"Wandering Between Two Worlds" by Shadow Master aka Ryley Breen

email: ryley[underscore]breen[at]hotmail[dot]com

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted material contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and associated companies. The characters Lotion and Dio belong to the fanfic author 3D Master. I make no money off of this whatsoever. I write only for my own amusement and for those that enjoy reading my work. So any of you corporate lawyers who work for the companies that own these shows please put down your phones. Any money you might be able to sue me for wouldn't even be enough to get you a new suit.

Note: Well it's finally here! The sequel you've all been waiting for. I know I said that I would wait until I finished off a few more of my in progress fanfics before starting it but after watching the latest "Naruto Shippuuden" episodes my muse started acting like Willow on a sugar rush. So I figure go with the flow and hope for the best.

Note 2: As I have stated in previous fanfics I will try to stay as close to canon as I can for the shows involved but if a piece of canon gets in the way of the story I want to tell consider it tossed over my shoulder or tweaked so that it will work. So those of you that consider it heresy or something to deviate even the slightest from canon should probably walk away from this fanfic right now. Also while I welcome ideas any flaming or negative criticism will be cheerfully ignored. This is my story and I will write it the way I want to write it. I will take ideas that I think will make it better but if you don't like the way I'm doing things no one is forcing you to read it.

Now that that part is out of the way someone cue the BtVS intro music for Season 3…

Wandering Between Two Worlds

Approaching the Front Gate of Sunnydale High School, Mid-Afternoon, Willow's P.O.V

"Well that was a great big waste of time!" Buffy complained as they made their way back to the library. "Three hours of waiting and nothing happened!"

"While I will admit to some confusion as to the lack of any manifestation in regards to the portal, better to be safe than sorry," Giles said, sounding genuinely befuddled at the fact that nothing happened during their stakeout of a cave on the outskirts of Sunnydale. "Elcat'net demons are quite dangerous and can reproduce with speed, given the right environment. I trust that you recall the picture that I showed you? That is how large they would have become if left to themselves for even a week."

"Yuck! Thanks for bringing back that mental Polaroid!" Buffy exclaimed while her face scrunched up in disgust as her mind brought the image of a mature Elcat'net demon to the forefront.

She couldn't help but show her disgust as well, since neither the demon's appearance or what it did with its… appendages filled her with the warm fuzzies, as Xander would say. While she had only read a little of the description of the book Giles had put before her, it had been enough to actually make her push the book away. A rare thing, considering how much she loved to learn new things, but in her opinion this was one of the rare times that something was better left unknown.

It had been mid-morning when they were all waiting for Xander to get back from Konoha when Giles had received a phone call. She hadn't caught all of it since her mind was firmly on seeing her best friend again but whoever the Watcher had spoken with had caused the British man to go from skeptical to worried in less than five minutes. It had only been a minute after the phone conversation had ended that the learned man had divulged the nature of what he'd learned. Apparently an anonymous source had called saying that it'd caught word of a dimensional disturbance occurring on the outskirts of town. Giles had initially considered it nothing more than a prank call but, as the anonymous source gave more and more accurate information, indicating they knew what they were talking about, the librarian gradually took things more seriously. When Buffy had finally put him on the spot about what the big bad was, G-Man actually went over to the nearest bookshelf, took a single book and, after flipping through the pages a bit, put the answer on the table for all to see. The Slayer had recoiled right away after seeing the drawing of the demon but she had lasted until she'd finished the first page before pushing the book away. Elcat'net demons were most definitely not of the good so as one they'd gathered the necessary weapons and left for the cave the source had designated.

It hadn't taken them long to get there and, once they'd arrived, Giles had laid out the game plan for dealing with the icky demon. She and Buffy were to keep their distance and attack it with the crossbows they'd been given since females were the preferred prey of this species of demon. When Buffy asked what Giles had meant by preferred, she'd immediately rushed the Slayer to their sniper positions since her mind had come up with a very mentally scarring possibility of what the demon did to men. It took the blonde a few minutes to get the same image and, like her, the Summers girl immediately tried to scrub the knowledge from her mind.

With Giles hiding behind a boulder and the rest of them up on a ledge a good thirty feet away from where the portal was due to open, they waited for the threat to emerge. After the first hour Buffy began to fidget a bit, since it went against her Slayer nature to remain still for so long, but a look saying 'be patient' was enough to keep the restlessness under control. After the second hour, though, with nothing to show for their patience but a Slayer clinging to her last shred of patience and a Watcher who looked like he was mentally reviewing every relevant book in his head, the stakeout almost ended. The only thing that kept it going for the final hour was Giles bribing Buffy with a week off from training in the library and reducing patrols to three times in the coming week. With the temptation of more time to be teenage Buffy rather than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the girl who was her friend settled down and agreed to wait another hour.

She lasted about forty-five minutes.

Commendable, all things considered.

With nothing to show for their efforts, though, Giles intended to go through his books again just in case there was some fact he'd overlooked. Personally she thought it was a simple case of the anonymous tipster being a phony who probably thought it was funny to send the Slayer and her Watcher out on a wild goose chase. Still, she knew that he wouldn't be happy until he'd looked through every book he had in an effort to determine the reason for the lack of anything at the cave.

Plus 'better safe than sorry' was not just sound advice in Sunnydale, it was a bit of wisdom essential to survival.

A good chance to follow that kernel of sound advice came when they entered the school courtyard on their way to the front entrance of the school. Lying on the ground were three lengths of steel cable that looked to be about half an inch thick and she knew for a fact that they hadn't been there prior to them leaving for the cave. When she wondered where they could have come from, she recalled that Xander was due back today and that he was a ninja. Could this have been a trap for him? Was he alright? Where was he now? Breaking into a run, she made for the library since that'd be where she'd bet Xander would go after successfully defeating his attackers. She was peripherally aware of both Giles and Buffy running after her yelling questions at her while she made her way to the library, hoping beyond hope that she'd find her best friend there waiting impatiently for them while nursing a Twinkie or two.

It was as she reached the final stretch of hallway that led to the library that she began to hear loud voices coming from her destination and only one of them did she recognize as Xander's. Had he brought friends with him from Konoha? Possible, but then why was he yelling or possibly arguing with them? Deciding that there was only one way to find out, she closed the distance between herself and the library doors before pushing them open so that she could enter.

The sight that greeted her was almost funny if it wasn't for the fact that two well-endowed young women looked like they wanted to jump Xander's bones right there while two others looked like they'd kill the first pair if they tried. There were only two adults in the room and, rather than trying to get the teenage girls to calm down, they looked like they were enjoying the entertainment.

"Bitch Girl and Slut Girl need to get out of Lu Xion and Pu Fium's way!" spoke a girl with brown hair done up in Chinese style.

"Not a chance, Odango-atama!" a girl with red blade marks on each cheek barked out angrily. "It'll take more than some half-assed story to make us turn Wannabe over to you!"

"You no leave future husband by choice, we make you leave!" yelled the girl with the black hair, standing next to the one who'd first spoken.

Of course she wasn't focused on the girls anymore, but rather what had just been said.

