FicWad

The Shinobi of Legends

By CrossoverFanatic

Chapter 6 - The End of a Friendship, the Beginning of a Journey

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters who are originally from Ranma 1/2 or Naruto... even if I could own them, I'd much rather prefer to just create my own characters that can rival them in every shape and form.

In any case, original characters in this chapter consist of Uzumaki Noriko, Hyuuga Natsumi, and Uchiha Haruko, and they do belong to me. Maybe I should copyright these characters, too bad I have no idea how to copyright something (I'm just that dumb and clueless).

Summary: Once again, the chapter says it all. In fact I don't even know why I bother with a summary.
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"characters talking"

'characters thinking'
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For 5 entire months, Ranma spent Naruto's entire 2nd semester re-training him, under the strict supervision of their mother, on how to properly control his jutsus. His hard work finally paid off when the kid could perform most of his jutsus without hurting himself in the process, but that didn't mean he didn't make mistakes from time to time. After all he was only 7 now, and that meant he still had plenty of room for improvement.

As a consequence of spending every moment of his free time with Naruto, Ranma didn't have any time to train himself so he felt it would be best if his body get accustomed to his harsh training schedule again.

That's why he was currently by himself in the forest at the dead of night. Of course his worrisome mother had left a summoning scroll with him, which would instantly summon her if there was any trouble. 'So overprotective......' he wearily thought, as he felt his body move sluggishly, 'Ugh, I think that's it for today. Maybe I should have gone a little easy on myself after such a long break.'

Ranma then started to walk away, moaning and groaning, when he suddenly heard a noise behind him. He quickly turned around, flinching in pain, to see that it was only a cute little bunny-rabbit. "Awww... how cute," he whispered as he got on his knees and went to pet the rabbit, then his eyes widened in shock and he quickly picked the animal up and ripped something off its stomach.

Holding it up, he could see that it was an "Exploding Tag?" he whispered before jumping up into the air to narrowly avoid several shurikens and kunai. He quickly put the bunny on the ground and crushed the tag, before he looked around and began to sniff the air. 'There!!!' he thought as he picked up a faint scent before hurling a shuriken in its direction, which quickly turned into hundreds of shuriken. "Shuriken Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow-Clone Technique)!!!" Ranma yelled out as all the shuriken tore through the trees to reveal a masked shinobi with cuts on his arms and legs.

His eyes narrowed in anger as the mask fell off, "Uchiha Fugaku," Ranma quietly murmured. "I didn't think you'd be so heartless as to use a cute little bunny against me..." then he took out 8 kunai and started to juggle them in his hands, "...but then again I didn't think you'd be so stupid as to actually attack me either," and he quickly threw the kunai, one by one, towards his target.

Fugaku easily blocked and deflected the flying weapons with his own kunai, but he was caught unprepared for the abnormal speed that Ranma used to instantly close their distance and kick him into a tree. "You damn boy, I slowed bided my time for this one chance..." he growled out as he spit blood out of his mouth, "...I still haven't forgotten that humiliation you dealt to me nearly a year ago."

Ranma just rolled his eyes, 'This guy needs some serious therapy, what kind of freak holds a grudge for something so stupid for so long,'  (crack shot at all the psychos of the anime world, Ryoga, Mousse, Sasuke, etc.)

Fugaku slowly got up and concentrated his chakra into his eyes, making his pupils become blood-red and causing 3 'tomoe' to grow within them. Seeing that the old man had activated the Sharingan, Ranma knew he was in trouble. 'Oh geez, I don't have much chakra left in me to go all-out...' He wearily thought and discreetly looked around, '... and I need to go all-out to even stand a chance, so I'm just gonna need to do something to even the odds.'

His planning was cut off short, when a giant fireball came shooting towards him. He tried to dodge it but since his body was still in pain after his training, he wasn't able to get out of the way in time. His body skidded across the ground where he made a giant crater when he stopped, moaning in pain he weakly opened his eyes to see Fugaku making hand-seals once more.

Just then, he quickly rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a large barrage of fireballs at the last second. Just when he thought he was safe, they suddenly just turned around and went after him again. 'What the hell...?!?!' Ranma thought in shock, as he was chased around by the apparently magic fireballs, '... Housenka (Mythical Fire Flower) isn't supposed to follow you around!!!'

He glanced over to Fugaku to see him holding up a single hand-seal, and concentrating his chakra. "No way, you know how to make these things chase someone around?!?!?!" Ranma cried out, however as he was nearing the trees, he was surprised and confused to see one of the fireballs suddenly rear off to hit a large bear. 'I don't get it, why did that one just...?' Then he finally realized it, 'Duh, fire equals heat, these things are heat-seekers!!!'

Fugaku was stunned to see Ranma stop in the middle of the forest to stand completely still, 'Why did he stop...?' then he saw the boy close his eyes, and clasp his hands together. 'What's he doing?' His thoughts were abruptly interrupted when he had to duck under his own fireballs, 'How?!?!' Having no other choice, he quickly canceled his heat-seeking technique, and leaped over the fireballs which burnt themselves out on the ground.

'That was close......' His relief was cut short when he was roughly thrown into the trees by a strong burst of wind and snow... snow?!?! Fugaku looked over to see Ranma with his sword out, smirking arrogantly, and breathing hard and heavily. "How in the world did you create snow in this kind of environment?!?!" He asked with a sneer, there was no way this boy could be that talented.

"Oh that's my secret, you don't need to worry about that," Ranma mumbled out in exhaustion. In reality, it was the 'Blizzard,' an ice-based kenjutsu technique taught to him by his mother. By cooling the water molecules in his body and of the area around him, he managed to lower the temperature to freezing degrees. Then as he saw Fugaku get distracted by his own attack, which went to seek out a new heat-source, he quickly used the invisible swing, a swing so fast that no human eyes can see it and created the 'Blizzard' from the cold-atmosphere around him.

This was all thanks to the rigorous training and teachings that his mother instilled in him. 'Mama... l-looks like... I-I'm not comin' home tonight...' Ranma tiredly thought as everything went dark, but as he was falling, his hand accidentally ripped open a certain scroll on the tree stump......

