Ranma and his friends were created by Rumiko Takahashi. Naruto and his friends were created by Masashi Kishimoto. This is fan fiction created for fun.

Author's Note: I anticipate this being a longer-term project like The Vulpine Rabbit rather than a short story like The Missing Bijuu or There and Back Again. The characters will end up in Nerima first before heading to Konoha.

Edited 2016-01-26: I've changed Ranma's age to 15 so the group ends up at the same school as Kunou.

Fourteen-year-old Uzumaki Naruto was trudging along behind his sensei, Jiraiya the Toad Sage, through the mountains in a place called China. They had gone quite far inland. He could hardly imagine that they were still in the same country. This China must be bigger than all the Elemental Nations combined. They were about a year into their projected three-year training journey. Jiraiya had thought it was a good idea to spy on the International Kunoichi Association's hot springs party. A group of kunoichi with a star inside a circle with some lines connecting the two on their hitai ate [forehead protector—a metal plate that has the village symbol on it] had been especially persistent in chasing them. Jiraiya had been closed lipped about them other than saying they were from Nadeshiko Village. They had taken it easy after passing through the border that surrounded the Elemental Nations, which protected them from the outside world, but the kunoichi kept pursuing them. So they had gone inland.

"Why are we still heading inland?" he complained. "Surely they've given up by now."

"Why does it matter?" his sensei responded. "You don't have any place to be for another two years."

"I thought that the reason you couldn't train me in Konoha was that you had to keep up your spy network? How are you doing that all the way out here?"

The Toad Sage chuckled sheepishly. "Couldn't have counted on those foul-tempered Nadeshiko kunoichi."

"Really? They looked like they knew you."

They continued walking. "Hey when are you going to teach me another awesome technique? You haven't taught me one since the Rasengan [Spiraling Sphere] and that was before the training trip."

"I've told you before, Naruto. You need to get the basics down first. After that the next priority is teaching you to use the Kyuubi's [Nine Tails] chakra."

The blonde teenager pouted. "Ah man, aren't my taijutsu [body techniques, i.e., martial arts] and chakra control good enough yet?"

"Your taijutsu has improved greatly. It's probably chuunin [middle ninja] rank now. As for your chakra control, it would also be chuunin level too, if you had the chakra reserves of a normal chuunin. As it is with your huge reserves, you are almost at the effective chakra control of a fresh genin. [low ninja] When you can do a Rasengan one-handed, then we'll move on to teaching you new techniques."

They came up over the ridge and saw a valley filled with many little ponds with bamboo shoots sticking out of them. There were narrow spaces to walk between the ponds. A hut stood some distance from where the ponds ended.

"Why are we here again, Pop?" asked 15-year-old Saotome Ranma. They had just arrived at the outskirts of the Jusenkyo [Pools of Sorrow] Valley.

"This is a legendary training ground, Boy!" his father Saotome Genma proclaimed. "Quit whining like a girl."

"I thought we were going to see that guy in Hong Kong?" asked Ranma.

"Well, you see. . ." his father weaseled. "This place was closer."

"Really, Pop?" he yelled back. "We're almost to Tibet! You're dodging some type of trouble, aren't you?"

"Boy, respect your elder!" his father shouted.

"Respect? You?" he snarked. "I lost all respect after the after the third time you sold me. I respect you as a martial arts teacher—most of the time—but that's it!"

Before too long they had made it down to the edge of the ponds. There was a sign posted there, but Ranma didn't recognize any of the kanji-like characters. A large number of the characters used in Chinese were similar Japanese kanji, [Chinese-origin Japanese word characters] but Ranma's kanji knowledge was limited compared to others his age due to his spotty education. The only character Ranma recognized was the one for "Danger."

His father hopped out onto the closest bamboo stick and then farther into the collection of ponds.

"Come on, Boy," he yelled. "Don't be a scared little girl."

Ranma sighed and hopped out onto a pole.

"Don't get wet, Boy!"

They heard a man yelling at them. Ranma looked and saw a fat man in an old Chinese Army uniform waving at them. He thought he heard Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, and even Korean. "You speak Japanese?" he yelled back.

"Very dangerous, Mr. Customer. Please come back, no?" the man yelled in accented Japanese.

As they came down the hill, Naruto could see a fat man in a drab green outfit yelling at a boy his age and another fat man who were out on the poles above the ponds.

