Naruto, Ranma 1. Facing Facts

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or any other character created by Rumiko Takahashi. Additionally, I do not own Naruto or any other character created by Masashi Kishimoto. No suing, please!

Akane shut the front door quietly, the soft click of the door secured in the doorframe a balm to her frayed nerves. Nabiki's graduation ceremony had been a bit more… exciting than she had been prepared for. Oh, she had been more than ready for Kuno's farewell speech, though she truly didn't remember most of it. But because this was Kuno's graduation, Kodachi was present as well and her Ranma-radar never failed her. Once the younger Kuno had reached him, Shampoo and Ukyo had shown up as well, revealing a penchant for knowing just when Ranma's attention might be swayed from their apparent beauty.

Without a word or even an apologetic glance to Nabiki, Akane had left, not wanting to torture herself further. Her sister wouldn't have understood anyway, not like Kasumi would have. Sometimes, Akane thought Nabiki was like Ranma, entertaining the chaos because she didn't know how else to live. The chaos the Saotome boy had brought to their lives had given her money-grubbing meaning and purpose and had transformed her nerves of steel into tungsten.

She trailed her fingertips against the wall, her thoughts skittering away from analyzing her sister too closely. Thinking on those lines always brought her back to the last failed wedding. Though she was so proud of her father for finally putting his foot down about something, her sadness permeated every corner of the memory.

"Akari…"

Akane was drifting along the edge of the family room, debating on whether she would watch television or just go to her room and brush up on any subjects she was weak in before the break that preceded the next school term began, when the sound drifted to her ears. Even if she hadn't recognized the voice as belonging to Ryoga, the content was a dead giveaway. Akari was that girl he talked about sometimes with that lost-in-love gleam in his eyes. She thought it was good for him to find a girl to feel passionate about.

You know, that wasn't her. There were times when Akane didn't feel all that comfortable around Ryoga.

Taking long but quiet strides, she quickly walked across the family room and skirted her father's room. The sound of Ryoga's voice still muttered agitatedly from the furo but Akane didn't feel the need to make her presence known. It wasn't like Ryoga was someone whose attention she had to force in her general direction.

Unlike Ranma.

She could hear the sound of running water but was unconcerned because the bathroom door was open. Stopping, she peered around the doorframe, her mouth open and ready to greet Ryoga with an invitation to maybe sit out by the koi pond. There was no one else around and he always seemed like he needed to calm down. However, no sound escaped her mouth. The scene before her was too shocking.

His back to her, Ryoga was naked, wearing nothing save for the bandana around his head. Before Akane could even think to blush and back away, for she knew he was very shy, he upended a bucket of what was cold water over his head. Energy swirled around him for a split-second, the same way it did to Ranma when he changed from male to female or vice-versa, and P-Chan was standing where Ryoga had been only a moment before.

And she had thought that a girl-covered Ranma was going to be the worst part of her day…

With silent steps and a tight cap on emotions that wanted to spill out of her eyes, Akane walked backward until she was at her father's door, sliding it open and slipping inside. Leaving a crack open, just enough to see a sliver of the hallway and hear anything within her earshot, she watched as the little black piglet marched stolidly, boldly across her line of sight.

He quickly passed out of her vision and Akane allowed herself to slowly release the breath she had been holding. While she was aware that the piglet had been moving at a good clip, she wasn't going to risk being heard by his martial artist senses. She had just curled her hand around the door to slide it open again when she heard the sound of the front door opening. Her body became rigid again as she strained to hear, too paranoid now to think that it would be anyone she would want to see.

The piglet squealed audibly, indignantly and Akane knew that it was Ranma that had entered the house. P-Chan was only ever that angry with her fiancé. "Ryoga, what are you doing here? I meant what I said."

In his altered form, Ryoga made a sound of inquiry.

"After the wedding that didn't happen." He sighed roughly and his next sentence was muffled, as if he was facing another direction. More than likely, he was headed out the door, having forgotten the original reason he had returned to the house. "After Jusendo, I don't want her to be bothered, least of all by you." As the door closed behind him, the disgust in his voice was clear.

After all, Akane mused, she might call Ranma a pervert but posing as a favored pet in order to sleep with her… Now that was truly horrendous.

Smiling wryly at herself, she opened her father's door and scurried out into the hallway, her soft footfalls carrying her quickly to her room upstairs. All that time, her head was very slightly cocked as she tried to listen for sounds that would indicate any new or recurring entrances to the house. Thankfully, there were none.

Akane turned away from her mind as it connected things to which she didn't want to admit. Instead, she pulled a large rucksack from the back of her closet and began to arrange it with clothes and toiletries as neatly and quickly as possible. She recognized the habit as something that Kasumi had pointed out before: stress caused her to overcompensate, usually in domestic endeavors. The downside was that the only domestic activity she was halfway skilled at was cleaning. Thus, the normally well-organized room.

She didn't realize that she had a plan until she caught herself pulling on a pair of cargo pants, an item that she had bought about a year ago in an attempt to find something that would hide the size of her hips, and changing her school flats for a pair of hiking boots. Because a sundress looked a little out of place now, she changed out her white-and-pink dress for a gray V-neck shirt that clung to her curves comfortably, though she was aware that the dip in the collar helped to make it obvious that she was female.

Dark emotions, equal parts depression and cold fury, swept over her as she finally picked up the rucksack. Her eyes swept over the room, a part of her mind still holding the reasons for her current emotions at bay, and she settled on the paper and pen sitting idly on her desk. Before she could suppress the urge, she scribbled a quick note on the paper to stick on the front door with a strip of tape.

Two simple sentences and her signature was how she left the only home she'd known for her entire life. The back of her mind had already come to the realization that her entire family had known that P-Chan was really Ryoga and none of them had told her. Her conscious mind would not come to this realization until some two hours later when life became truly strange yet again.

She hadn't yet decided if she was coming back.

