I'm not happy with this chapter and the quality might reflect that. I also realized I never described what Naruto looks like in this story either. I'm gonna edit the previous chapter sometime later but he looks exactly how he does in Konoha Gakuen. I wanted to get this out due to the new trailer of the Ranma remake. How sick is that? We're finally getting Ranma back into mainstream consciousness. It's a shame about the scarlet red hair and purple mascara that literally ingrained Ranma's design in my brain but at least with Studio MAPPA animating everything we're gonna have epic fight scenes. That trailer animation of Ranma twirling in the air during the Kodachi fight looks amazing.
Akane stood in place, dumbfounded with her sisters and Happosai.
It was hard to believe that Ranma was fervently hugging Naruto right in front of them. It was made weirder since the pigtailed teen was currently male, squeezing the blond like a life preserver.
Though the situation felt alien to them, the blond seemed all too happy to reciprocate the hug. There was no judgment, confusion, or befuddlement, just happiness.
"Okay that's enough!" yelled Akane. She couldn't stand it anymore, be it the awkwardness of the silence or the weirdness of two men hugging intimately.
She saw enough of that from her father and Genma as it is.
The blunette stepped in-between the two and separated them, her palm on their chests.
"A-Akane?"
The pigtailed teen looked around as familiarity and recognition sparked in her eyes.
"Am I back at the dojo? What happened? Why are father and Soun-ojisama lying on the floor?" She said demurely. But it felt incredibly off hearing such a formal and passive tone coming out of Ranma's body.
"Stop talking like that!" Akane yelled, making Ranma flinch in response. The pigtailed teen's hand shyly covered her mouth as she gave her fiancee a look of hurt.
Akane recoiled a bit, already regretting her harsh words. Ranma had already run off once before, there was no need to make her run a second time. Before she could utter an apology, Naruto stepped in front of Ranma, his left arm held in front of her, shielding her from the blunette.
"Apologize."
The frigid glare directed at her made Akane shudder.
Before anything more could occur, a hand on the blond's shoulder made him pause. Naruto turned to look at Ranma who just pleaded with him through her eyes. The pout on boy-Ranma was still off-putting but it was enough as it made Naruto sigh and relent.
Eyebrows still furrowed, he clicked his tongue and looked away as Ranma stepped forward to address those still conscious. Before she uttered a word, she seemed to recognize something amiss and instead jogged to the pond, jumping over her father and Soun. Quickly splashing herself with water.
The change was immediate, in the place of the muscular boy with black hair stood a petite redhead. She quickly made her way back to her original position in front of Naruto. Though her mannerisms were the same, they better fit her new form. The way she expressed herself seemed more natural, almost like she was slipping into a better fitting shoe.
"I'm sorry for the trouble we've caused everyone, but I'm glad I got to see you again." She said with a bow.
She turned to Naruto who gave her a pointed look of concern and she nodded in silent acknowledgement.
"I know it's sudden, but we must take our leave. It was nice to see you all again, Akane-san, Kasumi-neechan, Nabiki-san, and Happosai-ojiisama."
"Y-you can't!" Akane blurted out, surprising the redhead.
"Akane-san…"
As the two had their moment, Naruto silently surveyed everyone's reactions.
Disbelief, dismay, surprise, confusion.
In the two months he had known Ranma she had never mentioned her life before she met him.
He knew that something was amiss of course. No one as sweet as Ranma would've been left alone like she was when they first met. A girl without a home, friends, or even money. Nothing but her clothes and backpack accompanied her to Konoha.
It wasn't his place to ask, but at times he had seen a wistful expression pass Ranma's face when certain topics were brought up. From shopping for groceries to french cuisine, Ranma would always space out in thought until he called out to her. Despite seeing that her secret was eating away at her, Naruto gave the redhead the space she needed, distracting her with his home and all that it provided.
If she wanted to tell him then she would've, in time.
But from what he saw of her hometown Naruto was unimpressed, or more specifically, he wasn't happy.
