Naruto Raised by a Wild Horse
"Speech"
'Thought'
/Kyubbi/
(mandarin)
The Tendo Dojo was a hive of activity as various beings converged to locate the local chaos nexus. Well not only was he local, but he, or she as the case may be, was one of three left residing on the earth. Such a disappearance from all manner of detection would send up alarms.
Tied in separate corners of the room were the causes of Ranma Saotome's disappearance, and in the center were those who had the likely knowledge to locate and return the youth.
"I'm telling you I didn't do anything! Let me go!" Akane was being very vocal about her innocence despite the massive disaster in the kitchen and at least seven different incredibly potent mystical ingredients found. This situation leaned more toward a powerful, if completely random, potion made by the girl.
"And I told you that you had in your possession powerful ingredients that react in a chaotic mess when combined together. You had two ingredients that under normal conditions would have leveled half of Tokyo. They react that badly to each other. That much power had to have an equally powerful effect." Urd of the Norns scolded the girl as an professed expert on magical potions.
Her platinum locks were disguised so she looked like a normal Japanese woman with a magical background. No need to let on that a goddess was involved in the first place. Her presence was official in this little mess as to determining what had caused a minor crash in the Yggdrasil system that seemed to be centered around the younger Saotome.
"Miss Odinsdotter is correct, but you are not the only one at fault Miss Tendo. Mu Tsu tampered with my herbs and I was unable to stop him from using one of the mid-level forbidden spells I hold in keeping for my tribe." She left out that the 'medicinal herb' he slipped her now had a permanent place in her cabinet. "However, the spell would not prevent son-in-law from returning to us."
'Especially, using that useful shard of the Nan-Ban mirror of his.' Thought both Urd and Ku Lon to themselves.
"We know the spell banishes traitors and enemies to the 'end of the world'. In more modern times that would be to the continent of Antarctica. If he was there he would have returned when I used this retrieval spell." Cologne gestured to one of the first attempts to retrieve the child.
An old scroll lay on the table unrolled to show ancient chinese script. The spell worked it simply had nothing to retrieve. Even a body would have been brought had there been one.
"I have put out the word for information regarding Saotome-san, but it will take some time due to the delicate handling required." Saying this Urd glared at the panda playing with a tire in the back yard.
"Any word on what the Hibiki boy used on young Ranma?" Amazingly Soun Tendo had not burst out into tears since earlier activating his old friends curse.
"Well I," Urd was cut off by a bell ringing from her pocket. Her cell phone was quickly answered. A few words were exchanged and the phone was put away once more. Only Nabiki noticed the unusual name that was the brand on the back. Skuld Lmtd.
"That was an informant." All eyes were trained on her.
"Apparently, Mr. Hibiki was given a method to move his 'greatest curse' to his 'greatest foe'. That being his uncontrolled directional curse." All eyes turned to the sheepish looking martial artist chained, courtesy of Urd, in the corner. He'd been testing the strength of his bindings only to find that an adamantium chain had no breaking point.
"And what of you great grand-daughter? What sorcery were you attempting without my permission?" Ku Lon asked of the purple haired amazon that sat straight with what little pride she had tied in a corner.
(I only did what I thought necessary great-grandmother. My husband has been far to stubborn, and the artifact would bring his hidden love to the surface.) The shattered crystal used was in a silk pouch to shield those present from lingering magic.
(Who gave such an item to you Xian Pu?) the Elder's voice was cold. She was, apparently, using the soul of ice technique to prevent lashing out at the foolish child.
(Elder Lu Xian felt it was necessary measure and sent it with me before we returned here from China.)
Cologne carefully search the girl for any deception and found none. "I fear that my great-granddaughter has been deceived, and that someone has orchestrated our current situation."
"But Great grandmother.." She was cut off by Ku Lon's angry glare.
"You child are a disgrace." The words were spoken with a sharp, cold anger. "You accepted a magical artifact from a dead woman! Lu Xian died two months before our dealings with Saffron. I can't believe you have been so blinded by your obsession with the boy."
Xian Pu listened in shocked silence to her Elder's litany continued in Mandarin.
(You have been acting the fool and I'll not have it any longer. You are no longer my heir from this moment hence. You will return to the village to be retrained the moment we have determined that he can be retrieved or is lost to us.)
The girl showed signs of objecting which were silence with a jab to the neck with the elder's staff. The pressure point would resrict her ability to speak for an hour or so.
Collecting herself Cologne turned her attention back to the group and seemed to deflate slightly. Rubbing the bridge of her nose she restated what was currently known.
"Young Ranma has been struck by magics involving a banishing spell, curse transfer spell, and a spell involving bringing hidden interests to the surface if the description is to be believed. Tendo's creation was simply a powerful collection of energy also caught in the magical backlash with unknown effect at present. Deduction leads us to believe someone wished to remove Ranma from the area and was unable to do so directly for what ever reasons. Hence several plots all apparently occuring at the same time." Nabiki asked the question others were thinking.