"Very dangerous, Mr. Customer. Please come back, no?" the green-clothed man yelled.

"What's so dangerous?" asked Naruto.

"Oh, more customers!" said the man. "Water is cursed. You fall in you take form of what drowned there until you receive warm water. Then cold water renews the curse. Should stay away."

Naruto did not know if he believed in curses, but he had seen enough weird things in his short life that he was not willing to take the chance.

The three of them watched the boy and the man spar, jumping from bamboo stalk to bamboo stalk. The boy got a good hit on the man, who fell into one of the ponds. The boy started laughing at the man.

A large panda burst out of the water where the man had been submerged. The panda was wearing glasses and a ratty training gi.

The green-clothed man said, "Ah, Mr. Customer fall in Spring of Drowned Panda. Very tragic story of panda that drowned 800 years ago."

The panda caught the boy by surprise and landed a vicious blow that sent the boy flying.

Naruto decided to spare the boy a curse and leapt toward him with a chakra-enhanced jump. He caught the boy and created Shadow Clones mid-air to toss the two of them toward a wooden platform in the middle of the ponds. Naruto landed on the wooden platform and started to set the other boy down when the platform collapsed and they both plunged into the water with Naruto still holding on to the other boy.

Ranma was beyond shocked when the panda burst out of the water where his father had been. The blow the panda hit him with sent him flying like a line drive launched from a baseball bat. He was surprised when he was caught by a stranger—a boy about his own age. The boy created two solid duplicates which tossed them toward a wooden platform between several of the ponds.

As they landed, Ranma was about to thank the other boy when he heard some creaking and the boards they were standing on creaked and broke. Both of them plunged into the water.

The cold seeped into Ranma's body followed by an intense, hate-filled, burning energy. The cold and the burning energy seemed to battle through his body. Finally, he surrendered to unconsciousness.

Ranma came to in a sewer-like place filled with pipes, with water on the floor. Half of the sewer seemed to have a red tint to it. The other half seemed to half an orange tint. There were five types of pipes—each with its own type of energy. Two were on each side and one that was on both. He could feel what was going though the pipes: The narrowest type felt very Ranma-ish, but he could also feel the cold from before permeating the energy that felt like himself. He figured that was his ki. The largest type seemed to be coming from a large, barred gate. It felt like the burning, malicious energy he had felt while in the water.

He could see two figures. One of them was not too far from him, but on the other side of the dividing line of the sewer. The other was standing outside the gate. He walked toward the closest figure. She was feminine, with blonde hair, blonde fox ears, and three blonde tails.

When he took a few steps he noticed something weird. His hips were moving oddly and he had strange weights on his tailbone and his chest. He looked down and saw girlish breasts and screamed.

Naruto looked around at the sewer. It looked different than the other times he had been here. There were more pipes and some of them were different than before. There seemed to be a distinction between the half he was in and the half where he saw another figure. She had a feminine figure with red hair, red fox ears, and red three fox tails.

He frowned. There was no way that the Kyuubi would appear with less than its full complement of tails, but he decided to be careful anyway. She might be its servant.

There was another figure with spiky blond hair next to the Kyuubi's cage.

He was wondering if he should go talk to one of the figures when he felt something weird shifting near his tailbone. He looked over his shoulder and saw three yellow-blond fox tails and screamed.

Ranma idly noticed that the blonde foxgirl was screaming. He heard a masculine voice say, "Hey, miss? What's wrong?"

"I'm a boy!" Ranma shouted.

"Naruto?" the man asked, shocked.

"My name's Ranma, Saotome Ranma."

"What happened, Ranma?" the man asked.

"I was sparring with my Pop at this new training ground. It had lots of ponds. My Pop fell in one and then a panda popped out of it and attacked me. I went flying, but a blond kid caught me. We landed on this wooden platform, but it collapsed and we fell into some water. Everything went cold and then hot and that's the last thing I remember before waking here, with breasts!"

"My name's Namikaze Minato. I have some idea where we are, but I was expecting to see my son. For some reason, you look remarkably like my wife did when she was younger. How about we go talk to the other young lady?"

"I'm a boy!" Ranma reflexively said.

"Right, right," the blond man said.

They approached the blonde foxgirl who they heard whimpering, "I'm not the fox. I'm not the fox."

