Disclaimer: I still own nothing and I am still not making any profit off of this. Rumiko Takahashi owns Ranma :)

Starting with this chapter I'm going to start making all my chapters from here on out longer. Oh and reviews motivate me :)

And many thanks to Richard and LadyScience. I know I started pretty fast and skimmed over a few things, some of that was intentional and I might go add in some elements later on. Right now I wanted to get more to the point instead of dwelling on subjects tons of other authors have already lingered on in the past. Again thanks a lot for the reviews, I appreciate the kind words. I plan on longer chapters from here on out, and I plan to go more into detail on everything happening now that I've figured out more or less where I want this story to go.

There will be many crossovers mixed with this story later on, I have already been hinting at future crossovers, but I've been trying to be subtle about it so hopefully everyone will understand the hints when I get that far. As a warning, I know many other authors have already done it. I'm not trying to steal their thunder... But it makes sense to me to have Nodoka be a Himura, Ranko has bright ass red hair and she's Japanese. I can't think of many other bloodlines that would pass along that particular trait.. I might be able to work on expanding that and finding out the Himura ancestry... Anyway, enjoy :)

Chapter 3 Enlightened Darkness

Ranma and Akane sat in front of Cologne in lotus position. Neither of them moved or spoke, they'd been that way for two hours now, eyes closed trying to find their centers. Both teens could manipulate Ki, but this was different type of training. Cologne was teaching them how to communicate with their inner Ki, she had explained when they figured this out it would increase their awareness of their surroundings. And enable them to manipulate the Ki to power specific body parts. She had explained to them that this was a far more difficult way to learn techniques like Ryoga's 'Breaking Point'.

Surprisingly Akane was the first one to reach it, well it was surprising to everyone else, Akane had started meditative training several months back out of a desire to stop pounding Ranma every time something provoked her. Inside herself Akane found a light, she focused on it, pouring all her emotions into it and watched it expand. Cologne had explained that fueling it with emotion would cause it to expand, making it easier to find her center, and with the help of her Ki, easier to control said emotions.

Just a few minutes later Ranma found it and did the same thing, pouring his emotions into his Ki, and letting it grow. Cologne smiled, with pride, at the talent of the two teens in front of her as they both started emitting a soft glow.

"Good job you two, now open your eyes."

The did, "Now speak with your Ki, it doesn't need to be aloud, the same way you were just communicating with it just now. Good, now both of you focus your energies and ask the Ki to flow into your hands."

Ranma's hand started emitting a soft green glow, while Akane's took on a purple glow. Both teens were now sweating profusely from the high level of concentration this took. She set three pebbles in front of each of them.

"I want you to focus your Ki, take the white pebble in your hands and use your Ki to crush it, don't crush it with your hands.. just cradle it and ask your Ki to crush it."

It took about twenty minutes, but they both finally crushed the pebbles. Colognes eyes widened slightly surprised they'd made it this far tonight. "Now take the black pebble. I want you to use your Ki to make it levitate."

An hour later she told them to stop, neither had accomplished the feat yet. "Don't be frustrated," She said looking at their dejected faces, "even crushing the pebbles takes about 3 years for a normal person."

They both brightened a bit at this.

"Elder Cologne," Ranma started, "I would like to go on a training trip. To get the Hell away from Nerima for a while, we have one month left till school starts again, and I want to train night and day and get Akane close to my level." he said glancing at Akane out of the side of his eyes as he finished the sentence.

"This is acceptable," She replied "I have a perfect place in mind. Would you care horribly if I choose to tag along?"

Ranma was relieved she had suggested it "I would be honored to have your guidance elder." he said formally, remembering the expected respect to elders within the tribe.

"We leave in three days, go make your preparations and tell your family."

"I'll talk to Nabiki to make sure she doesn't spill the beans." Akane said as they walked home, both were now walking along the fence tops. Akane wearing a new gi. This one was more similar to what Ranma wore, except her's was in Tai Chi fashion, still yellow with a black sash around the middle.

"Good idea."

Ranma turned around in mid stride, now running backwards along the top of the fence, and eyed Akane critically till she felt a blush rising up her cheeks.

"Ready for the next level?"

She wasn't expecting the question "What do you mean?"

Coming to the end of the fence, Akane was about to warn him, but at the last moment he launched himself high into the air, landing first on a telephone pole and bounding off of it to land on a rooftop.

"C'mon tomboy! Race you home! Bet you're too clumsy to even make it up here! Nyah!" He said as he made a silly face at her, sticking out his tongue and waggling his fingers.

