InuYasha Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Ranma in the Warring States Period! ❯ Moonlit Sparring ( Chapter 3 )

Part 3

Ranma sighed and brought his hands up to pillow the back of his head as he lay on the grass and stared at the stars. They looked just like the ones he'd seen on his training trips, minus the occasional floating satellite or winking airplane. In fact, the whole scenario reminded him of training trips he'd been on in the past. Walk all day with a bunch of weirdo's to the middle of a forest. Break out the hot water. Change back into a man. Fight over who's going to cook dinner. Fight over dinner. Fight after dinner, and finally go to sleep.

No, this was just like a training trip, and yet, the few minor differences weren't easy to ignore. First off, it lacked a few key people, his Pop being one of them, and Ukyo. Sometimes Ryoga would wander in and they'd have a good spar. The old ghoul usually had some good advice. If Shampoo came, you could bet your money that Mousse wasn't very far away, and if girls were involved, Happosai and Kuno were bound to show up, at the worst possible time too. And then Akane would kick them both to kingdom come, as long as she wasn't near water. And if she was cooking, then she'd just show them the food and they'd run away. No wait, Kuno was too stupid to run. He'd eat the stuff and then die, almost. The jerk had more lives than a cat.

"I wonder what they're all doing now?" he sighed to the sky. Were they worried? Concerned? Had they even noticed he was gone? Did they care? Dammit of course they cared, if they had noticed...

"Damn, this ain't getting me no where." and it was true. The more he thought, the more awake he felt, the more awake he felt, the less likely he was to fall asleep. "Might as well do something useful."

He stood up, briefly stretching out his muscled in the cool night air as glanced around at his new companions. The Kagome was wrapped up in a sleeping bag with Shippo tucked under her arm like a teddy bear. The monk was sitting up against a tree, and through the leafy canopy, he could just make out the hints of moonlight reflecting off of dog boy's hair. Kinda weird, sleeping in a tree. Oh well. So was turning into a girl.

Off to his right was a wide open field Ranma decided would be the best place to work on some Kata. So he began.

Kick, punch block high, block low, roundhouse...

...Wonder what that thing was today, was it really a demon? Never seen one like that before....

leap, kick, groundhouse, punch, flip, cartwheel....

...And that weird light, Shippo called it the wound of the wind. I don't remember doing anything special to it, just my normal Dragon Blast...

...Handstand, spin, kick, block, spin, chop, dive, roll...

...Can that Kagome girl really get me back home. I don't believe she spent the whole night studying. I mean, if there are so many demons, you'd think she'd have more important things to worry about, mainly living...

...Flip, jump, dodge, block, jump, spin kick, block, chestnut fist....

...Shikon no Tama, huh? What does it really do? And why does dog boy want it so much. Isn't he supposed to be a...

"Oi!"

With miraculous grace, Ranma managed to somehow, curve the arc of his attack away from said demon's face and still remain on his feet. However, he was slightly in shock. Did this guy just appear out of no-where? Ranma'd never heard or felt anything to suggest his presence. Once again, Ranma wondered just what sort of training this guy'd had. He didn't ask though, instead he said,

"Yo, what are you doing up so late, I thought you were asleep?"

snort, "How could anyone sleep with you bouncing around out here making so much noise. What the fuck are you doing?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow, noise? "I wasn't making any noise, I was training."

"Yeah, well then you're training makes noise, so cut it out and go to sleep."

Ranma was silent for a minute as Inuyasha turned to stalk back to his tree. He hadn't taken more than two steps, however, when he heard Ranma's voice behind him.

"Spar with me."

Inuyasha stopped, turned, and "Eh?" This idiot wanted to spar with him, in the middle of the night. "Why should I."

"Why should I stop training?" Ranma shrugged, and continued on with his Kata.

"Hey, I said quit that!"

"Oh come on man, don't tell me you're that tired?"

"I'm not tired, you weak human. I don't want you slowing us down tomorrow cause you're half asleep!"

"Weak human? Ha, I almost beat you earlier today, and you call me a weak human? You weak demon."

"What!"

