assuming the worst Ranma… but you really should have told her." Finished the brown haired girl in a sharper tone of voice.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah, hindsight's always twenty/twenty… but if I could change the past, I'd get rid of my curse first."

Naoko moved closer and looked eagerly at him. "What curse do you have?" she asked as they walked into the shadow of the main gates of Konoha.

"It hasn't worked since I got here," mumbled Ranma, "so I'm not telling… It's ten times more embarrassing and worse than that." Finished the young man with a growl.

Hikari and Naoko looked doubtful, but Ranma wasn't going to say another word… so when they arrived at Hikari's place, Hikari invited them in for some food.

"Uh..." Ranma hedged quickly, he couldn't enter a girl's house…

"Come on Ranma." Naoko immediately grumbled, "It's not like your going in her room or anything…" Ranma nodded unsurely, he hadn't ever really been in many houses before… he'd been dojo and temples galore… but the houses he'd been in were mostly mansions or places he assaulted, like Kirin's tower, Saffron's mountain or even the Kuno estate. Ranma shrugged and walked inside cautiously. "See Ranma, not so hard." Said Naoko as she pushed past the pigtailed man to raid the kitchen.


"G..G..Good morning Naruto-kun." Hinata said quietly, a small blush was present on her face as she edged towards the hyperactive boy while carefully not looking at his face.

Naruto turned around and smiled at Hinata blissfully, "Hey Hey Hinata…" the boy's smile dimmed a bit as he added a little bit to the end. "Chan." Hinata cheeks grew redder and her fingers tapped together like mad as she smiled back at Naruto, who took her smile to mean she didn't object. "How're you today, Hinata-chan?"

Hinata cleared her throat before responding faintly. "I'm fine Naruto-kun…" taking hold of her courage with a great deal of willpower she looked up and stared at his eyes, which were currently flicking around aimlessly until he noticed she was looking at him, they immediately fastened onto her gaze for before his customary grin dissolved into a heartfelt smile. "Umm…" Hinata said while trying to think of anything to say. "I hope we don't have to fight each other during the practice fight..."

Naruto nodded, "That would suck… but isn't it our teams going against Ranma's team or something?" that would make the fight a little awkward…but not impossible.

"Yes…" Hinata finally looked away, the rest of her team was here, Kiba was speaking to Shino about something, while glancing over at Naruto occasionally… Shikamaru was here as well, but he was the only person out of his team - Chouji was still in hospital, and Ino hadn't shown. Of Naruto's team only Naruto was there at the meeting place, Lee and TenTen had arrived too. Counting up the numbers, Hinata realized there were seven people, one of the teams would have an extra member, or Shikamaru was planning on watching the entire exercise. "I think you'll join Lee and Tenten's team for the exercise…" Hinata decided out loud, "Shikamaru will probably watch everyone fight."

Naruto nodded, Shikamaru had organized the entire thing, he would want to sit it out and watch carefully. "Fuzzy eyebrows is really good…" he hadn't been able to defeat Gaara, but the boy had done more damage with fewer resources than the other ninja's had at their command… "Tenten got knocked out pretty quick…" Naruto continued as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I think she had bad luck..." Hinata said suddenly, Naruto looked at her and smiled tentatively, as if urging her to elaborate... so she did. "The sand ninja was really good at defence against ranged attacks… all the sand ninja were." Naruto nodded at Hinata and she blushed a little as she realized that all of the boy's attention was focussed on her words. "She'll do much better against someone who doesn't have that sort of defence."

Naruto nodded and was about to reply when Shikamaru called them over. As everyone assembled Shikamaru tapped his fingers as if counting. "Teams will be Tenten, Rock Lee and Naruto in team one, team two will consist of Kiba, Shino and Hinata." Shikamaru glanced around, they were at a bridge, which happened to be team seven's normal meeting spot. "The Jounin are already here, and prepared, they will aid your two teams against Team Three, not so much against the girls, but very much against Ranma… most of us have seen what he can do, if you attack him at all costs do not follow if he is merely dodging… that technique he used on Sasuke is dependant on your losing your cool, so watch it." Rubbing his chin Shikamaru decided on adding a few more words. "Remember, the exercise finishes when one of three Genin teams is left victorious…watch out if your ally is going to stab you in the back."