Fugaku saw his chance when the boy was fainted, but grimaced at how much pain his body was in. "I can't believe this brat actually managed to hurt me," he mumbled in anger, then he took a shaky step back as thick smoke covered the area in front of him. 'Now what...?' As the smoke was clearing, he knew he was in big trouble when he recognized the figure standing there with her sword in hand, '...... oh crap!!!'

Uzumaki Noriko was using her own variation of her son's glowing-eyes, but hers could be considered even scarier since it was partnered by her dark-red aura of womanly rage from hell. "You damn bastard..." She growled out before she unsheathed her sword and sent a very, very, VERY big fire-scythe towards the wide-eyed, shaking man.

Fugaku could only look on pathetically as the attack came closer and closer, he couldn't even move due to the immense killing intent of the woman before him. 'This is going to hurt...' was the man's last thought before he felt the worst pain of his life and almost immediately lost consciousness.

She glared at the convulsing burnt body of the 'man' in front of her before spitting on him, then knelt down by her son and gently cradled his head in her arms. "Oh sweetie... mama's so proud of you," She kissed his forehead before teleporting them home.

High above in the trees stood a lone figure watching the scene from the very beginning. "Ranma-kun," the triple-tomoe of the Sharingan spinning around in his pupils......

3 days later, Ranma and Noriko had decided to keep this whole situation under wrap. Actually it was more like Ranma wanted to keep silent, while Noriko wanted to prosecute the man and make his life a living hell by flushing his reputation down the toilet. Ranma immediately protested to telling anyone about this, especially the Hokage, because he didn't want Uchiha Mikoto (Sasuke's mother) finding out about this. As his mother's best friend, he didn't want her to suffer the consequences of her husband's stupid actions.

After spending hours arguing about this matter, Noriko finally conceded to her child's hush-hush plan if only because it'll keep Mikoto happy and clueless about this whole ugly mess...... That, and Ranma promised her that he wouldn't stop her from beating the guy to near-death if he even looked at them the wrong way again.

'Hehehehehe, you're gonna suffer. If I ever catch you even eye-balling my baby again, I'm gonna take my sword and shove it right up your... then I'm gonna twist and turn, and ram it down your... then I'm stab you a hundred million times in the...' These were the sadistic thoughts running through Noriko's mind as she and Ranma were doing some late-spring cleaning.

Laughing nervously, he sweatdropped at the sight of his mother twisting and crumpling the duster into a tiny ball, then slowly moved away to clean behind the television. 'Geez, maybe I shouldn't have promised her she could beat the poor guy up...' Ranma thought to himself.

Even after the murder attempt, Ranma didn't bare any type of grudge towards the elder Uchiha because he just wasn't worth the aggravation. After all, plenty of people wanted him gone due to his actions over the years, and one more wasn't going to make a difference. Besides, if he were to waste his time worrying about every single person in the world who wanted to kill him, then he'd probably become a decrepit old man in a few days.

Just then a knock was heard at the front door, so Noriko went over to answer it. She was surprised to see Sandaime Hokage and Uchiha Mikoto standing there, "Sarutobi-san, Miko-chan, come in please," she invited them in and led them over to the living room. Ranma, seeing that they had guests, went into the kitchen to get some food and refreshments.

After everyone was comfortably settled down, and Ranma had set up the snacks and drinks, Noriko took a quick glance at Mikoto who seemed to have been crying a lot, if the puffy eyes and tear marks were any indication. She hoped it wasn't because of her husband's injuries that she had inflicted. She was starting to feel guilty at the thought of her being the reason that her best friend was sad, even if the lousy bum deserved it for bullying her baby around. 'Hell yeah!!!' she fiercely thought, and in the depths of her mind, a chibi-Noriko was pumping her arm while laughing insanely.

"Nori-chan, have you seen my husband lately? He hasn't been home for several days now," Mikoto desperately asked, bringing her out of her fantasy. "What?" Noriko was clearly startled by the question, "Tell me everything that happened, Miko-chan." But she was caught off-guard when the woman jumped into her arms and started to cry into her chest. The only thing she could do was wrap her arms around the hysterical woman, and gently rock her back and forth while rubbing her back.

She looked at Ranma, who seemed to be just as confused as her. "Ano, Jiji? What's going on?" Ranma curiously asked, he had a bad feeling about this......

"Fugaku's been missing for nearly 3 days now, and we were wondering if you knew anything about his whereabouts," Sarutobi calmly responded, "Not that we're accusing you of anything, but some of the villagers said they saw him walking around your family's training grounds in the forest." Meeting the eyes of his mother, they knew that they couldn't tell them the truth especially not when this poor woman had already been through so much. "Yes, we did see him a couple of days ago when we were training together, but he told us he was just taking a late-night stroll and was about to leave for home," Noriko half-lied with a straight face, inwardly cursing at this whole situation.

"I see..." Sarutobi sighed before he got up, "If you hear any news from Fugaku again, please be sure to tell us." Noriko nodded and help the distraught woman to her feet, she hugged her shoulders as they walked to the door while reassuring her that everything would be alright. As Ranma was politely opening the door for their guests to leave, Sarutobi took a good look at the boy and raised an eyebrow at what he saw.

"Ranma, you should go back to bed and rest, and try not to go overboard in training from now..." eyeing his bandaged body, "...it won't do to purposely injure yourself like that," Sarutobi gently reprimanded. Ranma just sheepily nodded, before breathing a sigh of relief when they left, then he walked back into the living room to clear the table.

Realizing that she was alone, Noriko walked into the kitchen to see her son washing the dishes. "What was that all about, kaa-chan?" Ranma wondered, "What do you think happened to Fugaku-san?"

Hearing no response, he looked over at his mother just sitting at the table with her arm crossed, just starring down with a serious expression. "Mama, is everything alright?" Hearing her son speak again brought her back to reality, and Noriko gently smiled at him before getting out of her chair. "Of course it is, Ranma-chan. I think it's about time for some lunch now since you're probably hungry after all that cleaning." Then she began to get some bread for sandwiches...