Rescuing Ranma from not one, not two, not even three, but seven assailants, one of them being her "fiancee" of all things was more than eye-opening. Even worse is that all of them were trained martial artists. They should know better than to gang up on one person. It's one thing to corner an enemy, but another to corner Ranma.
After he laid them all out and Ranma had fainted in his arms, the brown haired sister, "Nabiki" he later found out, politely asked him to gather her sister and bring them both to her home. Advising that Ranma could rest while they talked. She had explained a bit of the situation on the way to their dojo/home, but only fed him the bare minimum of what he wanted to know.
She was a crafty one. And although he was tempted to abscond with the pigtailed teen, curiosity had won out and he decided that a talk would have not only cleared the air, but explained a bit of Ranma's circumstances.
Which brought them to now.
An amnesiac Ranma with a hometown that had more enemies than friends.
A bald, fat, fool of a father that saw no problem in manhandling their child along with his complicit idiot in crime.
An aggravated woman of a fiancee with a shrewd conniving older sister, and a passive irresponsible eldest sister.
And last, a diminutive gnome with more perverted energy than his late godfather.
It was a mistake to sate his curiosity. There was no way he'd let Ranma-chan stay here any longer than necessary, and now that she had gotten back her lost memories the sooner they could leave this place the better.
Back to the scene before him, he could tell the youngest Tendo sister was getting desperate.
He saw the hesitation in the redhead's eyes when she saw the fear in her fiancee's. Despite not knowing Akane for long, he knew that both she and Ranma-chan cared for each other. She was scared Ranma would leave again, and Ranma-chan was concerned for her aggressively angry blunette "friend."
Psyching herself up, Ranma-chan placed a hand on her chest and took a deep, calming breath.
"Akane-san, I know you don't want to hear this but the male Ranma you knew is gone."
The fear in Akane's eyes was replaced with a haunting realization, she took a step back as if she were slapped in the face as Ranma-chan continued.
"I understand what you're trying to say but I'm a woman, and I'm happy with Naruto."
It almost looked like Akane was using every ounce of her strength to stay standing as she slowly wobbled over to the redhead.
As the youngest Tendo reached her, she placed her hands on the smaller girl's shoulders and came face to face with her wayward fiance, tears barely containing themselves in her eyes.
"Ranma please! This isn't who you are! Please… Just turn back into that stubborn insensitive jerk…! This nice, sweet person isn't you!"
Her legs finally caved and she collapsed to her knees, still holding onto Ranma by her wrists, clinging to them like they were the last connection they shared.
"If you stay a girl, then who am I going to…" She left the words hanging. The rest of her family had stared in silence, never seeing her this vulnerable before.
Kasumi looked panicked, she felt that this was too intimate of a moment to be seen by everyone. Happosai was still deep in thought, although he too understood how important this was. Nabiki looked as concerned as she could be, although to anyone else it would've looked like it was just an intense stare.
Ranma-chan bent down and placed her hands on Akane's shoulders as carefully as she could, a gentle touch would be best to soften the blow. When the youngest Tendo looked up at her, the redhead could clearly see the tears streaming down her face.
Akane instead saw her soon to be ex-fiance look at her with care and compassion in her deep blue eyes, something she would have never thought possible given the macho jerk he used to be.
Ranma-chan gave her a sad smile.
"Please, be happy without me Akane."
.
.
.
As devastating a statement like that would have been to anyone else, Akane's face morphed from disbelief to frustrated anger.
"Y-you…! IDIOOOT!" Blinded by rage, Akane grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be the upturned dining table, and picked it up by the leg.
Swinging it in an enhanced haymaker, everyone watched as Ranma quickly evaded the long makeshift weapon with a girlish shriek.
However, when Akane swung again Naruto appeared in front of her. Holding the defensive redhead in his left arm and quickly used his right forearm to block the blow.
Expecting to see a flying blond teenager in Low Earth Orbit propelled by their dinnerware, everyone instead saw that the table had shattered where it connected with Naruto's forearm.
The glare Naruto had given Akane before had come back full force, yet it also had a tinge of disappointment.
Still high off her anger, the blunette had tried to punch the blond. Big mistake.