Nodding quickly Shikamaru crouched down to a large box beside him and tapped the sides twice while continuing looking at everyone. "We will be using the weapons in this box, so make sure to replace all of your sharp weapons with these." Opening the box Shikamaru tossed a kunai at Naruto, who caught it absently, the kunai had a soft rubber blunt blade with something heavier inside, while the handle and grip remained metal.

A whistle pierced the air as they took their new weapons, "Here they come." Warned Shikamaru.


Some of the things had been damned embarrassing, and some had been nearly as bad. The girls didn't really seem to hold him in super high regard anymore, and while on one level Ranma was thankful, on another it hurt a little bit. Naoko seemed more okay with him than Hikari though…while both girls had told some embarrassing things, they'd held back more than Ranma did. "Ready?" Ranma asked them both

Hikari and Naoko fingered the rubber tipped kunai's for a moment before nodding. "The plan is, Ranma heads in, checks it out.. If they have already started and are laying in ambush then he repositions to aid us as we strike the ambush."

"We also should have Bunshin's accompany Ranma." Hikari added, Naoko nodded and the two girls preformed the technique, grinning Ranma left the house and started to jog to the meeting ground, the two bunshins followed him closely while the girl's roof jumped along side him.

Approaching the meeting Area Ranma wasn't surprised when only Shikamaru was sitting there. "Hey Shikamaru, I guess we've started already then?" said Ranma calmly.

Shikamaru shook his head, "No, we're not at the training ground yet. Come on." Ranma frowned at Shikamaru who had started jogging quickly. As Ranma moved from the spot a horde of throwing kunai and shuriken sped towards him, frowning Ranma leant backwards until his head was on the ground behind him, the weapons flew above him and skidded along the ground to his left, sighing Ranma stood back up and yawned, the two bunshins behind him took combat stances and stepped back a few paces.

Ranma lashed out and dealt a blow to the side of Shikamaru's head, Shikamaru flew a half dozen metres before landing and exploding into a puff of smoke, when the smoke cleared nothing was left. "Kage Bunshin and a Henge, Naruto is a specialist in shadow clones." Murmured Hikari's bunshin. Ranma nodded silently.

Crouching Ranma scanned the surrounding area, his two team-mates were both off to his left, and Ranma decided to consolidate their forces somewhat and move closer to them. Sprinting off the bridge and into a copse of trees Ranma ran almost smack bang into a Genin, it was a short haired girl with the palest blue eyes Ranma had ever seen. Taken off guard Ranma forgot to defend and the girl struck Ranma once in the stomach and ran, vanishing into the trees. "Shit." Ranma growled, that strike, had hurt far more than it should have, it was almost as bad as Ryu Komon's Yamasenken attacks… the only difference was, that the flesh did not seem to be torn.

"Shit, that was Hinata, she's of the Hyuuga clan, the Hyuuga's hand to hand combat style causes internal damage.. While causing barely any external damage." Ranma nodded at Hikari's explanation, silently vowing to knock the girl out as soon as possible next time he saw her.

"We will stay apart from you until you're attacked again." Naoko said suddenly, Ranma frowned at the bunshin for a moment until he realized they were speaking for the originals, who were elsewhere already. Nodding quickly Ranma asked the bunshin if they had located anyone yet. Naoko nodded, "Yes, we have the rest of the hyuuga girls' team over here."

Ranma nodded and started running, the two clones quickly caught up and flanked him during his quick dash, making sure not to be caught off guard again Ranma extended his senses out as far as possible, smirking he noticed and avoided the traps the enemy team had placed around them. Staying along on the ground, Ranma used his sheer speed to set off all the traps and avoid damage, within seconds he heard his enemies' communication and before he knew it, he was in the clearing with them.

