Here's the much anticipated third chapter of the story. As stated before in my author's note, before I deleted it, I worked to make this one longer than the previous two chapters have been. It's not easy writing dialogue for characters, I must say. But here's hoping that you enjoy the chapter and the interactions of some of these characters before I shift the focus back to Ranma and his adventures.

*I still don't own Ranma ½ or Naruto!*

Sisters Arrange A Heart To Heart

"Daddy, are you sure we need to go all the way to China for our training trip? I mean, why can't we just go to the countryside here and train?" Akane asked.

Thanks to a little extra money that Nabiki had set aside for the purpose of this training trip, the Tendou entourage was taking a ship to China to start off Akane's 'advanced' training in the Tendou School Art of Anything Goes. Although, Nabiki herself doesn't really see the point in going all the way to China for just one month so Akane can train. It took Ranma upwards of ten plus years to get where he is now as a fighter. Hey, Nabiki may be a mercenary, but even she knows a talented fighter when she sees one. And Ranma is definitely a talented fighter.

That much was certain as Nabiki thought back to Ranma's previous fights against enemies like Ryoga Hibiki and Msu-Tsu, or Mousse as everyone calls him. Ryoga has serious raw power behind him which is cemented in the fact that he can swing a thousand pound umbrella around like it's a simple wooden baseball bat. But not only that, he can also harden the bandana on his head and somehow manipulate the fabric so that it becomes as hard as steel and sharp as a blade. Akane would know about that due to Ranma's first real encounter with Ryoga. The only thing that separates Ranma from Ryoga, besides the vast gap in their skill, is that Ryoga holds no concern for anyone who may end up potentially getting caught in the crossfire of one of his attacks. Her sister's now shorter hair is proof enough of that, along with several eyewitness accounts.

And Mousse? He's no slouch either.

He's not just strong physically, he's also got a plethora of weapons that he can literally pull out of his sleeves thanks to that Hidden Weapons technique. He's also one of the speedier fighters that keeps trying to kill Ranma. If not for his literal nearsightedness, Mousse may have actually killed Ranma in one of his earlier attacks. If he and Ryoga were ever to join forces to take Ranma down at his current level, then together they may be too much even for the heir of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts.

Anyway, getting back on track, despite Akane's growing irritation at having to travel so far just for training, their father remained surprisingly calm. Especially considering his youngest child's rather explosive temper.

"Because, daughter, we need to strengthen not only your skills as a fighter, but also your skills in wilderness survival." Soun said as he began to explain. "Think about how long Genma has been traveling through the wilderness with Ranma when they were on their own training trip. Not only did they spend their time learning how to fight, but also how to survive on their own in the wild."

Akane understood what her father was saying, but that didn't mean that she had to like it. This is the first time in many years that her father has given her any sort of martial arts training that didn't involve simply jogging, breaking bricks, or striking a training dummy. But even so, she's confident that she can learn enough of the advanced stuff to finally put that, in her words, 'gender-changing freak' Ranma, in his place. Which in her deluded mind is right beneath her feet. No, scratch that, below the dirt beneath her feet. No, no, no! Under the worms IN the dirt BENEATH her feet!

...Geez, this girl's got an ego that's probably big enough to blanket the entire state of Texas.

"What am I even going to be learning on this trip, anyway?" Akane asked.

"I'll tell you about it as soon as we board the ship to China." Genma said, waving a hand dismissively. "We're burning daylight as it is, and I'd like to get to China as soon as possible."

In truth, Genma was trying to save his own hide after he learned that his wife would be arriving at the dojo that same day. He overheard Nerima's resident ice cream shop owner having a phone call with Nodoka, and how it was made known that he and Ranma were staying with the Tendous. He quickly decided that the whole group should leave on a trip to China to further Akane's training in the Tendou style of Anything Goes martial arts, which was half his reason for leaving. He agreed with everyone that the girl needed to know more than just the basics if she wanted to get stronger as a martial artist.

But the bigger half of the reason was to save himself from being turned into a panda skin rug by his wife, right before she turned the rest of him into panda steaks, once she inevitably found out about his and the boy's curses. Of course, he could always pin the blame on his son and play the 'poor father raising a rebellious son' card, but knowing Nodoka, that likely wouldn't work. After all, she didn't want him to take Ranma on that training trip to learn the Anything Goes martial arts in the first place, and made him sign that wretched seppuku pledge as a stipulation when she finally gave in.

But that's why he convinced Ranma to place his handprint on there soon afterwards, convincing him it was just a piece of paper to fingerpaint on.

He figured it was best to have a contingency plan, knowing that Nodoka would never make him commit seppuku if Ranma had to do so as well. Overactive emotions are just one of the many weaknesses that Nodoka has. But those emotions can also be one of her greatest strengths. He's seen that firsthand. He still remembers when he and Nodoka were courting and some drunk fool started hitting on her and tried to grope her.

...He did not know that one could be turned into a living pretzel if they had bones.

Not until THAT DAY, at least.

So he did the wise thing from then on and tried to stay on her good side, while also inventing the Saotome School of Anything Goes 'Stance of the Crouching Tiger', should he end up making her angry beyond compare for whatever reason.

But at the back of the group, Kasumi stood by and watched as everyone spoke about training Kasumi to be as strong as Ranma in merely a month and even in her mind, she couldn't help but think that their plan is stupid and doomed to fail. Nobody could, realistically, get as strong as someone like Ranma in merely one month's time. It's just physically impossible. But unfortunately, her youngest sister's pride just wouldn't allow her to see logic in this situation. And the fact that Mister Saotome and her father keep adding fuel to that metaphorical fire isn't helping matters at all.

