Fallen Leaf

Chapter 10

Disclaimer:- This ain't mine, the characters and settings that is. The manner in which I use them however is mine, all mine. Many concepts are borrowed so I don't claim them either.

Authors notes:- Apologies for the delay, I didn't realize that much time had passed, it certainly didn't feel like it to me. I'll try to update faster but there are just so many other fascinating stories on fanfiction(dot)net. I'll also admit that I was working on too many projects at once and thus burned out a lot. I feel a bit better now so…but no promises.

There seems to be a misconception that Kyu is responsible for Ranma's Nekoken cure. This is not the case, if anyone is responsible for that then I'd have to say it was Minato Namikaze, the person who put the seal on him and stopped the neko-demon transitioning into the real world. The fact that they were both trapped in the same part of Ranma's mind served to sever the link between the two.

Another minor point I'd like to make is that Naruto is only two months old at this stage. So there's really not much that I can do with him inside the plot. For those of you who think this is a shame, well I will admit that he plays a major part after he reaches four years of age, that's after a couple of time skips. Hey if Kishimoto can do it then so can I. You'll also see some of your favourite characters from the 'Rookie nine'

/ Kyu's clearing \

Kyu watched the retreating back of her container as he walked away. Not even a backwards glance, no words, just to simply walk away like that. There had been something in his eyes but she didn't want to acknowledge that it looked a lot like betrayal, and a weariness that told her that it wasn't the first time, or even the second.

One thing was for certain, she wouldn't chase after him, she wouldn't ask for his forgiveness. As she watched she realized she wouldn't have the chance as he passed through the seal that held her trapped in this little world. 'Two months', she sighed, 'I've known him just two months, so how can he mean so much to me?' As that thought ran through her head she decided that pride was all very well when she was right, but she had the distinct feeling she'd stepped over an invisible line and lost more than his trust.

She didn't do it very often, preferring to ask him questions and find out what he was willing to tell her, but this was an emergency, she needed information, she needed to know just how bad things were. As time passed she became paler and paler, she hadn't known things were that bad in his life, she certainly had never guessed from the way he acted that his family and the family of his fiancée were responsible for so much of the confusion and pain in his life. In an abstract sense the Kitsune had known that Ranma's father was an idiot, but she couldn't have guessed he was so bad that he'd torture a small child in the name of his so called 'Art'. Not once as in the Nekoken but on at least nine other occasions she viewed similarly dangerous teaching methods practiced on the boy. It amazed her that Ranma was still around with all that had happened to him.

Thrown on top of that were the instances when they'd travel to a new training ground, or dojo. Being a garrulous and approachable child he'd made friends easily when he was younger, but then later for some reason he could never fathom they'd come to hate him and along with the adults wherever they were this time they'd chase the itinerant father and son with intent to harm. Eventually he'd learned to not even bother making friends, they were more in the way of friendly rivalries so that they didn't hurt so much when they finally turned on him.

The ultimate betrayal happened when he was just barely sixteen with their arrival at a place called Jusenkyo. That was a betrayal on a scale he'd never known before, the betrayal of everything he'd ever been taught about himself and what he should be. All of a sudden he'd found himself in a weak 'womans' body. His father had just been lucky at that stage that his son didn't know any of the ki based attacks he'd learned in later months and years, else she was pretty sure the valley of Jusenkyo along with every living soul within it would have ceased to exist that day.

From there the betrayals just came thicker and faster.

"Hi, I'm Akane. Do you want to be friends?"

"Aiyah! You no trust Xian Pu?"

"So Son in law, if you want this cure you'll have to…." The instances where this line were used over the years were too numerous to count, and each time he'd find it was another insidious trick and that the cure was temporary, or past its expiry date or no longer functioning or just plain never functioned in the first place.

His father never let up from the day they arrived at the Tendo dojo. Always blaming his son for his own failings or palming off the blame for things he'd done onto his hapless child so Ranma would take the punishment while claiming that his son had no honour.

Soun Tendo had been no better, forcing together Akane and Ranma against their wills and then asking where Ranma's honour was for not immediately doing the 'Right thing'.

Nabiki was lucky on two counts, the first being that Kyu was currently sealed and the other being that she wasn't a trans-dimensional being who could phase between realities. In a way she was the worst for outright abusing Ranma, simply for the fact she got a vicious thrill so intense you could almost call it a sexual frisson, from beating such an otherwise powerful martial artist every-time he fell for one of her schemes.

The icing on the cake came from his last bastion of hope, his very own mother. To agree to the validity of a suicide pact between a middle aged man and a five year old child showed that she was deranged beyond redemption. It was the only explanation for her behaviour, every time he did something she disapproved of, out came that double damned contract that she said he had already fulfilled.