Arrayed across the clearing was the hyuuga girl, two identical boys on all fours, and a third boy whose skin seemed to be covered in a series of black moving lines. Ignoring the rest of the team, Ranma engaged the twins immediately while the bunshins distracted the rest. Striking out quickly Ranma was almost caught off guard by the sheer speed and ferocity of the twins attacks, their looks were disconcerting, as if they were part dog… shrugging his concerns off Ranma moved quicker to compensate for the numeric advantage, dodging swipes of their claw-like hands the pigtailed man concentrated on one of the two and immediately attacked full out, sending the boy flying before the other twin even got a chance to move.

Sparing a glance over his shoulder, Ranma frowned when the white eyed girl preformed an odd technique around her eyes. The eyes and arteries around them, bulged as the technique slid into place. Ranma had a sinking feeling that it would allow her to see through the bunshins. The girl's head turned as Ranma dodged a few blows and she called out to her team-mates, they immediately ignored the insubstantial bunshins and attacked Ranma. Smiling Ranma twisted between the blow of the recently returned twin and his compatriot as he prepared to trigger the trap.

Suddenly disengaging from combat with the dog twins Ranma attacked the boy wearing sunglasses and a high collared jacket. As the two twins attacked Ranma again, the young man allowed himself to be hit solidly, as he jumped back into the fray Ranma struck quickly between the three boys, the combatants jumped backwards and gave themselves space when Hikari's original plan came into effect and the Hyuuga girl somehow managed to dodge the rubber kunai coming her way with aid. Tracing the path that the aid had come from Ranma spotted one of the Jounin in a tree, if Ranma recalled correctly his name was Gai or something like that. Deciding to ignore him, Ranma attacked the white jacket boy, and sent him flying away from the combat zone and especially away from the Hyuuga.

Frowning simultaneously Hikari and Naoko launched another attack, however the aid from the Jounin combined with Hinata's active Byakugan forced a change in plan. Dashing around the battle area the two female Genin's attacked the group fighting with Ranma. Akamaru and Kiba both dodged the kunai, however Shino took two kunai to his back, rendering him 'dead' for the exercise. Ranma jumped out of the melee, the objective had been completed for now and if they took any longer they'd risk another complete team or the Jounin interfering.

As Ranma leapt out of the clearing via a few well placed branches, he ran into the Hyuuga girl again. This time Ranma managed to not be surprised and hit her square on the jaw, sending her flying back into a tree where a cloud of smoke obscured her momentarily before the red eyed female Jounin appeared. Smirking the pigtailed boy left without fighting more, it wasn't part of the mission.

Hikari and Naoko nodded to Ranma as they flashed each other a hand-signal. "I saw you hit Hinata again, but wasn't she with the others?" Naoko asked quickly.

"It was someone using a Henge Jutsu, one of the Jounin." Ranma said with a shrug, "She scampered when the Henge dissipated though."

"So as long as they're in henge, they'll attack lightly? What do you think Naoko?" Hikari asked with a grim look. Naoko nodded silently while Hikari began to a little nervous. "Watch out Ranma, they could act as one of us."

Ranma nodded, they should have thought up a plan before the situation but it was too late now. "Lets go, we need to find the other team." Muttered the pigtailed young man before anyone else could speak, the two girls nodded and they leapt away.


"Shit." Growled Kiba angrily. "Shino's out…"

Hinata shrugged a little. "And they've left, probably to seek out, "her voice faded out a little, "Naruto-kun's team."

Kiba nodded, "I don't think we have much of a chance to win now unless we ally with team B and betray them later…" glancing at his pet dog, he smacked him lightly across the back of the head, "Akamaru! Don't lick yourself like that when your looking like me!" growled the boy suddenly while blushing.

Hinata was blushing too, she hadn't known that Kiba was that flexible - even if it was only the half beast clone - it did take after Kiba himself. "Should we go?" she asked quietly, Kiba nodded and they both bounded into the trees to render aid to the second team.


"Come on… Come on." Naruto growled, waiting like this really wasn't his thing. Although the plan they had come up was pretty good. Naruto would stay in the open, and challenge them with aid of his shadow clones while suggesting that he'd been abandoned by his team-mates for not cooperating and then when they fought Tenten and Lee would attack from behind.

Of course, Naruto knew Lee would never do that- he was too similar to the blond haired boy to ever abandon a friend- but the girls and Ranma didn't know him that well and so the plan should still be viable.