A little while later as she and her son were eating lunch, Noriko inwardly frowned as a nagging suspicion kept telling her that everything was not alright. Fugaku should have been able to stagger home that same night despite her powerful attack, so where in Konoha was he? 'Something big is about to happen...' she thought as she glanced at her grinning son, who was happily gobbling down his food, '... and I'm afraid that it's going to take my baby away.'

Uchiha Mikoto slowly walked into her home, still crying a little and sniffing. She just couldn't understand what had happened to her husband, it's like he just vanished into thin air. He's never been gone this long without trying to contact her, just then she noticed a trail of blood on the floor leading all the way into the living room. Cautiously, she followed it until she came upon Fugaku who was tied up to a chair, and had bruises and deep cuts covering his entire body,.

"Anata!!!" Mikoto quickly rushed over to untie him. When she finally got the knot loose, she was horrified to see that her husband was long-dead since his organs had been cleanly cut out through his back. As she was about to run out of the house to get help, a kunai was thrown at her feet, forcing her to stop. Reaching into her dress, she took out a dagger and carefully looked around, but she couldn't see anyone else in the house. But just then, she saw drops of blood fall onto the floor, and looked up to see...... her eldest son on the ceiling, gazing at her with the Sharingan. "Itachi, what's going on?" She nervously whispered.

Sensing a presence behind her, she quickly turned around and deflected a sword slash with her dagger. Looking around, she was surprised to see that she was surrounded by Kage-Bunshins (Shadow-Clones) of Itachi. 'Impossible, in less than a blink of an eye the entire room was filled with clones,' Mikoto thought in shock, as she activated her Sharingan and slit the throat of the nearest clone, she used the smoke of the 'poof' to quickly use Goukakyuu (Grand Fireball), and destroyed the clones blocking the exit.

As she was too busy trying to escape, she forgot all about her real son, who was silently watching her from the ceiling. Mikoto soon remembered this fact when several needles hit her in the leg sending her roughly to the floor. "Gyah!!!" she cried out, but still tried to drag herself towards the door regardless of the pain. However, she didn't get far as Itachi dropped down to the floor and landed in front of her.

"Okaa-san, I think it's about time we had a family meeting about the future..." Mikoto heard him say before she felt a sharp pain through her back and stomach, and realized that Itachi had just impaled her with his katana, "... unfortunately, it saddens me to say that the future does not involve you." Tears were running down her face as she couldn't believe this was happening, 'Itachi......' everything soon became dark as he brought his sword down on her head.

Later that night, Ranma snuck out of his house while his mother and brother slept. Like Noriko, Ranma had a suspicious feeling that something was going to happen... no, that something already had happened. This was the reason why he was currently standing in front of the entrance of the Uchiha compound, to get some answers. As he was about to open the twin-doors, he suddenly stopped when he got a strange chill down his spine.

Letting go of the handle, Ranma jumped over the wall and looked at the inside of the doors to see that they were rigged with explosive-tags, 'A trap, but why?' he confusedly thought, as he ripped the tags off to make sure no one activated them.

As he walked down the eerily empty and silent street, he felt himself getting colder and colder as the path seemed to get darker. 'Man, what is this, it's like something out of a horror movie...' the rest of his thoughts were utterly forgotten when he picked up the scent of blood, and turned the corner to see several people lying on the floor. He quickly checked all the bodies to confirm that they were all dead. He then ran to other parts of the compound only to come across more and more deceased people, 'Oh god, who could have done all this,' he despairingly thought, just then he heard a tiny whimper in one of the shops.

Rushing right in, Ranma saw a small platinum-haired girl breathing shallowly with a large wound on her stomach. He knelt down and gently put his hands on her wound and began to heal it using a medical jutsu. After making sure that the gash was completely gone he gently picked her up, 'I have to get her to the hospital, then alert Jiji about this...'

As he left the shop, Ranma saw a shadow run down the streets near the next block. He quickly chased after it and was surprised to see a familiar looking 15-year old, with bloodied clothes, jump over the wall.

"Itachi?!?!" Ranma whispered in shock, "I don't have much time..." Just then, he used Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique) to instantly teleport himself and the girl to an empty room in the hospital. After making sure that the girl was comfortably tucked in and hooked up to the hospital machines, he used the same jutsu to teleport himself near the gates of Konoha.

After a few seconds of waiting, Ranma's gamble paid off when he saw a shadow quickly make its way towards him. He threw some shuriken at the faint figure of Itachi, only to have them deflected back with a downward-slash of his sword. Ducking beneath the flying projectiles, Ranma looked up to see Itachi stop in front of him. "I'm surprised to see you here, Ranma-kun," he calmly stated as he sheathed his blade, "If I had known you were going to come, I would have set up some more high-level traps."

"Itachi, what the hell have you done?!?!" he shouted, "Please tell me this was all a big mistake, tell me that you weren't the one who killed all those people!!!" The only thing Itachi did was close his eyes and sadly sigh, then he quickly kicked some dirt into Ranma's face and charged the momentarily blinded ninja. But the instant the dirt hit his eyes, Ranma dropped something onto the floor that created a smokescreen around him. 'Smoke-bomb...' Itachi thought before quickly flipped backwards to avoid a Katon-jutsu.

Landing on his feet, Itachi could see Ranma rubbing his eyes trying to get his vision back. "No, it wasn't a mistake. I grew tired of them Ranma-kun," he told the twitching boy, "Their arrogance, their superiority complex, their mere existence..."

"Itachi..." Ranma growled out, but he just continued to talk. "Those arrogant fools, with their pompous attitudes, only cared about themselves and treated everyone else like trash," Itachi then started to walk forward, "So I decided to do the world a favor and get rid of those petty insects once and for all."

He stopped right in front of a glaring Ranma, "Tell me, just what would you have done?" Itachi asked.