All in all things couldn't have been much worse from Kyu's perspective. It was a Kitsune thing, to push peoples buttons, but it seemed that she'd pushed the big red button with flashing neon signs saying 'Do not press! Unless you wish the end of everything!' She'd done that without even knowing she'd done it, was she good or what? The evil smirk died a quick death when she remembered just what the repercussions of her action were

Another of her problems was that he didn't fully understand the situation. Certainly they were bound, or rather she was, but she couldn't help it. It'd been a very long time since a male of any description had intrigued her as much as he had and he was only an untried boy at this stage. She wasn't expecting anything from him at this stage other than a 'friend with benefits' kind of relationship, certainly wasn't suggesting that he declare his undying love for her.

And now? Well even the pride of a Youkai-Hime meant nothing when held up to the unwitting pain she'd caused someone who was 'interesting' to her. Even in the depths of her mind she wasn't ready to admit where her feelings were going but she should have been able to figure it out when she put her own sense of worth aside for that of the person she'd wronged.

'Ranma? Please, talk to me?' she even allowed the note of pleading that entered her voice, she had to get through to him.

"No," and then nothing more, her shoulders slumped, it seemed she had only one other course of action.

'I'm sorry, I…' She winced as she felt the connection between the two of them shut down emphatically. Since he was the jailor there was nothing she could do about it either. He would talk to her when he was ready and not before, the problem with that was that if they didn't resolve things quickly then who knew how badly the anger and sense of betrayal could rankle within him?

Over the next few hours with no sign of her host relenting she grew a little apathetic at the situation as she knelt on the ground waiting. The concerned Nekomata sidled up to her and nudged her shoulder gently with its nose and was startled when the petite woman caught its massive head in a crushing hug as she failed to acknowledge the tears streaming down her face. A while later her hold relaxed as she sighed and gave in to her emotional exhaustion.

/ Next day – real time \

Kyu might have been resolved to wait for Ranma to speak but that didn't mean she had to be patient about it. She did however watch as he unrolled a scroll that had been delivered to him the night before entitled 'Kage Bunshin'. It was an eminently useful technique, one that she had already mastered, well not that particular one but her 'Kitsune style Bunshin' were similar enough that she understood the pluses of using them, and why it was the perfect technique for Ranma to learn since his chakra reserves were so large, when he chose to use chakra that is.

She watched with a sense of pride as he worked his way up to creating his first full bunshin, he'd spent the first hour with the scroll making sure he had the mind-seals correct, then working progressively more and more chakra into the technique until the clones stopped looking sickly and looked like mirror images of himself. Those weak clones were almost as useful as a standard bunshin since they couldn't take a hit, which also worked conversely as they couldn't actually hit anything without dispersing their chakra matrix either. No the only real use he had for such as they was as scouts or as information gatherers, not just in the spying sense but in the sense that anything they read, saw, heard, touched, smelled or tasted was transmitted back to him the moment they dispersed.

Thinking that a little success might perk his mood up, she'd hoped in vain that he would break the silence and speak to her again. She waited nervously for him to do so until she felt him go to sleep that night and still he didn't come to her.

The next day he picked up where he'd started the day before by thinking about the scroll and the additions and suggestions the Hokage had made in the end-notes. The fact that he would remember what his clones learned would be invaluable to him as it would cut the actual time he'd have to spend working on something he considered really boring. She could tell that he was getting excited by the possibilities

The day before he'd spent getting the clone technique to work with the least chakra, after that he wanted to see just how much power he could give one and how much more durable that made it. As the morning disappeared he found that he could give the clone nearly half of his chakra before it became unstable and dissolved but that was alright since it was strong enough to take on Ryoga and Mu Tse at the same time. The other thing that made it so good was that he could keep feeding chakra into it to keep it topped up while it used all the techniques he knew since his reserves filled so quickly.

/ Inside the seal \

The next day came and he awoke to bright sunshine and a slightly uneasy feeling coming from inside him. He chose not to acknowledge it, and he certainly wouldn't break down and talk to her. Feeling his resolve the Kitsune found she'd passed through her apathy and was now thoroughly in the land of frustration which is not a good place to have a nine tailed Kitsune.

"Pig headed male!" she yelled. The Nekomata sidled away from the emotionally unstable female since he couldn't tell if she was talking about him or their mutual host, and he certainly wasn't willing to take a chance, she was bigger and stronger than he could hope to be for the next ten thousand years and she'd always be that far ahead of him.

If Ranma had known more about Kitsune he would have gotten back in contact with her quickly but as it was he had no idea that the demon fox wouldn't just get angry, she'd get even instead. Though, with his vast experience of temperamental women he just should have known better than that.