Trying not to think about it she tried to do the same thing as Ranma, she didn't do it as gracefully, but was soon standing next to him and bopped him on the head with her fist. "Jerk."

He smiled at her, "Good job, now follow me." With that he started jumping from rooftop to rooftop, Akane had a difficult time of it at first. But after the first few rooftops she got the hang of it and was running along next to him, both of them laughing at the freedom the activity made them feel.

Ryoga was lost, again. The odd part for him was that he found himself absolutely not caring. Perhaps because he had no place he felt he needed to be at the moment. A part of him wanted to go check on Akari, but he wasn't completely sure he was ready to go take care of a bunch of pigs just yet. It felt somehow.. awkward.

Finally he pulled himself out of his mind and took stock of his surroundings. He'd never seen this place before. He was standing at the edge of a forest, behind him was nothing but pine trees for miles and miles. In front of him, maybe half a mile, was the ocean, stretching into the horizon, the setting sun giving it a deep amber glow. At the edge of the beach was a dock, a man and woman were loading things onto trawler. In English the name Natsilane was written in black letters.

To his right was a sign that said "Astoria 20m".

He sighed, I'm in America... at least I can read English, he thought to himself. But what the Hell do I do now?

"Ranma this is all your.." his shout trailed off as he realized that this was in fact, NOT Ranma's fault.

His shout did have the added effect of drawing in the couple from the boat, he hadn't even realized it, but he'd continued walking and was now close to said boat.

"Hi", the man said walking up and sticking out his hand with a friendly smile on his face, "I'm Jesse, this is my wife Nadine."

"Hi." said Nadine, waving at him with a friendly smile.

"H.. Hello, I am R.. Ryoga." he was a little nervous "It is great pleasure to meet you. How I get to Japan from here?"

The couple looked at each other and raised their eyebrows, surprised to say the least, the way he said it you'd think he was asking directions to a park. They shrugged at each other and both pointed towards the ocean.

"Damn, that what I though. How the Hell I end up in America?!"

Jesse spoke again, "Help us load up, by an odd coincidence, we happen to be headed to Japan. Nadine, can you go get Elvis so we can introduce him to our new guest?"

Jesse pointed to the boat as Nadine went back on board. "If you noticed, our trawler is bigger than most. It takes a lot of work, and I had it custom built to be able to travel the oceans. You know anything about marine wildlife?"

Ryoga shook his head as he followed this strange American aboard his ship.

Kuno sat in his room staring at his katana where it was hanging on his wall. Gone were the pictures of Akane and his pig tailed goddess, he now had a new woman whom his mind obsessed over. It wasn't the same though, he didn't desire her for companionship. No, in her he saw a master. Someone to train him to be the samurai he needed to be. There was a darkness, some evil force creeping up on Nerima. The very forces of evil were soon going to be unleashed, he felt it in his very soul, and Nerima would need heroes.

That woman had revealed the truth to him, that his beloved pig tailed goddess, and the foul sorcerer Ranma Saotome, were indeed one in the same. He sighed again as the full impact of that revelation again hit him, as well as the revelation that he was not in fact in love with Akane Tendo. For some reason, when the woman explained everything to him on that night, it was like a light bulb turned on in his brain.

Everything now made sense, he'd been delusional. The reason he'd tricked himself into believing he was in love with Akane was because he was actually in love with Nabiki. When he'd finally admitted this to himself it was like a cloth had been removed from his eyes and he could see the world clearly now. In his mind he could now see Ranma transforming when splashed with cold water, and retaking his own form when splashed with warm water. And it made sense, the pig, the duck, the panda, the cat, and that freaky yeti holding eel thing.

Kuno laughed at the absurdity of it all.

He'd had to have his sister committed. He'd tried to explain everything to her, patiently, slowly. He'd destroyed all her potions and drugs, she'd made more and one night he caught her late at night making some strange drug and laughing her crazy laugh the whole time.

The next day he had her committed.

He sighed, at least Nabiki was the bright light in the darkness that enveloped him. He'd been speaking with her, calling her, meeting up with her, and secretly, dating her.

But right now he thought, focusing again. I need to see that woman again.

Flashback**

A week after the wedding a woman had shown up at his house, at first he didn't recognize her, then he realized it was Ranma's mother wearing traditional Kendo garb. She was wearing her katana at her waist.

"How can I help you?" he answered

"We need to talk," she said pushing her way past him, "now."