Naruto had caught her by the wrist and squeezed.
"AH!" Akane quickly lost her momentum and collapsed to the floor, doing her best to pry off his hand.
"Akane!" Her sisters shouted, rushing to try and help, but a snarl from Naruto kept them from moving any further.
"I don't know who you think you are, but I won't stand by as you assault Ranma-chan!"
A harder squeeze. Akane was visibly, and audibly, crying in pain but Naruto didn't care. He knew he was hurting her but this needed to be done. Obviously this family was enabling her bad behavior, why else would they be quick to help their sister instead of stopping her assault? He had never seen a more irresponsible group of people.
A hard object struck him on the wrist which made him release the short-haired blunette. As she cradled her arm, a clear red handprint had already formed. She was supported by her sisters as Happosai stood as tall as he could with his pipe pointing straight at the blond, as if imitating a knight brandishing his sword.
"You'd do well to treat ladies with respect, boy!" He lectured, waving his pipe side to side. It would've felt more genuine or intimidating had the man not stood at a good 2 feet tall.
The blue-eyed blond scoffed, unperturbed at Happosai's attempt at admonishment.
"Respect? You show me where the respect was when she was throwing that table around!" He argued back. He glared past the old man back to a fearful Akane, her own anger cowed by his rage.
"I don't care if she is a lady! If she ever touches Ranma-chan again, I'll slug her with all I've got!"
The blond bared his teeth at her, and the ire of his anger could have imagined it, but she swore that for a moment his eyes had changed shape.
"Naruto…"
The redhead in his arms had gingerly touched his chest to get his attention.
As he looked down at her she pleaded with him yet again with her eyes as she shook her head side to side. She didn't need to say anything, he understood what she wanted.
Forgive them
Frustrated, the blond looked back and forth at giving the Tendos their just desserts or acquiescing to Ranma-chan's request.
Damn it. He couldn't say no to those baby blue eyes of hers!
Sighing in defeat, Naruto relaxed his posture and let Ranma stand on her own.
"You guys better count every lucky star you have that Ranma doesn't hate you. I came here hoping that whatever home she left wasn't as bad as she thought, but I could've never believed you guys are even worse than whatever I could've imagined."
Akane winced, and it wasn't because of the bruise on her wrist.
"I'm gonna wait for you outside Ranma-chan, you all better not try anything." With one last glare, Naruto left the room.
Ranma's gaze lingered on where the blond exited with a fond smile on her face.
"I apologize, I know Naruto seems scary but really he's just overprotective. Please excuse his behavior." She said with a polite bow.
"Overprotective? He almost crushed Akane's wrist!" Nabiki said on behalf of her sister.
"I'm just glad he didn't break her jaw, Naruto really likes punching people." She said with a smile, unnerving the Tendo sisters.
"Ranma-chan, don't you think Naruto-san might be a bit too forceful?" Kasumi queried out of concern for the redhead and for the injured half of their family.
The pigtailed teen just laughed with a fanning of her hand in dismissal, "That's what I said too, but everyone else said that whoever Naruto hit '100% deserved it'."
All three sisters couldn't help but sweatdrop.
"...Wait, everyone else?" The middle sister asked.
"Oh yes! Everybody in Konoha! Naruto-kun has many friends and they're all very nice. Hyuuga-san would be fast friends with you Kasumi-neechan! And Nara-san might just be smarter than you Nabiki-san." Ranma gushed.
"And these people don't have a problem with Naruto?" the short haired girl asked again.
"Oh no, not at all! Everyone loves Naruto! He's so sweet and caring, there's not a soul in Konoha that could ever hate him." The redhead praised.
The two sisters shared a look of unified disbelief, Nabiki with her arms crossed while Kasumi had her hand to her mouth. The transformed teen was oblivious to their unsaid conversation.
"Ranma, I'm telling you this for your own good. Naruto is dangerous, are you sure you want to be with him like that?" She said gesturing to the pigtailed teen's whole body.
"...?"