She waited until Ranma was focusing his chakra to show the technique to the Hokage.

/ Outside the seal \

Ranma knew he had the skill to call up a clone that had roughly half the power he did, and as such it could take more damage than the standard Kage bunshin, in fact it could take enough damage that he could make the enemy believe the clone was the real version and that he was the clone. That would of course mean that he would be discounted and would be free to attack any which way he wanted as everyone knew that clones were no where near as powerful as the original.

Bursting into the Hokage's office he purposely taunted the ANBU team, "Hey old man, I got this thing working now so you'd better show me the other part you promised me." Watching carefully he waited for some response from the masked ninja who protected the Hokage from danger but it seemed that they'd learned their lesson or at least been told that to attack him wouldn't be a good idea.

"Is that so? Well maybe you'd better show me," Sarutobi rose from behind his desk, rather thankful to have a valid excuse to leave the paperwork behind for once. "So how many clones can you create?"

"Um, I dunno, I didn't try for lots of them."

"Hmm, maybe we should take this to one of the training grounds then so that we don't startle anyone if a lot of you appear in one place?"

"Sounds good to me, I'll race ya!" Sarutobi was many things, but one thing he wasn't was stupid, he could tell that something was occupying Ranma's attention and he didn't think it was the Kage Bunshin technique. He decided that wouldn't pry at this time. If however whatever was on his mind began to interfere with his education then he'd feel required to stick an oar in.

"Well I don't know if that would be fair Ranma, after all you're a young man while I'm old. I suppose if you wish though we could race, the finish line is the cabin you stayed in during your shen training. Understood?" Ranma nodded eagerly, "Okay, on my mark, get set, go!" with that the man made a single hand-seal and vanished, fifteen minutes later when Ranma finally made it to the cabin he found the Hokage reclining in the deck chair on the cabins veranda puffing reflectively on his pipe. As Ranma skidded to a halt he pointed at the Hokage in outrage.

"Oi old man! You cheated!"

"I did no such thing Ranma, I'm a ninja. It was a simple technique that many ninja know and I was able to take advantage of. Now that I've won this little race what's my prize?"

"Uh……"

"Oh don't worry about it now, I'm sure I'll think of something appropriate. Maybe a free C rank mission, nothing too strenuous I assure you. Now on to the important issue, let me see your Kage Bunshin."

"Er, sure, Sarutobi." Ranma moulded the required chakra and produced an exact replica of himself."

"That's good, but I was thinking of having a larger quantity of low powered Bunshin than having one. Do you know how little chakra it takes you to create one bunshin?"

"Yeah, first thing I thought of," Ranma said proudly.

"Ah, good, now keep that amount in mind as you pull out as much chakra as you can to make as many bunshin with that much chakra as you can." Sarutobi was expecting many things but what he got wasn't even close.

Ranma closed his eyes and concentrated on pulling up all the chakra he had and just as he was pulling it out to create the bunshin…..

/ Kyu's clearing \

She'd decided early on that she didn't like to be ignored, and that it wasn't healthy for him to do so. They needed to talk and she had very few options open to her. In fact there was only one way in which she could make her displeasure felt.

/ Training ground 18 \

Ranma pulled on his chakra reserve and was swamped with a sudden deluge of chakra that he wasn't expecting. It had many effects on him that he wasn't prepared for, such as the fact that the neat several hundred bunshin he was planning on suddenly multiplied by a factor of ten. The clearing was suddenly full of Ranma clones, the ground was covered to the point that no one could move. The trees around them had bunshin clinging to the branches and each other so that they wouldn't fall and still there were more until there was a sudden downpour of Ranma's on the clearing, in a fall un-forecasted by the department of meteorology. Kami, he hated rain even if it was himself.

Just before the wave of bodies crushed them Ranma managed to dispel them and was overwhelmed by the panicked experiences of nearly six thousand bunshin. When the village elder looked down it was to see the body of Ranma unconscious once again.

"Hmm, I think I should stop asking for demonstrations of his techniques before he gets hurt for real." Just to make sure he slid Ranma's body into the recovery position and then settled in to wait for Ranma to regain consciousness from the case of bunshin shock. Relaxing with his back against a tree the Hokage pulled out volume three of his students series with a perverted little giggle, it wasn't often he had a chance to read uninterrupted, at least not during daylight hours.

/ Kyu's clearing \

Ranma hit the barrier seal in a flat trajectory, travelling as a barely visible blur as he began to fly across the clearing. That was alright though as his personal Nekomata decided that the unidentified flying object would make a great play thing. Pouncing on him and pinning him to the ground with several tonnes of sinewy muscle and bone.

