Relic
By Oberon
Chapter 3: The Adventure begins
Disclaimer: Don't own Ranma or Naruto. All characters used without permission.
- - - - - - - - - -- - - - - -
Genma swallowed his nervousness when he felt the shadow loomed over him, breathing down his neck. "Danzo, I hope you have my money."
"How's the boy?" A tired voice behind Genma belted the words in a monologue. The man sounded like a lifetime of frustration, always fighting for something but in the end accepted the reality of failure.
"Sleeping," Genma looked Danzo in his one good eye. "There's nothing wrong with the boy, if that's what you're asking. Tsunade thinks he'll wake up in a few days."
Danzo said nothing, he's face remained sunken and passive.
Genma's nervousness returned as beads of sweat rolled down his balding man's head. "Look, I did my part. Now how about doing your part and take the boy off my hands?" But pay me first, he silently added.
Danzo was about to give Genma his due when the one eye-ed ninja sensed the presence of strong chakra nearby. "You have betrayed me, Genma."
"Wha-what do you mean?" Before, Genma was just nervous, now he panicked. "I didn't tell anyone about this, I swear on my wife and children's lives I didn't!"
Danzo glared down at Genma as the fat man cowered. "You don't have any children, Genma…" Danzo rubbed the cross shaped scar under his chin. "…But I believe you. You're too lazy to try something like this."
"Oh, thank you! Thank you!"
Danzo shoved the fat man back. "I'll try to lead them away. Get the boy out of here then bring him to the woods later tonight. I'll have your payment then."
Danzo disappeared in a puff of ninja smoke leaving Genma with the sleeping boy. Genma didn't waste time and threw the unconscious boy over his shoulder.
"Let's go kid. Now don't get any ideas, just you'll know, I'm only doing this for the money."
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
When Danzo saw the two men that entered Genma's casino, he knew he couldn't take them. The man tried to hide his face under a sugegasa and a black high collar robe with red cloud design but the malice he extruded was obvious to Danzo. "Uchiha Itachi…" Itachi was the man that single-handedly massacred the strongest clan in Konoha, his own.
With that, Danzo disappeared into the crowd of gamblers by the Pachinko machines and watched silently as Itachi and the man with him. The two casually strolled by Genma's guard without a word, as if the guards didn't notice the pair. Danzo did not recognize the large man with Itachi but he carried with him a large bundle wrapped in cloth behind his back. The powerful chakra Danzo felt earlier came from the man next to Itachi. Danzo had trained Itachi back when the Uchiha became a Konoha ANBU so he knew Itachi's power, but this man next to Itachi was just ridiculously powerful.
"Sorry Genma, you're on your own," then Danzo counted his luck that these two did not spot him. He wouldn't even be able to slow the two if he tried.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Itachi knocked softly on the door of Genma's office and waited. And waited some more, then the Uchiha knocked again. No answer, not even a whimper from inside, something the Uchiha missing-nin had grown used to. With a vicious kick, the Uchiha broke Genma's door clean from its hinges.
"It seems someone warned him we were coming, interesting…," Sharingan eyes swept across every detail in Genma's office, missing nothing.
Kisame, Itachi's companion followed him. "Itachi, do you think it was the man in the Casino?" Kisame, the Monster of the Kiri, grinned and bared his shark-like teeth. "I think I'll go teach the geezer a lesson in minding his own business."
Itachi stopped the giant with a hand on Kisame's chest. "Wait," Itachi walked toward a bookshelf by the wall. The miniature library seemed out of place in this dainty office with no windows, especially with all the empty sake bottles around. "There is a hidden door behind that shelf." Itachi pulled at one end of the bookshelf and found a resistance, almost like uncorking a bottle.
With a little more effort than Itachi expected, the shelf popped opened. Itachi's eyes went wide as a gush of air came from hidden doorway. Then everything suddenly explored. The Uchiha only had a moment to react after he realized the shelf was a pressure-sealed trapped door. When he opened it, the vacuum sucked in air, which mixed with a white powder trapped in a hidden compartment behind the shelf. Once the powder touched the air it ignited in Itachi's face, leaving the Uchiha with less than a second to throws his hands over his face to cover his precious eyes.
Just as Itachi's vision went white from the infernal so close to his face, he felt himself tackled from behind. Itachi lashed out with a scream and a kunai only to have a firm hand held his wrist.
"Hold it Itachi, it's me." Kisame's voice broke through Itachi's berserker haze but all the Uchiha saw with his precious Sharingan was a complete white landscape.
"My eyes…" the trap had fooled the Sharingan with its pure simplicity. With no exposed mechanical parts, there was simply nothing for the Sharingan to see.
"They're fine,"
Itachi felt them with his empty hand and indeed found his eyeballs under his touch. Itachi frowned, then fumbling for his sugegasa, finding it within arm's reach then slapping it back on his head. Itachi stood up, his eyes still stinging, his vision still blurry. "Let's go," he said dangerously.