Naruto could hear some splashing. He looked up and saw the blond man—the Yondaime? [Fourth]—and the red-haired foxgirl approach. The redhead looked a lot like a clothed version Naruto's Oiroke no Jutsu [Sexy Technique] complete with whisker birthmarks except for the hair color and fox accessories.

"You wouldn't happen to be Naruto, would you?" asked the Yondaime look-alike.

"Yes," he answered. He noticed that his voice sounded feminine and looked down and noticed he had breasts. He looked back at the others and said, "You don't happen to know what happened, do you?"

"Not really," said the Yondaime look-alike. "I've been fighting the part of the Kyuubi that I sealed within me in the Shinigami's [Shinto death god] stomach since I died. I left a Shadow Clone in the seal that holds the rest of the Kyuubi which I absorbed when I came here, so I know what's happened in your life, Naruto. You must have gotten cursed like that other man."

"So we're stuck like this forever?" asked the redhead.

"I don't know," said the Yondaime.

"I don't want to be a weak girl!" she whined.

Naruto ignored her. "You're the Yondaime Hokage?" [Fourth Fire Shadow] he asked.

The blond man smiled. "Yep, I'm Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, but I'd like you to call me Dad."

"What?" he yelled. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"I can only assume that the Sandaime [Third] did it to protect you. I had many enemies and even within Konoha there would be those that would have harmed you if they'd known."

"Why did you seal the Kyuubi inside me?" Naruto asked.

"I had three reasons. First, I trusted you to be able to use the Kyuubi's power responsibly and I knew that Konoha would have need of it due to things that happened at your birth. Second, it was either you or try and seal it back into your mother. Only an Uzumaki or maybe a Senju has strong enough chakra to contain the Kyuubi. Your mother was dying and I didn't know if that would free the Kyuubi again. Third, I couldn't ask another parent to make a sacrifice I couldn't make myself."

Naruto made a fist and slugged his father in the stomach. "Do you know what type of hell my life has been because of that?"

"I'm sorry, Naruto. I really thought the villagers would treat you better."

The redhead spoke up. "I'm Saotome Ranma, heir to the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. I find beating on my pop therapeutic, too."

"Uzumaki Naruto, Genin of Konohagakure no Sato," [Village Hidden by the Tree Leaves; Konoha for short] he replied. "You were the boy I tried to prevent from being cursed, right?"

The redhead rubbed the back of her (his?) neck. "I guess. What's this curse you're talking about?"

"The man in green just said something about cold water renewing the curse, warm water deactivating it, and about a Spring of Drowned Panda."

"So the panda was my pop?"

"I think so," Naruto replied.

Ranma snorted. "It suits him."

Naruto said, "Hey, Dad. You mentioned Mom used to be the container of the Kyuubi? What can you tell me about her?"

"Your Mom was Uzumaki Kushina before we married. She had beautiful red hair and was a real firecracker. Her nickname was Red-Hot Habanero. It's true that she was the second container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, [Nine-Tailed Fox] except it was a better kept secret than you being the container. Someone freed the Fox the day you were born. If you want to know about her, I might be able to do better. She also left chakra in the seal. I might be able to make a chakra-replenishing seal to replace her chakra as it's used so that her Shadow Clone can stick around, too."

"That would be awesome, Dad!" Naruto cheered.

"It's odd," said Minato, "but you both look a lot like her, although now that I get a better look at you, there are some differences that might have come from Ranma."

"So we look like each other?" asked Ranma.

The blond man smiled. "Yes, you look like identical twins other than the hair color. If you want to see what you look like with the curse, just look at each other."

He continued, "About the seal for your mom, Naruto, I'll need a bit of time to prepare and make sure I get it right, since I'll only have one shot at this."

Naruto looked toward the cage. "Should we go and see if the Kyuubi knows anything about what happened?"

"That's a good idea," said his dad.

Ranma followed the blonds toward the gate. He was doing his best to ignore the changes to the way his hips moved and the bouncing on his chest. The swishing of his tails was not as bad—he could actually think of cases where they would be useful in a fight, but did not want to think of any of it.

The three of them stood in front of the gate. A giant set of slitted eyes and a mouthful of pointy teeth loomed out of the darkness just beyond the gate. Ranma started to get nervous, until the head came forward and he could clearly see that it was vulpine rather than feline.

He chuckled. When the other two looked at him, he said, "I was worried, just a bit, that it might be something demonic like a cat."