"Owfffffffff! Gerroff you great big fuzzball!" Ranma managed to wheeze as the weight slowly compressed the air from his lungs, then let out another oomph of relief as the big cat got the idea that its new pounce toy didn't like the game at all. When Ranma finally staggered upright the Nekomata finally caught sight of his mistress's mate and winced at whatever punishment it'd be due for trying to hurt him.

Ranma watched a little stunned as the large cat rolled onto its back submissively, wondering just what was going on.

"Don't you dare hurt it!"

He whirled on the approaching voice to watch the Kitsune that had taken residence in his head stomping towards him.

"Eh? I wasn't gonna do nuthin' to the cat, except maybe thank it," Ranma folded his arms across his chest.

"Thank it for what?" she asked suspiciously.

"At the speed I was travelling I would have been in amongst those trees over there in another second and I didn't fancy having a tree 'break' my fall," of course having the cat do it instead had nearly broken several ribs and his spine, but he couldn't blame the kitten for doing what came naturally. Reaching over he ran his fingers through the cats fur to scratch its chin which elicited an undignified squeak of surprise before the Nekomata succumbed to Ranma's ministrations and began to purr. Like the cat, the purr was bigger than life, sounding more like an idling diesel truck being amplified through a bass speaker. It literally caused the air in his lungs to pulsate as it shook his bones. The sound had one benefit as far as Ranma was concerned, he couldn't hear whatever it was Kyu was saying to him at the moment.

Cupping a hand to his ear to imply he couldn't hear her he yelled out, "What? I can't hear you!" Almost giving him self away with a smirk when she frowned at him in frustration while yelling something else.

"What? Still can't hear you, you'll have to speak up!" Two seconds later Ranma was looking up at the full fox form of the Kitsune and had to admit it was really impressive from this perspective.

"I said, 'What the hell's your problem?" The wall of sound washed over Ranma almost knocking him off his feet and set his ears to ringing. It had another side effect, the Nekomata stopped purring as it peered nervously up at its furious mistress.

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? Messin' with my chakra like that, ya could have hurt me!" He really didn't need to yell any longer since Kyu had returned to her human form but he was finding it to be great stress relief.

"Hah! As if! Your skull's too thick to be hurt by anything that paltry." The pair were almost nose to nose as their tempers flared even further.

"You didn't answer the question. Why'd ya go an mess with my chakra like that?"

"You wouldn't talk to me," Kyu stomped her foot, unfortunately for Ranma his happened to be under it.

"You……You, crazy bitch…" 'Slap'.

"I've told you before, I'm a vixen!"

"Bitch!" he yelled.

"Vixen!"

"Bitch!" getting even louder as he put some chi into his voice.

"Vixen!"

"I ain't referrin' to your species, I'm talking about your attitude. I wouldn't talk to you! So you try an kill me? Did it ever occur to ya I wanted to be alone for a while?" The tan on his face seemed to recede as his temper flared.

"But we needed to talk," Kyu switched back to a normal mode of speech, almost conversational, and without even thinking Ranma followed.

"What about? You said and did everything already."

"Well you could have waited for all the information, instead of going off in a hissy fit. Besides it's not a good idea to leave an argument unfinished, it could fester in our minds and make things worse than they need to be. Oh come on, don't you like me anymore?" Kyu tried the puppy dog pout and found that it didn't work on Ranma since it had been used on him so many times, hell, he'd even used it himself when he really needed to get his way.

"So you were gonna tell me about how we get out of this seal?" he asked sarcastically.

"Well no, actually there's no way out. This seal is active until one of us dies," she watched as a calculating expression flashed over his features, "and no, it doesn't work that way. The only way for it to work like that is if you really actually die until your brain dies too. You wouldn't be able to be revived and even if you could I'd be dead with no chance of being revived. Anyway it'd be a total waste of time since you're not bound by the seal."

"Huh? Run that by me again," he frowned as he tried to puzzle through what she'd said.

"I'm a demon right?"

"Well yeah, I think we got that covered."

"And you'd assume that my chosen mate would be a demon right?"

"Um, well I suppose," he wasn't too sure on that one since she'd told him that they were mates.

"Well for a demon to put its seal on me I have to submit to that seal. Many demons have wanted to put their seal where yours is but most of them are dead as they couldn't subdue me," she waited for a moment, "By allowing you to put your seal on me it's an admission to my realm that you are stronger than me. Okay so far?"

"Hn," still absorbing what she'd said he grunted out acceptance.

"Now if I'd put my seal on you, then you and the Nekomata would have had to battle to see who was the stronger and thus the leader of my subordinates. One thing I didn't get to mention at the time was that you aren't beholden to a single mate, with my admission that you're stronger than me I also told the world that the choices are yours. If you wished to take another mate I would have no say in the matter, of course I'd be 'First wife' and would have some control over the 'Second wife', unless she challenged me and won, but essentially we'd both have to follow your lead. That would go for any other wives you chose."