Ranma glanced at the entrance door to Ucchan's for what had to have been the hundredth time in the last twenty minutes. That wasn't including the hour prior to that in which he had been completing the same glance to the door, glance at his food and shovel a piece into his mouth, glance around the restaurant with concern, and then back again.

"Gah!" Ranma was clearly startled by Ukyo's sudden exasperated exclamation. His wide blue eyes turned completely to her and his body was tilted away as if to dodge an attack.

He caught her wince and knew what she was thinking. The failed wedding had been a little under a month ago and Ukyo had spending a lot of time, time that she should have been devoting to the restaurant, getting their friendship on track. Sometimes she still rode a very thin line between close friends and wanting more than he was willing to give. However, he knew she still suffered from guilt she had yet to address, guilt that meant she had to apologize to Akane.

Neither one of them knew that the girl in question had long since learned how to move past events that would leave her bitter.

He smiled broadly at the spatula-wielding okinomiyaki chef behind the griddle. "I was just distracted, Ucchan."

"I know." Her exasperation, though tempered by fresh guilt as it was, melted into understanding. She returned to cleaning the griddle in preparation for one of her double-size special okinomiyakis for a family in the corner, one of the few groups of customers not here as a celebratory follow-up to Furinkan's graduation ceremony. "I thought you went to the house to find her." He could hear that her voice was carefully devoid of emotion but her eyes still revealed what she thought of his preoccupation with the blue-haired female.

Embarrassment flowed over his features, followed quickly by a hard look that chilled the hearts those that looked at him in that moment. "I did but Ryoga was there." It was clear in his tone that Ryoga had not been in his human form. "After I took him far enough away from the dojo, I came here." He smiled and shrugged, the entire gesture meant to show his chagrin at the situation.

Ukyo flipped the okinomiyaki expertly with two spatulas, the tilt of her head telling Ranma was she was partly listening to the sizzle of the griddle so that she could remove it when it was perfect. "Why didn't you go back?"

He watched Konatsu come up behind her with a family platter plate for the very large okinomiyaki, not wanting to look her in the eye. "Hungry, I guess. I keep hoping…" Ukyo waited patiently, her spatulas scraping the griddle gently. "I thought she'd come on her own. She'd been looking forward to this."

A sad smile on her face, Ukyo knew why Akane had chosen to be anywhere but around Ranma. Though it was from a distance, she had seen the strange calm that had settled over the girl in question, something that caused her to often remove herself from particularly sticky situations. This morning's chaos with Kodachi and Shampoo was a perfect example of how Akane now solved her issues with anger.

"Maybe we should check on her." She glanced around the restaurant – the Tendos and their guests were still heavily distracted. "I'll go with you if you want."

Ranma nodded quickly, the relief clear on his face. "Great."

As Konatsu passed by her, Ukyo tilted her head meaningfully at the griddle as she grabbed his arm. The whispered "Certainly, Ukyo-tono" followed immediately as Ukyo moved around the counter so that she met Ranma at the door.

Rooftop travel was another joy she had learned in the company of Ranma. Nerima flew by as they ran and jumped from one edge of a roof to the next, the horizon above the city almost magical as they made a clear path for a specific location. The Tendo Dojo and its attached home grew from a smallish dot to a physical presence in less than five minutes. Ukyo was close behind Ranma as they hurried to the front door.

The white sheet of notebook paper fluttered gently in the mild wind, creating a stark contrast against the dark wood of the door. As he was faster than her, Ranma reached the door first but he had stopped, something in his posture wrong. She hurried to his side to read the paper.

"I know about Ryoga now," she murmured under her breath, repeating the words Akane had scribbled in the heat of the moment. "Tell Ranma I'm sorry about everything. Akane." She had capitalized and circled the last word for the second sentence. At the realization of this sentence implied, Ukyo's blood ran cold.

For Akane to know about Ryoga being her precious pet piglet, she had to have seen him change. Shocking, yes, and she was well aware that Akane was not stupid, which lent itself to the assumption that she would eventually gather that everyone had known. Her closest friends and family, even her rivals for Ranma's affection, had known this fact and only the pigtailed martial artist himself had even attempted to inform her. Perhaps she had even known this before she left, for she had not let her love be known even to Kasumi.

"Oh, my God," she murmured, her voice slightly louder than when she had been reading the letter. "I'm awful." She felt bile rise in her throat as her mind realized the same thing that Akane's had: Ryoga's disguise had made him dangerously close to a sexual assaulter. Why, why hadn't she thought of this before?

She didn't realize she had crumpled into a sitting position until Ranma crouched beside her, comforting her with a hug. He was patting her back awkwardly and humming tunelessly, maybe an effort to mimic Kasumi when she was consoling someone.

Looking up, Ukyo found his face was very close, his blue eyes dark with worry. Though she was aware that his thoughts were never turn completely romantic as she sometimes found that she actually wanted (and not just for her supposed honor), she found the yearning urge to touch her lips to his to be much too strong to bear. So, she cast her eyes downward in hope that her overburdened libido would relax.

That was when she saw the way his body sat.

His muscles were tight to the point that they seemed to be almost vibrating. He was literally forcing himself to sit still to contend to her needs. After all, there was no indication of Akane being in direct danger and Ranma's own emotional range would likely never match that of the young Tendo girl. But Ukyo had to wonder: would Akane's penchant of walking into danger leave her vulnerable, something Ranma was likely thinking about?

And was she heartless enough to stop him from going after her?


	2. Landing in Konoha

**Author's Note: Oh my God! Another update on something I have written on in a while? The world's going to end! Bwa ha ha! Anyway, pardon me if the characters are a little bit OOC, especially the Naruto characters. Anyway, here goes. Hope you enjoy it!**

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><p>A portal.<p>

Akane looked at it curiously and apprehensively, wondering how dangerous this could potentially be. The last two years had taught her to be a little cautious, except when her temper was getting in the way. But there was always that niggling curiosity that made her want to reach out and touch the thing.

