Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Ranma ½ or Dragon Ball (Or Z or GT for that matter). They were created by Rumiko Takahashi and Akira Toriyama respectively. Don't sue me; if I actually had money to take in court I'd be too distracted to write fanfiction in the first place, right? Right?

The Story Thus Far: Saotome Ranma, after a mishap involving the Gate-Way Spring, found himself trapped in the World of Dragon Balls. After meeting and befriending Son Goku and teen genius Bulma he managed to uncover all seven spheres and wished himself home. However the young man has now abandoned his old life on his home world, choosing exile after his father Genma banished the boy's oldest friend Kuonji Ukyo to the fate he himself just escaped. Vowing to never return home Ranma again steps into "Dragon World" in the hopes of sending his friend back with a wish from the Eternal Dragon...and hopefully cut all ties to his own past once and for all!

Last Chapter: After catching up with Ukyo Ranma set out to rediscover his friends in order to start a new journey for control of the Dragon Balls. However he and his old friend were fraught with setbacks and misdirection until they finally managed to track down Goku and the Turtle Hermit on a not so familiar island...

Chapter 10

Terrible Turtle Training!

The Road to the World Tournament Begins!

Finally after what seemed like an eternity of waiting Ranma was again face to face with his companion Goku. Standing outside the Turtle House' current location the two close friends basked in the afterglow of being reunited, leaving both Ukyo and Kame-sen'nin feeling bit awkward.

"Big Brother," Goku exclaimed. "You came back just like you said you would!"

Ranma smiled brightly. "I told you I would. I keep my promises, you little monkey!"

The spiky haired boy leapt up for joy. "It's gonna be just like it was before! Training, fighting bad guys, getting into adventure! Me and you big brother!

Ranma nodded his head with determination. "Hell yeah! There ain't a thing we can't beat together! Especially since I learned the Kamehameha."

"You learned the Kamehameh too!"

"Of course I did. It was easy."

"Oh man, we gotta spar! Right now!"

"Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you're a shrimp!"

"That's the way I like it!"

"Ahem" Ukyo said, interrupting the bro bonding.

Ranma shrugged. "Oh yeah. This is Ukyo, my friend from my world. Ukyo, that little shorty is Son Goku."

"Hiya," exclaimed Goku.

"Hello," Ukyo replied with a smile.

Ranma continued, pointing at the Turtle Hermit this time. "And that old, shriveled, bald, perverted freak over there is the turtle guy."

Whack!

The pig tailed martial artist fund himself nursing his head. Apparently Kame-sen'nin objected to the vulgarity of Ranma's words...with his cane. "Aw geez, alight! I mean the 'Muten Roshi.' Did ya have to hit me so hard, ya old fart!"

Whack!

The Turtle Hermit grimaced at the lack of respect. "You've got a lot learn, youngster."

Ukyo bowed politely, possibly because she didn't want to be hit with any stick. This old man was feisty. "It's nice to meet you, sir."

The Muten Roshi nodded in return. "And it's nice to meet someone with a little respect to give. You hear that boys? Maybe you should be more like Ukyo here." Turning over to the boys in question he was dismayed that their backs were turned and they were talking amongst themselves, ignoring him completely.

"So then," Goku said to his friend, not noticing the old man's glare. "I was the only one who didn't eat any of the fish, so I was the only one who didn't get poisoned! Can you believe it?"

"Haha, serves them right!" Ranma declared, he too missing the hermit's silent rage.

Whack! Whack!

"Ow," Goku muttered as both he and Ranma felt the effects of the "Cane of Punishment."

"Anyway," Ranma said, his head still throbbing. "The reason we came by was to ask you about the Dragon Balls. We need to ask the Dragon to send Ukyo back home."

Goku smiled brightly. "Okay, sounds good. Oh! Except they turned into rocks." For some reason his smile didn't fade.

"They...did...WHAT?!" Ranma's expression was a unique mixture of frustration, rage, and overall sadness. Like most instances of other people's grief it was amusing.

"They turned to rocks and then flew away in a bunch of direction right after we made the wish," Goku explained. "Bulma said they won't turn back for a whole year."

Ukyo too found herself suddenly upset. "A year! So we're trapped here for a year?"