She didn't even want to be on this trip in the first place, but her father and Mister Saotome had insisted. Mainly so that they wouldn't have to be forced to choke down the toxic waste that Akane calls her cooking. Unfortunately, Akane inherited zero domestic skills from their mother's side of the family. Nabiki herself can cook, don't get her wrong, but it always tasted average compared to what Kasumi makes.

Besides, knowing Nabiki, she'd charge them for each grain of rice they consumed.

It's kind of her thing as a mercenary.

Now, Kasumi is by no means defenseless. No, no, no, that's not the case at all. On the contrary, she is a master at the Tendou Style of Anything Goes since, unlike Akane, Kasumi never stopped studying the art, even when her father had pretty much shut down after the death of their mother, and moved beyond the basics to teach herself how to become strong. Unlike Akane who stuck to a basic routine of breaking bricks, jogging, and hitting a training dummy.

So it's not so much that Kasumi can't fight. It's more along the lines that she doesn't like to fight. She's a pacifist by nature, and wants to heal people rather than hurt them. She'll fight if she absolutely has to, but with Ranma fighting every major battle, there's been no need for her to.

Kasumi's actually a little concerned that her skills in the art may have dulled since she last trained…

"A yen for your thoughts?"

Kasumi was startled out of her thoughts by her sister's question and saw that Nabiki was standing in front of her with her arms crossed under her chest. She wasn't in her ice queen persona as of yet, but she certainly looked suspicious. Kasumi just waved off her sister's suspicion.

"Oh, it's nothing you need to worry about, Nabiki. I'm just a little worried about how things will turn out back home with nobody on damage control." Kasumi said.

Fortunately for her, her sister seemed to buy the little fib and nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, it's got me worried, too. Ryoga and the other rivals really aren't ones for subtlety, especially Kuno." Nabiki said. "That's why I think you should go back to Nerima and keep an eye on things. If anything, Ranma will at least enjoy the friendly company. And I'm sure you'll more than enjoy his."

The sky smirk on Nabiki's face was enough to make Kasumi scratch the back of her head in a sheepish manner, a rather deep blush adorning her face.

"That obvious, huh?" she asked.

"What brought on these feelings for Ranma, anyway? I thought you had a thing for Doctor Tofuu." Nabiki inquired.

"At first I thought I did, too. But once we finally got a moment of peace from all of the constant fighting, what with the Nerima Wrecking Crew and the Fiancee Brigade, we took some time to sit down and talk about those feelings that we thought we had for each other. As the conversation went on, we quickly began to realize that our love for each other was more of a sibling love rather than romantic interest. So we agreed to remain as nothing more than friends." Kasumi explained.

Nabiki found herself listening intently to what her sister had been saying during her explanation and, while a little upset that she would lose a couple hundred yen on that bet, could actually understand how this happened given the circumstances. Hey, she may have a cold and calculating exterior as Nerima's resident ice queen, but she's always looking out for her family. She only became something of a yakuza style mob boss so that she could both afford to put food on the table, and pay off the house and the dojo, since her father stopped teaching students soon after their mother died and pretty much left them to fend for themselves.

The fact that Ranma himself has to eat a lot just to fuel his body as a martial artist doesn't really help in that regard. But the fact that his father is a gluttonous freeloader who actively tries to steal Ranma's food, which forces the boy to inhale his portion like a vacuum cleaner on overdrive, might have something to do with that.

Nabiki reached into her pocket and took out a small roll of yen from her personal stash and handed it to Kasumi, a knowing smirk on her face while her elder sister looked both shocked and confused. And for a good reason. In all the time that Kasumi has known her, Nabiki's never just given someone a monetary handout like this. Ever!

Not without there being strings attached, at least.

"Before you say anything, there's no catch." Nabiki said as though she'd read Kasumi's mind. "I want you to take this money and flag a cab back to Nerima. And use whatever's leftover for yourself."

"That's very generous of you, Nabiki, but why?" Kasumi asked. "You don't normally do things like this unless it benefits you in some way."

"For two reasons. One: you're right about there needing to be someone on damage control back home." Nabiki said.

"True." Kasumi relented with a nod.

"And two: to help you. I've seen the way you look at Ranma when you think nobody's looking, and I know that look well. You regret having pushed the engagement onto Akane like you did. To be honest, I regret doing so, too. But it was so overwhelming, especially when we learned about his curse, that I was scared. Scared of what could happen during our relationship, how our fathers would plan to use our future children for their own benefit, and don't even get me started on the other crazy strong fiancees that Ranma was engaged to by that stupid panda!" Nabiki explained.

Kasumi couldn't fault her sister for any of those reasons, especially not the last one. She knows better than anyone that Nabiki is more of a thinker than a fighter, and would be in constant danger if she and Ranma got married. They both learned that the hard way when the engagement was temporarily switched over to Nabiki.

And, to be honest, she truly does regret being so rash in her decision to push the engagement onto her younger sister like she did. Nabiki put the yen into her sister's hand before giving her a hug goodbye, knowing that she'd need to go to China with Genma and their father in order to keep the two dodos in line.

"Go on, and hurry back to Nerima. I'll keep them distracted." Nabiki said.

Kasumi nodded and went to go flag a taxi in order to get home, sending her sister a silent thank you.

***To Be Continued…***

Not exactly the five thousand word goal I had set for myself, but I hope you guys like it. Now, I'm going to take the holidays off from writing in order to rest my brain. So please don't forget to leave a review of you want to, and have yourselves a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!