Authors Note: Everyone kiss/hug/worship Clow Angel who persuaded me that releasing more P&C would make a wonderful birthday present for her (coincidently, her birthday is on the 23rd of…. Uhh… march…2005..?…… hmmm this story is a little late. Well. A lot late… Really, Really, Really Late.
Perhaps I should Beg Clow Angel for forgiveness for being a horrible person?
Ranma yawned as he pulled himself out of bed; he'd been on a weird train of thought last night, depressed and contemplative of a few things – such as all of his upbringing. As the young man pulled himself over to the closet he quickly slid on a pair of loose black pants and a dark red shirt eerily reminiscent of his old long lost Chinese clothing.
Attaching the weapon sheathes and filling them Ranma shifted his posture a little as the comforting weight of his weapons settled upon the pigtailed man like a well worn cloak. As the young man finished his newer morning rituals he glanced in the mirror, eyes instinctively searching out the hidden and not hidden weapons on his body. As he left the room Ranma's nose guided him down to the kitchen where a meal was being cooked.
Beating his adoptive 'mother' to the fridge Ranma grabbed a dozen sausages and tossed them into a frying pan before sitting it on the stove, next to a larger frying pan filled with pancakes. Using a bit of Chakra Ranma heated the pan quickly and the flames below it flickered out the sides as he concentrated on them.
"Not like that Ranma." Homura said testily, "Make the flames burn hotter without making them bigger." Ranma grinned at her before turning to glare at the unfortunate stove. The flames shrunk quickly and changed colour to give a bluish tinge to their bases. Nodding appreciatively Homura smiled at Ranma who was too busy concentrating to notice her praise. "So, getting a mission today?" Homura asked quietly.
Ranma started a little and grinned at her before turning his attention back to the slowly cooking food. "Yeah, we go up and find out what it is in an hour or so."
"Make sure to pack beforehand, just in case it's a longer mission." Homura warned her charge warmly, in her youth she had been caught out a few times and it was more than a little embarrassing. "I'll take care of this if you want to do it now, Ranma."
Ranma rubbed his chin and nodded, dashing upstairs and out of shouting range before she could remind him not to run inside again.
"Team Eighteen," began Tsunade, "Will be doing a C level mission, moving to the village of Konomehe near our western border and either chasing off or eliminating a group called 'The Bloody Hands.'"
Ranma blinked, surely no one would be stupid enough to try and do something to citizens protected by a hidden village would they? But it seemed so, for the Hokage continued on unaware of Ranma's lack of concentration.
"Ibiki, you can decide the most effective manner of dispersing this group." Tsunade spoke coldly as she addressed the Jounin. Ranma scratched his chin idly, he really didn't know why the Hokage bothered to hand out all the missions her self, especially as nine times out of ten the team Jounin would give another briefing afterwards.
"Team dismissed." Tsunade said with a small smile, as the team left one of the committee members entered the room and approached the Hokage.
"Ahh, Hokage-sama, I was just wondering, would team eighteen be available for" the man stopped as Tsunade waved her hand.
"They've just left on a mission, sorry Koharu-san." The man didn't look too displeased and left with a hidden smile gracing his face… It seemed the other guy had already played his hand.
"Good Morning." Spoke a cool voice behind him. Rock Lee, Green Beast of the Leaf, spun around away from the window and mock glared at Neji. "You look better today." Stated the white eyed boy affably after a glance out of the hospital window.
"Yatta!" Declared Lee with a pose, broken by a small wince as he straightened back into a standing position, "And so do you! Your walking now, you'll be back with us in no time!"
Neji smiled lightly, most likely the nurses and Hokage-sama would also be happy that Rock Lee was not hanging around. "It will indeed be good when we are both fighting together."
Lee smiled. "Ah! The flaming passions of youth shine through your cool words!" Lee grinned at Neji and gave him thumbs up gesture.
Neji looked at his team mate and fellow wounded shinobi for a moment, then he smiled slightly and turned to stare out the window.
After another moment, Lee turned to look contemplatively out the window too.
As Ranma grabbed his bag of supplies and stuff he silently wondered how Homura had known he'd be called for a multi day mission. Shrugging off his curiosity, the pigtailed teen grabbed a couple of extra Kunai and tossed them into the bag, at worst they'd be lost with the bag but they could come in hand if he lost the ones on him.