What was on the other side? Would it hurt? What was the significance of the coloring of the portal? Could she potentially leave everything behind, despite the fact that she had already done close to that much already? Most importantly, would anyone care that she was gone? The note had certainly made sure they would notice.

There were so many different colors making up the portal – white, red, black, purple, pink, green. Dr. Tofu had once said that there was significance in color but there was so much going on there. And somehow… it all melded together and it worked and it was perfectly beautiful.

She stepped through without another thought.

It was like stepping into a drain, a constant swirling and sucking but fluid at the same time. In the split-second before she reached the other side, the red of the portal intensified until it was the only color left and she could feel a powerful fury, an insatiable and undeniable anger that for once wasn't her own. It was scary, looking at that rage from the outside.

Then… it spit her out. The other side was like something out of a storybook, the kind Kasumi used to read to her. Tall trees, a mountain whose details were just out of view – just standing there, taking it all in, she could feel relief wash over her.

"Naruto-kun."

The soft female voice, in a way so much like Kasumi's, brought Akane out of her bliss. The girl looked to be about her age and had long hair similar to the color of her own but her eyes were a bit unnerving. They look like that of a blind person but she knew somehow that was not the case.

"Hello?"

The strange girl squeaked softly, whirling to face Akane. She opened her mouth but no further sound escaped. Glancing back to the window, she promptly fainted.

As her body slumped to the ground, Akane rolled her eyes at herself. "Great, Akane. Way to greet new people." Though the girl's actions were not caused by her own, years with Ranma had conditioned her to accept the blame, even if only subconsciously.

She stepped forward to look through the window but saw nothing, as the object of the girl's attention had left the room. With an arched eyebrow and a shrug, she tightened the straps of her pack and picked up the girl, walking out of the alleyway where the portal had left her.

Though she had yet to notice, there was no portal behind her.

The street was busy, reminding her of the market district of Nerima. Even more reassuringly, not only did they speak Japanese, the kanji on storefronts showed that she was also familiar with their writing style. While it seemed unlikely that a portal two hours of a brisk walk from her home in the middle of nowhere would lead her to a place where there was no language barrier, she knew now not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Hinata!" Recognizing the urgency in the voice, Akane turned to face it silently. There was a tall boy with long and wild hair with strange markings on his face and a rather large dog at his side and another person, male but she wasn't sure if he was boy or man, wearing a long dark trenchcoat and impenetrably dark glasses.

"Is that her name?" Akane was struggling to be nice and polite but her instincts were yelling 'DANGER!' She was barely managing to keep her battle aura from manifesting itself.

The boy with the dog stepped forward, malice clear in the action, and the very large canine began to growl. As if the boy's intent wasn't clear enough. She got a feeling that the other boy was likely rolling his eyes; she knew that stance well enough. However, the instant she got a clear indication of his actions, she could feel the ki she kept coiled tightly inside her center attempting to do... something else. Despite her often and recurrent anger in Nerima, she had never lost herself enough to create anything beyond a flimsy battle aura. Then again, she'd never met someone seeming so much in need of protection as Hinata did.

"Put her down and we won't hurt you," the boy with the markings warned through clenched teeth.

Somehow, Akane just didn't believe him. Maybe it was the martial arts supremists she'd been subjected to or the excited look in his eyes… And could she just say how much she was over being threatened? It had become exceedingly common in Nerima. She would be damned if she would run away from home just to be in that position again.

"No." As she said the words, she could feel warmth erupt from her hands and a dull red glow flowed over her and Hinata. It took her a moment to realize that it was a shield. It was also in the moment that the slight female decided to wake, groaning softly against Akane's shoulder.

Hearing the sound, Akane's reaction dissipated and her ki retreated to its normal hiding place as she placed Hinata on the ground. "What… What's going on?" She turned very slightly and saw the offensive boy and his dog. "Kiba?"

The boy, the so-called Kiba, stayed on high alert, which definitely scratched Akane the wrong way. So, instead she focused her attention on the girl. "Hi, I'm Akane. Are you okay?" She smiled her most disarming smile, the one reserved for charming new acquaintances.

Face to face with a smiling female, some of Hinata's nervousness disappeared. "Hinata Hyuga, is me. Did I faint again?" Akane's smile transformed into a grin and she nodded. "Where did you come from?"

The Japanese girl sighed, rolling her eyes. "Believe it or not, I came through a portal of some kind. This… place doesn't look familiar at all."

Kiba scoffed, holding on to his animosity like a dog with a bone. "Maybe that's believable where you come from but…"

He trailed off when the boy with the dark glasses placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "I think we should see the Hokage." He looked over at Hinata, a slight smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Where were you when you saw her, Hinata?"

The girl ducked her head, blushing deeply, as they began moving in a new direction. "No-Nowhere, Shino-kun."

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><p>Naruto looked out his alley-facing window again. He could have sworn he felt something out there, something big. With a sigh, he grabbed a shirt, pulling it over his head as he made his way to the front door. As much as he was happy to be free of Ero-Sennin after a long three years, he was restless for action. Maybe he could ask Granny Tsunade when Team Seven would be getting back together. After all, he was stronger now. He could force Sasuke to come back now.<p>

A niggling voice in his head whispered that the young Uchiha could have advanced just as much as he had.

Following the habit of running away from thoughts he didn't like (because he couldn't fight the possibility behind these thoughts yet), he stepped out the door of his apartment and into the bustle of the village. Once he made it to the market district, he tried to calm his soaring heart. He was older now – he needed to show restraint.

Though his grinning face was put forward, Naruto carefully watched the people around him. That alone was enough to make his mood somber. The past was the past and can't be helped, he always thought, but the thing inside him had hurt almost everyone in this village in one way or another. There were children with missing parents, adults carrying the pain of widowhood, and so many people whose friends had died that day. He'd had the situation explained to him several times.