"What she means Ranma-kun is that… Naruto may be a bit too forceful when it comes to certain things." Kasumi tried to stress out.
"Oh… OH! You two are quite naughty! I'll have you know that Naruto-kun is very gentle to me!" The redhead said, covering her blushing face with her hands.
At this point Ranma couldn't help but squirm as she thought of the romantic moments she shared with her boyfriend.
While she stood there embarrassed, the older sisters gave each other a look.
"We're just… concerned that his intentions may be impure." Kasumi carefully said.
"Yeah. And besides, aren't you supposed to be all macho? Like, "I ain't kissin boys!" or something like that?" Nabiki chimed in.
Ranma played with her hands a little as she reminisced about something, probably concerning the blond.
"Naruto-kun isn't like that. He's compassionate, understanding, and loves me."
There was a beat of silence as all three sisters (Happosai included) listened to the almost reverent tone she had when she spoke of her boyfriend.
Everyone that wasn't a redhead huddled up together.
"She's clearly delusional." Nabiki flatly stated.
"Maybe she's been brainwashed! She can't even remember who she is anymore!" Akane harshly whispered.
"Perhaps she really is in love. She looks so happy when she's talking about Naruto-san." Kasumi figured.
The other two sisters stared at the eldest with a deadpan stare. There was no way there wasn't anything sketchy going on.
Just then they heard Happosai clearing his throat to grab their attention.
"Girls, girls, girls! You're all wrong! This is much more serious than you might think."
Happosai's serious tone and demeanor made Akane sweat a bit in anxiety. Even Nabiki was taken slightly aback. Both slightly leaned inwards toward the man to listen to his explanation.
"This is clearly an attempt from Ranma to make me jealous-"
Anything more that could've been said was rendered moot as Akane and Nabiki angrily punted the small man into the stratosphere.
The three girls looked back at Ranma who merely stood there with a peaceful smile on her face.
Due to the awkward tension amongst the siblings and the redhead, Akane subconsciously rubbed her wrist and felt a lance of pain for forgetting her injury.
"Oh! Akane, let me get some ice for that." As Kasumi left to get some first aid supplies, the remaining two sisters huddled in for a whispered chat.
"What are we going to do Nabiki?"
"I don't think there's much we can do at this point. Let's face it, macho-man over there isn't himself right now, and I think the best thing to do is to let blondie outside take him back for a bit."
Nabiki held up a hand to prematurely stop her sister's vehement refusal.
"Let me finish. When Ranma came back, he didn't even remember this Naruto guy at all right?"
An affirmative nod was made.
"We both know that Ranma isn't that touchy-feely girl over there so he's gotta be in that noggin of hers somewhere. We just have to draw him out somehow. Kinda like what he did to you in that shiatsu shampoo fiasco."
Akane grew red in the face as she remembered what Ranma had said to make her remember who he was.
"No Akane, hurling insults is just going to drive her away. Does that look like something you can insult?"
Nabiki pointed at a still politely smiling Ranma who was still waiting for them to finish their conversation.
What an angel.
Looking at the smiling and affectionate girl across from her, Akane had let out a sigh in reluctant defeat.
"...No…" She begrudgingly admitted. She might not like this girly girl Ranma, but badmouthing her instead of the Ranma she knew didn't feel right.
"So let's just let Ranma stay with Naruto for now. His memories came back once right? Why wouldn't it happen again?"
"But what if it doesn't? What if he stays like this forever?"
"Don't worry, I already called in backup to speed up the process."
Nabiki clasped both of her hands together.
"Well Ranma, we're both so sad to see you go, but if your heart really belongs to Naruto…"
"Oh it does!"
The cheerful look of love on the redhead's face tore Akane up inside. As much as she didn't want Ranma to leave with that stranger, she had never really known Nabiki to come up with a half-baked plan.
"Oh, are you leaving Ranma-chan?"
Kasumi had just gotten back with an ice pack for Akane.
"I wish you didn't have to leave so soon. Akane was so worried about you the entire time you were gone."
The blunette had grown red in the face having been called out like that. She wished her Ranma had been the one to hear it and not this… fake.