"FUTURE HUSBAND!" she exclaimed, instantly getting the attention of everyone in the room and causing both Buffy as well as Giles to gape as they came through the door.

"Um…hi, Willow. …I'm back!" Xander said, looking like he wasn't quite sure how to handle the situation.

"You better have a damn good explanation for this, mister!" she declared as her face slammed into what her best friend had called her 'Resolve Face'.

She would get answers out of him even if she had to threaten to pull out every embarrassing story she knew about him.

Sunnydale High School Library, Ten Minutes Later, Xander's P.O.V

This isn't going to be pretty, but better to get everything out of the way now then wait until later. He thought as he looked at the people gathered around the central library table.

"Well, as you guys know, I left Sunnydale to lay my mom to rest and tie up whatever loose ends she might have left behind," he said, beginning his retelling of his adventure overseas. "It was only a little after I got out of civilization that I settled into the most crap covered rest stop in the world! I swear I would have kept going until I found something better but I was so beat and didn't think there would be anything better so I endured the night and left at sunrise. It was then that something really weird happened.

"Two people, a guy my age and another almost G-Man's age came running out of the forest like the devil himself was running after them. Considering it was a group of women looking to skin someone alive, I can't say I blame them," he said, remembering his first encounter with the warrior women. "By the time they showed up, though, both of the guys had already jumped into the ocean trying to swim away. Deo and her bunch asked me where their targets went but, since I just knew what the duo looked like and not their names, I said I didn't know where they went. Two seconds later one of them spotted this Ranma swimming away and their leader ordered half of them to kill me for lying."

"WHAT? They were going to kill you just for lying?" Buffy exclaimed before looking at all three Amazon women like she was thinking about how to take them down.

"He was obstructing an Amazon on a mission of honor." Deo explained, sounding like she didn't feel she had to justify anything.

"What mission could be so important that you'd kill Xander over it?" Willow asked, sounding like her mood wasn't much better than Buffy's at the moment.

"Ranma defeated our sister Amazon Xian Pu. Amazon law states that if a woman from outside of the tribe defeats one of the tribe, then that woman is honor bound to pursue that outsider and kill her at all cost." Deo explained with a face that said she wouldn't tolerate anyone badmouthing Amazon law. "For lying to us and delaying the restoration of our sister's honor, death was being lenient with him."

Woman? I'm pretty sure that both of the people that jumped off the cliff were guys. He thought as he recalled the two runners in question. I suppose he could've been a girl but she'd have to have a pretty flat chest.

Still he decided it'd be best to keep the explanation going rather than getting bogged down on something that wasn't really important.

"ANYway, we fought and I managed to beat them but, according to them, that means I'm engaged to these two," he said before something occurred to him. "Doesn't that mean that you're engaged to me also?"

"Under normal circumstances it would, handsome," Deo replied, looking like she was entertaining such thoughts herself before sighing. "However as I am already married, albeit to a spineless weakling, and my daughter was among those you defeated, it was decided that I would be exempt from the obligation to marry you. It's a pity since you make that string bean husband of mine look downright pathetic."

"Mother!" Lu Xion exclaimed in defense of her father.

"Yes, Little One." Deo said as an apology to her daughter.

"And the other one? The blonde?" he asked, since he didn't see the last of his opponents from that day.

"She was judged unfit to be your wife," Deo said with anger as well as contempt for her fellow Amazon. "Once the village elders learned all there was to know about our fight, they had initially decided to hold a tournament between my daughter, Pu Fium and Olay to decide who would be your wife. It was, after all, unheard of for one man from outside of the tribe to defeat four of our warriors at once. By the time that the tournament was half over, it was clear that the victor would be either Lu Xion or Pu Fium as Olay was lacking in certain areas.

"Instead of accepting her loss with honor, Olay attempted to create a performance enhancer using a forbidden formula that existed only in our village's council archives." Deo was getting angrier by the moment at her fellow Amazon's dishonorable actions, "She almost succeeded in her foul scheme but forgot to remember the flaw in the enhancer and why it was forbidden in the first place. Suffice it to say that she will not shame the Chinese Amazon Tribe any longer."

"If you guys held a tournament then shouldn't there be only one winner?" Anko-sensei asked from her position leaning up against the card catalogue.

"Normally that would be the case but after seven days straight where no clear winner could be determined between my daughter and Pu Fium, the village elders decided that they would both be the future wives of Uchiha Alexander." Deo replied, having cooled down a bit now that Olay wasn't the topic of conversation anymore. "While news from the shinobi region of the world isn't easy to come by, it wasn't hard to learn the current state of the Uchiha Clan. It seemed fitting that he gain two wives rather than just one to aid in the recovery his family."

"But he didn't know about your law when he beat you!" Ayeka pointed out, obviously not liking what she was hearing, "Doesn't that mean something!"

"Not at all. The law simply says 'if a man from outside of the tribe defeats a woman of the tribe in combat, then the woman must marry the man'." Deo said with a smile that made it clear she believed she was in the superior position, "It doesn't say anything about the man needing to be aware of the law before he defeats one of our warriors."

"That's crazy!" Buffy exclaimed in disbelief at the Amazon's law.

"Actually, Buffy, it is not all that uncommon for a culture that places such importance on the role of warrior to conceive of various ways to take in 'new blood', as it were." Giles said from his place by the door to his office. "While I do not approve of Xander being forced to do anything he does not wish to do, I can understand their point of view well enough."

Giles was ever the voice of reason in situations like this but that didn't change how he felt right at that moment.

"Then why don't we hear what the head of the Uchiha clan has to say?" Deo asked rhetorically with a confident smile on his face, "It does concern him most of all."

"Finally! I thought you were all going to make my choices for me," he said, voicing his displeasure at people talking like he wasn't there. "As for this whole Amazon law thing, you can forget it. I'm both an American and a citizen of Konoha. Neither of those places force people to get married to someone they don't want to. I'm sorry about the whole honor and obligation bit but I'm not marrying someone I don't know, much less love."

He could see that this hurt both Lu Xion and Pu Fium (or Lotion and Perfume as he decided he'd call them from now on), since they both looked like they'd been rejected by the guy they'd given their confession letters to but it was better this way. He could see that they were complete hotties in terms of looks but he knew nothing about them aside from the fact that they could fight and were from some Chinese Amazon village. That was not enough to base a friendship on, much less holy matrimony, and it'd be even crueler to the girls to stick them in a marriage where their husband doesn't love them. They'd get over it and he wouldn't have to worry about them following him around trying to jump his bones or drag him own the isle of a church or whatever their marriage ceremony was like.

"So you're saying that if you got to know them and eventually came to love them, then you'll consent to marrying my daughter and Perfume?" Deo asked, using the basic logic of his statement to her advantage.

"Well…um…" he replied, unsure of how to reply to that.

It was true that it was possible that he might fall for them if he got to know them but did he really want to give them hope that they might actually pull it off?

"Then it's settled. Lotion? Perfume? Let's go and find ourselves a place to live in this town," Deo said as she began to walk towards the exit. "You will be seeing us again, future son-in-law. Count on it!"