Trotting steadily out the door Ranma kicked the gate shut behind him, a huge wooden boom echoed in the midmorning air as he dashed towards the river at more than a steady jog. As he reached the appointed meeting place the young man grinned lightly at Naoko, who was already waiting next to Ibiki-sensei.
Ibiki looked formidable, as usual, as he tapped his foot impatiently. They waited a few more minutes until Ibiki vanished in a puff of smoke. Blinking and turning to look at Naoko, Ranma was treated with an embarrassed shrug. "Hikari always needs help to pack..." Naoko muttered, embarrassed for her friend.
Ranma sat down to wait.
"Lee!" bellowed a voice from behind; turning around Lee came face to face with Tenten, bouncy excited eager looking Tenten. "I need you to teach me more Taijutsu!" Tenten looked very eager indeed, for a moment Lee looked at her silently in contemplation then his mouth broke out into a wide toothy smile.
"Yatta!" screeched the younger green beast with a far too wide smile. "We can start today with some light work and then you can follow my super special youth recovery training schedule!" Lee's eyes were on fire as he clenched his fist and grinned in a manner disturbingly similar (In Tenten's opinion) to a crocodile eyeing its next meal.
Tenten sweat dropped, for some totally unknown and illogical reason this wasn't what she had expected (The whole doing a recovery program, not the posing and stuff). Although on a moment's reflection, Lee's recovery training was probably pretty harsh for someone like her. Not that Tenten had ever seen Lee do something that she could handle as her training while he was fit… so perhaps this wouldn't be too over the top.
Lee's next words removed that silly notion from her head.
For a moment he was irritated, but the view made up for it in less than a few seconds. Ranma tried not to smirk, or to make any stupid comments. But Naoko's stifled giggling behind him and the sight of Hikari being dragged along by Ibiki's very firm grip on her shoulder was almost too much. Finally catching sight of Ibiki's scowl, Ranma's levity died a horribly painful death – If Ibiki could kill with a glare…
"We're leaving Ranma, you're at the rear Naoko, Hikari take left and right and I'll be point." Snarled the Jounin as he almost tossed Hikari into place, "Don't forget to act casual." Finished Ibiki with an irritated grumble causing Ranma to nod appreciatively, there had been a lot of attacks that he and his father Genma had been able to turn the tables on by pretending to be helpless for a short while.
They moved quietly out the gates of Konoha, for Ranma this was a first since he had arrived in the forest. The trees looked like many others Ranma had seen in his travel, there was nothing markedly different to tell Ranma he was really in another world and no matter how far he travelled he would never get back to Japan. Ranma experienced another moment of doubt before straightening to look over his shoulder for a moment. The gates were still in view, barely, but Ibiki was picking up the pace and they were soon bounding through the trees leaving little scuff marks behind.
"You can speak; we're not likely to get ambushed yet." Ibiki said after a few minutes of silence.
"Ibiki-Sensei, should we worry about leaving tracks?" Naoko asked immediately. Ibiki shrugged as if it didn't matter so Naoko continued. "Well... What do we know about the 'bloody hands,' Ibiki-sensei?"
Ibiki glanced back. "Group of 10 to 15 bandits, comprised of two genin level ninja, one chuunin level, rest are common thugs. We will ambush a raiding party, allow one of them to escape and then follow them back to their hideout where we will kill them all."
Ranma's toes dug into the soft earth, the unexpected friction catching his foot and causing him to stumble slightly. The unexpected sound of Ranma's next step caused the other three people to glance at him obliquely. "We have to kill them all?" queried the boy, his tone not quite filled with his normal assurance.
Ibiki looked at the boy quietly, the expression on Ranma's face didn't show much, but the normally iron-clad control of his body was relaxed slightly. The boys stride hadn't slowed much, and it had a hopeful aspect to it, but it was also resigned. Ranma's shoulders weren't exactly drooping, but neither were they as straight as normal. "Ranma, we are Ninja of Konoha, Konoha's interests are ours. One of Konoha's interests is insuring that the people of our nation are safe. It's our responsibility. If we took a stance that was less harsh than our neighbouring nations, their bandits would leave there for here"
Ranma looked sour, but his posture was filled with grim determination. "It's more than pride in having a better nation. It's our honour."