"Hold up, what about that challenge thing? What would'a happened if the cat hadda won?"

"Well that would have proved it was dominant, to be honest you'd likely be trapped in here with me while the Nekomata took over your body. You can relax though, as before he can challenge you he has to go through me, and we all know that isn't likely." She smiled warmly towards the kitten as it sat and watched the conversation.

"Okay, so, you said I'm the dominant person in here. What do I 'have' to do? And I want you to be honest with me. I don't want any bullshit, or to find out you only told me half truths, or worse just didn't tell me something important."

He hadn't left her much option with that order, and she knew that she didn't want him to know certain things, but he'd made it an order and she was compelled to obey.

"You don't have to do a thing if you don't want to. All the onus of the seal is placed on the recipient. Like I told you before there's a way to dissolve the seal, but it requires the death of one of us. In the demon realms it is quite common for the dominant mate to kill unwanted mates, or mates who are bearing unwanted or undesirable litters of children," Kyu waited for him to assimilate the information and wasn't disappointed when a minute later he burst out.

"No way, I swore I'd never kill someone again unless it was absolutely necessary," after processing that much of her information his mind turned to the rest of what she'd told him. "Uhm, kids? Is that even a possibility?" Kyu sighed in relief on both counts. She knew him as well as anyone could know another person through winnowing through his memories, but there was always a possibility that she could have read him wrong. On the second count even asking if children were a possibility meant that somewhere in his mind there was a chance that their relationship could get that far. It'd probably be a long hard slog to get their relationship to that point but she could live with that as long as the chance remained.

"Children? Yes, it is possible," she smiled softly, she'd doubted she'd ever have any of her own since she had never met anyone who interested her before, "They would be Hanyou, half demon and half human. Normally such a child would be considered weak by my kind, a plaything to command or torture at will, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be the case for ours. For a human you're powerful and what's more important you're well trained. Then there's the fact, and I'm not boasting here, but I'm the most powerful member of both my clan, and the Kitsune tribes overall. Any child of ours would be doubly blessed."

"Er, that's not what I meant…." Ranma tried not to stammer as she so plainly admitted that she had given thought to having his child, or children as she'd put it. "I was talking about," he gestured around at the clearing.

"Oh, well I don't think it'd be a problem. If it was though, and we couldn't have children in here then I'd have to say all the practice I'd insist on would hardly consider it a waste," she smirked as Ranma's face turned the same shade as his silk shirt at her blunt statement. "Of course you could just release the seal.." she trailed off.

"But…"

"It's not as if it's relevant anymore, I'm not beholden to follow the pact to destroy Konoha. Now I am geas bound to follow any promise that you make. So be careful what promises you make Ranma since if I'm able I'd make sure they are kept."

"Um, okay," he scratched the back of his head nervously. The situation just kept getting more complex the longer he had to deal with her. Feeling that he was wasting time he looked at her and asked, "So just what happened to me when those clones went poof? It's not like I chose to come in here," he frowned a little at the reminder.

"That is what's called Bunshin shock, it's caused by dispersing too many bunshin in one go. If you'd only dispersed the ones that were going to impact you then I doubt you'd be here now, in fact you weren't in any kind of danger to start with since they were so weak they would have dispersed the moment they impacted you. You saw how much damage it did to get rid of several thousand clones in one hit?"

"Yeah."

"Well think about the fact that they only had a few moments of memory to give you when they dispersed. If they'd been doing something for several hours when you got rid of them like that I hate to think what it would have done to you. For your own safety I'd recommend you disperse no more than thirty clones at one time, probably even less would be better and keep the groups several hours apart. Now I suppose you'd better go and talk to the Hokage, you've been out for nearly fifteen minutes now and he might start to worry."

"Maybe you're right," he sighed, 'Why's everything got to be so hard?'

"Just don't shut me out this time, huh? I don't handle being ignored too well."

"Tell me about it," he muttered under his breath.

"Did you say something Ranma?"

"Who me? No, not a thing."

"Oh, okay. So I'll be seeing you?"

"Sure," he gave a little wave as he headed towards the seal. There was even a spring in his step that'd been missing for a couple of days. Kyu on the other hand was smiling outright, they hadn't dealt with all their problems but they'd taken a few steps. She'd have to work on his fear of intimacy though, she wouldn't have a mate who was afraid to touch her in case he was attacked by another rabid female. Not that he didn't have a lot of experience with that kind of woman.