A little stunned her proclamation, he didn't say a thing as the three Amazons sashayed out of the library with both Lotion and Perfume putting a little something extra in the sway of their hips. He had to admit that the sight was oddly… stimulating and for a moment made him wonder if he should at least give them a chance.

Just to be friends, of course.

"Xander-sama." Came Ayeka's voice with a warning tone that instantly snapped him out of his appreciation.

Turning to his right he saw Mishima Ayeka looking at him with a dangerous glint in her eyes and Inuzuka Hana looking like she was waiting for him to do one more thing wrong before pounding his face into the ground. Obviously his two teammates did not approve of the fact that he'd been interested in the Amazons, or more precisely a certain part of the Amazon body.

Damn my teenage hormones! He thought as his mind scrambled to think of a way out of his current predicament.

Giles' Office, Twenty Minutes Later, Anko's P.O.V

"You guys are a pretty close, aren't ya?" Anko asked before taking a sip of the tea that Mr. Giles had offered her.

Her team and Xander's friends had left a couple of minutes ago to go on a tour of the High School, both to get to know the area as well as each other. After all, Xander was the only person who knew both his Sunnydale friends and Team Anko. If both sides were to work together on the Hellmouth, they'd need to trust one another and the best way to do that would be to spend time with one another. It was true that, officially, they had been told to keep their relationship with the Slayer and her Watcher purely professional but she'd gotten the impression that Hokage-sama would overlook any violations of this order so long as it didn't stir up trouble. Considering how close Xander was with the Slayer and the others, she felt it was a safe bet that it'd only take a little bit of prodding to keep things from going down the crapper on her.

"Indeed. It has been two years since we first met each other," Mr. Giles said as he sat down with his own cup of tea. "In that time we've gone from being mere acquaintances to close friends."

He's keeping his answers short and to the point. She thought with a mental grin, He might trust Xander-kun at the moment but is only willing to be polite to the rest of us for now.

That showed that he cared about the teenagers and wouldn't do anything to put them in danger. It was definitely better than what she'd read back in Konoha about the Watcher's Council and what they could expect from one of their agents. All the reports she'd read had them being a bunch of old men or women who treated their Slayer's like tools and that reminded her too much of the old hag and four eyes on the village council. Either the people who'd written the reports had the bad luck of encountering the worst of the lot or she'd lucked out and would be working with one that she'd have an easy time getting along with. Still, it'd be best to get the bothersome part of laying down some ground rules as ordered by Hokage-sama under pressure from the old fossils on the Council.

"Good, because you're probably going to need that friendship from here on out," she said, already getting a foul taste in her mouth at what she was about to say.

"What do you mean?" Mr. Giles asked with genuine inquisitiveness.

"I assume you've received some sort of communication from your bosses about the change in the status quo around here?" she asked, deciding to get a better idea of what he knew before she revealed what she knew.

"Yes. I received a phone call from the Council stating that Konoha was to be given jurisdiction over the Hellmouth," Mr. Giles replied, his gaze focusing on the cup of tea in his hands. "I was also told though to ensure that the Council remained involved in all major decisions regarding threats on the Hellmouth."

In other words they fell for the lie that Uchiha Jun'ko was assigned to the Hellmouth before they arrived. She thought glad that the story had been swallowed. However it doesn't sound like they're willing to give Konoha total control, either.

This was to be expected.

While the Watcher's Council might not have much say at the moment given the terms between them and the Hidden Villages, it'd only hurt their image if they gave up the supernatural hotspot on the planet without a fight. The majority of the reports she'd read portrayed them as a bunch of pompous old men and women who liked to believe that they were the elite when it came to combating the hostile supernatural elements. Laughable when you consider how much they relied on the Slayer and how limited their human teams were elsewhere in the world. A human with the right weapons and training might be able to handle a decent group of vampires or a small group of the more dangerous breeds of demon but shinobi were two levels above them at least. Still, she knew there had to be a reason why the hidden villages bothered to bargain with those old farts in the first place rather than just walking right over them.

So, for the time being, she'd play nice and not rock the boat… too much.

"Okay, then. Now, let me lay down a few rules. You'll probably get the more wordy version mailed to you by the end of the week," she said as she momentarily losing her informal attitude. "These are non-negotiable and you will abide by them.

"First rule is neither you nor your Slayer are to make any attempt to learn our techniques. Seeing us use them in a fight is one thing but spying on us while we're training is another," she said in a no nonsense tone of voice. "If you walk in on us by accident, we'll judge it on a case by case basis. However if we find any notes, any recordings or any signs of our techniques that are more than an accidental glance could explain, there will be consequences. Understand?"

"Of course! I would never consider taking such action." Mr. Giles replied, sounding offended at the idea of spying.

"Even if you were given a direct order by your superiors in the Watcher's Council?" she asked, pointing out a situation where he would have no choice.

"If such an order was made, I would protest citing a violation of the treaty between our respective organizations and insist on a full meeting of the governing members of the Council," Mr. Giles replied resolutely. "I know there are enough moderates there to block anything some of the more… ambitious members might try to do."

"Good. The second rule is that we won't officially be getting involved in non-mission situations or using our abilities. Hokage-sama wishes to keep our presence here as low profile as possible to keep the other hidden villages from becoming interested in this town," she said, keeping her professional tone. "While that'll be difficult considering how flashy some of our techniques are, it'll be good practice for my team to hone their stealth kill skills."

She could see that the man was a little uneasy about what 'stealth kill skills' might imply and she wasn't about to restrain the Brit's imagination any. Not only was it amusing to watch but it would also help give him incentive not to break any of the rules.

"Officially the last rule is that Team Anko is to keep its relationship with your group as professional as possible and not interact outside of a mission based environment." she stated, unable to keep her dislike of this last rule.

"And unofficially?" Mr. Giles asked, obviously catching the tone in her voice.

"Unofficially Hokage-sama has stated that she'll allow our two groups to hang out with each other like friends so long as it doesn't interfere with the mission or violate the first two rules," she replied with a sneaky smile. "She didn't think that I'd be able to keep Xander hanging out with his friends anyway and I agree with her."

"I think we can follow those rules without much difficulty." Mr. Giles said in agreement before taking another sip of tea.

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?" she asked rhetorically before answering her own question. "I gotta warn you, though, that Hana and Ayeka can be a real handful sometimes. I'd advise you to hide your booze sooner rather than later. Hana tends to knock-em back pretty thoroughly after a bad day."

"I'll be sure to remember that," replied the Brit looking like he was making a mental list of what he'd be hiding first.

Smart man.

"Now how about you tell me about some of the things my team might face in Sunnydale." she said, preparing to take in everything the older man has to say.

The next hour or so proved to most informative with regards to the craziness involved in living on a Hellmouth.

The Streets of Sunnydale, Two and a Half Hours Later, Hana's P.O.V

I guess it's a good thing that my girls aren't all that different from normal pets, Hana thought as she walked behind the others, letting her dogs take up the rear. Otherwise I'd have to beat the crap out of the idiots from the local pound when they came to take them away from me.