"I would have explained to them my feelings, tell them that it was time for their ways to change..." Ranma was cut off by the sounds of laughter. "Oh god, I'm sorry but that's just hilarious," Itachi ceased his laughing and settled on a smirk, "There are people in this world who will never change, no matter what, and the Uchiha Clan were some of those people."

"That's not true, everyone can change!!!" Ranma yelled out, "You just have to give them a chance!!!"

Itachi just slowly shook his hand, "That kind of naïve thinking shouldn't exist in a shinobi. Even people as influential as the Hokage don't have the power to change everyone."

Ranma just gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, "How the hell would you know that, you didn't even try..." he was cut off once again as Itachi suddenly attacked him with a front kick, which he quickly caught. "That naivety, I will destroy it right now," Itachi's body suddenly 'poofed' into smoke as a sword was stabbed through the clone, aimed right for Ranma's heart.

Ranma immediately jumped backwards to avoid the sword thrust, and because of this he was unable to dodge the huge fire-dragon which suddenly appeared in front of him. Seeing that he had no way of escaping, Ranma threw several kunai with explosive tags attached, which managed to destroy a good part of the dragon's body. Unfortunately this set off a chain explosion which sent the poor ninja crashing across the ground, making a very-deep canal in its path. As soon as his body came to a stop, Ranma was forced to quickly jump to the side to avoid a shower of kunai and shuriken.

Seeing an opportunity, Itachi quickly took advantage, but Ranma simply parried the punch with his right hand then jumped onto his left hand to kick Itachi in the side of his head. As the Uchiha prodigy was stunned from the blow, Ranma quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and kneed him in the stomach. Then as the boy was bent over from the pain, Ranma jumped up to strongly knee him right in the nose, while still in mid-air he performed a spin kick which hit the injured boy right in the chest and sent him straight into the trees.

"Doton: Retsudo Tenshou (Earth Skill: Splitting Earth Force)!!!" Ranma slammed his hand on the floor, causing several large fissures to open up straight towards Itachi. The power of the attack completely destroyed the earth and forest.

Just then a figure swiftly jumped through the smoke and debris, high into the sky. Ranma immediately started another set of hand-seals when he saw Itachi do the same, then at the same time they shot off a large fireball and waterball from their mouths.

"Katon: Goukakyuu (Fire Skill: Grand Fireball)!!!" Itachi yelled out.

"Suiton: Suitaihou (Water Skill: Water Cannonball)!!!" Ranma screamed.

The two attacks collided and created a huge explosion which sent both fighters flying across the ground, and left a thick fog to surround the forest. "Ugh..." Ranma groaned in pain, then slowly got up and perk his ears to pick up any sounds of movement. He soon heard something rustle and ran towards it, there he saw Itachi getting up and jumped forward to elbow him right in his cheek. Then he kicked him right in his chin and sent him straight into the air.

Ranma jumped up, right past him, and flipped around to stop his momentum then he rammed both of his feet into Itachi's stomach. "Ninpou: Chou Reppa Dan (Ninja Skill: Super Violent Rending Bullet)!!!" He rapidly spun around and forced his body to plummet towards the ground while his feet was still firmly planted in Itachi. When they landed, the impact and force of the downward spiral created a giant crater and the ground around them broke apart into giant pieces.

As soon as the dust cleared, Ranma pulled the horribly-beaten boy out of the ground and picked him up by the throat with one hand. "Give it up Itachi, you never were strong enough to beat me," he growled into his face, "By order of Konoha's law, you are hereby under..." He trailed off when Itachi started to quietly chuckle which became full-blown laughter, "What the hell's so funny!!!"

"Your words amuse me. You can't seem to grasp the fact that strength has absolutely no meaning to me," Itachi weakly said, before he quickly lifted up his head to look into Ranma's eyes with... what the hell?!?!?!

In that instant, Ranma found himself in a pitch-black area, "Where am I?" he whispered to himself, as he looked around. Just then he felt a pain in his shoulder and turned his head to see that Itachi had stabbed him, he felt another pain in his leg and saw another Itachi in front of him. Second after second, he watched as multiple Itachi came out of nowhere to stab him in some part of his body.

"This is the world of Tsukiyomi made possible by the Mangekyou Sharingan," Itachi's voice boomed over the screams as Ranma continued to be tortured. "I am the ruler here, I am the absolute master, within this world I can control and manipulate everything. Nobody can escape here without my consent, so that means..." A pair of large Sharingan eyes materialized in front of the mutilated boy, "...you are going to die here and now."

'Oh god...' Ranma painfully thought, 'Is something like this really possible?!?!' He screamed as another sword impaled his body, 'Tou-san, Tou-san, please help me...' He silently begged, just then images of his mother, brother, and friends flashed in his mind, 'That's right, I can't die like this!!! I still have people waiting for me back home, so... Itachi...... kisama (rude way of saying 'you') '

He gritted his teeth and concentrated all his chakra around his body, "... GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!!!" He shouted to the heavens, as the world around him slowly began to crack under the pressure of his energy before shattering like glass.

Ranma dropped down to his hands and knees, panting in exhaustion, and wearily glanced around to see that he was back in the forest. He heard a moan in front of him and saw the Uchiha prodigy flat on his back. "How? Nobody should be able..." Itachi mumbled out in disbelief, "How could you have escaped from Tsukiyomi?" He tried to get up only to collapse back to the ground, "... It's just not possible... wha... what are you?"

"I..." Ranma started to say as he stumbled to his feet, "I am... Uzumaki Ranma, a Konohagakure-Shinobi, and you... you're under arrest." Itachi just weakly smiled, "Konoha-Ninja, huh? You must truly love this village," then he started to softly laugh, "But you got yet another thing wrong Ranma-kun, I'm not going anywhere with you......"

As soon as Itachi said that, a giant shark-like man with a wrapped-up sword suddenly appeared and picked him up over his shoulder, before quickly disappearing again. Ranma could only look at what just transpired in silent shock, 'Who the hell was that?!?!' then everything became blurry, and he felt himself hit the ground before everything became dark again.