Ibiki nodded, Naoko looked a little doubtful but Hikari's steps were firm and purposeful. Ibiki decided to continue with a briefing. "The two ex-genin are from Mist and Leaf. The ex-Chuunin is from Rock. The rest of the bandits use more or less standard weapons, nothing really of interest really."
Ranma frowned as he waited for more information but none came. "What makes the ninja's weapons so different from the rest?" asked the pigtailed boy finally.
Hikari grinned, finally, something she could answer. "Rock Chuunin are more likely to use blunt weapons. Hammers, staves, iron fists and other weapons of a similar style. The Mist use more fluid weapons, senbon, daggers and whips and so on."
As Hikari took a breath Naoko stepped in, determined not to let her team-mate get all the glory. "Also, the Leaf Ninja is not of any clan in particular. They will most likely use only a kunai or at most a sword. The leaf as a whole places little emphasis on weapons other than kunai, this means that due to the clans teaching their own personal weapon styles to family or friends, Konoha's teams are much more varied in weapon styles and combat methods than any other hidden village."
Ibiki coughed quietly and interrupted Naoko's glorifying of their village. "That's not quite true. Most of Konoha is very efficient at barehanded fighting, we hold the belief that your body is one weapon that is harder to take away than any other. But due to this, many of our ninja develop arrogance towards most weapons. The vast majority of our Ninja are barehanded fighters or nearly so, relying mostly on kunai when the enemy draws a weapon."
Ranma nodded, that made sense. Ebisu had shown him proper use for Kunai, both as a throwing weapon and a handheld combat equalizer. He hadn't shown him how to use it against unarmed people. Ranma had figured out a few ways anyway, claws or some other similar method. "That's not too different from Anything Goes. While Pops trained me in all of that stuff, I was discouraged from carrying around weapons I liked to use." Ibiki shrugged and broke into a quick jog. Evidently the briefing was over.
Crouching down, Naruto looked quietly at his teacher, Jiraiya, despite what many would think, Naruto did have a lot of respect for the Toad Sannin. Jiraiya looked back at Naruto sternly before speaking. "You know, if you do this… it will mean it will take longer to become Hokage." Said the white haired man seriously.
Naruto chuckled. "I don't think so!" Naruto nodded quickly to re-affirm his point.
"Come on Naruto." Jiraiya started impatiently. "If you're going to take time to teach someone, it's going to cut into your training time and that will make it longer for you to get strong enough to be Hokage." The sannin shrugged, feeling his point was made and stood up from his crouch.
Naruto frowned and grabbed ero-sennin's shirt to pull him down again. "No way!" growled the fox-child. "I'm going to teach her, and then everyone who thinks she's amazing is gonna think I'm amazing too cause I taught her and that's going to make being Hokage easier!" Naruto waved his fist. "And anyone who thinks she isn't amazing is going to be kicked in the ass until they do!"
Jiraiya chuckled loudly, very loudly. In fact, he chuckled just loudly enough that it caught the attention of a few people who were enjoying themselves. Deciding that they didn't like the sound of that chuckling they investigated and found two people crouching down behind a wooden fence.
Naturally, as this wooden fence was the wooden fence around a bathhouse, this wasn't seen as a welcome place for two people to be crouching and chuckling. A furore ensued and the two people ran away very quickly, with thrown scrubs, soap and other things flying after them.
Chouji was happier than a pig in mud. Not that the still-recovering boy knew why pigs were supposed to be happy when covered in mud. But disregarding that, he was still happy. Chouji was very happy because he had food, real good food that was sizzling in front of him right now. Clicking his chopsticks together in a vain encouragement for the meat to cook just a little bit faster Chouji absently ate some of the rice in front of him as he regarded his team-mates and teacher.
"I've been talking with our parents." Ino spoke up, shifting Chouji's attention from the observation of exactly who would dare to touch Chouji's food first to the girl seated opposite him.
"Our?" asked the Akimichi. Whose last name was quite different from Yamanake, well, it was last time he checked anyway.
"Yes, Ours." Ino repeated with a frown. "As we all know our parents have been a team for a very long time. From when they were Genin, while they were Chuunin and they still frequently team up on missions." Chouji nodded, this was old news but why bring it up now? "I've asked about techniques that require two or three of us to cooperate. And by us I mean people with our bloodlines or techniques."
Shikamaru rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "How many techniques are there that they'll let us learn now?"