"Oh don't worry about that Kasumi-neechan, I'll make sure to visit as often as I can."
"Be sure to write." Nabiki said passively. Akane glared at her sister, where was this supposed "backup" at?!
*BOOM!*
A loud explosion rocked the house.
"That's from outside!" Ranma quickly left with Kasumi to see what happened.
Akane sent a worried look to Nabiki who left her alone with a knowing smile.
Multiple impacts and explosions could be heard by the time Akane and Nabiki arrived on the scene.
What was supposed to be the front entrance of the Tendo household was instead a battlefield.
It looked like a war was being fought right at their front door. Craters had littered the ground as well as scattered plants, torn up and ruined pavement, and what remained of their bamboo fence that led straight to the courtyard.
Kasumi and Ranma had similar looks of shock as they saw more explosions from what was clearly Happosai's "Happo-fire Burst" attacks.
"Hey, quit it! You're ruining their yard!" Naruto yelled as he nimbly dodged the volatile projectiles.
"After what you did to my silky darlings!? Never! I won't stop until you're blown to smithereens you thug!" The diminutive man had tears in his eyes as he loaded up another volley. Whatever the blond did angered the man enough that he had a full sack of combustibles just for him.
"Even my late Godfather knew when to stop before going too far! He was perverted but he never stooped so low as to steal underwear!"
Every girl within earshot sweatdropped at the info.
"Shampoo! Quickly now, while his attention is on Happy!"
"Yes Great-Grandmother!"
A woman(?) that looked EXACTLY like Happosai with long silky white hair, minus a mustache, was running parallel to Naruto with the purple-haired girl running on the opposite side of him.
It was an amazing sight. A 3v1 martial arts fight against Naruto's favor with two of the three being grandmasters.
Happosai had taken to carpet bombing their home with firecrackers, practically doing strafe runs as Naruto did his best to dodge the bomb blasts.
Meanwhile, Cologne and Shampoo tried to clothesline the blond, launching fast attacks from both sides of him that were either parried or blocked. As soon as they were fended off, Happosai went in for another run of bombs.
"This was your plan!? The Amazons?!" Akane yelled at her sister, a little in part due to shock but mostly because the explosions Happosai kept creating were almost deafening. Luckily Ranma wasn't able to hear due to how loud the fight was.
"Look, you saw- no wait, felt, what that Naruto guy is capable of. He knocked around all the usual idiots in less than a second, anything less than the old coots won't make him sweat. With Cologne and Happosai working together, even blondie will have some trouble."
While Akane couldn't fault her logic... "Did you HAVE to make them fight at the house!?"
Nonplussed, Nabiki retorted, "I didn't think they'd get here that fast, and besides, did you really want Ranma to leave?"
Akane wisely shut up and looked on towards the fight. Her excitement as a martial artist witnessing such an event was met with mixed feelings of jealousy and anxiety.
To the average viewer, it was incredible. Punches and kicks were thrown at speeds Akane could barely follow. Happosai had taken to be air support while Cologne pressured the blond with Shampoo there to assist.
Naruto was doing remarkably well considering who his opponents were.
'He's so fast… I think he's even faster than Ranma!'
Akane took the opportunity to observe Naruto's fighting style, having only ever felt it for a brief second before she had been knocked out. From what she could see, it wasn't anything special.
Though she wouldn't admit it aloud, her expertise in martial arts was the lowest out of all the other main players in Nerima, even, (much to her chagrin) upper-classman Kuno. But even then, she could see that the way the blond fought was wildly unrefined, and crude. His techniques showed many openings, overextensions, and even a lack of proper focus.
Was he… not a martial artist?
Despite his rudimentary technique, his physical abilities were phenomenal. He was somehow able to keep up with Cologne who didn't look to be playing around in the slightest. In fact, aside from her fights with Happosai and Ranma's neko-ken form, Akane had never seen the elder Amazon so frustrated.
Shampoo on the other hand was such a non-factor to the blond that she wasn't even registered as a threat, his main focus was kept on the Chinese grandmaster.
