Disclaimer: I don't own either Ranma 1/2 or Naruto or any of their respective characters. They belong to their respective owners. I might introduce a pair of characters into the story which are of my creation, and will be used to help the plot along. Any, and all made up characters beside the ones from Ranma ½ or Naruto are mine.
I will be reviewing some of the old chapters, but I will only make minor changes that in no way will alter the plot of the story.
I'm going to postpone certain things like the pairings until next chapter.
Now on with the show, hope you all enjoy!
It was a couple of hours after Ranma had started helping Naruto with his clone jutsu, but it had been to no avail.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but it seems it's simply a jutsu you can't master. Maybe if we had more time, but I believe we won't get farther today. We'll keep going tomorrow, and after tomorrow until you get it. At least we still have one week until the exam." Ranma commented.
"Oh come on! I'm not even tired!" Naruto whined. "Can't we just practice a while more?" he asked hopefully.
Ranma sighed. "Sorry Ruto, but I've been a bit tired today, and with all the chakra I've used to show you the cloning jutsu I'm pretty winded right now." Ranma explained.
'Man this seal is really taking it's toll on me.' Ranma thought; he shakily stood up.
"I really should get some rest, but I can help you train tomorrow." Ranma offered as he started walking towards the exit to the training field.
"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow." Naruto said waving at his friend. 'My Friend….' He thought, a smile coming to his lips. 'Yes, a friend. Finally I have friends now, and in order to stay at their side I better pass that exam.' Naruto thought to himself as he stood up, and started practicing again.
Meanwhile Ranma walked home. When he reached his apartment Leiko was sitting just outside of her, and Jou's apartment. She seemed to be waiting for something. "Hey Leiko, what's up?" Ranma asked curious.
Leiko turned her head in surprise. She had been distracted thinking about other things. Ranma seemed to notice this, and walked over to where Leiko was sitting.
"Oh, hi Ranma, I didn't hear you arrive." Leiko replied.
"You seemed to be waiting for something." Ranma stated.
"Yeah I was thinking about a letter that came today from Kumogakure. I was waiting for Jou to come back, since there's certain things he needs to know." Leiko explained.
"And what would that be?" Jou asked as he walked over towards them.
"I got a letter from dad." Leiko explained.
"What's so special about that?" Jou asked.
"Well…" Leiko started, she hesitated thinking if she should continue speaking in front of Ranma. Leiko decided she could, Ranma was after all one of their closest friends. "Dad, I mean…Yondaime has ordered us to go back to Kumogakure as soon as we pass the academy test. He has a mission for us to complete." Leiko explained.
Ranma frowned at hearing this. "A mission, but you two are still in the academy." Ranma said.
Both siblings turned towards Ranma, and smiled. "That is not completely true." Jou said as he turned to look at Leiko.
She took that as her cue to speak. "You see Ranma, we graduated from Kumogakure's academy about a year ago, and we have been doing low level missions for about half a year. All that was before we came to Konoha." Leiko explained a smirk much like Ranma's appearing on her face.
"Yeah, these aren't just for show." Jou said as he pointed at his headband which was covering the bandages over his eyes.
"Anyways, what kind of mission is Yondaime assigning us?" Jou said becoming serious.
Leiko turned towards Jou her demeanor turning serious. "Apparently there have been border problems with Kirigakure again, but that's not all. Some of the missing nins from Kirigakure have been pillaging border towns. Apparently the mess they made gave Kirigakure the excuse to start moving troops to the border between Kumogakure, and Kirigakure." Leiko replied.
Leiko turned towards Ranma. "I'll explain further for your benefit. There has been a secret war between Kumogakure and Kirigakure for almost two years now. All this started when a missing nin from Kirigakure tried to overthrow the current Mizukage. I say tried because he failed. He, and his followers had to flee to escape from the hunter nin that were sent after them." Leiko said.
"But what does that have to do with the border problems?" Ranma asked.
"AH, that's just it. You see the Mizukage has been power hungry for some time, and he set his sights of getting that power by conquering Hidden Cloud. The only problem is they have never found our capital. They have started the border problems in hopes of drawing out Hidden Cloud's army." Jou said.