Ino nodded, pleased at his deduction. "We've gotten six or so techniques. The Yamanaka techniques were a sort of group consciousness thing where we all know what everyone else is doing and a technique that lets you control four things at a time, although if you perform this technique on four people, you can only control one limb from each."
Chouji took the cooking meat and ate it all, he waved over the waitress who smiled coyly and gave him another plate of raw meat, which was promptly placed on the grill.
"Interesting techniques, I can see that helping out in combat and spying." Murmured Shikamaru quietly, "What were the other techniques?"
"The descriptions of yours, was allowing you to control our shadows like you would yours when the group-mind is on and also the ability to use the shadows to carry solid objects." Ino smirked as Shikamaru's eyes widened in surprise.
Asuma's indrawn breath whistled between his teeth. "those could be very powerful techniques Shikamaru."
Shikamaru nodded. "I'll be able to use explosive notes or Kunai from my team-mates to attack from any direction, plant traps remotely..." the lazy chuunin smiled. "Less running around for me."
Asuma laughed as Ino glared at the boy. "I hope not!" she said with a growl, causing Shikamaru to ward her off with open palms. Ino sniffed haughtily and continued. "The Akimichi techniques are really amazing; I've totally changed my opinion of your techniques Chouji!"
The aforementioned boy finished his next bit of meat and looked curiously at Ino. "You haven't told me what they were yet…"
Ino blushed. "Oops" chuckling to herself she continued on. "Well, one of them is how to make a seal that stores energy in someone else, and the second is to access it either for you or for them to use. It sounds really cool."
Chouji nodded. "Dad told me about that once, it got our parents out of a really tight scrape in mist country." Chouji's father had a scar from the top to the bottom of his thigh from that mission.
Shikamaru nodded. "These are really interesting techniques. But you said six or so..."
Ino nodded. "It's not really a technique, but I've gotten scrolls from all our parents on good strategy and tactics for these techniques." Ino shrugged. "They also said we're not allowed to try any of the techniques alone until we've got it perfect as a group. I don't know why though."
Chouji just shrugged. "So we're used to doing them correctly I guess." Ino and Shikamaru nodded almost identically.
"Hey, is that Kurenai-sensei?" asked Ino suddenly.
The early morning light shone down on a group of travellers, two bodyguards accompanying a rich young brunette and her servant who was loaded down with supplies, as they walked along occasional beams of sunlight would reflect off the bodyguards carelessly sheathed swords and the brown hair girls intricately braided hair. The two guards shuffled along slightly in front and to the sides of the woman as they walked, careless to a rear attack.
The servant groaned quietly, not wanting to bring down her mistresses wrath. "Why do I have to carry all this junk?" The black haired servant whimpered, her lack of attention kicking up a little bit of dust as she tripped and almost fell.
"You had better not drop anything back there." Barked the brunette suddenly, her high pitched voice echoing in the early forest air. "If any of my dresses get too dusty you'll be in trouble!"
The servant sighed and trotted forward to catch up to the finely dressed woman. "Sorry Mistress, nothing has been dropped or sullied Mistress."
The brunette looked at her servant with a single raised eyebrow. "You should hope not." She aid before sniffing daintily and walking onwards, ignoring the servants half hearted glare as they resumed their trek through the forest.
Naruto smirked at Hinata, who smiled tentatively back. "A..are you okay Naruto-Kun?" asked the white eyed girl timidly. "That looks like it hurts…"
Naruto laughed as he stood up again. "Nah, Nah, Hinata-Chan." Brushing himself off the whisker adorned boy hid his flinch as best he was able. "I'm fine, see!"
Hinata reproachfully at him and Naruto laughed nervously, his hand sneaking up to the back of his head. "Naruto-kun, were you here all night?" asked the girl firmly.
The unexpected question caused Naruto to look around, the training area was covered in debris, two dummies were completely destroyed and there was dozens of kunai and shuriken covering the six dew covered targets at one side. All in all, it would be difficult to refute Hinata's question, deciding to own up Naruto looked at her and nodded quietly.
Hinata frowned a little and breathed in deeply before looking at the blond haired boy as firmly as she was able. "We should go have breakfast before you do anything else." Naruto's face lit up like the sun and he grinned wildly, but ala, Hinata had other plans. "There is a breakfast diner I've been meaning to go to." Naruto's face fell a little; no longer blindingly bright but still, the glow in his eyes was sweet to Hinata. "Come on Naruto-Kun."