Still, if what Wannabe told her about this town was right, then dog-catchers wouldn't even rate as annoyances when compared to some of the demons out there. The place was weirdness central and anything could happen if you stuck around long enough. There were vampires, witches that could do things similar to jutsu, possessions and more varieties of demons than there were colors in a rainbow. It's be safe to say that she wouldn't get bored easily in this town but it sounded like it'd be a pain in the ass killing some of these demons since no two species of demon could be killed the same way.

Still, if Slayer-girl is right, then making them a head shorter tends to do the job more often than not. She thought as they approached some sort of warehouse club.

"And this is The Bronze. It's pretty much the only place in town where people our age can go to hang out and have fun," Wannabe said as they got close enough for her to read the sign above the door. "Too bad that also makes it the number one hunting ground for vamps. There are so many people in here at night it's easy for the fang faces to grab one or two people without anyone being the wiser."

"You mean no one catches on?" Ayeka asked, sounding a little surprised.

"You'll find that unless it comes right up and growls in their faces, Sunnydale pretty much wraps themselves in a blanket of denial." Replied the girl named Willow with a disappointed tone. "The fact that most people who get growled in the face turn into dinner for whatever did the growling means there's not much chance anyone else will be told the truth."

Made sense.

It was like the stores of bijū back home. Everyone had heard stories about the massive monsters but only a few people had really seen the beasts. Of those that had seen the tailed beasts firsthand, only a small percentage actually managed to live long enough to tell the others the terror-filled story. If it was the same for normal people and demons then is was no wonder that few people lived after having the truth shoved in their faces.

"And don't expect handshakes or medals for every demon you kill," said the Slayer with annoyed acceptance. "Most of the time they take off the moment you take the demon's attention away from them and the few that do stick around are so spaced out from the shock you have to pull them along until their brain re-engages."

"Still, it's a job that needs doing," Wannabe said as they came to a stop outside 'The Bronze'. "Plus Hokage-sama's orders are clear: monitor and protect the hellmouth from supernatural and demonic threats. Until that changes, thanks or no thanks, we've got a job to do."

"Yeah, yeah, I know that!" she said with some irritation at her teammate at stating the obvious, "It's just nice getting some thanks for a job well done, ya know?"

"Well not all towns can have a guy like Hachi, Dog Girl." Ayeka girl said with a smug smile.

"Shut. IT. BITCH." She growled out, making it clear that one more word about that mission would end in pain for self-proclaimed future wife of Wannabe.

"But it's such an interesting story. We'd been dispatched to this small village in Tea Country to root out some bandits that had been causing trouble," Ayeka said, unimpressed by the hostility coming from her teammate. "It didn't take us long to find them and deal with them. However the big surprise came at the end when we received a personal thank you from the son of the village elder. Dog Girl, however, got something more: a marriage proposal!"

"WHAT!" exclaimed Wannabe and his friends in surprise.

"It's true! Turns out the guy was a big fan of manga with jungle girls in them and thought Hana fit the bill perfectly," Ayeka explained chuckling a bit at that memory. "I don't think I've ever seen Dog Girl run that fast before!"

With her shameful secret out she wanted to pound her teammate into the ground but that would only make her look weak and probably amuse the others even more. Instead she decided she'd follow Ayeka's lead and bring up things the other would rather stay forgotten.

"Well I was surprised that one time that you actually turned down that chance a year ago to marry into the Feudal Lord's family. He was such a willing suitor, too," she said with a feral grin at the look of discomfort on Ayeka's face. "Bought you gifts and everything the entire time we were there. What was the reason you declined again?"

Ayeka just mumbled a response that was too low for anyone to hear.

"What was that? I don't think anyone heard it?" she asked her grin growing into a smile.

"He was…" replied Ayeka before lowering into a mumble again.

"Speak up, blondie," she goaded with a smug tone. "I'm sure everyone's curious now."

"HE WAS A FAT, DISGUSTING SLOB, OKAY!" Ayeka finally yelled out before making a promise with her eyes that there would be payback. "I may want to move up in the world but even I have to draw the line somewhere and that fat ass tub of lard was way past the line."

Then in a move she should've seen coming, the blonde glomped onto Wannabe, leaning into him like he was her lifeline.

"Xander-sama is much more to my liking!" she said with a smile that left her intentions clear as day.

"Why do you put '-sama' after Xander's name like that?" Buffy asked, sounding like the bottle blonde she was.

"It's a Japanese honorific, blondie," she replied, trying not to sound too annoyed that one of Wannabe's friends was this clueless. "You use it with the name of a person much higher up the social ladder than you are or someone you admire. In Wannabe's case, it's because he was named the head of his clan back in Konoha before we left."

"So he's like a nobleman?" Willow asked with her intellectual interest piqued.

"More like a pro athlete," she replied trying to put it in terms the American would understand. "While Konoha has tons of ninja, there are certain families with a little something extra in them that puts them in a class of their own. The Uchiha clan is… special."

"Because of that red eye thing Xander can do?" Willow asked, following a line of thought in her head.

"Yeah," she replied, looking to Wannabe and wondering just how much he'd told his friends before leaving for Konoha.

While she didn't like following orders from the fossils, she knew that the ANBU was somewhere nearby keeping an eye on them. If he thought Xander had divulged sensitive information to someone not of Konoha, then it could mean anything from a memory altering jutsu to something… a little more extreme. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that. She knew that while Xander had come to like it in Konoha and formed bonds there the connection he had with his friends in Sunnydale was much stronger. If forced to choose between the two places, she believed he'd side with his friends here on the Hellmouth, regardless of the cost to himself.

"You wouldn't believe the trouble I had just getting some training done in Konoha," Wannabe said, sounding relieved that he wouldn't have to go through those troubles again. "Everywhere I went it was 'Xander-sama' this and 'Xander-sama' that. Some of them weren't even out of the Academy!"

Both of Wannabe's friends, Willow and Buffy, laughed at the images that were no doubt dancing through their heads and she joined them a bit as it had been amusing to watch. So many men thought being sought after by multiple women was the height of masculinity and an all-around good time. Little did they realize that, aside from a few liberal ladies, most women didn't like sharing when it came to the man they had their eye on. Worse yet love could quickly turn to hate if the asshole even suggested the possibility of being allowed to keep seeing the other woman. Wannabe, fortunately, had enough sense to realize this fact before putting his own foot in that shit and hopefully would keep that bit of info nearby if those Amazon bitches showed up again. While she personally didn't care who the Uchiha wound up screwing, she knew that Ayeka wouldn't like it one bit if the man she planned on wedding and bedding started thinking about other women.

"Fortunately a handful of stink bombs discouraged most of them and the rest had better things to do soon after," Wannabe said, censoring his words accordingly so as not to give out the wrong info. "Though now I'm beginning to wish I'd thought to bring some of those stink bombs with me. Two Amazons and their chaperon… as a certain ninja back in Konoha would say, 'troublesome'."

