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Chapter two: The Missing Nin and a New technnique
This story is dedicated to someone, but I forget who, exactly.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
/commentary/ or AN: commentary
(Telepathy)
Scene change, now with 100 less silly crap: -
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"Listen up!" Maito Gai was enthusiastic as well as incredibly loud. "The missing nin we are looking for is Zabuza! The Devil in the Mist! We have been hired to take him out!"
"I know." Kakashi answered boredly as he read from his Love Love Paradise novel.
"My rival! I will defeat him and take all the glory!" Gai shouted.
"Huh? Did you say something?" Kakashi said, feigning confusion.
"Your attitude is so hip!" Gai said, groaning. "Well, anyway, there are rumors of other missing nins meeting up with him in the area, a couple of A-Rank missing nins from the Sand."
"So?" Kakashi said, sarcastically.
"We may have to fight them too!" Gai said, explaining.
"So?" Kakashi repeated, sarcastically.
Gai just groaned again, and they both walked into the village, trying not to call too much attention to themselves, which was hard, considering Gai's teeth were shining like floodlights.
Gaara rose from his position hidden in the sand beneath the path, and Ranma shimmered into view beside the road. "A-Rank?" Gaara asked.
"From the sand, eh? Maybe it's someone you know." Ranma replied. "We'd better make sure they aren't after us..." Ranma said, regaining his serious demeanor, "After all, even the two of us can't take down Jounins yet." Ranma and Gaara were still only seven and five, respectively, though Ranma thought his maturity level had reached eight, at least.
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The tall man with the giant sword merely passed the small boy crying near the side of the bridge, until he sensed a source of power right behind him. Turning quickly around, he saw the boy was now talking to two other children, both with red hair, 'Possibly siblings,' he thought. The smaller one, the boy, had a large gourd strapped to his back, and the taller one, the girl, had no apparent armaments, but Zabuza knew that looks were often deceiving.
"Now, why don't I help you kids out?" Zabuza came closer, feigning concern, "I can take you away form this terrible place." Inside, he was already scheming: 'I recognize that boy, now! He has the Mirrors bloodline... What luck to find him so open and defenseless!'
But the girl was not convinced. "What do you want, Ninja?" She asked, not trusting, "I've dealt with your type before."
"Now listen here, you're gonna work for me... SHIT!" Zabuza took off running in the other direction, followed closely by Gai and Kakashi.
Ranma sighed. "Looks like he won't be hurting us, Gaara. Now about you... you said your name was Haku?" Ranma asked, smiling.
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"Gai?" Kakashi asked, taking his eyes off Zabuza for the moment.
"Yes, my eternal rival?" Gai answered casually.
"Wasn't that the missing nin from the Sand?" Kakashi replied, also casually.
"What?" He also took his eyes off Zabuza, but quickly turned them back.
"Shit!" Kakashi said, in an uncommon display of emotion. "Zabuza got away!"
"Well, at least we drove him out of this village," Gai said, sheepishly.
Returning to the bridge they were unsurprised to find not a trace of the three children who were once there.
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To know how Ranma gages skill, you would have to have seen one of his fights in this strange world. He was, at first, scared, because so many people who wanted to fight were Ki users, which to him meant they were powerful enough, without their ki, to break walls and throw a hundred or so punches a second. He didn't know how Chakra worked. When he learned that they all used shortcuts – hand signs and a lot of focusing to produce small amounts of power.
He'd learned alright. If he could see them making slow and deliberate hand signs, they were probably meat.
/Meat, of course, stands for "Dead Meat"/
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"Gaara!" The small boy shouted to the smaller boy, "Plan 1!"
"Get a load of this kid..." One bandit gleefully said to another, "He thinks they can take us with a 'plan!' heh."
"No. I said plan 1." Ranma said, smirking, as Gaara stealthily disappeared from sight. "That just means to use enough skill that you can't even lay a finger on us."
"What!" The bandit shrieked, before Ranma disappeared not so covertly into thin air.
"Oh. Shit." The second bandit was no longer there, and the first looked around frantically until a simple impact on his face knocked him out and broke his nose.
Ranma shimmered into view. "Jeez. I didn't even move after using the Umi-sen-ken... And he still didn't find me. What happened to the skilled ki user who could change his appearance at will?"
Gaara appeared again, rising from the sand of the path, holding the second bandit unconscious at his feet. "Sometimes, a lot of skill and no brains can combine to be totally useless."
"Heh. Guess you're right. They never stood a chance."
"I was talking about you, Ranma..." Gaara laughed and walked ahead as Ranma figured out just what he meant.
"Hey!"
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"Training?" Gaara asked, pausing for once in surprise.
"Yeah, training. I'd like to teach you my family style." Ranma replied matter-of-factly.
"Why would I need training? I have my sand, and since I take it everywhere, I can never be harmed." Gaara started to continue walking.
"Watch this." Gaara turned in time to see Ranma disappear. "Can you stop this?" Ranma's voice echoed from all directions, but Gaara quickly put up a full shell of sand, completely sealing himself from the outside world.
"Ha!" Ranma said, appearing again within the shell, and raised his hand to strike.
Gaara clutched his chest, anticipating a terrible blow, but relaxed when he felt only a slight tap on his forehead.
"There, you see? If you'd known how to block I'd never have hit you with that!" Ranma sighed, but smiled again as Gaara cheered up. "Now let me outta here, will ya?"