It was after they had sat down and ordered some traditional breakfast foods that Hinata realised she had taken Naruto on a date and they were having quite a good time. Of course, as soon as that realization hit her she couldn't say another word through her blush.
Poor Naruto would be torn later, thinking that it was his fault for her sudden silence.
Two men looked at each other and nodded almost simultaneously. One of them flicked his fingers into a certain pattern, thirty metres behind them a man saw the pattern and gave quick thumbs up to the scouts before yanking a thin cord that released a bird from its cage. Twelve hundred metres ahead of the two scouts and the signaller was a man concealed in the upper branches of a tree, this man saw a bird fly towards him and land where it had been taught. Smiling, the man took the bird and placed it in a cage carefully before running down the side of the tree as easily as one would run along the flattest ground.
Eighteen other men around the base of the tree launched themselves into action, readying weapons and moving out the kilometre walk to the road.
Within ten minutes the men were arrayed around and above the road. Two steep sides meant that it would be easy for the men to charge down and attack the targets while limiting a counter-attack, not to mention that if any of the targets had bows they'd have a harder time attacking the bandits.
The bandits waited, patiently or not, some concealed close to the road in carefully prepared ditches or further back where they could launch a ranged attack.
The targets entered the small valley, two rough looking men with sheathed swords and two women, one obviously a servant to the other. The two men were walking to the sides of the woman with the servant girl lagging behind slightly.
Four men stood in the centre of the road, covering the entire path between them. All had their swords drawn and held in various lazy positions. The two bodyguards stopped and half-drew their swords. The noblewoman looked contemptuously at the brigands before staring them in the eye. "Can I help you?" she asked with condescension dripping from her tone.
Two of the bandits looked at each other and chuckled before obviously leering at the noblewoman. The third stood impassively while the fourth stepped forward and spoke. "You'll leave everything but the clothes on your back and go. Or you'll die here." The fourth bandit waved lazily and two arrows thudded into the dirt between the two groups, each arrow having arrived from a different side of the valley.
The two bodyguards sword slid further out of their sheathes, they leaned forward as if determined to strike out and the fourth of the bandits frowned.
"Your bodies will be pincushions if you don't obey." He conveniently left out the fact that he'd be killing the targets anyway, he just didn't want the loot damaged if it could be avoided.
One of the two body guards, the taller man wearing a bandanna to cover his head signalled behind his back before leaping forward, covering the distance between the two groups in a heartbeat and disembowelling one of bandits before the others could move. The second bodyguard jumped backwards, picked up the noblewoman and almost tossed her to the side of a boulder. Half a dozen arrows landed where those two had been.
The servant squealed and ducked for cover only to find there were bandits literally crawling out of the ground around them.
The first guard had killed three of the first four original bandits but was too busy dodging arrows to finish the fourth. The second bodyguard was slamming the hilt of his sword into the temple of one of the formerly concealed bandits, the servant was holding a mid-sized knife in front of her as she took a position to guard the noblewoman, who was cowering in terror next to a large boulder.
A mask covered man wearing a slashed forehead protector of the Rock village melted out of the rock behind the noblewoman and went to cut her throat, only to be killed by a kunai entering his eye socket. The noblewoman cursed as the dead ninja pulled down her disguise revealing the utilitarian clothing underneath, the servant shrugged and smirked. "Guess no more servitude for me." before launching herself and the nearest brigand and cutting his throat without even slowing. The noblewoman shrugged and performed a perfect chop to the throat of a bandit trying to sneak up on her, crushing his throat and leaving him to gag to death.
Meanwhile the Ranma noticed the girls giving up on the disguise and did the same by throwing a half dozen kunai at three oncoming attacks, killing them near instantly. His mind shuddered back for a moment but firmed as the next person attacked and was taken out in a moment. Looking around he frowned when he found there was no one left. Only the archers who had thought not to stick around.
"Ranma, Naoko, go to the South and find out what happened to those archers, signal if you need help. Hikari, come with me to get the ones at the north." Barked Ibiki as he touched down onto the ground and launched into the nearest foliage. Ranma literally jumped on the spot and dashed towards the eastern side of the valley where Naoko was already ascending. Catching up to her by the time they reached the top the two ninja's found the evidence they were looking for and leapt up into the trees to follow their prey, it took nearly a minute of chasing before they found two fleeing archers and killed them without warning. Ranma started to feel quite sick in the stomach.