Jiraiya himself had been hard put to explain the hatred. It was hard just to exist in Konoha when Naruto's very presence reminded those around him of loss. There had been times in the past few years that his own emotions had sunk into a depression fed by the fox-demon within him, causing him to wonder the point of returning. Ero-Sennin always had the answers, though, despite his perverted front.

_The eyes of hatred,_ he thought. It was something he had learned to identify early in his life, something he wished he'd never known. _How does it make their eyes so cold?_

Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, he tilted his head slightly downward so that he wouldn't have to look at those eyes. So that he wouldn't remember that feeling again, that feeling of trying so hard to be good enough and yet failing every single time. If he didn't look in their eyes, then he wouldn't see it and he could pretend for another day that his existence wasn't entirely synonymous with their pain and anger and sorrow.

"Naruto-san?"

He looked up sharply, his eyes connected with the pale eyes of the Hyuga clan head. Hiashi, right? The last time he clearly remembered seeing the man, his eyes had held the coldness as well but for once, it wasn't intended for Uzumaki. If he remembered correctly, the distaste and disgust in his eyes had been reserved for his firstborn daughter and his nephew, his twin brother's only son.

How twisted was that?

But now, those cold eyes were so warm and welcome, despite the white color. Naruto idly wondered what could have happened to change the older man in such a way but he knew he would never know the answer. "Hey, Hyuga-san."

"You shouldn't address Hyuga-sama so familiarly." It was then that Naruto noticed the man – a gawky creature that reminded him of Konohamaru's mentor – that stood next to Hiashi. He shared the pale eye coloring that marked him as a Hyuga but with his similarities to Neji and that odd marking on his forehead, Naruto had to assume that he was a Branch member of the Hyuga clan.

At least, he figured it was a good guess. Even though Sakura had attempted to explain to him one day a few years past, he still wasn't clear on the politics or even the structure of the Hyuga family.

Naruto caught a glimpse of Hiashi's eyes glinting coldly just before he faced the younger man and his words were just as chilling. "Kato-kun, have I given you leave to chastise others without warning or provocation?"

"But Hiashi-sama…" The boy's argument trailed off as the lines around Hiashi's eyes crinkled in a way that suggested his eyes were narrowed in a glare.

"You will address me as Hyuga-sama and as soon as we have retrieved Hinata from the Hokage, you will return to the care of Hanabi. Is that quite clear?"

"Yes, Hyuga-sama."

Satisfied, Hiashi turned back to Naruto, a faint smile gracing his face and the warmth having returned to his eyes. "So, Naruto-san, Hinata had said you'd returned. Was your training trip satisfactory?"

Arched his eyebrow at the incident that he had just witnessed, Naruto raised a hand to rub the back of his head. "I guess so. Ero—" The young ninja stopped himself, reflecting on the way Kato had been given a dressing-down for improper honorifics. "I mean, Jiraiya-san is a good teacher. I'm happy to be back."

"That is good to hear," Hiashi said with an inclination of his head. "As we are both on the edge of the village, I suppose you were going to see the Hokage as well."

Naruto laughed self-consciously. "Well, yeah. I mean, not for anything important. I'm just…" He flailed his arms slightly, trying to think of the right description without sounding like an uncouth little monster.

"Restless?" The clan head grinned at him. "I understand. Hizashi and I could get that way when we were younger." They walked into the building in silence, ascending through the different levels in a quiet that was both disturbing and oddly… peaceful until they reached Tsunade's office.

"I'll vouch for her." The voice was soft but Naruto inherently knew that it was Hinata that spoke. Only she could be that quiet and still somehow manage to be heard.

"You don't even know her!" Kiba, angry and agitated, though the blue-eyed ninja couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

"You won't mind if we collect Hinata first, right, Naruto?" Hiashi asked softly.

"Yeah, go ahead."

His brow furrowed, Naruto tried to figure out what was going on, because something was obviously going on. As far as he was aware, Hinata rarely stood before the Hokage and the presence of her father meant that this was an even stranger circumstance. However, by the time he realized it would be better to pay attention rather than ruminate on the possibilities that he couldn't possibly grasp, he was being called into the office by Tsunade herself in order to answer some very strange questions.

What about a portal? Huh?


	3. New Homes and Lost Portals

**A/N: New chapter, yay! I'm rewatching Naruto, so hopefully I'll get more inspiration as far as this is concerned. We'll see... BTW, thanks for the reviews! They are my lifeblood.**

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><p>Akane glanced around the main house of the Hyuga compound, images of past memories of her time in the Kuno compound flashing before her mind's eye. It was a grand affair, especially considering how much like feudal Japan the entire village looked. Well, if feudal Japan had extended into a somewhat technologically-comfortable era. As far as she could tell, every member of the Hyuga family (of which there were many) lived within the walls of the compound but oddly enough, the ones with the markings on their foreheads seemed to steer clear of the main house.<p>

"Akane?" Hinata asked as soon as they walked through the door, her voice low and soft. "Can you prove it, your story? Father will want proof."

She stopped and tilted her head. That was a problem. Most everything she packed that was clothing or toiletry required an electric outlet and while she was unsure if this place had any, they may not prove her to be a stranger to this world. "You can't just tell him? I mean, I came out of nowhere in a dead-end alley."

The girl looked down and pressed her index fingers together in a nervous gesture. "I don't want him to know that I… That is, that I was…"

"Peeping?" Akane offered, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

Hinata blushed deeply at the word. "I wasn't… I mean, I was but it wasn't like…"

Deciding it would be best to put her out of her misery, Akane laid a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder. "Come on, Hina-chan. It's fine. I'm just teasing."

She rewarded Akane with a relieved but close-lipped smile. "Oh, yeah. You were right, though, I guess."