At this point the commotion outside had finally brought the attention of the rest of the Turtle Hermit's house guests. One of the three people who exited the house to see what was going on Ranma recognized; it was Chi-Chi the Ox-King's daughter though she was dressed with rather loose fitting clothing, a far cry from her inappropriate bikini, and no longer sporting the deadly helmet she used to wear. The other two, one being a tall and pretty blue haired girl and a short (Really short) bald kid dressed like a monk.

"Venerable Master, what's going on out here?" the bald kid asked.

"Yes, we heard some yelling," blue haired-girl added.

Chi-Chi smiled as she recognized her one-time traveling companion. "Hey, you're Ramen-san."

"That's 'Ranma'," the pig tailed boy corrected, his voice dripping with annoyance.

Kame-sen'nin inwardly giggled at that but managed to keep his composure. "Ranma this is Kuririn , who'll be training under along Goku, and Lunch...er, a new friend."

"Hey, Big Brother can join in the training too, right old timer?" Goku asked excited.

"Hey yeah, old man, you gave me the same invitation as Goku after you took out Fry-Pan Mountain!" Ranma declared.

This time the Turtle Hermit did laugh out loud. "Ohoho, so even though you've done nothing but insult me since you arrived you expect me to suddenly train you, hm? Well unfortunately I have both Kuririn and Goku here and it's a lot of trouble for an old man like myself to train three students. I guess you came here for nothing; have a nice swim back."

Ranma narrowed his eyes at the aged fighter. "Now hold on a second, old freak, you promised!"

Kuririn picked this opportunity to step between the two, though even as he tried to have a stare down with Ranma the older boy simply towered over him. "I can't allow some walk-in off the streets troubling my gracious, yet humble venerable master. If you know what's good for you'll leave before he gets angry. As his chief disciple you wouldn't want me as an enemy either." The boy stood with a false confidence that Ranma could spot a mile away.

"One side, cue ball, this is between me and the old perv," Ranma explained, not even bothering to look at the younger boy in the face, which of course made Kuririn even more angry. "Listen old man, you promised me some training so I ain't leaving till I get some training."

Kame-sen'nin sighed at that. The little snot was being very persistent; annoyingly so, actually. Still the old master did recall telling Ranma he could receive the training, even if he only half heartedly meant it at the time, and going back on ones' word was not the Turtle Master Way. Plus just by the way the boy moved he could tell he was skilled, probably more so than Kuririn and certainly possessed far more common sense than the thick headed Goku. Truth be told the pig tailed lad would probably make a fine disciple.

"Though," the turtle master thought to himself. "A young man full of eagerness to learn, trying to force himself into the Turtle School when there were already two students waiting to study? This is all too familiar." He shrugged. That was a long time ago, and there was no indication that history could or would repeat itself. Hopefully.

"Very well, Ranma," the Turtle Hermit declared. "I hereby accept you into the Turtle School."

"Ha! Watch out Ox-King! I'll be twice as strong as you in half the time!" Ranma declared.

The old man frowned at that. "I see we'll have to work on your humility."

Ukyo frowned at her old friend during this entire exchanged. "Ranchan, can I talk to you a moment?"

Ranma sort of just shrugged her off. "Can't it wait, Ucchan? I want to get the training goi-owowow," he said as the okonomiyaki chef grabbed his ear and pulled him to the outside of the Kame House. "What's the big idea?"

"Is it really okay for us to be here like this?" Ukyo asked, her expression a bit more on the worried side now. "I mean, are we just going to live here for a year then?"

Ranma shrugged. 'It ain't like we have anything better to do. Look, as far as I know the only way to get back to the other world is with the Dragon Balls. But since we can't use 'them at least here we have a place to stay and I can finally get the same training that made the Ox-King so damn strong. It won't be so bad. At least we've got each other this time round."

Ukyo blushed at that, probably misinterpreting Ranma's words. She nodded in agreement.

"Alright then," Ranma said, looking determined. "This will be fun, I promise."

At that moment the girl called Lunch arrived round back to where the two teens were hiding out. She pleasantly smiled at the new arrivals. "Hello," she said warmly.

"Uh, hey," was Ranma's reply.

"I was wondering if you two would be staying for dinner," Lunch asked, not noticing a strain of hair crossing her nose. "I was thinking of making...making...ah...ah...achoo!"

Ukyo, being a pretty polite girl, would have said "bless you" at the sneeze but she was so struck by the fact that Lunch suddenly had blonde hair rather than blue she failed to remember her manners. "Um...well that's something you don't see every day. Or maybe you do, Ranchan."