"You really think that they're going to stick around?" Willow asked, sounding like she thought the trio of Chinese women would leave within a week.

"They were interested enough in me to hold a tournament, make an exception to their laws and come all the way here just to seal the deal," Xander replied, sounding like he wished it were otherwise. "I think we can count on seeing them around the Hellmouth for the next couple of weeks at least."

"If they even try to get their claws on you, I'll send them back to their tribe in pine boxes!" Ayeka growled, making it clear she wasn't about to let them have their way.

"You aren't really going to kill them, a-are you?" Willow asked, sounding like there might be a problem if Ayeka tried.

"Mmmm… no, Xander-sama wouldn't like that." Ayeka said with some reluctance before a determined look appeared on her face, "But I'll sure as hell make them wish I had!"

I just know this is gonna give me grief somehow! She thought and made a mental note to be elsewhere when the Amazons and Ayeka bumped heads in the future.

A Recently Vacated Apartment, Downtown Sunnydale, Same Time, Deo's P.O.V

"The game has begun, ladies." Deo said as she brushed enough ash off of the chair she'd chosen to make it safe to sit on. "I expect your best efforts from this point on."

"Hai!" declared both young Amazons as they bowed respectfully at her.

"While I had hoped that we would be able to return home with your new husband almost immediately after you had fulfilled Amazon law, this may actually be better," she said as she considered what the future would hold. "If we had simply left with him, it would have been a bit… disappointing. Now, though, by setting down the terms that we must follow, he will be unable to refuse us when we not only meet his terms but manage to surpass them beyond his expectations. It'll be fun!"

"What about Bitch Girl and Slut Girl?" her daughter asked, sounding like she wanted to go back to the library and remove the ninja girls immediately.

"They won't be a problem. Think of them less as problems and more as ways you can show your future husband why he would be a fool to reject you," she advised as she watched Perfume dispose the last of the vampiric tenants that had once lived in the apartment she sat in.

Upon leaving the library at the high school, she'd immediately begun looking for a suitable place for them to live until they succeeded in acquiring the young Uchiha's co-operation. They'd used up most of the currency they'd managed to get exchanged in Japan already and didn't have a new source of income just yet, so they'd been forced to improvise. Once they located a building that would allow them the best access to the town and, more importantly, her future son-in-law, they'd explored the interior until they found an apartment that suited their needs. Unfortunately they found out, much to their displeasure, that a group of vampires had similar taste in homes and were none too happy about their unexpected eviction notice.

They didn't last long.

For as long as their tribe of Amazon's had been around, they had never had much trouble with demons. With their skill and strength, only the stronger breed's required the power of the entire tribe. As for vampires… well, the ash-covered state of the apartment at the moment pretty much made it clear what happened when they got delusions of grandeur.

With the place now vacant, they had a place to live and she smiled watching her two charges go about the place, no doubt to choose a room to call their own. It wouldn't take long to clean up but, once that was done, she'd have to figure out a reliable source of income since it was inevitable that the landlord of the place would come looking for rent money. Sadly there were only two real talents the three of them were sufficiently skilled at: fighting and cooking. One was naturally related to other since, in order to fight, you needed the energy food gave in order to do so and food was one of the few resources worth fighting over. Since it would no doubt make the elders back home angry to begin teaching outsiders techniques known only to the Chinese Amazon Tribe, that only left cooking and, from what she'd seen of the town so far, there'd definitely be a market for it. While the village she grew up in was a fair distance from other towns and cities, she was by no means ignorant of the goings on of the rest of the world. While the more popular Asian dishes could easily be found either in a supermarket or restaurant, the less common ones were almost impossible to find. They'd passed through what appeared to be the main area for restaurants in this town and the few places that carried Chinese food had a limited menu. If she opened up such a place and served every dish, she was sure that people would come.

As for the money she'd need to get things started… she'd raid some vampire and demon lairs for the next week and 'liberate' whatever could be sold off for cash.

Doing so would also provide her with the opportunity to get the lay of the land as far as the demon community was concerned. The information would be useful in the efforts of her charges to win over their future husband as well. With the right information and a little planning, they could be made to look quite skilled as well as powerful, increasing the odds that the Uchiha would see them in a favorable light. A heroic rescue here, a difficult foe slain only through their intervention there, and she knew her future son-in-law would be unable to maintain his resistance against their charms.

Just as she was about to head out, Perfume came out of a room, presumably the one she'd chosen to be her own, and joined her at the door to the apartment.

"Where are you going? I thought you'd want to spend more time fixing up your room." She said looking down at the dark haired Amazon.

"To check out town. Find good spy spots," Perfume replied showing that she had brought her camera and binoculars.

"For what, precisely?" she asked, having a feeling the young woman was up to something.

"Demons and vampires, of course." Perfume said in a matter-of-fact manner.

Hearing this only put her more on edge since she was aware of the teenager's hobby and how it could endanger their purpose in Sunnydale. Still, she had secretly been through the future Uchiha wife's things five times since they'd left the village and found nothing to indicate that the girl had snuck out to pursue this hobby during their trip. Perhaps the girl was finally growing up and had abandoned such unfitting pursuits in order to become a better Amazon. It would be good news for the elders back home, who'd grown tired of the girl's antics.

"Very well. Be careful, though," she cautioned as she opened the door. "There may be breeds of demon that we know nothing about here on the Hellmouth."

"Hai!" Perfume said, running out of their new apartment first and heading down the hallway to the stairs.

She couldn't help but sigh in annoyance at the headaches she could feel coming thanks to the actions of that young woman. Perfume might be an Amazon on par with her own daughter, Lotion, but she had certain… quirks that tended to complicate the lives of those put in charge of handling her.

I just hope she doesn't go too far out of control. She thought recalling some of the stories she'd heard about the young woman.

Somewhere in Sunnydale, Same Time

"Well, well, well! Isn't this an interesting development," he said to himself as he finished reading the report submitted by his second in command.

Indeed it was something he hadn't seen coming and he prided himself on being aware of everything that went on around him. He'd been aware of Ethan Rayne's little Halloween stunt all those months ago, as well as the fact that the Harris boy had retained some lingering traces of his costume possession. It had required some… refinements in his plans but, at most, it'd meant moving the lad from merely being a Slayer groupie to being a player in his own right. When the boy had left Sunnydale for a place overseas, he had thought it likely that that would be the last that he'd see of the young man. While not many were aware of the ninja villages south of China, he knew the reason for that was that the shinobi rarely ventured outside of their respective countries.

Indeed, he knew more about the hidden ninja villages than even those many centuries his senior did.

Most beings such as he would have felt threatened by this development and would have tried to remove the ninja threat immediately before it could interfere with their plans. However he had something more… profound in mind. One of the reasons he'd lasted for as long as he had was that he knew how to turn a negative development to his advantage. The question then became how could he turn the arrival of a team of Konoha shinobi to his advantage?

He would need to take his time and think over the matter thoroughly. To act too hastily would be to squander the chance that fate had placed before him.

Not something he'd allowed himself to do in the past.