Akane snickered softly, wondering how she managed to keep that deep blush for so long. Even during their nicest moment, Ranma had only caused her to have the initial blush, which faded… or transitioned to the high color of anger. Getting her mind back on track, she thought of how much Hinata reminded her of Ryoga, with his constant deep blushes. Despite how thinking of him caused her to frown deeply, her mind continued its track unheeded. "Traveling," she blurted suddenly.

Hinata frowned at her new friend, confusion replacing the embarrassment quickly enough. "What? What are you talking about?"

Her movements highly unceremonious, Akane dropped her bag to the floor and began rummaging through it, placing articles of clothing and various toiletries to the side as neatly as she could manage in her hurry. "Success!" she murmured to herself as she lifted out what she called her travel album. It had pictures from all over Japan and if her hunch was correct, no part of her home world looked completely like a specific location in this universe. "Let's find your dad."

Hinata allowed herself to be dragged, though Akane obeyed when minute movements indicated that she needed to follow a certain path. As they briskly walked the well-worn halls to Hiashi's office, the young Hyuga girl finally asked the question that had been held at bay by Akane's quick and determined movements. "Akane, what are you doing?"

The girl in question paused at the door to the older man's office, clutching the photo album to her chest. "Well, I figured… Well, Hiashi-san seems like the kind of guy that would be traveling a lot for the village or for your family. Right?"

Hinata nodded after a moment, her eyes slightly distant with the memory of years long past when he was gone almost constantly and her only companion was her mother. That, of course, was before the birth of her mother and the memories themselves had long ago lost the sting of abandonment. "He's been all over."

Nodding firmly, as if to herself, Akane rapped her knuckles against the door, unfazed by the unwelcoming gaze of the man that stood guard outside the office. Besides the heat of his glare, he kind of reminded her of the Imperial guards – all stiff and unmoving. He had that odd mark branded into his forehead like many of the others. Her mind skirted around the thought when she tried to ruminate on what those markings might mean and she knew there was something about them that she wouldn't like.

"Enter."

Akane pushed the door open, Hinata close behind her. She smiled gently at the man and he returned the expression with a half-smile of his own and set some of his scrolls to the side. "Can I help you, Akane-san?"

She placed the album on the desk in front of him. "Hinata said you'd probably need proof and this is the best thing I could think of. It's full of pictures from Japan."

"Japan?" Hiashi echoed uncertainly, already opening the album to peruse the many landscape photographs within. As a matter of course, there were also family photos and pictures of everyone she knew. She always like that candid photos Nabiki took and often took some of them. There were many of her rivals: Kodachi at her most graceful and dangerous as she wielded a razor ribbon; Shampoo petting a duck-form Mousse when she thought no one was looking; Ukyo and Ryoga laughing and obviously in cahoots about something; and many, many others. But the important pictures for this situation showed the countryside of Japan, a horde that Akane had collected over the years.

Akane cleared her throat softly. "It's where I'm from. Tokyo, Japan."

Finally, after several long moments, he handed the album back to her across the desk. "Well, Hinata vouched for you before the Hokage and nothing in those pictures looks even vaguely familiar, not even how the building are made. So, lacking proof to the otherwise, I must accept your story. There was a portal, you said?"

Akane nodded quickly. "I know it sounds kind of weird."

Hiashi's lips curled into a knowing smile, obviously hearing her apprehension clearly. "I have seen some strange things in my life, little Akane. Don't worry about it. Besides, it's nice to see Hinata making friends so quickly."

She looked back at Hinata, who had ducked her head and blushed deeply at the comment. "Yes, Father."

Akane turned, ready to leave like what seemed to be appropriate, but stopped at the sound of Hiashi's voice. "I can't help but notice that you're built to fight. What do you know about ninjutsu?"

She frowned and shook her head silently. He gestured for her to sit and she did. What she learned in the next hour completely altered her view about the people in this village.

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><p>Taijutsu. That's what Hiashi Hyuga had called it.<p>

When she woke as early as usual the morning following her arrival in this new world, Akane quickly dressed in exercise clothing – white tank top and short blue shorts, avoiding her gis for the time – and found an open courtyard with training poles. They were scattered around the yard and she noticed that the poles had moveable sections that were likely meant to bounce back. It wasn't her usual straw dummies but it would do.

Settling into the heavy stance that was the beginning of one of the Tendo school katas, she swarmed around the training poles. In the first few minutes, she concentrated at hitting them all in spots that would be vital on a human while evading the moving arms. When that wasn't enough, she picked up speed and pictured the Hentai Horde. With the thought, her dodges became smoother and her punches and kicks more ferocious. However, when she destroyed one of the poles with a vicious sidekick to its middle, she immediately stopped, a decision that earned her a smack to her lower ribcage that would turn into a light bruise later.

"Very nice." Akane started, looking up to see the Hyuga clan head. Her eyes widening in alarm, she jumped to stand in front of the broken pole, some odd part of her mind hoping to hide the damage. "Don't worry, Akane-san. We can replace it."

"Sorry," she murmured softly. "I got caught up in some memories, I guess."

Hiashi tilted his head slightly, eyeing the broken piece of wood pointedly. "Some memory."

Akane nodded vaguely, her eyes sharpening with horror when she realized something. "Did I wake you? Gomen na! I usually run in the mornings but I don't really know my way around yet and I don't want to get lost."

His lips were curled in a way that told Akane he was laughing on the inside, probably at her ramble. "Not at all. I did hear you but I was already having my morning tea. Although, you are quite good at taijutsu. Would you care if I tested myself against you?"

She arched an eyebrow, remembering Hinata's somewhat vague description of the Hyuga family style – the Gentle Fist. It had been kind of detailed but Akane could tell the girl had gotten anywhere near as detailed as she could have. "Your fighting style has ninjutsu too, doesn't it?" she asked, caution edging her tone.