Ranma opened his eyes to once again see nothing but white, 'Oh geez, how many times am I going to wake up in this freakin' room,' he irritably thought. Just then Sarutobi walked into the room, and smiled at seeing the boy was finally awake. "Well it's about time, you gave everyone quite a scare. These days, it's not quite often we get to see you beat up, Mr. Super Ninja," he amusingly joked as he sat by the bed.

"Ha, ha, very funny Jiji..." Ranma then sat up, and scratched his head, "How long was I out for this time?" The old man just rubbed his chin and looked towards the ceiling, before he finally said, "I'd say close to about two weeks now."

Ranma's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, "Two weeks?!?!" He slowly got up and started to get the tension out of his muscles by stretching, "Shit, I can't believe I was knocked out for that long." Then he got a nervous expression when he notice Sarutobi's silent look of 'tell me what happened.'

"Fine, fine... I'll tell you exactly what happened. Don't get your diapers in a bunch Jiji," After a few minutes of explaining, Sarutobi lean into his chair and deeply sighed. "I see, so Itachi really was responsible for the massacre," he whispered, "What's even more troubling is the Mangekyou Sharingan..."

"What is this Mangekyou thingy?" Ranma questioned as he sat back down on the bed, "It's like he created his own little universe using those eyes."

Sarutobi started to pace around the room as he explained, "The Mangekyou Sharingan is the final evolution for the Uchiha Clan. Those eyes apparently have the power to manipulate the fabric of time and space, it's said to be the greatest doujutsu-technique ever, even though the Hyuuga would argue that. There's said to be certain requirements in order to achieve these eyes, but even I don't know what that is."

He sat on the bed next to Ranma and put his arm over his shoulder. "I'm rather surprised you were able to escape from the effects of the Mangekyou. But then again, your strength hardly surprises me anymore," Sarutobi told the boy, obviously proud of him.

Ranma shook his head, then got back up and walked towards the windows. "That's not true Jiji. If Itachi had been at full power, then I'd be long dead by now. Just think about it, he spent the entire night fighting against the entire Uchiha Clan and even then he still had enough power left to fight evenly against me," He slowly turned back to Sarutobi with tears in his eyes, obviously distraught about his failure. "I wasn't... able to stop him, even with all my strength," He hugged the old man as he cried into his shoulders.

After a few minutes, Ranma looked Sarutobi with determined eyes. "Jiji, I have a favor to ask of you..." he whispered, "First, I need to know if that Uchiha girl I put in the hospital room is okay."

Ranma smiled when he nodded, "That's good, in that case I'd like to request that I leave the village with that girl to train outside of Konoha."

Sarutobi just sadly sighed when he heard this, "Are you going after Itachi, Ranma?"

Ranma became silent for a few seconds, before slowly shaking his head. "No, not yet anyway. Right now, I just want to get that girl away from the village as soon as possible, if Itachi finds out about her existence then he might come back to kill her." He turned back to the Hokage with determined eyes, "But Jiji, if I do encounter him on this journey then I'm not going to run away or hold back. I ever meet that man again... I'm going to kick his ass."

He turned back to the window and stared into the sky, "It's my duty to bring him back. After all, he is my best friend......"

The next day, he was spending some 'quality' time with his mother and brother. "I can't believe you're going to be away for..." Noriko started to say, before she turned to her son who was training with Naruto, "How long are you going to be gone for, Ranma-chan?"

Grabbing Naruto's foot as he tried to kick him, Ranma spun his brother around before letting him go, sending him high into the sky. "I have no idea, kaa-chan..." he then cart-wheeled to the side to avoid some kunai, "I don't want you to worry about me though. I'm a big boy now, besides I'm gonna be sending letters and presents every chance I get."

Ranma then kicked upwards to deflect a punch from Naruto, then quickly performed a spin-kick with the same leg to constrict the kid's neck in between the back of his knee. He slowly squeezed his leg tighter forcing the young blonde into dreamland in a matter of seconds. Ranma let go and patted his unconscious brother on the head, "Better luck next time Chibi..." He was cut off when a wind-blast hit him in the back, sending him face-first into the floor.

He pulled himself out of the ground and shook his head to get rid of the dirt, then looked back to see his mother with her sword out, slowly walking towards him. "Well, if this is going to be the last week that I'm going to be able to spend with my eldest child..." Noriko mumbled through clenched teeth, "...then I might as give you the ass-kicking of the century right now to make sure you always remember how strong your mama is." She slashed the air in an X-pattern, which tore open a hole in the air and soon several firebirds flew out of it, heading straight towards him.

Ranma just looked blankly at the oncoming birds, 'Oh damn... this is gonna to hurt...'

A few hours later, he was limping through the forest while rubbing his neck because of the beating his mother gave him, 'She's never gone that hard in a spar before, I guess she must be really mad about me leaving.' He soon came upon Kakashi and Gai in yet another of their famous duels, this time they were trying to see how many leaves they can catch with their left hand and with their eyes closed in the span of 1 minute.

"Aha!!! 78 leaves, beat that Kakashi!!!!!" Gai yelled out, completely positive of his victory.

Kakashi just looked up from his spot of the ground, before pointing to a large pile of leaves in front of him. "I caught 214..." He then saw Gai's eyes get really wide and his jaw drop to the ground, "Guess I win, huh?" Seeing that Gai was going to get started on his self-imposed rule stipulation, Ranma quickly made his presence known.

"Yo, Sempai-tachi," The two jounins turned around to see Ranma walk through the bushes. "Oi, Ranma-kun, are you sure you should be out of bed right now?" Gai asked in worry, "After all you did take quite a beating a couple of weeks back." Ranma just waved that suggestion away, "No, I'm okay now but I got a favor to ask of you two..."

A couple of minutes later, he explained the situation, "So, you're going after Itachi..." Kakashi saw Ranma shake his head and quickly cut off his denial, "Yeah, yeah, you just want to get that girl out of here, to travel the world and get stronger. But face it, everyone's gonna know your real reason for wanting to leave."