Leiko nodded at what Jou had said, before she took up the explanation again. "You see Yondaime Raikage has asked the other kages for permission to overthrow the current Mizukage in hopes of avoiding a full scale war." Leiko finished.
"That is where we come in." Jou said drawing Ranma's attention to him. "Leiko, and me have been traveling from country to country delivering the message from the Raikage to the other kages, and Hidden Leaf was our last stop before we returned to Hidden Cloud." Jou finished.
"But what about the letter you just received?" Ranma asked. "What is your new mission?" he asked curious as to what his friends were going up against.
"Well, Raikage has ordered us to rendezvous with some of the missing nins who tried to overthrow the Mizukage, they will take us where the nins that attempted to overthrow the Mizukage are, and we will inform them of Raikage's plan to overthrow the Mizukage." Leiko explained.
Ranma frowned. "But how can they be sending only the two of you to rendezvous with missing nin? Isn't that dangerous?" Ranma asked.
"Not really, especially since it won't just be the two of us. The jounin who trained us will be joining us. He's waiting for us in one of the border towns of Lightning Country." Jou said.
"Well we should get a bite to eat, it's getting late." Leiko told the other two nin just in time for Ranma's stomach to make itself heard.
"My stomach agrees with you." Ranma said cheerfully.
"Oh no. I'm NOT paying for your food." Leiko growled.
"Don't worry; I have money with me this time." Ranma said. "Now where shall we eat?" he asked.
"I say we try that all you can eat buffet you found Leiko." Jou suggested.
Leiko's eyes almost popped open when she heard Jou say those words. She then proceeded to punch Jou into the ground.
"All you can eat?" Ranma asked, a mad-like look in his eyes, a look akin to that of a predator looking at its next prey.
"What the heck did you do that for?" Jou whined rubbing his jaw.
"I told you not to mention that restaurant to him, for all we know it'll probably go broke tonight!" Leiko growled at her sibling.
"I'm sorry alright! It's not like it's the end of the world or anything!" Jou said as he got up. "So should we get going?" Jou asked.
"Lets." Ranma said eagerly. Leiko only dropped her head in defeat as she led the other two nin to the restaurant.
That night one of the most prosperous restaurants in Konoha was the first to witness to the eating prowess of a Saotome. The next day a crying man who was the owner of the restaurant put up a sign on the front door.
The sign itself read: "Closed due to Bankruptcy"
The next week passed rather uneventfully. Ranma kept helping Naruto train in his clone jutsu, but it seemed helpless, and the only thing Naruto succeeded was in giving Ranma a huge headache.
Finally the day of the exam arrived. Almost all of their classmates had been called to be tested already leaving only Hinata, Leiko, Ranma, Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji.
Leiko, and Hinata were quietly talking to each other over by one of the windows while Jou tried to cheer Naruto up. Shikamaru was trying to sleep, but was failing miserably due to the heated discussion taking place next to him.
Chouji was currently tossing dirty looks at Ranma who was pretty much tired of the young Akimichi's protests.
"Stop looking at me like that Chouji, I already said I'm sorry, but there's no use crying over spilt milk." Ranma said.
"Yeah, but why did you have to drive THAT restaurant to bankruptcy?" Chouji whined.
"Oh shut it you two!" Shikamaru growled finally having lost his temper.
In the background Jou sighed in defeat as he handed over a couple of yen to Naruto who smiled. "Told you those two could make Shikamaru lose his temper." Naruto whispered.
About two hours later found Naruto sitting alone on a swing in the playground behind the academy.
"Hey Ruto. I just finished talking with Iruka-sensei, and guess what? I convinced him to test you again." Ranma said as he walked over from where he had been talking with Iruka.
"R-Really?!" Naruto asked surprised. "H-how did you convince him?" Naruto asked curious.
"Well, I told him how you had been training non-stop with me this last week. He said he was impressed on how much you had improved since he had last seen your jutsu, and that's why he agreed." Ranma said smiling. 'He deserves it after all.' Ranma thought. After all he had never seen someone so driven to overcome any obstacle, well no one except for himself.
"Iruka-sensei told me your test will be sometime tomorrow, so be prepared." Ranma said as he started to walk away. "Anyways, I gotta go. I promised Jou I'd help him get home after his training at the Hyuuga's." Ranma said as he looked back at Naruto.