The giant tried to hold Itachi back. "Itachi, maybe I should take point."
The Uchiha only glared with his blind eyes at the shark-man. He could tell where Kisame stood by the sound of the sharkman's voice.
Kisame shrugged. "Whatever, you can go first."
- - - - - - - - --
Genma ducked into an alley several blocks from his casino. The boy slept on his back, obvious to the dangers around him. Genma adjusted his hold on the boy then wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve. Breathing heavily, the fat man laid the boy behind a trash can while he took a breather. Genma slumped on the building wall, his ass slid down the side until it met the grimy surface of the paved street.
Genma watched the kid sleep without a care. "Well, you better be grateful for this," he threw the boy over his shoulders again. "This is more work than I did for my wife in last three years." Silently, Genma hoped Danzo wasn't playing him for a fool.
The fat casino owner carried his charge for several blocks before he suddenly bumped into someone - someone impossibly large and appeared from out of nowhere. "Oh, sorry, didn't see you there." Genma adjusted his glasses and tried to walk around the tell fellow in the black robe.
The giant grinned, showing off his fangs and scaring the shit out of Genma. "Oh, you'll be sorry all right. My partner doesn't like people messing with his eyes." Kisame lashed out with a lazy kick to Genma's fat belly, he didn't put much effort into it but the force was enough to send the fat man flying. Genma's charge slipped from his gasp onto the concrete street.
Itachi approached the man gasping for breath. His eyesight still has not returned fully, everything still appeared as shadows in a bright room but he could tell the larger shadow was Kisame.
The fat casino owner knew he was in deep shit when he saw the look on Itachi. Immediately he went to the crunching tiger position with both hands on the ground. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please forgive me!"
Itachi held a kunai menacingly over Genma.
- - - - - -- - - -- -- -
The sudden jolt from the fall had shocked his mind to acknowledge sensations for the first time in untold eons. Slowly, he's sleep-dulled consciousness focused on the hazy fog around him as thoughts slowly registered the sounds around him.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry…"
The fog clouding his vision cleared only to give way to confusion and fatigue. "What…" the teenager mumbled at the sight of a fat balding man crouching on all fours.
He heard the man in the black robes speak with a much taller man, a giant wearing the same red cloud patterned robes as the first. "Kisame, our target is awake. Deal with him."
Kisame, which the newly awoken teenager assumed to be the giant, reached behind him and with only one hand, he lifted the great bundle of cloth strapped to the giant's back. The cloth unraveled itself, thanks to a mysterious wind, into a great halberd almost as long as the giant was tall. The giant plunged the halberd into the street with an explosion on concrete and rubble. His shark eyes met the boys and he smirked as the boy shivered at his monstrously shark-like appearance and rounded fish eyes. "Ranma Saotome, stay where you are. We'll get to you in a minute."
"Ranma Saotome… is that my name?" The boy had no answers and knew only uncertainty. "That sounds about right but I can't remember anything else." Ranma's eyes settled on Genma begging the first man to spare his life. When he looked at him, Ranma felt he was familiar somehow but can't remember the fat man's name.
Itachi had a kunai inches away from Genma's eyes.
"Get away from him!" Ranma couldn't let this go on any longer. When he saw Itachi threatening Genma, it was as if something had pulled on his heartstring. The teenager forced himself to stand, wobbly and with great effort. His body for some reason responded and surged with power. Suddenly, the tiredness went away. Ranma faced off against the two men, he didn't know who they were or what they wanted, only that they tried to intimidate him. The man that threatened Genma had a deadly aura while Kisame, the giant felt like a monster of a powerhouse. "If I'm gonna to have any chance ta stop 'em, I'll have ta do it in one move and put everything inta that single blow," Ranma knew they were powerful, stronger than he was right now. For some reason, he wasn't scared.
Itachi did not listen to Ranma's warning.
Everything moved in almost slow motion. Itachi thrust his kunai toward Genma's eye. Ranma screamed out for him to stop. The martial artist cried for his body to move, to breach the distance between himself and the man trying to kill Genma. Then the world around the martial artists blurred as his body moved by its own according, faster than Ranma thought was possible. Still, it wasn't enough. "Too slow. Must move faster!" Then everything went white.
When Ranma could see again, he was in the air with one leg extended. His foot had connected with Itachi's chest and they were both in motion. Ranma skit to a stop but Itachi kept going, the force of Ranma's flying kick send the missing-nin flying into his partner then both crashed through a solid brick wall behind them.
"Ha! Suck on that!" Ranma's gloating came to an abrupt stop when the rubble over the two men shuffled. "Oh, shit… got'ta go!"