"You want us to train Naruto while you're gone?" Gai repeated the boy's request, "Well, I suppose I'll do it, after all it's the least I can do for you. Besides he needs someone to properly train him since Noriko-san is always busy and all."

Then the two turned their heads to the silver-haired man, "Well...How 'bout you, Half-Face?" Ranma asked him. "Fine, fine, I'll do it," Kakashi grumbled under his breath, "But you definitely owe me."

Ranma just grinned as he took out three books from inside his jacket, "These are the never-before released 2nd and 3rd volumes of Icha-Icha Paradise, autographed by the author himself. I have no idea how, but you seem to have gotten an autographed 1st volume already..." It was strange because Jiraiya-sama never put his name on the Icha-Icha novels, in fear that a woman would recognize it and search him out for some divine female retribution.

"...In any case, this makes us even, right?" The wide-eyed pervert just slowly reached for the bountiful treasures but they were pulled away, "Half-Face, I expect you to actually teach Naru-chan in Ninjutsu and not just read your porn, got me?" Kakashi just quickly nodded, before Ranma tossed him the books and walked away.

Once reaching the bushes, he turned around and saw that Kakashi was literally drooling over the novels, while Gai was doing 10,000 upside-down push-ups with his thumbs and index fingers. He palmed his face in exasperation, 'Oh geez, I hope I'm doing the right thing by leaving Naru-chan with those two. If I come back and find the kid reading porn, being 3 hours late to everything, wearing Green-spandex, and yelling out absurd proclamations and self-imposed rules, I'm going to torture them.' He took one last look at the morons before going home, 'Oh yeah...... I got the perfect torture methods in mind too.'

The next day, Ranma went in search for the rest of his friends. By this time, news has spread about the massacre of the Uchihas at the hand of Itachi, and the fact that Ranma was leaving to go after him.

He ignored all the hushed whispers around him and entered the shinobi bar that his friends liked to hang out at. He looked around and saw nearly all of them sitting at the corner table. Walking over, Ranma greeted them before sitting down and saw that everyone was looking at him rather expectedly. "What?" he irritably snapped, "I suppose Kakashi-sempai and Gai-san already told you. It's true, I'm leaving next week."

Upon hearing this, everyone became silent and just stared at the table. "When are you coming back?" Asuma asked. Ranma just sighed and put his feet on the table before leaning his chair on its two back legs, "I'm not really sure, but I am going to travel all the Hidden Villages throughout the world. So I'm guessing around a few years."

Raido slammed his hand on the table, "You got to be kidding me!!! Because of some heartless bastard, you're leaving us for that long!!!" he angrily shouted. Everyone at the table just nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing with his statement. "Won't you please reconsider Ranma-kun?" Kurenai pleaded.

Ranma just slowly shook his head, and looked at the ceiling. "It was my responsibility to bring him in... and I failed. So it's up to me to finish what I started," As he was saying this, tears started running down his cheek. "I don't want to leave... I just wanna stay home with my mother, my brother, and all you guys..." Then he lowered his head and looked at each person with tears in his eyes, "... but you gotta understand, it's my duty as a Konohagakure-Shinobi to bring him in to justice. Even if I have to sacrifice my life to do it."

Kurenai hugged him gently, and let him cry on her chest. The others slowly got up and left the bar, obviously wondering about what's going to happen now... they had some serious thinking to do. "Kurenai-chan, do you think I'm wrong? Do you think I'm being selfish?" Ranma mumbled as he raised his head to look her in the eyes.

The only thing she did was slowly bring her lips to his, and gently kissed him. After a few minutes, she let go and shook her head, "No, I don't think you're being selfish. It takes a brave man to do something as hard as leaving the people he loves for any reason." The moment she finished talking, Ranma roughly kissed her again and pull her body onto his lap......

The next morning, he woke up and saw a nude Kurenai in the bed next to him. He kissed her softly on the lips once more before getting up and putting his clothes back on. Then he cooked her a heavy breakfast and wrote a note thanking her for everything, then put them on the night-table next to her.

Ranma left her apartment building and walked straight towards the forest to do some light exercises. 'Oh geez, I can't believe I did that last night with Kurenai,' he silently berated himself, 'Not to mention, what's Anko-chan going to do to me when she finds out.' He shuddered as he imagined some of the torture treatments she'd use on him. He prayed to the heavens that she wouldn't find out, at least until after he left.

Unfortunately, the heavens were against him that day as several snakes came rushing towards him. He rolled to the side, avoiding them at the last second and looked back to see one very pissed-off kunoichi stomping towards him. "Do you know lover..." Anko emphasized the word, "...what I do to men who break my heart?" Ranma gulped when he saw her take out a sword, and slowly nodded his head.

She walked right up to his face and scowled, "Then tell me why I saw you and Kurenai kissing and fondling each other last night." She then pointed the sword right at his throat, "And you better give me a very good explanation or else you'll be sleeping with the demons of hell tonight."

Ranma put his hand on the blunt side of the blade and nervously pushed it down. "Anko-chan..." he softly said, as he moved over to hug her but she just backed away, "...I don't know what the hell happened." He then sat on the ground and clutched his head, "Everything's a mess right now, I don't even know what the hell I'm doing anymore."

He got on his knees and shuffled over to Anko to hug her around her waist, "I still know one thing though, I would never do anything to deliberately hurt you," He slowly got up and held her body close to his, "I... I love you, Anko" He whispered into her ear, before gently kissing her, "But I just can't deny that I have feelings for Kurenai as well."

Anko just sighed and leaned her head onto his chest. After an half an hour of just holding each other, she had time to think and finally came to a decision. "Goddamn..." she sighed out as she leered at his chiseled body, "I never thought I willingly join a harem in my life."

Ranma just looked away confused, "Say what?" He managed to get out before Anko tackled him to the ground and ripped his shirt off with a wicked grin on her face. "Hehehe, you know I regret not getting the first bite..." She stopped to kiss and lick his chest, "...but I'll be damned if I don't get a piece of the cake too."