"Thank you, Ranma." Gaara said, smiling and taking Ranma's hand before letting the sand loose again.
"Eheh... we can begin training whenever you like." Ranma was glad Gaara was feeling okay. What was that pained look on his face?
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"S-so they just used me, because they were scared of my power, and I tried to kill myself..." Haku was crying, walking alongside Ranma and Gaara shortly after they had taken him out of the way of Zabuza, Gai, and Kakashi.
Ranma shared a knowing look with Gaara. "He's just like you... Like us." Ranma said, and Gaara nodded.
"Alright!" Ranma said, loudly, "You can travel with us!"
"Huh?" Haku was shocked out of his tears.
"We're both homeless ninja. We will make you one of us!" Gaara said, slightly less loudly, but still above his normal light voice.
"One of... you? Like a family?" Haku was almost in tears again.
Ranma thought on that for a moment. "Yeah... Like a family."
Haku almost fell, grabbing onto Ranma and Gaara and beginning to cry.
"Whoa, what'd I say wrong?" Ranma was beginning to think his social skills weren't as good as he once thought.
"Nothing's wrong. These are tears of happiness... you idiot." Haku said, playfully.
"Oh, oh, good... Hey!"
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"So... would that make you like my older sister and younger brother?" Haku asked, after a few minutes.
"What? Oh..." Ranma remembered, suddenly, that he had forgotten to change back after crossing that river and climbing onto the bridge. "Well... It's like this. I have a... special ability, kind of like a bloodline..."
"Huh?" Haku asked, turning to Gaara, who was merely looking at Ranma.
"Water Element: Steaming Blast!" Ranma shouted, bothering to make the hand signs because, after all, it was not a combat situation and he could stand to preserve his Chakra. A small spout of steaming hot water appeared, blasting from his hand to his own face.
"That's not much of a power..." Haku sighed, before looking again.
"What? Now you're a boy?" Haku shouted, disbelieving.
"Yep. And it's not even a transformation jutsu. I really have become a boy." Ranma said, almost proudly. His built-in disguise was something he had learned to use, and it wasn't even a bother at all, especially at an age before breasts... He had heard of girls who mature at age eight, but luckily, he had not become one of them.
"Teach me how to do that!" Haku said, excited and amazed.
"Uh..." Ranma was at a loss. 'Not another crossdresser!'
"So... Younger brother, and Older neither!" Haku exclaimed, happily.
Ranma groaned unconvincingly, even to himself. 'I think I really like it here, with people who don't beat me up except in training and who don't want to love me like some sort of status symbol instead of an actual emotion... Wait a sec, that's too deep. I like the food here a lot...'
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"We've been to the villages of Mist and Sand, so far. Which one should we look in next?" Ranma consulted with his two conspirators. "It took us a whole year to find the village of Mists, but that's because we weren't really looking for it..."
"Lets just wander. I don't see your obsession with finding a hidden village to stay at." Gaara said, sulking at having to travel so far, yet still hoping at finding a home, now that he had a family.
"Lets go to the Hidden Village of the Sound!" Haku said suddenly, "They are a relatively new village, so they are bound to accept new ninja!"
"Well, we can try it. Which way is it?" Ranma asked, nodding.
"Umm..."
"It's going to be a long year, isn't it?" Gaara said, resigned.
Ranma and Haku could only nod.
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A nine year old Ranma, eight year old Haku, and seven year old Gaara found themselves at the village of the Sound, strangely foreboding even when compared to the Sand.
"Aha, so you've come here." A voice said from behind them as they stared at the gates.
Ranma and Haku turned around, but Gaara remained looking forward. "Who are you?"
"The real question would be, who are you? Actually, I already know. Saotome Ranma, and recently adopted Saotome Gaara and Saotome Haku. Missing nins, the three. Two A-Rank, one S-Rank... And all below the age of ten. My, my." The pale ninja, bearing the headband with the mark of the Sound, walked slowly closer. "You should be better behaved!"
"What do you want? Tell us who you are." Gaara said, not even looking at the man behind him.
"Huh? Look at me when I'm speaking to you, kid!" The man said, red-faced with anger.
"I think not. I'm looking... at your foolish friends, who think they can hide." With that, Gaara sunk quickly into the ground, using a small earth jutsu to change the nearby earth into sand. Ranma's shadow clone vanished with a puff of smoke, and Haku dashed away with blinding speed. Three kunai, one aimed at each of the three, missed by a wide margin.
Ranma's voice echoed through a narrow alley behind the wall. "Regroup!"
Haku dashed in, Gaara rose from the ground, and Ranma faded into sight. "Well, so much for a warm reception here."
"But look... a bonus prize!" Gaara rubbed his hands together with anticipation. The door in front of them was marked simply "Supplies."
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"Ha! Ninja headbands. We have all become Genins, I am so proud!" Ranma said, looking at the shining metal plates, Gaara having placed his on the shoulder strap of his gourd and Haku wearing his above his ANBU-esque mask.
"But how should we mark them?" Haku asked, and Gaara experimented with shapes of a thin layer of sand.
"I think that, until we find a village to actually stay in, we should leave them blank. We are homeless ninja, so we should not display a village on our headbands." Ranma said, sagely.
"Heh, you just can't think of anything!" Haku said, and ran ahead several steps, enjoying the glint of the sun off his headband on the ground before him.
The three of them contemplated the thin metal plates for a long time.
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AN: I had to make it a team of three for the Chunnin exams, of course!