Naoko recovered the kunai the duo had used and pocketed Ranma's after cleaning them both. Ranma didn't look like he particularly wanted that throwing dagger back. Leaping up to the tree Naoko waited a moment in silence before Ranma broke his gaze away from the two corpses and followed her back to the site of the ambush. There they met Hikari and Ibiki, who had already dealt with their targets and returned. Ibiki waved them over and they stood among the death for a moment in abject silence, the cruel reality bearing down on them.
Ibiki didn't take long to get sick of the shock on his gennin's faces. "There's still a few missing, only two missing nin were killed here, a rock and a leaf." He left out the fact that they'd dispatched sixteen people by his count, and by Hikari's report on the rock nin she had killed he doubted that it was really a chuunin. "The only escapee I saw has been tagged. It's time to follow them home boy and girls." Naoko looked at him for a moment and nodded, Hikari not far behind. Ranma however took a little while longer before nodding and his expression firming to resolve.
The four ninja vanished into clouds of smoke as they leapt into pursuit of their rabbit.
A man stumbled into camp tree surrounded camp, his eyes widened in abject terror brought on from seeing so many people killed in front of him. One of the few men remaining blew on a small horn, calling the rest of the people to the area. Within moments the man had explained what happened as best he could, confusion from the slaughter revealing that he had only seen the two bodyguards in action. The leader, a Ninja formerly of the Mist drew a katana and calmed his men easily, ordering them to take to ranged weapons he set them up around the camp and placed himself and two subordinates in the centre as bait.
Ibiki was point man, Ranma following five metres behind with Naoko and Hikari two metres to the sides of the two men. In this diamond formation the group travelled speedily through the trees towards the tag that Ibiki was chasing. As the tag slowed to a stop about a hundred metres ahead of them the party slowed and took a more offensive stance, Naoko and Hikari moving up to beside Ibiki and Ranma closing the gap by a metre. Hand signals were exchanged and the formation widened.
Naoko glanced across the twenty odd meters separating her and Hikari. Ibiki had concealed himself in the trees above them and Ranma was somewhere to her rear. In front of her lay the camp, it was quite obvious it was a trap but there wasn't much choice but to spring it. The enemy ninja in the centre of the camp was looking in their direction quite intently, and Naoko figured it was known they were there.
Hikari frowned, enter the trap or go around and pick off as many as possible before attacking head on. Looking over to Naoko she found the decision had been made. Her team-mate was withdrawing slowly on hands and knees. Hikari nodded and followed her lead, pulling back a dozen meters to where she was met by Ranma and Ibiki. Naoko joined them a moment later.
"Do any of you have a plan?" asked Ibiki idly.
Naoko nodded. "We split up, go around the sides of the camp and annihilate all those in our way, then come back and attack the camp." Ibiki shrugged as Naoko continued. "That way least amount of people escape and we can attack from all sides."
Ranma frowned and shook his head. "No, if we split up we become too vulnerable, all four of us should just go around one side and clean it out, then head into the centre, we can all cover each other that way."
Ibiki shook his head. "Not quite. I'll handle one side, you three will take the other. Don't get distracted, just get the job done. Keep a close watch on each other and as soon as the covers blown, everyone head to the camp and wipe it out." The special Jounin paused. "See if you can keep property damage low."
The team paused for a moment until Ibiki irritably waved them off and leapt away. The trio followed his lead, leaving for their own work, Naoko and Hikari taking to the trees while Ranma travelled along the ground. It didn't take long to find the first of the would be ambushers, Naoko took care of him with a kunai to the back of the skull, Ranma pulled it out and tossed it back up to her. A thin trail of blood spun off the blade.
The second and third kills were quick and quiet, Hikari taking them both unawares. The fourth and final kill was performed by Ranma who snuck up behind the archer and pushed a senbon into the back of the man's chest, going through his heart and killing him in a moment that seemed to last forever for the far too young Ranma Saotome.
Hikari and Naoko turned their eyes from the kill and stealthily moved towards the camp to finish the mission. Ranma following them without hesitation.
Authors Note: I apologize for the extreme lateness of this chapter. One year and two months late to be precise. Omfg.