"Nope, it's new to me," was he young fighter's reply.

Lunch took look around. She was certainly still at the pink turtle house, which was annoying but necessary for now. But she did not recognize the two teenagers standing in front of her. "You guys cops?" she asked suspiciously.

"Um...no," was Ranma's reply.

Lunch smirked evilly at that. "Good." Out of nowhere she suddenly armed herself with a machine gun and readily pointed it at the two strangers. "Hand over all your zennie and maybe I won't pump you full of lead!"

The pig tailed boy blinked. "Where were you hiding that thing? What is with girls on this world? Do you all just carry guns all the time?"

"A wise guy, huh?" Lunch's smirk turned to a disturbing frown. "I HATE wise guys!" With that she opened fire on the two martial artists. Soon Ranma and Ukyo found themselves running for their lives.

"Ranchan, you better hope she kills me, because if not I'm going to hit you with my spatula," Ukyo informed her friend as they darted across the island away from the gun wielding psycho. "Repeatedly!"

"Noted," was Ranma's reply.

From the front of the house Kame-sen'nin smirked. "As expected Ranma is no slouch when it comes to light jogging. Ukyo's not bad ether."

Goku smiled brightly as the scene reminded him of his and Ranma's previous adventure. How many times did Bulma end up chasing Ranma this way? "Ahh, takes me back."

Kuririn, for his part, just glared at the older boy. He worked hard for his position as student of the Muten Roshi and he was not keen on sharing it with some cocky upstart.

The rest of the evening was more or less uneventful, save for Kame-sen'nin walking in on Ukyo in the bath and being attacked by a huge spatula (Which led to an interesting conversation between the old man and Ranma where the former grumbled about not being appraised of the chef's true gender while at the same time appearing extremely grateful that another attractive and well proportioned girl was now living with him). Due to a few unforeseen setbacks (Poisoned fish among them) the training would only just get stated the next day. Therefore early bedtimes were in order. The upstairs became the designated "Girls' Floor" while Ranma, his future training mates, and their sensei were left downstairs (Much to the old man's chagrin).

Late the night, while the rest of the house was sleeping, Ranma found himself alone with Goku.

"So," the older boy started, somewhat bluntly. "What the hell happened to your tail?" Goku's signature monkey tail was indeed gone.

"I have no idea," Goku said cheerfully.

"You have no idea?" Ranma asked, giving his friend an odd look. "Well, I guess that sounds about right for you." The pig tailed boy said nothing for a few minutes before finally asking "What happened to Bulma?"

Goku thought about it for second. "I guess she went home. Some city in the west, I think. Actually I don't remember much about that night. I think I fell asleep."

Ranma raised an eyebrow at that. "Fell asleep? You're such a weird little monkey."

"Hey thanks!" the younger by replied, missing the insult completely.

The next morning came suddenly; it would be the first step in Ranma's new life on this world. At the end of the day that is what this training represented. This was him rejecting his old existence and accepting this new, albeit strange, one. Despite it only being 4:30 in the morning Ranma, Goku and Kuririn found themselves wandering outside to begin their first day. As they waited for their new master to join them Ranma couldn't help but notice the bald monk giving him the evil eye.

"Ya got a problem, cue ball?" he asked.

Kuririn frowned. "I just find it a bit off putting that you were accepted by the venerable master so readily."

"He just knows talent when he sees it," Ranma explained, smirking at the boy.

"Hmph," the monk growled. "You don't seem so special to me. Just a cocky jerk."

"And you look like a shrimp," was the easy going response. "So let's call it even."

"Alright, knock it off," the elderly voice of Kame-Sen'nin called out as he made his way from out of the house. Dressed for business the old man came actually look somewhat respectable. The two students frowned at each other, but complied with their master's command. Goku didn't notice any of this.

"Today you begin your training in the Kame-Sen School of Martial Arts," the turtle master said. "Let me say a few words about martial arts in general."

"Oh here we go," Ranma said, rolling his eyes. He was promptly punished with a cane strike to the head to Kuririn's delight.

"Anyway," the hermit continued. "One should not train in martial arts for the superficial reasons, such as making girls like you." Strangely Kuririn looked down at his shoes upon hearing that. "Instead one should train in order to achieve both mental and physical clarity and live their lives courageously. But remember this: if you encounter those who seek to terrorize and control the innocent they must be struck down with a mighty blow. For the first and foremost duty of a martial artist is to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

"Well duh," was Ranma's reply. Again he was struck by a cane. Probably the most amazing thing was that the boy seemed to truly not understand why his new sensei kept hitting him.