"Hmph!" With a grunt of exertion Cologne launched her attack. The staff wielding woman wasn't like the other fighters in the ward, she didn't feel the need to call out her techniques unless it was to gloat about their superiority. So launching an amaguriken at the blond should have been something like a surprise attack given its deadly speed. Unfortunately for her, she had widened her already massive eyes to the size of dinner plates as the teen somehow parried her attempts to disable him.
"Did he just defend himself from the amaguriken?!" Akane yelled aloud, and the others were shocked as well. The only one to be able to successfully defend themselves against an amaguriken was another amaguriken user. Namely Ranma of course, and even he would've been hard pressed to defend against all the attacks against a serious Cologne.
"That was fast old lady! Could've given Neji's trigram thingy a run for its money!" Naruto complimented. However, no one expected the 300 year old grandma to have looked so surprised.
"What did you-"
Naruto took the opening she gave and grabbed her silk gown, throwing her into her granddaughter as both Amazons were launched into the Tendo's outer wall.
Before they even had a chance to bounce off the wall, the blond closed the distance in an amazing display of speed and punched the both of them so hard the wall had shattered and both girls had been sent rolling into the street.
"Take this!" Not wanting to be forgotten, Happosai gleefully laughed as he launched another bomb at the blond who did nothing to move.
"Naruto!" Ranma-chan cried out in worry.
Instead of dodging, this time Naruto actually caught it with a single hand.
"You can have this back you perv!" In perfect form for a professional baseball player, Naruto had thrown the firecracker back at its creator at almost twice the speed.
Happosai had flailed around right before getting hit in the face with his beloved technique, being sent even further into the air before exploding in a beautiful display of lights.
With the front of the Tendo house in shambles, Naruto dusted off his hands and began to walk back to the others, not caring to see how Happosai fell through their dojo roof.
"Sorry! Did I keep ya waiting long Ranma-chan?"
Ranma shook her head and just went in for a hug that the blond was all too eager to reciprocate.
Meanwhile, all three Tendo sisters couldn't help but hang their jaws open, although Akane and Nabiki were the ones that almost had theirs on the floor.
Could anyone blame them? Before today, Happosai and Cologne were previously thought to be practically invincible when they were serious. Ranma's ass-pull wins aside, no one was able to stand toe to toe with either of them and come out as unscathed as Naruto had.
Akane was getting ever more worried that she was going to lose Ranma to this admittedly powerful teen. Even on the off chance he was an asshole that tricked Ranma, there wasn't anything she could do. How could she stop him if both grandmasters couldn't?
"Are you ready to go?"
No… Don't go…!
A happy nod in affirmation.
"Alright, let's go! Tsunade-baachan should be waiting for us back home."
They walked side by side, Ranma with a little more pep in her step than Akane would have wanted.
Was this it?
Was this how she lost Ranma?
She looked at Kasumi who looked at her with pity.
She glanced at Nabiki who shrugged and shook her head.
This couldn't be how it ended…!
"Ranma-!"
"HOW DARE YOU!?"
As if her prayers were answered, an obstacle suddenly popped up in front of the happy couple. An angry Mousse had stood directly in front of the entrance to their dojo blocking Naruto and Ranma.
Something was wrong with the spectacled teen however, the short-haired blunette had never seen him this upset before. The master of hidden weapons had suddenly unleashed his fighting aura, an angry red had covered the teen from head to toe and Akane could even see his eyes glaring pure hate from behind his thick glasses.
"Saotome, this time you have gone too far…! How dare you hurt my Shampoo like this!"
Akane quickly glanced over to the purple haired Amazon who had been propped up on one of the neighbor's walls in a sitting position. Cologne, however, was still lying down in the middle of the street.
'Guess we know how he feels about Cologne.' Akane offhandedly thought.
Naruto had stepped forward and placed a protective arm in front of Ranma.
"Hey pal, she has nothing to do with this! I'm the one that did that." The blond asserted, and like a switch Mousse had turned his attention to the coat wearing blond.