"Gottim," thought Ranma. Then he was on the run, observing his adversary. Once again, Inuyasha was fast, but his swings were like those of some hopeless drunk. What kind of style is that? He seemed to use only his claws, no knees, feet, elbows or fists. His footing was all over the place, his main attacking force came from his momentum, which left him so incredibly wide open Ranma could have hit him any number of times if he'd wanted to. The other thing Ranma noticed was that he did nothing to hide his emotions while fighting. Every time he was about to attack, his eyes opened just slightly, more than enough to give him away. At last, Ranma delivered a swift kick to the back of the skull which, combined with Inuyasha's unbalanced momentum, easily sent him face first to the ground.

Ranma stopped, barely breathing hard, and watched as Inuyasha got himself quickly to his feet, looking more than a little confused. Ranma must have looked the same. "This guy fights like he's had no training whatsoever in his life. But then how did he managed to summon that Ki attack? That should take years of practice, at least. How...?"

"Had enough?"

Ranma focused again on Inuyasha. "I think I should be saying that to you, you're the one that's huffing and puffing like an old man."

And it was true, although, what could you expect? A style like that wasted a lot of energy, not to mention free flowing emotion made people excitable...

Inuyasha took a half breath and was instantly calm as a cucumber, and growling. Ranma watched, more puzzled still. "How'd he learn to fight like that?" He muttered, more to himself.

He was more than a little surprised when he got an answer.

"Keh," Inuyasha was crouched on the ground. "I taught my self!"

He pounced, and Ranma was so shocked, he almost didn't jump out of the way in time. The bad start made dodging Inuyasha's attacks seem that much more difficult as the mere possibility ran thought his head like wildfire.

"Woa, woa, wait a minute!!" he tried, but Inuyasha didn't feel like stopping, so Ranma had to dodge and talk at the same time. Slightly more difficult.

"You mean to say, " duck, "that you've never, " jump, "been taught how to fight."

"No shit." Was the reply. Inuyasha was still intent on hitting Ranma, and he wasn't being quite so wild this time, not leaving as many openings.

"You're kidding me," flip, "No training!" turn, "As in no Sensei, no, " dodge, "school, no nothing?"

"Isn't that what I just said?"

"Serious??!" At last, Ranma saw an opening. He kicked, but somehow, Inuyasha blocked. The two broke apart, with Ranma feeling just slightly tired this time.

He ignored it as he turned to a smirking Inuyasha. "You mean to tell me, that what you're doing right now, everything you've done today, all you're attacks and moves...you all learned yourself??"

Inuyasha shrugged, "Yeah, what of it?"

"But that... ...that's impossible?!?"

This time, it was Inuyasha's turn to quirk an eyebrow.

Seeing the blank look on his face, Ranma took a deep breath. "Okay," he said, " watch this."

With practiced ease, Ranma focused all his energy into one, single emotion, and released it in a ball of energy. The small, rather weak blast went zooming off across the field, shearing off a few distant branches when it finally reached the wall of the forest. Inuyasha watched it go, the puzzled look on his face quickly slipping into one of suspicion.

"I knew you were too strange to be a human. How are you hiding your scent from me, demon?"

Ignoring the strange reference to his scent, Ranma just shrugged and looked down at his fist. "I come from a long line of martial artists. I've been trained in the art of fighting since I was old enough to walk. I could punch before I could speak, and even then, it's just recently that I've started to get a handle on the Ki attack."

Snort, "So? I've been doing it for years? What's the big deal?"

Ranma gaped. "What's the big deal? Think man! All that stamina, that speed, that strength, you're ability to use Ki...It's all NATURAL! I've been training for years, and I can barely keep up with you now. Imagine how good you'd be if you had the type of training I did. You'd be unstoppable!"

"Keh, like I need you're stupid training..."

Quicker than lightning, Ranma had belted him across the clearing and into a tree, proof that Ranma hadn't been using his real strength either.

Of course, Inuyasha was pissed. "Oi, bastard, what was that for?"

Ranma, however, wasn't listening. "I'm going to sleep. Don't make too much noise dog-boy." He yawned as he walked back to his original spot and lay back down.

Inside, however, he was raging. Here he'd trained his whole life to become best in the world...

...and, with just a month of training, that damn demon would probably be able to blow him away.

*~*~*~*~*