"Come on…. WHERE ARRRREEE YOU DAMMIT!" Naruto howled in frustration. "COME FIGHT ME ALREADY!"


Ranma blinked.

Naoko blinked.

Hikari smirked a little and changed the direction of her leaps towards the newly located prey. "It's a trap, so let's spring it." The girl said with an evil grin.

Ranma shrugged and overtook Hikari quickly; he was the most experienced in ambushes after all - The fact that she was a girl and walking into danger had nothing to do with it, really. Naoko caught up to Hikari and the two girls smirked at each other as Ranma bounded along in front of them.

As the Trio approached the next clearing, Ranma moved forward and away from the others as they slowed and took hiding spots. Ahead stood Naruto who was in a loose and unorthodox battle stance, frowning Ranma upped his belief of Naruto's combat skills – the boy was standing in a position quite like his own father had when trying to underplay his skill.

"Ready to get your ass kicked?" Asked Naruto arrogantly, Ranma smirked at the smaller boy and flipped him the finger. As if Naruto stood a chance against him. Naruto smirked and began with his trademark Jutsu. Watching closely Ranma memorised the seals, they'd no doubt come in handy later when it was his turn to learn the technique.

A dozen shadow clones stood around him, smirking slightly Naruto's eyes took on the vacant look which characterized the micromanagement of the clones. Leaping forward smoothly the group attacked Ranma who immediately took to the air, his smirk growing wider Naruto performed the technique again and used his own clones to give him the ability to 'stand' nearly equal to Ranma, who was dependent on blows to keep him aloft.

Ranma had to hand it to the boy; standing on his clones shoulders to get a stable platform to fight him off was a brilliant idea, but it was not brilliant enough to defeat a Saotome. Using a hasty block Ranma pushed himself up off Naruto's arm to directly above the boy and allowed his full weight to come down upon the boy, crushing him and the clone beneath him.

Four clones down, merely twenty-five to go.


Naoko took a moment to smirk from her hiding place; Ranma had taken down a few more clones and was well on his way to winning. Grinning at her team mate they both stood up circle the clearing, neither of the two girls truly expected that Naruto would be left alone, he was too wild and would make an excellent distraction even if he refused to help the team.

Leaping silently along the treetops Hikari froze as a chill ran down her back. Crouching suddenly a thrown kunai flew above her head but that did not stop the foot impacting on her from knocking her unconscious. Her last sight was of Naoko rushing to aid her.

Naoko swore and drew in a breath to warn or call Ranma of Hikari's ambush when a piece of cloth was held in front of her face. As she fell unconscious from the drugs the girl glared at the four people who'd taken the two girls out with horrid ease.


Hitting the last of the Naruto clones Ranma swore loudly as it too dissolved into smoke, revealing that the original boy had left sometime during the fight. Ranma's thoughts left the fled ninja and moved towards his own team. Bouncing back to the insertion point of the clearing Ranma soon found traces of his team mates, following them cautiously he scowled as a third pair of footprints joined the trail. Moving slower he luckily saw a small set of knuckle-busters… they were Naoko's and her indicator that she could not fight anymore.

"Ambushed." Murmured Ranma. This left the question of if Hikari was still out there or not. Looking around Ranma could detect barely any footprints, not enough to show a battle in any case. The ambush must have been over nearly before it began… Frowning Ranma idly wondered what had been going through those girl's minds, overconfidence due to their success so far? It didn't really matter. It was just the difference between them and him.

Moving silently Ranma pulled out the big guns, he wouldn't lose here. He'd defeated kirrin, and Herb, and Toma. He'd killed Saffron, a demi-god at the least and he would not lose here. Letting his aura out Ranma sighed as his ego filled the air, invisibly pressing against everything in the area, Ranma's eyes fell dull as his mind concentrated on processing and interpreting the information his aura provided. After a moment he scowled again, couldn't those girls do anything right? Moving to another tree branch Ranma crouched and looked at the ground as he reined his aura in again. Two pairs of footprints, one Hikari's, heavier and smudged at the front as she'd collapsed and slid before being supported by the second person. Shrugging Ranma dismissed any chances of being able to rescue his team; they were 'dead' for the purpose of this game. But all was not lost; his 'team' could pull of a victory yet.