"But how could all of these apparently random plots happen all at once? The situation is far to well meshed to be instigated by... well any one of Saotome's current rivals." Thinking about the chaos around the boy she revised her opinion. "Nevermind, this is Ranma, chaos magnet to the nth degree. Of course, this kind of thing would happen to him."
aaaaaaaaa Ygdrassil-Tree main Processing
Skuld was searching through hundreds of files and commands in the search for very ellusive information. It was almost as if the file on Ranma Saotome was moving itself from server to server among the divine network. Digging itself deeper into the already complex and bug ridden realities. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.
'There aren't even any alternates for the guy?'
Normally, there are several branches and realities near each other in the multi-verse with 'alternates' to each individual. Mimir's well used by Toltir has, in the past, changed a particular Ranma Saotome by altering points along his timeline. This particular grouping of reality, however, lack a living alternate for nearly a thousand consecutive branches in sequence.
"This can't be good." Doing a quick search for causes of death showed some disturbing facts. Seven different Ranma's had apparently been attempting to become an 'ultimate' power by killing their counterparts. It was simply dumb luck that they'd met each other in this reality. When the Ranma's had mutually destroyed each other, the local Ranma had taken the accumulated power.
"He's in the system... He's in the system! HE'S IN THE SYSTEM!!"
The search for the 'mortal' Ranma Saotome had located nothing. Finding the newest class Ten Limited License: Deity of Martial Arts and Chaos was easy to do.
Calling Urd she quickly relayed the news she'd just found and missing the fine print about the new god/goddess having a half demon son/daughter/apprentice.
Getting to him/her would be difficult due to the dimension being sealed from interference by 'higher' beings not already apart of the divine ranks of that world. Somehow, Ranma had been declared a goddess and the rest was set into place.
aaaaaaaa
Hunting through the elemental countries a burly man declared his quest to the heavens for the sixth time that morning to his companion's disgust.
"Worry not my Fiery Hammer Goddess! For I shall find you and allow you to bask in my presence!" Akumo shouted to the heavens as lightning struck and thunder crashed. The fact that he'd held his new steel hammer to the sky and been electrocuted by said lightning must be pointed out. Somewhere, a Kuno had the urge to learn about copyright law.
Picking up the large man, Restin grumbled about idiots and red haired thieves. How the red-head in question managed to steal the entire shinobi library in one night without using chakra, and by extension storage seals, baffled the mind.
Tracking them out of Rock had been the easy part. Working out that they'd both come from Fire country had led to their accomplices. An Uchiha, a Hyuuga, and an Inuzuka. Sure they'd been discovered a bit later, but they'd made good scape goats. Easier to say some elite 'known' ninjas than some 'nobody' had made fools of the Stone Village.
Itachi Uchiha had been given an S-class ranking because they'd pegged him as the genius mastermind behind the theft. This information was delegated to the more skilled ninja. While the lesser only knew that Uchiha Itachi was apparently a ninja not to mess with lightly.
aaaaaaaa
Konoha
Itachi was finishing up dispersing his shadow clones for the day while enjoying one of his favorite pass times.
"MMMmmmhhhh Pocky..." 'Strawberry Cream my favorite.' Uchiha Itachi a currently S-class ninja was relaxing and sorting through all of the day's paperwork in his mind. Mentally sorting through all of the day to day junk and requisition forms he learned of some very disturbing information.
In a general sense the memory download from kage-bunshin could easily be dangerous. Careful meditation can sort through the many memories, and prevent overload. In some cases the separate thoughts can find connections unseen from the views of separate people.
Connections, and coincidences became all to clear in that instance. His clan had persons in nearly every position of import within the village. From supply, to mission assignments, an Uchiha was involved. Or had some position involved. His own recent promotion to Anbu Captain had even been expected from this information.
'Which means Hatake-san's lapse in judgement was expected or even instigated.' Thinking quickly about this disturbing information he quickly moved to speak with the Hokage.
Only to be stopped at the front door of the house by several members of the clan with his father in the lead.
"We have wasted enough time as it is Itachi. You will join us tonight and be initiated to you responsibilities of the clan. Walk with us my son." Gesturing toward the outer edge of the district toward the easter wall. He had no choice, but move toward the temple residing on the only hill in the Uchiha district.
"And what responsibilities will I now have that I did not before? I have served Konoha and the clan well, have I not?" He stoically asked of his father.
"All will be made clear my son. This is a rite of passage we have all been participants to, as we have come of age. You are older than most who have been initiated, but not the eldest in our clan history." This was all rather foreboding to Itachi, but he calmly began planning contingencies and carefully made some seals in the guise of adjusting his uniform sleaves. None had thought to activate their doujutsu for this event less walk to the temple.
As they moved further down the road a shadow clone phased out of the ground, and moved quickly to the hokage tower in the distance. The Hokage needed to be aware of the potential power-play being set into motion by his own clan.
To be continued...
I am working on my stories. I'm simply taking longer to get them worked out. It's harder than it looks. And if you hadn't figured it out I've recently watched "The One" with Jet Li. Very good movie.