"Okay! Thanks for everything!" Naruto called out as he stood up, and started walking.
He was about two blocks away from the academy when he noticed Mizuki-sensei standing at the side of the road. When he approached Mizuki seemed to perk up, and look at him. "Oh! Naruto-kun, just who I wanted to talk to." Mizuki greeted.
"Really? What for?" Naruto asked curiously. He had never really liked Mizuki-sensei; he simply didn't feel comfortable around him.
"Well, I believe Iruka was too harsh when he evaluated you, and I thought I would give you a second chance." Mizuki explained.
Naruto narrowed his eyes. ´I don't really trust him, but… maybe this is part of Iruka-sensei´s test.´ Naruto thought.
¨Really? I thought Iruka-sensei was going to test me tomorrow? ¨ Naruto thought out loud.
Mizuki inwardly cursed. He didn't know Iruka had given the Fox-boy a second chance. ´It must have been the Ranma. That kid has only caused me trouble since he arrived. I've had to postpone all my major plans due to him being in the wrong place at the right time.´ Mizuki thought about several times he was about to approach Naruto in the past, but had stopped due to the pigtailed brat appearing almost out of no-where frustrating his plans.
¨Well you see Naruto one of the things about the test is to see if you are willing to take up a mission on short notice.¨ Mizuki said seriously, hoping the kid was that gullible.
(A/N: We all know he is. . )
¨Oh, I get it.¨ Naruto said nodding his head. ¨Yeah, of course I'll do it! Anything to become a real ninja!¨ Naruto shouted to Mizuki´s dismay.
Mizuki quickly covered the kid's mouth. ¨Be quiet Naruto, this is like a real ninja mission, you must be weary of your surroundings, and of anyone.¨ Mizuki said. ´That way he'll think his friends are part of the test if they try to stop him.´ the Chuunin thought to himself. ¨Okay, this is your mission…¨
Hours later found Mizuki surrounded by hundreds of Naruto shadow clones, while Iruka was helped to his feet by Ranma, and Leiko.
¨I never go back in my word! I will be Hokage, and I will protect all of my loved ones! That is my shinobi way! ¨ Naruto shouted before pummeling a very surprised Mizuki into the ground.
Iruka took the scroll from them, and told them to leave. He would return the scroll to the Hokage. Before they left though, he called Naruto aside, and gave him his headband.
A couple of days latter at the Hokage's office…
Anko entered the hokage's office followed closely by Team 5; Leiko Ranma, and Jou seemed a bit sleepy. That was due to the early hour in which the hokage had called a meeting with them due to a letter that had arrived from the Raikage.
"I am sorry to bother you so early in the morning, but I have received a message from the Raikage concerning your new mission." Sarutobi explained as he motioned the group to take a seat.
"You mean about the mission Leiko and Jou were assigned for after they graduated from the academy here in Konoha? If so, why call Anko, and me?" Ranma asked curious.
"Well you see, I got in contact with the Raikage, and informed him you two would be joining Leiko and Jou in their mission as Konoha's show of good will towards Kumo. Besides, if open war where to start between Cloud, and Mist we would eventually be drawn into it." Sarutobi explained. "Besides, Leiko and Jou have graduated as Genin from our academy, and I would like the Raikage to see how a three cell group works." Sarutobi added as an afterthought.
"What do you mean by that?" Ranma asked.
"You see brat. Over in Kumo they have a different operating system. The genin from Cloud work in pairs not groups of three like we do. Why do you think Leiko, and Jou arrived here alone?" Anko replied.
"Now that you mention it I did wonder why only the two of them came from Cloud; especially after seen Maito Gai's team." Ranma said
"Anyways." The hokage said drawing attention to him. "I believe we should be careful when it comes to making deals with any missing nin. I expect you four to be extra careful, and provide any help you can offer with the negotiations." Sarutobi said before taking a puff of his pipe.
"You will leave six days from today; dismissed." Sarutobi finished before he turned back to work on the paper work that was scattered on his desk.