The Next Day, A Road Leading Out of Sunnydale, Ayeka's P.O.V

"So, why are we heading out to the middle of nowhere, Wannabe?" Hana griped as she followed the Uchiha of Team Anko.

"Before we left Japan, I figured that we'd need a place a little more private than some apartment," Xander-sama replied as he looked down at a piece of paper in his hand. "I tried to think of some place that'd work out but couldn't think of one. Then I remembered that my Mom left me some property outside of Sunnydale, so I called our family's lawyer and asked if there was anything on it. When he told me what he'd found out about it, I figured it was worth taking a look at."

"What did he find?" she asked, curious about what could cause her future husband to dance around the truth like this.

For a couple of minutes the young man who'd brought them to America didn't say anything but, when they finished walking up to the top of a hill, a smile spread out on his face.

"That." Xander replied, pointing to a spot just off the road up ahead.

Picking up the pace so that she got to where he was first, she looked in the direction he was pointing and let her jaw drop in shock at what she saw. The shock was the result of two things. The first was that there was a structure where he was pointing and it looked big enough to belong to a moderately prosperous ninja clan. The second reason was that whomever had both designed and built the place must have changed his mind at least three times since it contained elements belonging to Shinto, Shaolin and Buddhist temples.

At least that's what it looked like to her but they were still a ways away from the place.

"What is it? Some kind of temple?" Hana asked as she tried to take in more details with her beast-like eyes.

"Let's take a look!" Xander-sama replied before breaking into a run for the structure.

"Wha-? Hey! Wait for us!" she exclaimed before breaking into a run herself after him.

It didn't take them long to get to the land left to her future husband by her deceased future mother-in-law and, as she stood before the front gate, she found her original appraisal was correct. A large wall surrounded the structure with tile shingles at the top and, over the main entrance, hung a sign that while showing its age clearly said 'Kokoro no Kasai Satsu'. Translated into English it meant 'Heart of Fire Temple', which made her wonder just what Uchiha Jun'ko had been thinking when she bought the place. The name was oddly appropriate for a member of a ninja clan that specialized in fire element ninjutsu.

"Well, isn't this weird." Anko-sensei said looking up at the same sign. "You'd think your mother somehow knew this would happen, Xander-kun."

"Stranger things have happened," Xander-sama said with a bit of doubt lingered in his voice. "The place looks like it's in pretty good shape on the outside. Let's see what it's like on the inside."

With that Team Anko pushed the thick-looking wooden doors open to reveal the interior of the place that was likely to become their home in America. What they found on the inside only increased their suspicion that the mother of their sole Uchiha teammate had foreseen her son choosing to walk the path of a ninja. Inside the gate there was a large courtyard, at the center of which was a stone platform that extended about three feet up from the ground and was about forty feet from one side to the other in the shape of a square. It looked like it was made of some pretty sturdy stone and would be perfect for training on, if she was any judge. To the left of the entrance there looked to be some sort of small storage building but the biggest of all the structures was the main building that sat at the far end of the courtyard.

It was a little hard to get a handle on what part of the main building was for what considering the mix of architectural elements, but she figured the left side of the place was an internal dojo or prayer room. The right side was probably the living quarters and bathrooms while the center was for the kitchen, dining room and recreation rooms. She could have been wrong but, if the guy who built this place learned from places similar to those that the architects from the Country of Fire learned their skills, she was fairly certain that her guesses were right.

"Guess Mr. Wells wasn't kidding," Xander-sama said in an astonished tone of voice. "He said that this place used to belong to a martial arts master who claimed he was going to raise an army of warriors to fight against the darkness in Sunnydale. Wells just wrote him off as a karate fanatic or someone who wanted to stop the 'gangs on PCP' and put it out of his mind."

"What happened to him?" Hana asked sounding interested in learning more.

"According to Mr. Wells, he managed to get a total of three students and after a couple of months started patrolling Sunnydale at night," Xander replied as Ava landed on his shoulder. "However, according to the papers and Mr. Wells, they started attacking innocent people. The police cornered them in the warehouse district where they were kicking the shit out of some warehouse workers and all of them died in the shootout that followed. At least that was the story Wells gave me."

"You don't believe it's true." Anko-sensei said without interrupting her visual appraisal of their new HQ.

"Considering how often 'gangs on PCP' and 'death by barbecue fork' are put into Sunnydale P.D reports, I think it's pretty obvious that there's something wrong with them," Xander replied with an undercurrent of anger in his voice. "Either they're demons in disguise or they're being paid by the demons to deal with trouble that they either can't or don't want to handle themselves. The martial arts master and his students were probably killed off because they actually started to make a difference."

"If they were taking a bite out of the demons, why didn't they take care of this kung fu guy themselves?" Hana asked, finding it weird that the demonic community resorted to using the local cops to dispose of a problem.

"They wanted to discredit the master and his students. If they died under mysterious circumstances or with holes in their throats, they'd die martyrs who died at the hands of a 'gang on PCP'," Anko-sensei said with anger mirroring what was in her future husband's voice. "However if they died while resisting arrest for a serious crime, they'd be nothing more than out of control thugs who stupidly thought they could beat the police. It would destroy all of the hope they might have managed to build up until then."

"Yep," Xander said before shaking off the bad mood. "Let's take a look around and see just how big a mess we've got to clean up to make this place livable. I'll take the left third, Ayeka take the middle third and you two can check out the right third. Sound good?"

With a nod, Team Anko split up to check out their assigned parts of the main building with her going straight ahead. Upon entering the structure, she found that her earlier guess had been right since she could see what looked to be a kitchen with an adjoining dining room to her right. Spotting a closed door to her left, she walked over and opened it to find something that looked like a library or personal study. The shelves were empty and a layer of dust covered everything but nothing she could see looked like it deserved to be thrown into the back of a garbage truck. Moving over to the chair that sat behind the desk, she sat down and immediately regretted it as a plume of dust exploded up in her face, triggering a coughing fit. Waving her hand to dispel it, she quickly got out of the chair and brushed whatever dust had gotten onto her off to the floor.

Definitely needs a good cleaning. She thought as she left a room she knew her future husband would use when he needed to tend to clan matters or official orders from Hokage-sama.

Moving over to the kitchen area, she found that most of it was old style with only areas with electrical appliances scattered here and there. Those appliances, of course, were a good ten years out of date, meaning they'd belonged by the previous owner of this place or Jun'ko had bought them second hand. They'd have to test each of them out to see which worked and which didn't before even thinking about cooking anything.

The dining room from what she could see was pretty bare except for the main table and four chairs in pretty much the same condition as the chair in the study. All-in-all, she was unsurprised at the good condition of the place but wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. It'd mean less work for the rest of them to get everything the way they wanted it and that meant more time for her to make some progress with Xander-sama.

He now saw her as a friend and a teammate, of that she had no doubt now, but now was the time to take things to the next level. However three obstacles now stood in her path in the form of the three Chinese Amazons who had the gall to say that they had claim on her Xander-sama. The very idea that they chose to marry whichever guy was the first to succeed in kicking their ass was absurd to her and a little bit offensive. A woman should choose her husband based on his appearance, his personality and his status in society. In those respects she judged Xander-sama to be an ideal husband for her and, as such, she would not let some outsiders stop her from reaching her goal.