He saw challenge in her eyes.

"You dare, to challenge the great blue thunder of Furinkan high, in his own home? No wonder Saotome is such a villainous fiend, to be raised with such lowly manners!"

She stared at him for a moment, then she slapped him.

When he recovered he realized she was walking away, towards his families dojo. Head ringing from the force of her slap, he followed her.

When he stepped into the room she was standing in the middle in a relaxed posture.

"A samurai." she said, then spit on the floor of the dojo as offensively as possible. "No true samurai would act as cowardly, arrogant, and dishonorably as you have."

He'd walked into the center of the dojo now and she was circling him as she talked. A moment later she tossed a sheathed katana to him.

"If you are true samurai, then fight me!" She yelled running at him.

Before he could react she'd punched him, knocking him back several feet.

Damn can that woman punch! She truly is the mother of that villainous fiend!

"Pathetic, worthless, I should kill you right now. Then burn down your home with everyone still in it."

Kuno looked up, her face looked serious, he hadn't wanted to hurt her. Now this peasant woman who had dared intrude on his property so rudely had just threatened to kill him, and his family. She would have to die.

"You will find, peasant, that the great Tatewaki Kuno is not a foe to be taken lightly!" as he said this he charged, drawing his sword to cut her at the last moment as he'd seen in movies. The sword slashed through her body easily as if she weren't even there. His eyes widened as he realized she really wasn't there, "Up here!" she yelled, and he looked up just in time for the scabbard of her sword to collide with his nose, breaking it and causing blood to gush out of it.

He held his nose for a moment, glaring at her and blinking the tears out of his eyes.

"Futhin bith!" He shouted, letting go of his nose he charged in again, this time thrusting his sword forwardly repeatedly in very fast succession.

The woman seemed to know where his strikes would be before he even struck, even when he changed his pattern she just flowed right along with his movements. Finally, he used his strongest thrust move and shoved his sword through her chest. Again it went through as if she wasn't... there.

?!

She'd sidestepped, and in her sidestep she'd used the force to spin her body around, drawing her sword as she did so, the strike hitting Kuno squarely in the back of the head. Kuno felt a blunt impact on the back of his head and his world faded into blackness as she shouted "Hiten Mitsurugi style Ryukansen!"

**End Flashback

When he'd awoken she had made tea, then proceeded to speak with him, to great length and in excruciating detail. She explained everything, and had, not only pictures, but video.

He needed to meet that woman again. Nodoka Saotome.

When they got home Akane got a phone call right away from Yuka, Ranma took a bath, then went to his favorite spot.

Ranma stared at the stars and thought about how far Akane had progressed. She was becoming more and more amazing every day, he couldn't wait till she was his equal in skill. He felt that together, there was nothing they couldn't learn. Hell, he thought with a smile, she even taught me how to do math!

He felt Akane's Ki a moment before she joined him on the roof, when he turned to greet her she wrapped him in a hug pulling herself up snugly against him, her head on his chest.

"Thank you." She said and then kissed him chastely on the lips.

He raised an eyebrow in question at her, "Yuka told me about Ucchans, thank you. I can't imagine how tough that was. I know that you love Ukyo."

"As a sister" Ranma said.

"I know," Akane said, "I can understand why, you've known each other for a long time now. Will you be friends again?"

He sighed, "I don't know s.. sweetie," he said, nervously trying the endearment, "I hope so."

Changing the topic she said, "Diasuke and Yuka are dating now."

"That's good, I think they'll do well together." He replied, resting his chin on top of her head.

They stood like that, on the Tendo rooftop, holding each other and watching the stars. They saw a few shooting stars as they stood there, silent, just enjoying the closeness and presence of one another. When they finally parted to go to their respective rooms, they shared one more kiss, although this one was much deeper and more meaningful.

WARNING, the next part gets dark for a moment.

A shadow was creeping over Tokyo, drawing ever nearer to Nerima.

Under the Akihabara quarter of the Tokyo shopping district there was a large cavernous vault. Twelve people in dark hooded cloaks stood in a semi-circle around a large stone table, on top of which lay a young, scared looking girl.

Another figure wearing a pitch black cloak emerged from a room in the back, holding a large ritual book and a fancy looking ritual knife.

The girl started struggling against her bonds, tears streaming from her eyes, trying to scream through the gag in her mouth, with no success.

A deep voice came from the figure with holding the knife and book.

