Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Ranma ½. I do have a few of my own characters in here though, so I would appreciate it if you asked before using them.

Notes

This was originally done for NanoWrimo in 2007. With this story I made the word count!

Characters form Ranma ½ and Naruto may be out of character

While in the Neko-ken, characters roll their rs (I am not going to spell it that way, since it is to hard to write/read that way)

"Hi" Speaking

'Hi' Thinking

Painful Pasts and New Beginnings

By: Shlandria

Chapter 4

Meanwhile, at the Hokage tower, Sarutobi's secretary was having trouble. Mainly, a certain hyper blond boy who could not seem to take no for an answer. "I'm sorry Naruto, but the Hokage said no one was to enter his office, not even the council." She said for the umpteenth time. "I don't care! Just let me in already!" Naruto said quite loudly, again. The poor secretary wanted to strangle the boy. Normally she had nothing against the hyper blond boy, and secretly found some of his pranks very funny; however, right now she was at her whit's end. Naruto was very stubborn.

Ranma had been trying to finish his report for five minutes now; however someone was outside the office yelling about being let in and was not letting up. Whoever it was, by the sound of the voice, it was a kid, a stubborn kid. Ranma sighed and got up. It looked like he was going to have to take care of things himself if he wanted any quiet. He walked to the door and opened it, intent on dealing with the kid and finishing his report. He quickly noticed how frazzled the secretary was, and looked to where she was to see the source of her frustration. 'Yep, definitely a kid.' He thought.

Neither the kid nor the secretary had noticed him, so he made himself known. "That is enough!" he stated calmly, with a hint of ki in his voice. Both of them turned to see him, stopping their argument immediately. "What the heck! I thought no one was allowed in there, so why is he, huh?" Naruto yelled at the secretary, pointing at Ranma. "I don'tknow Naruto!" the secretary said. "Excuse me…" she began only to be cut off. "I said that was enough!" Ranma said a bit louder, letting a bit of anger and ki lace his voice. At this, they both stopped again. Before they could say anything further, he spoke up, intent on getting back to the safe haven known as the Hokage's office.

He looked at the secretary and said "Hokage sama asked you to keep everyone out, correct?" "Yes, but…" the secretary said getting over run by the boy again. "Try keeping them quiet too, I am trying to write a report for him. You, kid, Naruto I believe it was? I'd rather have quiet than be alone right now. As it seems you will not keep quiet until you are let in, you might as well get in here." Ranma then turned back to the secretary. "Please keep the noise level down out here." He then turned around and walked back into the office quickly followed by Naruto.

The secretary had noticed that the older boy looked a bit strange, but was too caught up in her fight with Naruto and trying to do her job, that she had failed to realize what was so strange about him until he and Naruto were in the Hokage's office and the door was closed. Then she realized what was so strange about the boy.

He looked 17 or 18, was 4'10" tall, Japanese, had black hair, his bangs hanging slightly in his blue eyes, the rest tied into a pigtail in the back. He was wearing a red Chinese shirt and black silk pants tied at the ankle. He also wore slipper like shoes on his feet. He had two cat ears on the top of his head, a tail swishing back and forth behind him, and he even had fangs and whiskers. His ears and tail were black with white and red tiger like stripes. 'He's cute' was the only thought that came to her mind.

Naruto had noticed the older boy immediately and noted the ears, tail, whiskers and fangs, buy they didn't faze him. He just assumed that the older boy was using a Henge.

Once they were both inside, Ranma closed the door and then promptly went back to the desk and his work. "Hey man, thanks for getting me in here, where's the old man anyway?" Naruto said. Ranma looked up and with an inaudible sigh, he really did want to finish that report as soon as possible after all, however he decided that the best thing to do was answer the brat. "Hokage sama's not here right now. He'll be back later; you can wait for him here. The only reason I let you in here, was because you weren't being quiet. Now please let me finish this report." Ranma replied, already stressed from the day's events. Naruto was going to say something else, however he could see that the older boy was stressed out and didn't want to anger him. It only took another couple of minutes for Ranma to finish his report. Rolling it up and putting it where he was sure the Hokage would see it, he gave a sigh and walked over to a couch that was hidden in a corner.

Giving another sigh, he plopped down on the couch and tried to calm himself down. Naruto saw this and wondered what was wrong with the older boy. He decided he would see if the boy wanted to talk to him, so far this stranger had not shown him any of the hate the villagers did, maybe they could be friends? Decision made, he walked up to Ranma and said "Hi, my name is Naruto Uzumaki, what's yours?" Ranma looked up at the boy and decided to be polite to the kid. 'No use both of us being upset.' Ranma thought. "I'm Ranma Satome." "You must be new here, where are you from?" Naruto asked. "I 'm not exactly new to this village kid; I've just been away for awhile." Ranma replied trying in vain to banish the images of that girl in the pit and failing miserably. "Oh, ok then!" Naruto said.

He was going to say something more when he saw the boy lie down on the couch and curl up into a tight ball. "Um, are you ok, I mean are you sick or something." Naruto asked worried about his new possible friend. "I'm not sick, why did you think that?" Ranma asked looking up at Naruto with a small, sad smile and a tear marking a track down his cheek. "It's just, I curl up like that if my stomach hurts, so I thought you might be sick." Naruto said then saw the tear. He sat down beside the older boy then asked still a bit worried, "Are you sure you're ok? Why do you look so sad?" Ranma curled back up and gave a sad sigh before answering. "I'm ok; I'm just worried about someone." He then began to silently cry, trembling a bit. "Um, Ranma san?" Naruto asked, not sure what to do or say. That was all it took however and Ranma wrapped him up in a hug and cried. All Naruto could do was pat the older boy's back a bit awkwardly and let him cry. 'I wonder why he's so sad. Naruto thought.

It took a couple of minutes for Ranma to calm down, when he did, he let go of Naruto and wiped his eyes. "I'm sorry about that; I didn't mean to startle you." He said while giving the younger boy a watery smile. "It's ok, do you feel better now?" Naruto asked him. "Yeah, thank you." Ranma replied. "So why were you in here by yourself anyway?" Naruto asked. "I had a report to write and was asked to stay here. Why did you want in here so badly?" Ranma replied. "Um, I just wanted to talk to the old man that's all." Naruto answered. Ranma just shrugged at this and sat back up. "He's back, so you can talk to him soon." Ranma said, catching the Hokage's scent and hearing him talking to the secretary. This confused Naruto since the doors had not even opened yet. Before he could say anything though, the doors opened and there stood the Hokage. He went to ask the other boy how he did that when something really strange happened.