They were just lucky she wasn't one of the inter-dimensional travellers, or they'd be dealing with one very pissed Kitsune. Sighing slightly she looked about the clearing and catching a flicker of grey amongst the trees she recalled something that she'd been thinking of before she'd messed things up with Ranma.

"Hey you!" The Nekomata stopped shredding the tree it was sharpening its claws on and trotted towards her.

"Mmreeee?" Kyu smiled at the cats attempt to use human speak.

"Yes you, its time I took your training in hand," her smile turned into a grin at the outright shocked look on the Nekomata's face as she led it towards the pond she liked to swim in to begin lessons in the human language and customs. She thought Ranma might get a kick out of being able to understand the cat as well as she could.

/ Training ground 18 \

Sarutobi looked up from the book when he saw movement out of the corner of his eyes, then reluctantly put it away when he noted Ranma rolling into a sitting position while holding his head as if he was afraid that it might explode, which if his memory served him right was exactly what it felt like to suffer that kind of sensory overload.

"How are you feeling?"

"Ungh, like I was kicked in the head by a minotaur," Ranma groaned at a particularly vicious throb, to which the old man chuckled at his joke.

"I'm serious, it feels like that time Tarou kicked me," he knew he didn't have to fill in any of the blanks in that statement since he'd already given the man a pretty complete history when he first arrived, and if the Hokage had forgotten then he would have to ask later on for an explanation.

"Hmmm, if it's any consolation it should pass very quickly. In the meantime would you care to explain what happened?"

"Um, Kyu wanted to talk to me about something, an I didn't want to. She kinda hijacked my chakra. That's why I got more than the couple of hundred clones that I wanted."

"You should have listened to me then."

"Yeah, what ever ya reckon fuzz-ball," Ranma muttered.

"Exactly, whatever I reckon. You won't ignore me in future will you?"

"I will if I want to,"

"Do I take it that you're in communication with your guest Ranma?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry about that, she's a bit of a nag," mentally he was scoring a point on his side of a chalkboard, unfortunately Kyu decided to punch his clone out of existence before he could and added a heap of marks on her side.

"I am not," she huffed.

"That's right, you're a vixen. Don't look nothing like a broke down horse," Sarutobi watched the young man carefully as he listened to one side of the conversation and attempted to construct the other part.

"So Ranma that was a rather impressive amount of Clones, a little impractical but still."

"I couldn't help it, Kyu pushed a bit of her chakra into my system as I was dividing up for several hundred bunshin,"

"Oh, come off it, it wasn't even one percent of my power."

"Less than a percent?" Ranma yelped as his eyes bulged in surprise. He'd known that she was powerful but that was ridiculous. Then he smiled when he thought how many full powered bunshin he could create with Kyu's chakra reserves on hand, he'd been planning to see how many he could make if he gave him self a little time to recharge since they only drained a little to maintain them. He'd kind of figured he could get nine or ten over a twelve hour period and he could maintain them almost indefinitely as long as nothing managed to disperse them, of course with ten there'd be no chance of him recouping the lost chakra as what would normally go towards replenishing his personal reserve would be taken to maintain the clones. Not a bad trade off as far as he was concerned as ten more Ranma's, even at half power would tip the balance of many a battle.

Sarutobi was a little startled to hear that the Kyubi's contribution to the Tajuu Kage Bunshin had only amounted to such a small part of her total power. Actually he was still finding it hard to believe that the Kyubi was in fact a she, it didn't seem possible with all the destruction she'd caused. Damn, that reminded him of another of the villages problems, something he'd have to deal with soon or else there'd be no graduating kunoichi in the years to come, but that was a problem for another time.

"Alright now that I know you are capable of making so many clones I'll tell you the next step," Ranma turned from his inner musings and began to pay attention, "You were probably wondering why I gave you multiple copies of many of the texts you'll be using. Well that's because you'll be making a clone for each of them. Now to maximise your speed in learning, you're not going to make them read the whole text but a single chapter each. When they're all finished you disperse them in order and absorb the information. Once you've gone through it once, I want you to make two clones for each chapter, one will read it aloud while the other will copy what it hears. This is a way of reinforcing the memory when the clones are dispersed. The more ways you remember the information the more likely you are to retain it. Once you have the information to a point where you think you know it I'll hand out a test for you to complete."

"Uh, is all that really necessary old man?"

"Hmmm, well if you were serious about graduating with the next class it is. Then again if you're not willing to put in the effort then I guess not. Like I said Ranma, there's another class coming through in another seven months…" Sarutobi left it dangling there, his point made as he watched Ranma tense up at the unspoken challenge.