End of Flashback
Ranma looked up from his plate. Yep it had been a long time since he came to this world. He had made true friends, he had learned new techniques, and as a plus he had more control over the curse. He was no longer a water magnet, and best of all he would be using his skills for what they were really meant, protecting people.
Ranma finished his fifth bowl of ramen, and paid for his meal. "Thanks you for everything Ayame-san, Teuchi-san. Everything was delicious. Anyways I better get going, good night." Ranma said.
"You are very welcome Ranma-san." Ayame said smiling. He was about to exit the shop when someone stopped him.
"Hey Ranma, when are you going to teach me your cloning jutsu?" Naruto said through a mouthful of noodles.
"I don't remember telling you I'd teach you my cloning jutsu." Ranma said scratching his chin.
"Of course you did!" Naruto shouted as he put his bowl down, and approached the pigtailed boy. "Remember you told me you would one week before the academy exam." Naruto said.
"Yeah that's right… although I did tell you I'd teach you the jutsu if you learned the basic cloning jutsu." Ranma replied, a smirk in his face. "As I can recall you didn't learn that jutsu, and instead learnt the Shadow Clone Jutsu." Ranma finished.
"Oh come on! You promised!" Naruto whined.
"Alright, I'll teach you the jutsu, but after I get back from tomorrow's mission." Ranma finally said after considering the situation. 'If I say no he'll keep bugging me all day until I agree.' Ranma thought.
"YEAH!" Naruto cheered.
"Anyways, I'll be seeing you. I gotta go pick some stuff from the blacksmith shop for tomorrow's mission." Ranma said waving good bye before he took to the roof tops.
The next day found Team 5 and Team 7 minus their instructors sitting near the entrance of Konoha. Leiko was reading a book, while Jou told Ranma the basics of what he needed to know about the Land of Lightning. On the other hand Naruto was currently jumping around cheering that they had finally gotten a real mission. Sakura just sat beside Sasuke trying to convince the Uchiha of going on a date with her when they came back.
"Once we reach the border of Fire Country we'll need to cross Snow Country. We'll need to be careful when we cross it since Snow country isn't in good terms with Konoha or Kumo." Jou explained.
"Why isn't Snow country on good terms with Konoha or Kumo?" Ranma asked curious.
"Well, you see…" Jou started to say, but he was cut off as Anko appeared in a whirlwind of leaves.
"They aren't in good terms with us because they are all a bunch of rogue ninjas that killed the daimyo, and took over. None of the major ninja villages really considers them a problem so they just let them do what ever they want as long as they don't mess with us, and stay in their territory." Anko explained.
"Anyways let's get this show on the road shall we." Anko said as she started walking out of the village. "Leiko, Ranma you two take the flanks, Jou you cover the rear. We will travel at full speed. We will probably reach Snow Country in a week; it will then take us about three to four days to reach Kumo." Anko said as she took to the trees.
"Why does it take so long to get there?" Ranma asked his teammates.
"It's due to the mountainous area near Snow Country, it's a pretty hard area to travel through." Leiko explained.
The three genin following their teacher as they took to the trees; leaving Team 7 to wait for Kakashi who had yet to appear with their client.
They could clearly hear Naruto complain on why they didn't have a sensei that was on time unlike Kakashi.
About two hours later found Team 5 resuming their voyage after an impromptu stop when Anko had caught the smell of dango; the smell came from a restaurant near their path. They had taken a small break in which Ranma, and Anko had eaten several rations of dango, while the siblings chose to eat something else.
All the while Anko kept quiet. The three genin had learned this was a rare occurrence, but decided not to ask until they were alone with her.
About half an hour later they were on the road again.
"Anko-sensei, can I ask you a question?" Leiko inquired as they jumped from tree to tree covering ground pretty quickly.
"You just did." Anko said smiling a bit.
"Why are you so serious all of the sudden? I mean you're always cheerful, and full of energy." Leiko stated.
Anko just frowned, and kept quiet for a moment. "Just keep moving. We'll talk later." Anko answered in a tone of voice that told them they would regret it if they pressed the matter.
The three genin looked at each other and shrugged. The group traveled in silence for a few minutes, before Anko broke the silence. "I said not to press the matter, not to keep complete silence. You can talk about other things if you want." She said before going quiet again.