"You…? You're the one from earlier…!" Mousse's eyes widened in recognition as he recalled how, just an hour prior, he had been knocked out next to the other Nerima fighters by some unknown fighter.
He began to chuckle, a creepy mirthless laugh that reminded Akane of that time Ryoga had first learned of the Shishi Hokodan.
"I see…! In that case, both of you can go to hell!"
They didn't know where he hid it, but Mousse had spawned the largest bomb any of them had ever seen from the space in his sleeves. It looked oddly cartoonish, being a hulking sphere of metal, but that didn't diminish the threat it posed.
In the back of her mind, Akane thought the device looked familiar, but she didn't have the time to properly remember as Mousse had thrown the explosive as easily as Happosai did his firecrackers.
It landed directly in front of them and was so heavy it caused all of them to jump a little. It even cracked the remaining bits of stone in their walkway that wasn't destroyed by Happosai.
A loud beeping noise could be heard, and with acute sight, one could see a red digital display counting down.
5
Naruto quickly moved Ranma behind him.
4
Akane reached out for Ranma.
3
Naruto pulled something out of his pocket.
2
Akane held Ranma close while the redhead worriedly looked on at Naruto
1
.
.
.
"RASENGAN!"
A high-pitched whine could be heard as something impacted the bomb.
Whatever was making the shrill noise had also created an absurd amount of wind. So much so that Ranma's pigtail began to flail around wildly and the Tendo sisters had to make sure their skirts didn't get flipped up in the crosswinds.
"What!?"
Mouse couldn't believe his horribly astigmatism ridden eyes as he saw his bomb suddenly get lifted and start flying towards him.
Try as he might, Mousse couldn't escape the same fate that befell Happosai and blew up in a spectacular fashion.
The shockwaves from the explosion were so great they had lifted Akane and her sisters off their feet.
"Good riddance."
Naruto held his right hand up and yanked something into his palm with a loud *SMACK*.
From where she was standing, Akane could barely see what it was. It looked to be a circular object with an odd picture of what appeared to be a younger Naruto giving a cocky smirk.
'A yo-yo…? It's so ugly!'
Taking her attention off of Naruto's odd weapon of choice, Akane took a look at Ranma and saw that the redhead was completely unconscious.
"Ah..Ranma!" "Ranma-chan!"
Naruto seemed to notice Ranma's condition as fast as she did and immediately came over to see what exactly was wrong.
"Ranma-chan? Ranma-chan! What's wrong with her?" Naruto asked aloud. The sisters looked at each other before Kasumi gently took Ranma from Akane's hands, performing an initial inspection for any injuries.
Despite the urgency of the situation, Akane had recognized how worried the blond was for the redhead. The confidence had been stripped away from him as he frantically looked over the unconscious martial artist.
"We need to take him to Doctor Tofu's!"
"Yes I think that's the best thing to do. I can't seem to find anything wrong with Ranma-kun." The eldest Tendo agreed.
Hoisting the teen onto her back, Akane began to make the trek before she was stopped by Naruto.
"Oh no you don't! I meant what I said earlier! Ranma-chan and I are leaving this place! Besides, the best doctor I know is my granny and I can guarantee she's better than this "Tofu" guy."
Akane furrowed her brow in anger.
"Just stop it will you!? Fine! I admit I don't wanna hand Ranma over to you but this is serious! So what if your Grandmother is better, how long is it going to take to get Ranma help? This might be serious and we need to be quick! So are you going to get out of the way or what!?"
Huffing in anger, Akane stepped past the blond who stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.
"What did I just say-!"
"You're right."
"I-... What?" The blunette did a double take just to make sure she didn't hear wrong.
"I said you're right. Ranma-chan needs help, and despite how much this place sucks, I trust that you don't want her to be hurt any more than she already is."
Akane was speechless. She and Naruto had been butting heads since he had arrived in Nerima, but now he looked as if he was trusting her with his life. His demeanor showed he had the utmost confidence in her at the moment, and knowing that felt… weird, for lack of a better word.