/ Hokage's office \

Having returned to his office Sarutobi sighed in resignation at the new pile of paperwork that'd been added to his desk while he was away. Thanks to Ranma though he'd seen a way to get the job done quickly, though his clones protested being put to work like that, it seemed they liked paperwork as much as the original did. It did free him to look over the scrolls he'd separated

/ Timeskip three weeks \

It would have been hard to believe the difference a couple of weeks could make in a persons life. Ranma would be a good example, he often wondered how he'd managed to live without clones. They allowed him to literally be in several hundred places at once. His already impressive learning curve became downright meteoric and he'd gone through the academy material in a week. Finding that there was more information that he could use in there than he'd first thought he'd decided to branch out and raided the library on several occasions, and been kicked out by an irate librarian, which when he thought about it was quite funny since the little old lady hadn't even hesitated to push nearly a hundred clones out the front door with her immortal words ringing in his ears,

"Don't make me disperse you clone-san! And don't think I can't see you over there, stick your tongue out at me again and I'll give you such a kicking!" Coming from a wizened lady who was barely four feet tall and had to be in her eighties he figured he was in more danger from the cane she was waving than the aforementioned 'kicking'. It did serve to clear out some of the clones though as they laughed so hard they disrupted their chakra matrices.

That had been the beginning of the rout as she'd begun swinging that cane in earnest, showing that she might be old but somewhere in her murky past she'd been a kunoichi with considerable ability, she'd dispersed several of his clones before the clones breached the doors like a cresting wave and cascaded down the library steps, the lesson of not messing with Konoha's kunoichi, no matter their age, thoroughly learned.

Since then they'd turned it into a game, he'd try and get as many henge'd clones past her as he could and she'd attempted to root out his clones, so far he thought he was winning the game, she might have a twenty percent hit rate on his clones, but she'd also concussed three civilians so he figured he came out ahead as it was hard to explain to the Hokage why she kept beating her customers senseless.

Apart from the information gathering aspect of his clones another advantage of Kage Bunshin, or at least the powered up version was that for the first time in five years he had a decent sparring partner. 'You're your own worst enemy,' was never truer than when you had to figure out whole new attack plans on the fly and try to beat a clone that had the exact same mental processes as you do, reacts the same and has the same base knowledge. For several weeks he'd had clones sparring one on one, and one on two. He figured another couple of months of that and he'd be able to beat Happosai without having to resort to cheap shots or trickery, not that he'd ever have to face the evil little gnome again. But all of that was for the future after he'd graduated from the Academy, been assigned a team and made a true place for himself in this world.

/ In the meantime \

Sarutobi watched as the several scrolls he'd separated had been unrolled to the pertinent sections. Out of the entire libraries of Konoha he'd discovered exactly seven hundred and thirty-two words that seemed to hint at Akatsuki, he used the term 'hint' because they spoke in generalities that left an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Some of the younger ninja would scoff at his 'feeling' as mere superstition, but over the course of what was a very long life for a ninja he'd learned not to ignore that sense of mild dread, well he wouldn't if he had an interest in living much longer. He could tell there was trouble cresting the horizon and it wouldn't be long before they'd have to be prepared.

Just that morning he'd moved more than a quarter of Konoha's forces into what he thought were strategic positions. Well they might be strategic positions, for good or ill depending on who the aggressor actually was, it'd have to do though until they had better information. That brought him to the final piece of news for the day, something he often used to brighten the days when nothing seemed to go right. The latest academy test scores had been submitted to him. It was just as he thought it would be as well, Ranma had already tested out of the physical sections of the tests but had insisted he go again so that there could be no claims of favouritism. The boy really was too honourable for his own good, ah well he'd learn the reality of being ninja soon enough. Surutobi's only wish was he wouldn't be broken by the experience.

/ Omake – for those who really want \

/ Naruto in this right now \

Ranma blinked at the accusing stares of his team-mates, but he couldn't think what he'd done wrong this time.

"What?"

"How could you?" Akiko asked with a teary voice.

"How could I what?" Ranma asked, genuinely confused.

"Use him like that man, that was cold," Youji said as he regarded the newest member of his team.

"But I…But they….It's their fault!" he pointed in a random direction.

"Who? There ain't no one else here." Akiko could feel her anger rise as he tried to pass the buck.

"Them!" pointing at the fourth wall, "They insisted the writer had to use the kid, so he did!" Ranma huffed indignantly. He knew the Namikaze kid had access to all kinds of jutsu scrolls and fantastic techniques so it hadn't been that much of a stretch in his mind, even if the kid couldn't actually use them yet. That excuse had always worked for Pops!

/ flashback \

Things were looking bad, they were outnumbered massively, and while Ranma could look after himself he wasn't up to the task of looking out for his team-mates at the same time. Sure he was the best and he could deal with any five or six of these jounin, they really weren't anything special, but what they lacked in skill they made up in numbers with odds of at least ten to one if he could dismiss all of the assorted clones. If things went on the way they had for the last hour they'd be worn into exhaustion.