"Before us lies the descendant of Taira no Kiyomori. It is with her blood sacrifice, that we will restore Japan to the days of glory. The days of the samurai will rise again! When it is us, those who know what it's like to kill, and use any means necessary, who will be in charge."

With a vicious yank he tore the gag from the girls mouth who immediately started wailing in a high pitched voice as the rest of the cloaked figures started chanting an incantation.

As they chanted the man with the knife and sword paced around the table, when the chanting would pause he would read lines from the book. She could see that all the shadows in the room seemed to be drawing towards one another. The lights started flickering and the man lit the candles positioned around the room. The chanting increased speed and he slashed the knife across her belly, she screamed as loud as she could, but was ignored the chanting continuing. The man kept slashing her body and she kept screaming each time, but her strength was draining as the blood flowed out of her wounds. The table was now almost completely red, the blood forming into a pool on the floor which the shadows seemed to be drawn towards.

After what seemed like an eternity of him slashing at different body parts he was standing above her, looking her in the eyes, the last thing she saw was him lowering the blade to slash her throat open.

Warning over

Shampoo sat in her mothers tent in deep thought, the most recent missive she'd received from her grandmother had sent her into a rage. That had been a week ago, she'd tried to run off back to Tokyo, but Lin Lin and Lun Lun had caught her and brought her back. They'd gone through a lot of training after the Saffron incident and were now a couple of the best warriors in the village, regardless of their ages.

Now she had had time to think about everything, she'd come to a reluctant acceptance of defeat. Surprisingly as soon as she conceded defeat to herself it was pretty easy to get over Ranma. When she thought about it she realized that marrying Ranma would eventually make both Ranma and her.. miserable.

It was a bitter pill to swallow to realize that she'd been wrong this whole time. When she got back to Tokyo though, she would make things right, Ranma was now her brother. Akane now practically her sister by rites of tribal adoption. The tribes magic had accepted both of them, perhaps even it was the tribal magic that helped open her eyes. She'd been obsessed with the wrong person. The most confusing problem she had to deal with, was that more than anything else in the world, she missed Moose.

The next morning Akane woke up to a gentle knock on her door, she groaned as she sat up. The sun isn't even up yet!

Grumbling she got out of bed and walked to the door, her eyes softened slightly when she saw it was Ranma. He was fully dressed and looked ready to go for the day.

"What is it Ranma?" she asked yawning "How early is it?"

"This is the time Kasumi normally get's up to cook breakfast at," Ranma said with a smile, "this morning you'll be doing it."

Her eyes widened, "Is this a joke?"

"Nope, come on sleepy head. I told your sister to sleep in today. I'm gonna teach you to cook."

"How," she drawled tiredly, "do you plan to do that?"

"Put on your gi and meet me in the kitchen in five minutes." he said this in his Sensei voice.

Five minutes later they were in the kitchen, Ranma standing in the doorway motioned for her to begin.

She started moving around the kitchen grabbing pots and pans.

"Stop!"

She looked at him, eyes blazing with a moment of anger which she quickly stamped down.

"Do you know what you're making yet?"

She looked at the random assortment of pots and pans she grabbed and blushed.

"Let's try a western meal today, pancakes and omelettes." Ranma suggested.

"Mmm, okay!" Akane said enthusiastically, she loved pancakes.

Ranma made her do things very slowly, correcting her and having her take her time and line up her ingredients. She felt like a beginner learning a first kata, when she voiced this Ranma had encouraged the thought.

"Everything in life is martial arts." He said as he smiled at her.

Breakfast was later than usual, Kasumi and Ranma both kept it a secret who had cooked. But everyone enjoyed the meal, the pancakes were light and fluffy and the omelettes tasted wonderful, with ham, cheese, bell peppers, onion and tomato cooked into them. And when they finally revealed the secret and everyone complimented Akane on the wonderful meal, she smiled proudly with tears in her eyes. And she felt for the first time in a long time, like she could learn to be a good cook someday.

For the Tendo family the next couple of days flew by. Ranma and Akane had sat with the family and explained the plan to go train. They packed their bags and left with Cologne on a train headed to where only Cologne knew for now.

As the train pulled away from Nerima Akane and Ranma enjoyed each others company, talking sweetly to one another occasionally sneaking kisses when they thought Cologne wasn't looking.

Cologne finally informed them they were headed to a monastery owned by their tribe. They would be learning many styles there in the short time, including wing chun, Wushu, and a large variety of moves from the tribal martial arts.

Hope you guys enjoy the chapter. I will try to update soon.. Please R&R :)