Hiashi shrugged innocently, disguising an ulterior motive badly. "I thought it would be a challenge." Her eyebrow arched more sharply and her lips pulled down into an apprehensive frown. "Okay, how about this? If you can keep from being hit by my Gentle Fist, I'll teach you the basic steps."

With the familiar sinking feeling that she was walking directly into a trap, Akane nodded slowly, watching him sharply. She saw his stance change subtly; not just anyone would see it but she had trained in the Art for well over ten years and had spent the last two years watch Ryoga and Ranma make leaps and bounds as well. The veins at the man's temples bulged suddenly, surging with raw power, and his hands became weapons of ki. While she was sure they called it something else here, the meaning was the same.

So, that was a good question: was ninjutsu just another spiffy word for ki techniques?

It was important to note that it wasn't the massively strong ki like Ryoga's destructive ball of depression, so it couldn't be seen. But it could be felt, just like the Baksai Tenketsu could be felt. Before she could analyze him any further, though, he lunged toward her – a straightforward attack to test her reflexes. In turn, she immediately dodged to the side, throwing her body into a roll.

Following her roll into a low crouch, Akane looked at Hiashi, slightly distracted at the grin on his face. She didn't spend too long attempting to ascertain its meaning before he was moving again. Though she didn't like playing the whole 'escape and evade' thing that Ranma always pulled with her the few times they sparred, she also knew that allowing the older man to keep close to her vital spots with his ki-infused hands was a mistake.

_Chakra,_ she reminded herself firmly. _It's chakra._

The trouble was that she was mostly trained to take her opponents head-on in honest, brutal battle. Also, there was the problem where she didn't really want to hurt him. After all, as long as she was here, he was probably going to be the closest thing she had to a parent and in Nerima, her father hadn't sparred with her honestly for years. However, she soon realized that she was spending way too much time ruminating and not nearly enough time in the instinct of the Art.

A stinging sensation made itself known on her upper arm. A glance at it showed no wound but she knew pain and she knew her body well enough that her left arm was now only at maybe half its normal ability.

"Well, crap," she murmured fervently. Well, her school was Anything Goes. Maybe it was about time she actually exercised the tenets of the school. With a burst of speed, she surged to her feet, dodging around the man's oncoming attack. Spiraling her body around the edges of his reach, she found herself behind him just long enough to send a sharp and painful blow to his kidney. She ducked and rolled again, certain to remain out of his range.

"Father?" Akane tilted her head slightly when she heard Hinata's muffled voice but kept her eyes on her opponent. She had learned her lesson over the years: never ever take your focus from a powerful opponent. And until she learned all that she could about this Gentle Fist style, she wasn't going to trust it not to kill her. "Father!"

Hiashi's gaze turned from Akane's to his daughter, who stood in the open door that led back into the house. His expression melted from the battle ferocity to a kind of bemused guilt. "Hinata?"

She frowned deeply at her father. Akane knew that expression – that was a Kasumi expression. She expected the younger girl to wag a finger at her father and denounce his behavior. 'For shame' and the like. However, she just walked over to Akane and helped her to her feet. "I thought we were going to check out the portal today?"

Rolling her eyes slightly, she accepted the help. How it was she could feel admonished by someone so… unassuming, she would never know. "Just give me a few minutes. I'll go change."

Skirting through the family room to the bedroom she was currently sharing with Hinata, Akane managed to suppress the laugh that bubbled in her chest when she heard the soft-spoken girl chastising her father for his 'ill treatment of a guest'. Guess she had more backbone than it had first seemed.

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><p>Twenty minutes later, Akane and Hinata were threading through the village of Konoha, maneuvering back to where the Japanese girl had first appeared. The plan was to make sure the portal was still there. Akane had told Hinata the night before that she wasn't worried about it but she just didn't want to go home quite yet. The other girls didn't pry and she could see the questions burning in her eyes.<p>

"There it is," Hinata murmured quietly, touching Akane's shoulder lightly with one hand and pointing with the other. She pointed out the alleyway that they had erupted from the day before, an alley that had hid her from prying eyes as she watched a boy Akane now knew was Naruto.

Akane nodded and picked up the pace a little. She wanted to get this part of the day over and done with so that she could learn more about this world. That unquenchable thirst for knowledge that only served her in school and in the few times her father deigned to teach her an advanced technique was in hyperdrive here, where there was so much that didn't know and needed to know and _wanted_ to know.

Once the darkness of the alley settled over her, she knew something was wrong. In the deep of the forest in Japan, the portal had called out to her, had caught her attention like a very bright battle aura. But here, there was nothing, not even so much as a swirling vortex of nothingness. It was just dark and slightly chilled, as empty space between buildings should be.

"Stand where you were standing yesterday," Akane ordered softly, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. She felt like she succeeded mostly as Hinata moved to stand under a window.

"Right here?" she asked softly, concern swimming in her wide lavender eyes.

Akane nodded, spinning around and walking backwards until she was about the right distance. It was a good thing her curiosity had kept her alert yesterday and that the portal hadn't had some nasty side effect, like knocking her unconscious. Just a couple more feet… Tilting her head, Akane judged her surroundings and then nodded firmly. This was the right place and that meant the portal should be…

She twisted around, her upper body turning first and her lower body following two seconds behind. There was nothing there, just empty air and a wall a few feet away. "No," she moaned softly, her knees buckling unexpectedly.

Hinata was immediately at her side. "Akane?"

"It's not here. It must have… It must have been one-way. No return trips for Akane," she said in a flat voice, her attempts to inject humor into her voice failing perfectly. "I can't ever go home again."

"Oh, um…" Hinata sighed softly. "Is that really so bad? You ran away for a reason, didn't you?"

Akane shook her head, dispelling the shock somewhat. However, the absence of the numbness just made her brain realize other facts more quickly. "No, it's not. But… the portal is over there and someone will find it, probably soon." She looked up at Hinata, her brown eyes swimming with horror. "Whoever comes will be trapped here, too."