Even Kasumi and Nabiki felt how strange it was given his earlier animosity towards them. It seems that despite how invincible this stranger was to them, his one weakness was Ranma.
"Do you need help carrying her?"
Akane shook her head.
"No, she's actually pretty light. But would you mind grabbing Shampoo and Cologne? I think we should get them looked at too."
Naruto nodded and quickly gathered the Amazon women.
"You're a lot more considerate than you look."
It was a somewhat backhanded compliment but Akane took it.
What about the old guy and that other asshat?"
A stern look of "Really?" was the answer to that question.
"I meant your dads." Naruto responded with a flat stare.
"Oh!... I think they'll be fine." To be fair, the dynamic dumbasses had it coming and they bounced back from worse.
With a nod, they all set out to Doc Tofu's clinic.
Meanwhile
"What do you mean you can't find them!?" An angry voice yelled over the phone.
"That idiot isn't my responsibility! Besides, they're probably just being a nuisance to everyone with their P.D.A." Came an annoyed response.
"Do I sense some jealousy in that comment?" A snide voice teased.
"Naruto-kun isn't the type to do that!"
"I agree! Naruto-kun does not use technology the way Yamanaka-san does!"
"Different kind of P.D.A. Lee…"
"Do we have any idea where they are?" A cool voice asked.
"I'm already on it, my sources will find them soon."
"Always on top of things aren't you Uchiha-san?"
"If the Uchiha's are on the case then we don't need to worry about anything! Besides, Naruto can take care of anything that comes their way."
"Just let me go! Akamaru and I will sniff them out faster than Neji and Sasuke could! Hell, even Shino would be better than that asshat's "resources."
"Everyone calm down. We need to figure out what we're gonna do when they get back."
Author's Note
That's right, the Konoha people are gonna be in this story. Don't worry though, it'll be a while till they have an actual impact in the story or Nerima. In the meantime I'm gonna flesh out the relationships between Naruto, Ranma, and the rest of the ward.
With that out of the way, I just wanna explain here that this is not a story about pushing any kind of agenda. Nor is it supposed to be a commentary on anything. I LOVE genderbender comedies because of Ranma, and I hate anything that curves it into being something serious with a reflection on current society. Even worse is when it completely bastardizes a character I love all for the sake of an agenda. This chapter is the first and last time we're gonna see this heavy handed "I'm now a woman" speech which was ripped right from the anime, so don't worry about me using it for anything more than this.
This story was inspired in part by the manga Futaba-kun Change! the fanfiction Having a Wild Time by Vahn and the other fanfic Final Approach Ranma by Trimatter. I wanted to make a story that incorporated elements of all three works. The last couple arcs of Futaba-kun Change, the relationship dynamic of Having a Wild Time, and the interpersonal connections of Final Approach Ranma.
Also, to Agurra of Darkness, I never specified that it was a male Ranma that Naruto kissed. Also, I'm definitely not gonna go with the twin route. I hate that trope. In my mind, "Ranma is Ranma" and having his personality split in half does not make the character Ranma. this will make more sense as I write more of this story.
Just know that I hate stories that take liberties with gender-changing and remove it completely. To me, that's bad writing. I can't read Vimesenthusiast's "Ranma" stories because of that. Whoever that character they're writing is, it's DEFINITELY not Ranma.
With that being said, I have a specific idea for Naruto in this story and some of you might realize what I'm doing as I write more and more. Just note that this is an AU Naruto and if you think I'm making him way too strong, that's the idea. Naruto is already done with his personal journey and it's like suddenly getting a lvl 99 character early on in a game. Don't worry though, I'm gonna hopefully write it so he doesn't just solve everything by himself.
Anyways I hope you like the shorter chapter and I'm sorry for the wait. I don't have any excuses but just know I'm still working on all the stories I'm writing. I even have another purely Ranma fic backlogged, you'll probably see that one soon. It's my spin on Weebee's Character Reconstruction and hopefully you'll like it.
Anyway, sorry for the long author's note, but I hope you're somewhat happy with this chapter. Let me know what you think and tell me if there's anything confusing or if there are any typos.
-Aergaia