Immediately, Ranma hooked one arm around Genma and took off into the opposite direction, leaving behind a trail of dust in their wake.
Genma barely had time to blink and register the kunai in his face was gone before he was dragging like a piece of cloth in the wind.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Kisame shuffled the pieces of the broken wall on top of him. Slowly the rubble shifted then giant erupted from the pile of debris with an angry roar but their target had disappeared.
"What the hell happened?!" Something slimy dripped into Kisame's mouth while he yelled. "PEW! Raw eggs! I hate raw eggs!"
Kisame found his partner unconscious buried under pile of pokisticks, his legs sticking out from underneath the pile. They had crashed through a grocery store, and Kisame himself had a face full of egg yoke. He took a step toward Itachi and slipped on a pool of spilled milk.
- - - - -- - - - - -- - -
"Slow down!" Genma's scream reverberated down the forest trail with a Doppler effect while a squirrel by the roadside gave the two a confused look.
Ranma did not listen and tried to get as far away from the missing-nin as possible. The pair ran deeper into the forest undergrowth where Genma finally hit the ground when an exhausted Ranma stopped for a breather.
"Thanks boy, thought I as a goner for sure." Genma had seen the tip of Itachi's kunai inches from his eye before Ranma kicked him away. Genma still didn't know what happened but he was grateful to be alive. "I didn't know anyone could move that fast."
Ranma finally caught his breath but he still leaned against the trunk of a large tree for support. "Yeah, that makes both of us."
"What's wrong kid?" Genma studied the boy and only saw confusion on martial artist's face.
"I can't remember…"
"Amnesia, that's tough. So what do I call you?"
"Ranma, that's what those two called me. I guess that's my name." Ranma didn't sound too sure but Kisame and Itachi came because of him so they must know him somehow.
Genma suddenly felt the wheels in his head turn for the first time in many years. "Ranma it is then, my name is Genma. I owned the casino those two trashed trying to get to you." This kid was obviously worth more than Danzo was paying him. "I probably can't go back now since they're likely waiting for me."
Ranma frowned, for some reason he didn't believe a word Genma just said. "Sorry about this."
"It's ok boy… I'm just upset about my…" Genma let loose with the waterworks. "…My poor wife, she must be so worried without me." Genma wiped the tears from his cheeks but they keep on coming. He wrapped his arms around Ranma in a fierce hug. "Don't worry about me, this is my fault. I shouldn't have tried to safe you from those monsters! Sweet Nodoka, we'll see each other again!"
Ranma fidgeted nervously in Genma's grasp. The only thing he could do was to pat the fat man on the back in a vain attempt to calm Genma down. "Eh… if there's anything I can do…"
Genma beamed. "So you'll protect me?"
"Yeah, well, where else I'm going to go?" Ranma shrugged.
"Hay, listen, I got a cousin who runs this outfit in the Land of Waveswho'll put us up for a little while. And I hear he's always looking to hire people with your abilities."
"Land of Waves, hmmm…." Ranma ran the name through his memory but drew a blank. "…Never heard of it."
So the two found themselves wondering toward the coast and while Ranma remained suspicious of everything Genma told him, the situation seemed entirely too familiar to the pigtailed martial artist. Meanwhile Genma wondered how much the boy would go for to the right buyers.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Itachi's vision finally cleared but he immediately notice he no longer saw the world through the Sharingan, the enhanced vision that allowed him to see much more than the ordinary eye. Something else was wrong with his body, his chakra felt weak almost like depleted to the point of exhaustion. Was he in a battle?
"Hold it Itachi; you're still weak from whatever the boy did to you." Kisame sat across from his partner separated by an open fire. Kisame had brought them to the forest after their run in with the boy.
"Kisame, my chakra…"
The giant patted his great halberd, which now leaned next to the giant on the trunk of a great tree. "Samehada had to absorb most of your chakra to keep you from freezing into a popsicle. Whatever the kid did, he turned your chakra against you."
"Ranma Saotome…"
Kisame felt his partner released a burst of killing intent stronger than anything he felt from Itachi before. "No Itachi, the Leader wants the boy alive."
Itachi glared at his partner. "He can have him… after I'm gone."
End Chapter
Next up, adventure on the high seas!
And before people start bitching about Itachi being beaten by Ranma, remember that Itachi was still blinded by Genma's trap.
Danzo – he is the leader of Ne (root) a secret training camp for Konoha ANBU. It was implied in canon that Ne has been in business for some time so it isn't really a surprise leap to think that Danzo might have trained Itachi.
Sharingan – the bloodline of the Uchiha clan. Allows the people with Sharingan eyes to see many things but obviously can't see through walls.
Samehada – Kisame's halberd/sword. A giant blade made from uncountable razor sharp scales that "shaves" the victim rather than cuts. The special ability is that this sword allows Kisame to absorb the chakra of his opponent.