Akiko had already taken several small wounds and Youji was being pressed back into an ambush even as he watched. It was time to pull out the big guns before someone on his side got a bad case of dead.

Pulling out a seal scroll he smirked at the enemy ninja who were closing on him, which slowed them down as they didn't think he really had anything to smirk about but it had them worried nonetheless. Better to be on the defensive until they'd defused whatever he was planning to pull than to run into an attack they wouldn't be able to deal with.

Slicing his thumb on an exposed blade he applied his blood to the seal and watched as the ultimate weapon appeared in the palm of his hand.

"Ultimate Battle Stopper!" he roared out over the general hubbub of battle, and wasn't surprised when everyone turned to him to see the jutsu he was claiming would stop this massacre. After all what ninja didn't love a big flashy jutsu that could stop a battle like this. Drawing back his hand he noted that several nearby ninja paled.

"You wouldn't…." one said.

"You couldn't…." another added.

"Oh yes I can!" and with that he launched his most secret weapon.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaahahaahahhhh!" came a terrified scream as the battle field erupted into utter chaos, some trying to escape, others standing transfixed by the oncoming blur. That noise, oh god! Several of the older ninja made a panicked attempt to intercept the weapon before it was able to strike the ground or some other solid object. Without fail all eyes were glued to the projectile as it flew, all except for the person who initiated the attack. He was busily evening the odds by killing the ninja too stunned to take note of his approach.

Finally Akiko reached out and intercepted the wailing infant while giving Ranma a death glare. "There, there Naruto, everything's going to be alright. And I'm gonna kick that insane bastards ass for this." She cuddled the three month old infant to her breast trying to calm him down a little.

Out on the battlefield Ranma was mopping up the last of the enemy forces until one lone jounin was left. He stood defiantly as Ranma approached him.

"Any last words?" Ranma asked coldly these Cloud bastards had threatened his team and no one got away with that. He held no fear for himself but these scum had gotten closer than any other enemy ninja since the start of the full fledged war.

"Yeah, I got to hand it to you. I always thought you Leaf nin were wusses and tree-huggers, but now I've got to admit you're all insane. If I could I'd inform the Raikage so that he could call off this war before he gets us all killed." The man had started off with a firm voice but as he finished there was a distinct tone of hysteria in there as well.

Ranma thought about that idea for a moment before coming to a conclusion, "Alright, you're free to go. Just make sure you tell him what happens when they cross us." Without watching the enemy depart he turned to his team to the coldest glares he could ever remember receiving. It didn't stop him from approaching Akiko with a seal in hand to reclaim his weapon though.

"What?" as Akiko cuddled the child even tighter to her chest.

/ end flashback \

"Well I've got to admit. He was right about one thing," Youji admitted in grudging admiration.

Akiko looked at the other male on her team in stunned disbelief, "What the hell are you talking about?" she yelled at him.

"Well he was right, that was an extremely effective distraction. I'll have to talk to the Hokage and see about making them standard issue for teams outside of Konoha."

"Are you insane?!!!!" Akiko screamed.

"Oh come off it Akiko, like they say, 'no harm, no foul,' right?"

/ Eighteen years later \

The doctor sighed as another nervous young person walked into the room, he'd seen so many youths like this over the years since he'd become a medic for the village.

"How can I help you?" he stood with a welcoming smile as he ushered the person to a comfortable chair.

"Doc, I just can't take it anymore," the youth exclaimed.

"Hmm, please relax and take a deep breath. Hold it….Now release it. There now that you're a little calmer would you like to go on? What can't you take anymore?" Nodding to himself the doctor vowed to add another Ryo to the jar if he'd guessed correctly.

"I, I, why. I mean it's not like I'm a ninja or anything. I've never done it before so, so why do I fear flying?"

The doctor sighed as his patient left an hour later as he added another file to a massive stack labelled 'Fear of Flying' that was leaning precariously against the back wall of his office.

As the youth closed the door the last thing he heard was the soft clink of a coin being deposited in a nearly full jar.

/ End Omake \

/ To be continued \

A/N:- Yes I'm alive, as the readers of 'Who's a Pokemon Master found out a short time ago. I'm just sorry that people will probably need to reread my work before they get to this part, all I can do is hope you enjoy it still. I handled the make up of Kyu and Ranma in a light manner for the simple reason that Ranma is a fairly forgiving kind of person. Let's face it if he wasn't he'd have levelled half of Nerima in his attempts to get even with certain individuals. Hopefully I handled the thing in a credible Ranmaesque manner and I don't get flamed too badly for it.

Please review.

Enjoy your Christmas and New Years