The three genin seemed to let out a collective sigh as the mood changed. Leiko did her best impression of Kakashi as she took out a small blue book, and started reading as they kept moving.
Jou thought about something Hyuuga Hiashi had told him. 'I better train harder in getting control over my eyes.' He thought.
Jou proceeded to move his headband from its current position to around his neck. He then proceeded to untie his bandages; once that was done he put them away in his shuriken pouch.
In the meantime Ranma kept thinking back to when he had used Hinako's technique. He had regained most of his former strength, and speed in his older form. Also the seal appeared to have sped up its process, and he had only two kanji remaining on the outer circle of the seal.
'From what the hokage told me the seal will start it's final cycle soon.' Ranma thought, eager to see what powers he would obtain thanks to the seal. Although he still felt like he had cheated, he was obtaining power with no real effort, and that just seemed…well wrong.
"Hey Ranma…" the sound of his name being called brought him out of his reverie. Looking behind him he saw it was Jou who was trying to call his attention.
"Yeah? What's up?" Ranma asked.
Jou was about to ask if anything was wrong, but decided to forget about it. "I was wondering if you could help me train later on. I still need to get my ninjutsu up to speed, so to say." Jou said.
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked, after all Jou was pretty good at ninjutsu, not on his level, but pretty good.
"Well ever since I started training at the Hyuuga's I haven't improved in my ninjutsu any. So what do you say?" Jou asked.
"Sure; in fact I have a couple of ideas for jutsus we can try out as a team. Although I think it would be better to try them when we get back to Konoha." Ranma said.
Jou and Leiko seemed to wince at Ranma's last words. Ranma noticed this, but said nothing.
Team 5 arrived at one of the border towns between Fire country and Snow Country with no problems. They entered the town, and headed to a previously set meeting place. Once there they met up with a Kunoichi wearing full battle armor, and the Hitai-Ate that identified her as a ninja from Cloud.
Leiko and Jou stepped forward, they walked a few meters to where the Kunoichi stood, and spoke for several minutes.
"Is everything alright?" Anko asked when Jou turned and walked towards her, and Ranma.
"Apparently we are late. One of the ninjas we are looking for left for Wave country." Jou said.
Leiko and the Kunoichi who had finished talking moved closer. "From what Kana here has told me." Leiko started.
The kunoichi who they now knew as Kana took up the explanation. "The ninja you are looking for took off for Wave country about a week ago. From what we could gather he accepted an offer for a job in Wave country. We have arranged means of transport to get you safely past Kirigakure, but we can't help you after that." Kana explained.
"How long do you reckon it will take us to get to Wave country with the transport you have arranged?" Anko asked.
"It will take at least three days to get safely past Kirigakure no Sato. When you enter Wave country it should only take you a day or two to get to your target." Kana answered.
Just then another ninja from Kumo arrived. The ninja was a really large man who stood about eight feet tall. He had short black hair, and carried a large double bladed axe on his back. He was surprisingly thin and not extremely muscular for a man of his size.
"Hey, hey, hey! Guess who's here!" the man called out.
"Sensei?!" Leiko and Jou called out surprised.
"We thought you would meet us over in Lightning Country." Jou asked as he shook the large man's hand.
"That was the plan, but once I heard you guys were going to have to go to Wave country I thought I'd bring a gift to you guys." The man said.
"And this is?" Anko asked getting a bit impatient.
"This, Anko-sensei is our former instructor Tawara Sensui." Jou introduced the large man who bowed politely. "It is an honor to finally meet you. Jou has told me a lot about you two, Mitarashi Anko, and Saotome Ranma." Sensui said.
Authors Notes: Okay, I'll leave it here for now. I'll fill in other details as I progress with the story. As always I accept any comments or flames as long as they are constructive criticism.
Next chapter will be out soon, hopefully, so don't worry. I thank you all for all your reviews, and know that I'm trying my best to write an enjoyable story. It's not an easy job, especially this being my first fan fiction work ever.
SPOILER
I know some of you can guess where I'm taking this, but be warned I will give this story several unexpected twists so read the next chapter carefully, and pay attention for I will be dropping certain hints on where I'm taking things.