Stretching his muscles Ranma prepared himself for a quick chase and fight. Leaping away along the trail the enemy had thoughtfully left behind Ranma quickly caught up to the team ahead. Silently the martial artist now ninja assessed the group. The dog boy twins were there, as well as the freaky eyed girl from the first fight. Also there was a girl and Rock Lee.

Narrowing his eyes Ranma began to consider when the freaky eyed girl gasped and spun around towards Ranma's position. Dashing forward Ranma's respect rose slightly when she managed to block two blows in his first sally. As the others rushed towards him Ranma smirked and focussed chi into his fingers before tapping the girl's rib roughly staggering her momentarily before the attack did its work, forcing her to her knees and then falling to the ground as fresh blood stopped flowing to her mind just long enough for her to be forced into unconsciousness.

Whirling back to face his other enraged attackers Ranma dashed forward pumping chi into his legs and an arm to hit Lee with an open handed strike, sending the young Genin flying high in an arc away through tree and bracken. Smirking to himself in the giddiness of success Ranma picked out his next target, the girl of about Lee's age with her hair up in buns. As he dashed towards her he was surprised to find that the girl dodged backwards and away from him before he even got half way towards her. A moment later this made sense as she launched into a series of ranged attacks. Snorting with derision Ranma turned his back and launched himself at the two dog boy twins as the weapons sailed harmlessly past his previous position.

The two boys attacked Ranma wildly yet played for time, for either the return of Rock Lee or some other source of help. Glancing around during combat Ranma ignored the outraged looks on the boy's faces as he slide to the side dodging an attack from Naruto, who had just appeared out of nowhere.

Naruto looked furious, angrier than the two dog boys even. "I saw what you did to Hinata, and I don't like It." said the boy quietly but empathetically. Ranma smirked and glanced over to the girl, who was being set in a sitting position against a tree by a Jounin, the one with the hairstyle just like Lee's. Looking back at Naruto, Ranma decided to take the quiet route and simply raised an eyebrow in the standoff.

"Neji did an attack that looked exactly the same as that on her… it almost killed her." Naruto said acidly.

Ranma shrugged "Hurry up, I don't have all day." Said the pigtailed boy in a bored voice, as he intended the three boys attacked instantly, two kunai flew past him as they charged. Dodging each attack Ranma's smirk and bored attitude increased as he lead them around in circles. After nearly ten seconds the martial artist become ninja raised his fist triumphantly and smirked at the sudden look of surprise that covered the boys' faces for an indeterminate moment before they were launched into the sky.

As they left the ground Ranma again found himself under attack from the girl, smirking he lifted off the ground and moved into the whirlwind, deliberately feeding it more power with his confidence and irritation with his team-mates. The girl tried to attack again, but her ranged weapons were sent off course by the wind. Taking in the situation Ranma noticed their was a second Jounin on the ground and Rock Lee was being held back by her while the black haired Genin was moving towards them to regroup. Above him Naruto and the twins were falling down the centre of the technique. Allowing it to dispel Ranma dropped to the ground and was immediately set upon by Rock Lee - who while not using the heavenly gates - was fighting to the best of his capability.

"That was a low blow Ranma." Lee said as he blocked a barrage of attacks. Ranma shrugged and smirked as he blocked in turn, while Ranma didn't use any special techniques it was seeming like the boys were equally matched..

"To whom?" wondered the pigtailed boy suddenly; the remark through Lee off guard for a moment and Ranma swung forward using the chestnut fist to hit a dozen points on Lee's body at once. As the boy slipped into unconsciousness Ranma turned around to fight the last girl when he found his way blocked by the two Jounin.

"Before you win… you'll have to fight us first." Growled the man, Gai or something like that. Ranma shrugged, winning for him had never been easy and this was just another case of it. As the Jounin leapt forward in anticipation of a short battle Ranma dodged to the side to attack the second Jounin, who he'd correctly guessed to be weaker in hand to hand combat. After exchanging a few blows without result Ranma soon found himself to be blocking attack after attack as Gai rejoined the fight.