She felt confident that in a straight fight she'd have no trouble kicking the asses of all three Amazons, after all Xander-sama beat four all by himself with only Halloween-derived skills, but decided that that would be the wrong course of action to take. To attack them, hurt them and run them out of town, could be interpreted as a sign that she considered them serious threats to her position and feared that they would succeed in taking the Uchiha from her. It would be a sign of weakness and diminished confidence. She refused to sabotage herself in that manner and in doing so provide her enemies with an opening they could use to their advantage. Instead she would ignore them, look at them as though they were beneath her and when necessary surpass their attempts to seduce her future husband by employing tactics honed in the year since she first began to think of boys and romance.

While her attempts to get into a noble family had been unsuccessful thus far, the various dates she had gone on had not been for nothing.

I'll show those three bitches who the Sage of Seduction is, she thought with a visage of determination on her face. They'll look like ten ryou whores by the time I'm done!

The HQ/Home of Team Anko, That Evening, Buffy's P.O.V

I hope Xander and his friends don't do anything too ninja-y tonight. Buffy thought as she looked out of the passenger side window of her Mom's car.

She knew she could trust Xander enough to keep a lid on his abilities while she and her mother were there but she wasn't so sure about the rest of them. After all, they lived in a place where jumping from rooftop to rooftop and spitting fireballs was normal. She didn't know what she'd do if something like that happened but she was fairly sure her mother would faint or maybe cling to denial until she forgot the entire thing. She just hoped her mother didn't do something like forbid her to ever come out there again or even worse break off her friendship with him. She knew that she was probably being ridiculous but, considering the one time she tried to tell her parents the truth, they put her in a mental hospital. It had taken some very slick talking and she suspected some side dealing by the Watcher's Council, but she'd managed to get out within a few weeks. From the day she'd left the hospital, she'd kept a lid on the Slayer side of her life and hid it from her mother as best she could since she had no desire to be sent back.

I also don't want Xander to have to through the same thing if Mom decides to 'help' him with his 'problem'. She thought as they came to a stop right in front of the main gates.

It had been something that had started soon after Xander's mother had died and had only grown as her mother had tried to help the young man through the difficult time. However, the more the matriarch of the Summers family learned about the Harris family, the more she'd tried to make sure the founding male member of the Scoobies wouldn't have to spend any more time at home than necessary. She even suspected that her mother had made an effort to get Xander's dad arrested so he could be adopted into the Summers family. However she knew better than her mother how unreliable the local police were and believed that, unless a miracle happened, Tony Harris would continue to live under the same roof as his son. She didn't know herself how bad Xander had it living with his father but the dark look that sometimes came over his face when he spoke of his father implied much.

It doesn't matter now, she thought as she got out of the car, carrying the meal her mother had cooked for the occasion.

"Well… it's certainly big," her mom said, sounding impressed by the size of the temple-house-place. "You say his mother left this for him in her will?"

"Yeah, she was a… a karate fangirl when she was younger." She said, coming up with a reason why Jessica Harris would buy a place like this, "Guess she planned on teaching Xander someday."

"It's sad that she didn't get the chance," her mom said as a look of sympathy and sadness crossed her features.

"Yeah. Sad," she said as there was nothing more profound or meaningful that came to mind.

After a moment of silence they walked towards the front gates but, before either of them could raise an arm to push it open, it opened to reveal the wild eyed young woman that was part of Xander's team. Hannah was her name… maybe… and she had these red tattoos on her cheeks that kinda made her look like an extra from one of those Cowboy and Indian movies she'd seen as a kid.

"About time you two got here," Hannah said, pushing the gates wide enough for the two Summers women to walk through. "Wannabe wasn't letting anyone eat until you got here and I'm starving!"

Without a word the two of them entered, a little taken aback by the lack of manners of Xander's teammate but, once they were inside, they got their first look at the interior of the place. All about her she could see something that looked like it'd popped right out of a kung fu film and made her want to ask Giles if they could start training here instead of the library. Already her mind was coming up with reasons why this was better than the library and how it'd help her training improve.

"Should I be shopping for a karate outfit for you tomorrow?" her mother asked with some mirth on her face.

"What?" she asked somewhat confused at her mother's question.

"You seem to like all this," her mother replied still with a smile on her face. "I don't think I've seen that look in your eye since you first saw Dorothy Hamill skate for the first time."

Thinking on that for a moment, she had to admit that the 'hum' in her body was somewhat similar to how she'd felt the moment her interest in figure skating was born. However it was more because the place appealed to her Slayer side than her Buffy side. To the Slayer side of her, anything that had to do with fighting, with battle, was appealing and that was probably why she sometimes treated a shiny new weapon like designer boots. To be in a place like this was adding the proper setting for one who carried the Slayer essence inside her to train and hone her skills. Far better than a place filled with books where there wasn't nearly enough room for her to move about or really cut loose.

Looking ahead to the main building, she could see that the lights were on inside and her enhanced senses told her that everyone was gathered in the center rooms. It only took them a couple of minutes to get inside and see them all arrayed about the dining room table with half of the surface already covered in food. Most of it was takeout from some of the restaurants around Sunnydale but she could spot a couple of dishes that had been made from the nearby kitchen. There was also the fact that her sharp eyes could see signs of cooking having been done on the counter and it looked like there'd be some cleaning to be done afterwards.

"Nice place Xan!" she complimented as all eyes fell on her and her mother. "Looks like you hit the jackpot."

Taking a quick glance about the room at Xander's teammates, she was glad to see that they'd at least tried to look like normal people rather than super ninja. Still, she could see signs of concealed weapons but, so long as they didn't take any of them out, everything would be good.

"Yeah it's a good place but it's still got some fixing up that needs doing," Xander said with his usual lopsided smile. "Not enough to drain me dry money-wise but I'll definitely be feeling the pinch for a while."

"Really? It doesn't look that run down to me."

"You know the old sayin' about looks being deceiving, Buff," he said letting her know with his voice how serious he was. "It might look good the first time you see it but this place hasn't been used in about ten years. It's going to cost a serious amount of money to get this place into tip top shape."

She guessed he was right.

Ten years of not having anyone live here, much less stay on top of any repairs that needed to be done, would leave the place in need of some fixing up. Looking to her mother, she could already see her Mom planning out the next few weekends so that they could help clean the place and repair what they could. She almost groaned at that because it'd mean work of the sort that wouldn't result in the end of the world if she didn't show up. Still, it was for Xander and she guessed if it was for only a few hours on the weekend, she could rearrange her own schedule to fit it in.

It was then that something occurred to her that could put a serious wrench in Xander's plans.

"Are you sure it's okay for you to live here, Xander?" she asked with a bit of concern, "You aren't eighteen yet."

"What's that got to do with anything?" Hannah asked, sounding like she was clueless as to why that'd be important.