	4. Unexpected Destinations

**A/N: Hey, a chapter! Not much to say, other than the fact that the worst writer's block I've ever had finally seems to be receding bit by bit. I will say the updates for this fic will be slower than some may like because I am trying to focus on Imbedded Sadness (Fairy Tail fic). I hope everyone enjoys this read. Reviews are the bane of writer's block!**

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><p>Following her disturbing discovery of the portal that had brought her to this world, to Konoha and to the Hyuga clan that was quickly working to serve as a family in her heart, Akane felt an intense desire to be at a higher altitude. Hinata, perhaps sensing the Tendo girl's additional need to be alone with her thoughts, left her to her own devices shortly thereafter, citing that she had a mission that would begin that day.<p>

The pale-eyed girl had been very clear about the fact that she would only be gone a few days. Perhaps she was worried about Akane being alone.

The problem with the village was that most of the buildings were low and even the buildings that held several stories could not hold a candle to the mountain that towered over it all, the mountain that reminded her keenly of Mount Rushmore, the American monument that boasted the faces of four crucial presidents carved into the side of a mountain. The Hokage Monument was just as large and even served as a reminder that Hokages were meant to watch over the whole of Konohagakure.

It had not taken long for the young martial artist to make the decision to scale the mountain.

Even as her eyes roamed the cliffside for handholds and footholds, Akane found that she wished for an easier way to the top. It wasn't that she couldn't handle the climb; despite not being quite as agile as the many martial artists that now flooded Nerima, climbing the mountain in front of her would have by no means exerted her too much. However, thinking of the portal, the prismatic swirl of power on one side and the entire lack of a return journey, she knew that what she needed was time to think and a way to see the situation in a greater perspective.

That was why she needed to be up high. She literally needed to see the big picture.

Even as this thought glistened with crystal clarity in her mind, her brown eyes flicked to the left edge of the mountaintop in time to glimpse the pathways there. For a moment, she let her eyes roam over the paths and bridges, letting her gaze drift downward to its beginning, marveling over how similar this easy path seemed to the scaffolding of a new building in Tokyo. When she noted that the opening of the path was only a few feet away, she allowed her feet to take her there.

As she walked the curving upward path, her feet finding each step in a clear and precise movement, she had to wonder why the absence of the portal left her muddled in emotion as it did. She felt angry and anxious and horrified all in one complex ball of nerves. The problem was that she wasn't entirely sure why she was feeling these things. Despite what she may have expected when she had left her father's home with a slightly over-full pack on her back, she had found something in this ninja family that she'd never felt anywhere else.

Perhaps it was peace? Or a sense of belonging, despite having little knowledge of this world?

She inhaled deeply, trying to stop the heavy sigh before it escaped. As much as leaving Nerima had been very much an act of finality, she had to wonder if she had always expected to go back. Or rather, to be dragged back. From the times that it had occurred already, Akane knew that part of her always expected Ranma to come running after her, though she was never fully clear on his motives.

Now, the likelihood of Ranma finding the one-way portal and walking through it had increased exponentially, at least in her mind. It had always seemed that the less she wanted to be found, the more likely it was that her fiancé would find her. And if that sort of Murphy's Law mentality reflected reality in any way, the pigtailed martial artist would find himself in Konoha soon without a way to return to Nerima.

Without a way to return to his abundance of beautiful fiancées and perverted grandmaster of their Art and his mother, who he would miss the most.

Well, Akane conceded, given Ranma's degree of agitation when it came to Shampoo and Ukyo and even the Tendo girl herself, perhaps he would find pleasure in this turn of events. Without meaning to, Akane giggled at the thought of Ranma being forcibly separated from his various paramours, not sure what it was that she found more amusing: the thought of Ranma's obvious relief or the idea of her so-called rivals losing to her in such an unexpected way.

"Hello?" The voice that called out following the illicit noise of her laughter was wary and on guard, making her wonder if she had stumbled onto something she wasn't supposed to see, regardless of the fact that she'd yet to see anything.

As soon as she crested the mountain, she managed to catch a flash of black hair just before she felt the sharp edge of a kunai against her neck. In an echo of yesterday's flash of anger at the thought of being underestimated yet again, something that always seemed to light a fire in her blood, Akane growled and quickly grasped the hand that held the offending blade, tightening her own grip around the weak bones of the stranger's wrist until the weapon clattered to the ground. Immediately after, she normally would have flipped her opponent over her shoulder. However, given that this person had threatened her with bodily harm, she chose instead to duck under the arm in her grip, using her tight grip to twist the arm into a locked position and then force her attacker to the ground.

This all happened in the matter of seconds, the bulk of that time taken by the slow build of pressure she had applied to the man's bones.

"Kill me," the man muttered, his words partially muffled by the dirt. "If you must."

Akane stared down at the back of the man's head, trying to make sense of his words through the long black strands of hair there. Finally, after finding no answer in silence, she released his arm, amazed that he didn't groan in relief despite how his movements made it clear that he was in pain. "Why would I kill you?" she asked, trying to mimic the shinobi's ostensible ability to do such things. With a quick glance, she noted that their position allowed a person to see the various comings and goings in the village below. "Are you an enemy of the village?"

This time, the stranger did not greet her with silence. Instead, he rolled over and faced her boldly, something in the action meaning that he was likely supposed to be easily recognizable. "I'm sure there are few in the Leaf that would not say so," he told her in his deep, toneless voice.

She frowned at him, wondering idly what could cause so much animosity among so many. "Why?"

"I am Itachi Uchiha."

Despite the way the words themselves smacked of a non sequitur, she could tell that his name was the answer to her question, though she had yet to fathom how. So, she answered the only way that common courtesy allowed. "I'm Akane Tendo."

"Do you not know who I am?" he asked, his odd red-and-black eyes wide with disbelief. "What I have done?"