The next few hours were rather... intense, and weird, and definitely freaky. When it was all said and done, Ranma slowly staggered out of the forest, wearily putting his clothes back on, but he only managed to get his pants on before he fainted on the ground.

Soon after, Anko cheerfully wobbled out and pulled him up to kiss him again. "You are one very lucky man, Ran-chan. Not too many women would be so kind as to forgive you like I did," she told him with a large grin, before letting him fall back onto the ground and stretched her aching back. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to track down Kurenai and trade notes with her. It might be best if we work out a time schedule too," Then she started heading towards the town, but not before blowing a kiss to her unconscious lover.

A week later, mother and son were fiercely hugging each other in front of the Gates of Konoha. "Oh honey, be careful okay? Be sure to eat properly, no junk food after 6. Always make sure to change your underwear everyday, and wash your hair at least once every two days..." Noriko continued to talk and Ranma just turned red in embarrassment as his two girlfriends started snickering.

"Mama!!! I'm going to be fine, it's not the first time I've gone away," He gently held onto his mother for a few more seconds before letting her go and kissing her on the cheek. "Don't worry, I told you before I'll be back as soon as possible, plus I'll always keep in contact," Ranma then wiped some tears off of her face. "Quit crying so much, a woman as beautiful as you shouldn't be sad," He quietly told her as she hugged him again, crying even harder now.

"Nii-chan, make sure you get me lots of cool gifts okay?" Naruto mumbled into his brother's leg as he tightly held it, Ranma just smiled and rubbed his head. "Of course Naru-chan, and when I get back I better hear that you've become Hokage or else I'm gonna be very angry," Naruto just lifted his head and nodded while sniffling.

Ranma walked over to Anko and Kurenai and kissed them both before looking around. "I guess everyone else isn't coming, huh?" He softly asked, "I don't blame them, I wouldn't want to see a friend leave home for such a selfish reason either."

Just then smoke enveloped the area in front of them. "Ora, ora, is that how little you think of us Ranma?!" Genma yelled out, as he and all the others made their grand appearance, "After all, don't you know it's cooler to be fashionably late. That way you make a wicked last-minute entrance and surprise everyone."

"Minna (Everyone)!!!" Ranma yelled out as he ran towards them, "I didn't think you were really going to come, especially since I haven't seen you guys since last week."

"Oh that..." Aoba started to say before everyone took out gifts, "... We were just thinking about what to give you for your trip. We came up with this plan so that you'd always have a piece of us with you, that way you'd never forget your friends or home."

"Although, we can see that Anko and Kurenai have been giving their 'special gifts' to you all week long, you lucky brat," Asuma jokingly said, while jabbing a red-faced Ranma. Kurenai just blushed as well, while Anko just grinned and giggled perversely.

"Maa, how troublesome, let's just get this over with..." Kakashi said as he walked over to Ranma and he gave him a neatly-wrapped package. "It's my old ANBU-uniform. I figured you could wear it if you're ever in a need of a disguise," He then took out a ninja-sword and toss it into his arms, "That's the ANBU-assigned ninjato (sword), the outfit just wouldn't be complete without it."

Kakashi just scratched the back of his head and looked away, "I'm not very good with goodbyes..." he quietly said as he held out his hand, "...So I guess this is just 'see you later,' right?" Ranma just nodded as he shook his hand.

Gai then stepped in and handed him a green-spandex outfit, "When I heard that Kakashi was going to give you one of his old uniforms, I thought it was only fitting that I'd give you one of mine as well." He then tightly hugged the poor boy and started bawling his eyes out, "May you have a safe journey, Ranma-kun!!!" he cried out. Ranma just nodded and chuckled, before hugging the emotional man back.

Asuma gave him a book, a wooden-case, and a leather pouch, "This book has the latest 'Go' strategies, I thought you might want to read up on some of the professional moves when you have time. That wooden case is a miniature 'Go' board which opens up, and the pieces are in the pouch." He held out his hand as well, "I figured you'd want to keep up your skills, but it's not like it's really going to help you against me though."

Ranma just smirked, "Yeah right, you better watch out Asuma. When I get back I'm definitely going to win all of our matches," then he grasped his hand and firmly shook it.

Hayate handed over a book as well and sheepishly rubbed his head, "I didn't really know what to get you. So I just wrote down most of my family's old recipes and got someone to make it into a book. Most of the ingredients you can easily find in the wild, so this way you'll never have to just eat regular meat, you can have some variety." Ranma graciously smiled and hugged the man, "Thanks Hayate, this is going to help me out a lot."

Yugao, who was holding Hayate by his waist, gave Ranma a necklace with some charms on it. "I know, I know, it's a girly gift but if you hold up the charms to the moonlight, it'll reflect images onto the ground of different maps. This way if you ever get lost, you can just hold up one of the charms at night and you'll get an instant map."

She pointed to each of the charms, "You can see that they're marked too, so you can tell which map is in which charm." Ranma just grinned, "Now that's a really cool gift," then he gently hugged the woman. "When I get back, I better hear that you and Hayate are married, and that you have children or else..." he whispered into her ear, which made her blush and she punched him in the arm in embarrassment.

Raido gave him a pair of leather gauntlets, "These aren't just regular gauntlets, it's actually a hidden weapon. By pressing all four buttons on the inside of the palm with your fingers, a retractable flat-blade pops out through the front on the top-side." He demonstrated and Ranma just went whistled appreciatively, "Raido-san, you always did think about my safety," then he shook the man's hand.

Genma gave him a marble box, "Inside are 250 long toothpicks like mine. I figured you'll need plenty of weapons out in the real world, plus they make you look cool too." Ranma just grinned and pounded his fist against Genma's.

Ebisu just gave him a folded-up piece of paper, "This is a map to all women's bathing houses in the world..." He was wondering why everyone was looking at him weirdly now, "What?" Ranma just mumbled under his breath about perverted-hypocrites, before shaking the man's hand. "Ebisu-sensei, I'll be sure to ummm... keep this handy," he quickly put it in his pocket before his girlfriends could set it ablaze with their glares.