"Here in America you aren't considered an adult until you reach the age of eighteen. As a result, Xander's expected to live with his father until he's legally of age to live on his own," her mother said as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

"That's bullshit! I might still live with my mom but I could've moved out two years ago if I'd wanted to." Hana exclaimed, as though she'd been told she couldn't date guys until she was thirty.

"Really?" asked her Mom, sounding genuinely curious.

"The village we live in is a little different from the rest of the world, Mrs. Summers," replied Xander's ninja teacher, Anke….Anku…something. "Back home, we take learning martial arts pretty serious and you're considered good enough to live on your own when you make it to the second phase of your training."

"When does the training begin?" asked her mother, sounding curious and wanting to learn more about where Xander had been since leaving Sunnydale.

"Depends on the parents and the kid, but usually around ten years old. Some earlier if they show they have the knack for it," Anke replied, though a slight twitch picked up by her Slayer senses indicated a possible lie.

From there it pretty much fell into a discussion about Cone'O'ha and what went on there and, while the rest of Xander's team added in some info every now and again, most of it came from the purple-haired woman. She could tell that the twenty-something woman was telling as much of the truth as she could but, for the most part, it was made up. Not that she minded all that much. Anything other than the absolute truth was fine by her. After all, if her mom learned the truth about Xander being a super ninja, then she might pick up on some of her odd habits and pay more attention to them. That would lead to questions, which would lead to arguments, and then eventually something about her being the Slayer would come out.

She really didn't want that to happen.

Her home was one of the few places that hadn't been warped by her Calling all that badly. She didn't know what she'd do if her Mom found out the truth.

Sunnydale High School, Six Days Later, Morning, Xander's P.O.V

"Just one more year," he muttered to himself as he strode down the hallway to the door that would lead to the first class of his final year of High School.

It was something that he'd just as soon not have to go through, what with his new position as head of the Uchiha clan and Chuunin of Konoha, but to avoid legal troubles, as well as getting Mrs. S on his back, it was necessary. For the past six days the older woman had been doing her best to help out at the new HQ and, unless he was mistaken, provide him with excuses not to have to go home to Tony. Oh, she didn't phrase it in that manner or anything but he could see past the surface of what she said as well as what she did. It touched his heart that she cared about him that much and he wondered if that was how it would have been with his own mother had circumstances been different. He sighed as he entered the classroom and headed for his seat, saddened by the fact that he'd never know the answer to that bit of speculation. While he had heard that there existed jutsu that could raise the dead, the price tag for those techniques was way too steep for him to consider under any circumstances.

Of course there's also the fact that I don't have anywhere near the skill or chakra level to execute them. He thought as he sat down in his seat to wait for the class to start.

Still, he knew he'd come a long way from where he'd been in terms ninja abilities when he'd left Sunnydale to take his mother home to Konoha. He'd gone from making up his own training methods to being shown how to do it the right way and was judged by one of the legendary Sannin to be good enough to be called Chuunin. That meant that he'd be a competent second in command for Anko-sensei and might even get assigned a B or C ranked mission during the summer months when he was back in Konoha. With this being the case, he mentally made a note to find different ways to hone his strategic abilities and to think in terms of tactics that can help bring him as well as those he's placed in charge of victory. He had to smirk for a moment when the thought of learning shogi entered his mind, since that was the preferred game of choice of his fellow newly promoted Chuunin, Nara Shikamaru. It was a tough game to gain a grasp of and even harder to become any good at, but if the member of Team Asuma was any hint, it was great for developing a ninja's tactical skills. Making it so each piece represented a ninja and every move a piece made a jutsu made it great for planning how to deal with a specific enemy.

I doubt I'll ever be the genius Shikamaru is but if I can even become half as good as him, it'll be worth it. He thought as he watched Mr. Manson walk into the room, only to come to a stop in the middle of the class in front of the blackboard.

"Alright, before we get into the first class of the day, I have an announcement to make," Mr Manson said, bringing up a handful of paper in his right hand. "We have two new transfer students that will be joining our class for their final year. They are from a small school over in China and so they don't know much English, but I expect you to treat them the same as you would treat each other."

That description alone set off alarms in his mind but he dismissed what his mind was telling them as he refused to believe it was possible. There was no way that they could have arranged all of this so quickly and no way that Snyder would have approved it. However, when Mr. Manson gestured to two people who were in the hallway, he was shown once more that on the Hellmouth while many things were improbable, nothing was impossible.

Walking into the classroom and wearing clothes that were probably intended to be a fashionable mix of common American clothes and Chinese Amazon fashion were none other than Lotion and Perfume. They seemed to be putting on the act of being your stereotypical transfer students but it was ruined by the fact that they locked onto him with their eyes the moment they came to a stop next to the teacher.

"Please state your names for the class, ladies." Mr. Manson asked before stepping back a bit so that the two Amazons would be the center of attention.

"My name is Lu Xion. Pleased to meet you all." Lotion stated with a bit of effort, making it clear her ability to speak English was incomplete.

"And my name is Pu Fium. I look forward to meeting all of you," stated Perfume with a look directed at him that sent a shudder up his spine.

With those words both Amazons bowed properly towards the class and he could tell by the looks he could see on some of his classmate's faces that the various cliques were evaluating the two newcomers albeit in different ways. The members of Cordy's clique were evaluating their looks and fashion sense to see if the duo met the right criteria to be allowed into the upper levels of high school society. The jocks, of course, were debating which one of them would get first crack at asking them out on a date and how long it'd take them to have a romp in the back seat with one of them. The nerds… well, they were just on hormone overload in the presence of two fine-looking females. As for the students like himself, who weren't in any real category, they just seemed to take everything in stride and only made note of who they were.

"Now if you two would take your seats… I believe there are two free seats near Mr. Harris in the third row." Mr. Manson said before pointing to the two vacant seats on either side of him.

My bad school rep works against me again! He thought as he nervously watched the two Amazons walk to their assigned seats. It was bad enough when the girls thought I was a loser and the jocks thought that I was a geek. I was okay with that since I still had Willow and Buffy. Now it's given those two warrior women the perfect opening!

Sitting down in what had to be the most provocative way he'd ever seen, he hoped that the duo would at least have the sense not to do anything too extreme in front of so many people.

"Nihau," they said in perfect sync and in perfectly seductive voices before leaning over and giving him a quick peck on each cheek.

Naturally this caused a small uproar of talking both by those amused by what had happened and those who would now look down on the Amazon's for their choice to kiss the former King of Cretins. It took a while for Mr. Manson to restore order to the classroom but, even after he did, the son of Uchiha Jun'ko knew that this was only the beginning. With no respite either at home or in school, he'd have to be on alert at all times to deflect and evade their attempts at seduction. While he did think they were pretty, they were also nuts if they thought that just because of some outdated law that he'd just obediently walk down the aisle with both of them.

Plus he had concerns about his continued good health if he accepted their advances while Hana and Ayeka were within sight of him.

Never in all the days since I first learned ninjutu techniques have I ever wanted to pull off the body replacement technique more than I do right now. He thought as Mr. Mason began teaching the day's lesson.