Akane shrugged, offering a weak smile at her ignorance. "I'm an... outsider," she informed him, openly giving the only explanation that didn't sound overly complex or convoluted.

He eyed her for a long moment, his strange eyes darting along all corners of her face, before he stated something that she knew was meant to test her. "I murdered my entire clan, excepting my younger brother."

Immediately, she gaped at him, her mouth superceding any strategy her mind might have devised. "Why? Why would you do such a thing?" Even though she whispered the words, the presence of desperation in them made her voice seem so much louder.

In response, Itachi turned his face away, though she wasn't sure if it was shame that motivated the action. "It was necessary," he told her, the brevity of the response making her more confused than before.

"But why? Why would that be necessary?"

He looked back at her then, a soul-deep sadness clear in eyes to which she was beginning to adjust. There were no tears but Akane got the clear impression that the memory of what he'd done pained him more deeply than any wound. "My clan – they planned a coup. They would have brought civil war to the village."

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><p>Ranma scoured the forests on the edge of Nerima, hoping to pick up some sign that Akane had passed through them. With a day now having passed since he and Ukyo had found what he was convinced served as Akane's goodbye note, he could feel worry like a growling beast in his chest.<p>

More than anything, what worried him was her seeming non-reaction to discovering Ryoga's alternate form as her pet piglet. It was one of the few eventualities for which he had tried to plan, knowing that the lost boy's luck and Akane's willful ignorance would not last forever. It had always only been a matter of time before she found out and the main reason that time kept being pushed off was that fact that Ryoga was rarely in the area.

Now that it was clear that she was aware of Ryoga's cursed form, Ranma knew that his fiancée was smart enough to connect the dots and realize that pretty much every individual around her knew about it as well. Somehow, even though everybody and their dog knowing that Ryoga was P-Chan wasn't his fault, it made him feel even worse. At least he had a reason why he kept himself from telling Akane, no matter how much it pained him.

At the very least, why hadn't Nabiki told her own sister, even if at a price?

Again, the distinct lack of reaction worried him almost as much as her sudden disappearance did. He had been prepared for an explosion of her unique battle aura or even a particularly brutal punch to his face. At the very least, he had prepared what seemed to be a pretty logical argument in the unlikely possibility that her only response was verbal, though he was quite sure that he would probably forget his own reasoning in the face of her singular fury.

But instead, there was... nothing. There was two sentences on a small sheet of paper and the unmistakable absence of the only person in his world that could turn his entire world gray and sullen with the mere thought of abandonment. Ever since Jusendo, that much had become quite clear. Even though he was incredibly fond of his mother, in a way that all of Genma's crazy training Ranma had thought was burned out of him, he now realized that fighting seemed utterly pointless without Akane in his life.

So, he had spent hours scouring the length and breadth of Nerima, hoping for some small sign of Akane's destination. It had taken him longer than he liked to fully make sure that she had not ventured further into the city. Over time, he began to wonder if she had opted instead to wander away from it. But then the question became: where would she go?

If he thought she had the slightest ability to take care of herself away from civilization, he would have left her alone, maybe not even bothering with the difficult task of attempting to track her into the dense woods on the edge of Tokyo. But her cooking skills alone mandated that she would probably starve – or perhaps even poison herself – before she could achieve the time to herself she was probably seeking. As such, Ranma felt that securing her safety was more important than his anxiety when it came to facing the girl's rare cold fury.

He decided that if she seemed to be relatively safe and healthy when he found her, he would just watch her from a distance.

Glancing around at the wooded rough that surrounded him, he felt a low growl building in his throat. It was now that he had to admit that he was no good at tracking people, especially through an environment that could easily cover their tracks. As it was, he was only adequate at tracking animals out of necessity. It was far easier to track the prints of a large boar than that of a short female in shoes that might be covering her tracks.

Thinking of the boar, an animal that he had always done his best to avoid most of the time, he suddenly wished for Ryoga, despite the fact that such a desire left him feeling both horrified and disgusted with himself. But the truth was that the little piglet had an extremely keen Akane radar. No matter where she was, he always managed to find her when she was in need, regardless of whether he was actually human at the time.

As if his need was heard by the gods themselves, he looked down from his vantage point from the low branch of a medium-sized tree to find a line of hoofprints in the shape of sakura petals. These tracks were dainty, barely there, definitely not the evidence of a full-grown boar. Even so, this was the first time he had seen the tracks of a small pig unattended by larger and deeper prints.

It had to be Ryoga.

Jumping nimbly to the ground, he landed beside the tracks and began to follow them, winding his own path through the forest that marked the edge of Nerima. Despite that fact that Ranma had always assumed that Ryoga always traveled in a straight line, his own sense of direction told him that the tracks he followed were ever so slightly curved, except for the times when the path would suddenly veer in one direction or another. Despite the fact that following the tracks of his closest rival, both in the Art and for Akane's affections, revealed more than he could ever try to understand about Ryoga's affliction, he found that his concern for Akane bleached out his normal curiosity.

Because he was so focused on following the piglet's tracks, so intent on picking up the hoofprints that were fresher than others, he didn't notice when there was a slight change in his surroundings, the ground becoming slightly sandier, the walls of trees replaced by actual walls of actual buildings. The reason for his slight and temporary distraction was that he had finally spotted Ryoga in his cursed form, his magical key to finding Akane.

"Ah-ha!" he declared his triumph, his fingers easily finding purchase in the bandana. "Found you, Pork Butt. Now, you..." At that, he trailed off, finally seeing what his single-minded focus had blinded from him. "What the...?" In befuddled frustration, he shook the piglet slightly. "Where is this? Where did you lead me?"

With wide eyes, Ryoga only stared back at Ranma, his piglet form holding no answers for the martial artist. In fact, it would probably be fair to say that the lost boy was just as confused, if not more so.


End file.

Naruto, Ranma, Adventure, Angst