Ibiki handed over a rolled-up blanket, "These are some special kunai and shuriken I've personally created. I wouldn't want these to go to waste in this dingy village, not when you might need them a lot more than me." The two shared a sadistic grin, before looking away awkwardly. After a few seconds, they quickly hugged and released, after all it's just plain weird for two sadistic men to show public displays of affection towards each other.

Aoba gave him perhaps the greatest gift of them all!!! "Ranma-kun, I know how much you enjoyed these manga, so I bought them for you to read on your journey. I bought a lot though, so I hope you don't mind." Ranma just grinned before tightly hugging the man, "Aoba-san, you know I don't really think you're a geek..." he trailed off when he felt the man nod and pat his back.

Once everyone was done, Kurenai and Anko quickly stepped in and dragged the boy away from the others. They stopped behind a tree, where Anko gave him the longest, deepest kiss he's ever gotten from her, and damn... was that saying something. "Just a little reminder of what's waiting for you back here, lover," she whispered into his ear before gently licking and teasing it, and she kissed him again.

Kurenai took her turn as well, unfortunately (fortunately?) this kiss lasted over 15 minutes. When Anko saw the boy's eyes roll back and his body become limp, she was forced to rip the girl off of him so that he wouldn't die from suffocation. "Oops," The crimson-eyed girl nervously let out after seeing what she did, "I didn't think I held onto him for so long."

Correction, this was the greatest gift he received today!!!!!!

After reviving the poor boy, the trio slowly walked back to the crowd. Ranma just ignored the cheering that erupted from nearly all the men, not to mention the cry of "Double Grandbabies!!!" from his mother.

Ranma looked around and sighed in annoyance when he saw that his little partner still wasn't there yet, "Where is she?" he wondered outloud. "We're right here!!!" Everyone looked up to see Hyuuga Natsumi holding the hand of Uchiha Haruko, both of whom were standing in the trees with backpacks on the branches.

"We?" Ranma said confused, "What's this 'we' business? This trip is just me and her." When Natsumi just grinned and pointed at the person who was walking towards them, he immediately turned around and glared at Sandaime who just laughed nervously. "Well Ranma, I figured it was best if you had a more-experienced shinobi by your side, and since Natsumi did request it... I felt it was best if the prodigy of Hyuuga accompany the prodigy of Konoha."

Ranma was about to yell at the old man, when he felt a hand on his shoulder and look back to see Natsumi holding her camera and giggling at him. "Hohohohoho, please treat me well Ranma-dono," She mischievously said while pointing her camera at his twitching face.

A few minutes later of more arguing then kissing his mother, brother, and girlfriends goodbye, the new team was walking down the path from the Gates of Konoha. Ranma stopped and turned around to wave again at the people who were still there, his family, his nakama (friends)... the people who meant more to him then words can ever describe.

"Sayonara Minna, Sayonara Konoha..." he whispered into the wind, "Until we meet again..."

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Author's Comments (R&R)
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These are some rough figures of the power ratings for my story, later on that is...

Strength/Chakra: Speed:
1) Kages: (100) 1) Noriko: (100)
2) The Legendary Three/Sand Siblings: (95) 2) Ranma: (90)
3) Ranma/Leader of the Akatsuki: (85) 3) Kages: (80)
4) Noriko: (75) 4) Legendary Three/Sand Siblings: (70)
5) Akatsuki: (65-80) 5) Akatsuki: (65)
6) Jounins: (50) 6) Jounins: (45-65)

Don't expect that Ranma or Noriko will easily win in a fight against the Akatsuki. You have to take into account strategy, intelligence, the fact that they travel by pairs, and Itachi's Mangekyou Sharingan. I mean, just take a look at the fight between Gaara and Deidara, Gaara was obviously superior in chakra and technique, but Deidara dominated in the end because of strategy and trickery.

Also in my eyes, Orochimaru was never in Sandaime's league, I mean Sarutobi had to fight against two previous Hokages right in the beginning and even after he was still kicking Orochimaru's butt!!! Nor is Itachi stronger than Orochimaru, if he was then why in the world was Itachi so hesitant to fight against Jiraiya especially when he had Kisame by his side. I think Orochimaru is just afraid of the Mangekyou, and he based Itachi's strength on just that one jutsu. We all know that Orochimaru may be seriously strong, but he tends to get overanxious.

As far as pairings go, Anko, Kurenai, Tsunade, and Shizune are the only canon women I'm going to hook Ranma up with. Yugao is the purple-haired ANBU woman who swore vengeance after Hayate's death during the Sand/Sound invasion, and I'm not gonna pair her up with him due to the way my fanfiction's set up. I also excluded Ayame because of the character interaction or lack of, just consider her feelings that of a schoolgirl crush, nothing too serious.

Yes, I know the battle scenes sucked, but writing fights are really hard because trying to explain everything that happens is nearly impossible without the inclusion of pictures. I could have made all of the fights longer and 10 times better if I was drawing them. There was just so much stuff I wanted to include too, oh well que sera sera.

I also apologize if the way Anko suddenly forgives Ranma made no sense, but they were holding each other for half an hour. I think any guy who's willing to stand for over an hour just hugging someone is pretty genuine. I don't think even I can do that... well maybe, I never tried.

By the way, the "Chou Reppa Dan" is the name of Andy Bogard's strongest technique, he's from the video game Fatal Fury/King of Fighters, and he happens to be my favorite character. Ranma's own version of that move is like Kiba's Gatsuga (Double Piercing Fang), only with the feet. He also has different variations of it, as you read earlier, he can either stomp on the person first then spin, or spin right off the bat. He can also use the spin to just increase his speed, then stop mid-way and use another technique.

For those of you who are Fugaku-fans, sorry... I really didn't like the guy much, so I just did what I thought made sense at his expense.

Just to warn you guys, from this point on, this story is going to consist of mostly original characters with references and cameo appearances of canon characters. I'm actually putting a lot of work into these original characters so that everyone will actually be able to understand them as much as the canon characters, so please try to bare with it, it's going to take some getting used to.