Getting desperate Ranma forced a visible layer of Chakra over his arm and hit Gai with it, who easily blocked the blow with his own Chakra covered hand. Frowning as his faltering confidence prevented his favourite attack Ranma instead used the katchu tenshin amagauriken to force both Jounin back a step. As this bolstered his confidence to its near normal levels Ranma forced his confident blue aura to surround his body, to his surprise Gai also did a near identical one although the other one... Kurenai did something else with orange Chakra instead.

Launching forward Ranma exchanged equal blows with Gai, each hit he or his opponent landed not causing enough damage to be noticeable in their state of mind and body. As Kurenai attacked Ranma backhanded her arm away, she scowled angrily and an angry red aura surrounded her as she attacked. This time Ranma was only just managing to hold them off when something hit the back of his head unexpectedly, spinning around Ranma lashed out with nearly the full power of his aura behind his fist hitting the black haired girl and sending her flying. A mental curse was the last thing that ran through the boy's mind as he was knocked into unconsciousness by two blows to the back of his head.

"This isn't so good."

"He gets more vicious than a spurned girl when he's loosing… That's freaky."


"He's worse than Naruto, Neji and Sasuke put together."

"What makes you think that Shikamaru?" asked Kurenai irritably as she looked over TenTen's shoulder, which was unfortunately dislocated.

"He was holding back, but every time he got into an untenable situation he'd let himself go a bit further until he could win." The Chuunin paused ominously as he considered his next words. "So far all his techniques have at worst been Semi-Lethal, even the technique used on Hinata only held a few seconds and he forced a fair bit of himself into that."

Gai looked over from where he was examining Kiba and Akamaru, "That's true, he wasn't using his aura against us much either, he was just using it to protect himself."

Kurenai looked surprised but pushed the girls shoulder back into place before speaking. "What do you mean? I thought body auras were supposed to automatically power up offence and defence." Asked the Jounin curiously.

Gai finished his examination of the last of the downed Genin and nodded to Hinata who was awake and looking Naruto over. "That's not quite true." Stated the Jounin quietly before moved next to stand beside Shikamaru. "As most people know, I'm the best when it comes to Aura's. Well, I was before Ranma turned up." Shikamaru nodded as Kurenai's eyes widened in surprise. "An Aura can be used however its user wants it to be, however more control is needed for everything you want it to do, theoretically you could gain so much control that the aura could be detached from the body and used as a large scale explosive weapon…" Gai shrugged, "I can focus more of my aura into defence or offence, which is why I can fight Kakashi to a draw despite his superior Jutsu."

Shikamaru rubbed his jaw, "So Ranma can focus his aura completely into his own body for defence yet keep it from moving to become offensive..."

Gai nodded. "You can use your aura for other things too, he used it for a burst of speed once or twice during the fight, and the hit that sent Rock Lee flying was him using it for extra strength."

Shikamaru's eyes widened. "The heavenly Gates are a method to let your aura completely loose and then to boost it as well." Gai nodded slowly. "It's most likely self destructive because of the fact that Lee doesn't have enough control to master it." Kurenai glanced at Gai who shrugged. "And so if Ranma was to learn it… he'd be stronger than… well, anyone." The chuunin looked at Gai steadily. "Don't Teach It To Him."

Kurenai also turned her eye onto the Jounin who backed away a little. "Come on.." begged the man. Their gazes didn't let up. "Okay Okay. I won't." muttered the Jounin grumpily.

"Hey Hey Hinata-Chan." Came a weak voice, Naruto was awake, first as usual, and that ended any chance of more conversation. At least any chance of intelligent conversation anyway.


OOC: I don't particularly like this chapter, for a few dozen sordid reasons that I won't tell you.
But, The Corruption from the title did show in this chapter, and while going down mountain is a downward trip, chances are you'll hit a few peaks on the way down.

Thanks to especially Clow Angel who's several emails did prompt to actually get off my lazy rear and finish the chapter.

PS, Found out something interesting, on average, i write every day as much text as I get in reviews that day... thank god for people harrassing me on MSN or i'd never get anything done