The two blonds looked at him like he was crazy.

A booming voice roared out from the giant fox. "Foolish little kit, I am the great and terrible Kyuubi no Youko. [Nine-Tailed Demon Fox] I am much more demonic than any cat."

Ranma just waved him off. It wasn't like anything, even cats, really scared him. He just knew to be cautious around the little hellbeasts.

The giant fox said, "I must say that I prefer your new look, little jailer."

"Are you perving on me, Fox?" shouted Naruto.

"What?" boomed the fox, sounding offended. "I am above such mortal affairs. I merely meant that your appearance is improved because you look more like me, the pinnacle of creation, than the hairless monkey you were."

"Do you know what happened, Kyuubi?" asked Minato.

"Ah, Yondaime, how I would love to rip you to pieces for sealing me in your spawn. However, since it means I am whole again, I am willing to put up with your disgusting visage."

"So, you don't know," commented Minato.

"Of course I know," snarled the Kyuubi. "The death magic in this accursed location interacted with the Shiki Fuujin [Dead Demon Consuming Seal] you placed on your spawn. Symbolically, my jailer died to assume his new form. This released you and my yin half from the Shinigami. My other half was drawn to me and you were drawn to the chakra you left behind in the seal. However, the Eight Trigrams Seal still holds me in this miserable cage."

"Ah, thank you," said Minato. "But why is Ranma here?"

"The magic of this place works by changing a person based on what they would have been if they were born as the cursed form. Since your spawn and the other were in close contact, their traits were mixed. This is why they look so similar. They are essentially sisters in their new forms."

"I'm a boy!" shouted Ranma.

The Kyuubi laughed. "What a delightful verbal tick!"

Ranma frowned. He did not know what that meant, but did not want to show it. The Kyuubi laughed harder, as if he knew what Ranma was thinking.

"The magic of this place plays on your weaknesses and insecurities," the Kyuubi said. "The redheaded vixen hates being called a girl, so it made her a girl. The blonde vixen does not want to be seen as a fox, so it made her a fox. The magic saw an opportunity to target both weaknesses and took it."

Ranma resisted the urge to repeat that he was a boy. He would not give the fox the satisfaction. The fox laughed again.

"So the magic is sentient?" asked Minato.

"No, it merely has directives it must fulfill. It's like one of your advanced seals."

"Why is Pop a panda, then?" asked Ranma. "I don't think he's afraid of them."

"The magic targets either an insecurity or a weakness. From your surface thoughts I can tell that your father is greedy and lazy. His panda form magnifies these."

"You can read our thoughts?" asked Naruto.

The Kyuubi laughed. "We are connected through the seal, little vixen. The loss of the Shiki Fuujin opens us to each other a little more. To continue the explanation, the magic, when it sought your potential foxgirl forms, copied the Eight Trigrams seal onto the redheaded vixen and linked us."

"It merged their mindscapes?" asked Minato. "That sounds dangerous."

"This isn't their mindscape, per se," replied the Kyuubi. "It's a metaphysical representation of the seal. It is linked to their mindscapes, however, so their mindscapes are linked via the seal-scape."

Ranma wasn't sure he followed that, but he didn't want to look like an idiot.

"What's the difference?" asked Naruto.

"He's saying that your minds don't overlap, they just touch," said the older blond.

"So we could talk mind-to-mind?" asked Naruto.

"Maybe, if you worked at it," said Minato. He looked at the Kyuubi. "How do you know all this? You haven't been here before, have you?"

"I am a 1000-year-old being of energy, foolish mortal. I could see how the magic of this place effected my containers."

"Why are you being so helpful?" asked Naruto. "You never have been before."

"I'm feeling generous because I can taste my freedom. With the removal of the Shiki Fuujin, you won't pull me down with you when you die, and it's likely that I will escape very soon." The great beast laughed. "The redheaded vixen can contain me in her current form due to its inherent magics, but her natural form is weak. When she switches back, she won't be able to hold me. Once I'm free, I'll be able to finish what I started 14 years ago."

"I'm not weak!" shouted Ranma. "I'm the greatest martial artist of my generation!"

The Kyuubi laughed. "Begone, mortals. I tire of your foolishness."

Ranma felt a force push at him.

Suddenly, he was surrounded by water. He felt an arm on his shoulder. He pushed off the other person and made for the surface.