Kame-Sen'nin could feel his eye twitching, but tried not to show it. "So do you boys understand what I'm telling you?"

"Nope, not at all," Goku admitted with a confused look.

"Just train hard and live a good life, kid."

"Okay! Sounds good to me!"

Kuririn looked over at his training mates with disgust. One of his peers in a moron, the other is an insufferable jerk. This was going to be the most annoying year ever.

The Turtle Hermit bean jogging towards town. "Let's begin our early morning training with some light jogging. Keep up boys."

"Jogging? Seriously?" Ranma exclaimed as he managed to easily stay with his master on their route.

Kame-Sen'nin made no direct response. "Come lads. One-Two-Three-Four! Two-Two-Three-Four!"

This portion of the training proved no problem for any of the boy. Eventually the four martial artists arrived at their first stop: a cottage with the word "Milk" written on it. Though the boys weren't sure what was happening they surely noticed the crates filled with bottles of milk being handled by the bull standing up straight and wearing pants (Though only Ranma thought anything strange of the guy).

"Halt!" the aged martial arts master declared as he stopped I front of the "bull-man". "Good morning, sir. I'm the one who called yesterday about my students."

"Ah yes," the bull said, clearly delighted. "This will be a big help. Thank you."

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Old freak, are we delivering milk?"

The turtle hermit smirked in a way that made Ranma extremely uncomfortable. "That's right, my boy. All of you grab a crate."

All three boys looked at their master in confusion, but did as they were told.

"Come boys," the old man said as he stated skipping along the road. "Skip-Two-Three-Four! Skip-Two-Three-Four!"

Ranma leaned over towards Goku as they went off the aged hermit. "I think the old man's got a screw loose," he whispered.

"Maybe," the spiky haired boy replied. Even Kuririn nodded in agreement.

As the morning went they group delivered milk to various homes on the island and taking the empties where they were. At first it wasn't so bad but the long distance started to set in as one by one the three students began losing steam. By the time they reached the island's resident temple (separated from the rest of the town by an extremely large amount of stairs) they were all feeling worse firm ware.

Except for the turtle hermit, of course. By the time Ranma made it up the stairs the old master was waiting of him, calmly seated on a rock and smoking his pipe. "What took you so long, lad?"

Ranma took the opportunity to sit down, still clutching the carton of milk he carried. Fatigue was showing. "Fine fine. Rub it in, old freak. Let me just catch my breath."

The Turtle Hermit chuckled. "I have to say I'm impressed you made it up the steps before Goku. It would seem you are the best trained of the three of you."

Ranma rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah, no kidding. I've been training since I was baby, geezer. I got at least five years of experience on those shrimps." The pig tailed boy gave his new teacher a hard look. "So when does the real hard stuff start?"

The Turtle Hermit gave his student a confused look. "Hard stuff?"

"Yeah" Ranma said. "I mean, my old man made me do all sorts of stupid and crazy stuff and called it training, so I'm pretty used to this sort of crap. But come on, even if we deliver milk all this island there's no way the Ox-King got so tough just by that. So you must have something even worse than this waiting for us."

The old man smirked. "You're sharper than you look, Ranma." He gave a rather large puff of smoke out from his pipe. "But we'll get to that in due time."

Soon Goku and then finally Kurirrn joined the other two and they made their way to the Temple doors. They were greeted by a friendly looking monk.

"Ah Master Muten, it's great to see you once more," the monk said shaking the hand of the aged martial artist. "And who might these young people be?"

"Hiya" Goku happily replied. He was soon struck by a can on top his head.

"That's 'Good Morning, sir'," the Turtle Hermit corrected.

"Oh I see, these must be new students," the monk realized. "It's been some time since you had students, though I'm surprised that you're training three rather than two."

The old man smirked as e put his hand on Ranma's shoulder. "Oh I've made a special exception for this young man."

"Because I'm so talented" Ranma explained, proudly.

"Because he wouldn't shut up" the turtle master corrected the teenager, much to his chagrin. "But I have to say all three of them possess great potential. Enough so that I may enter them into the next Tenka'ichi Budōkai."

Kuririn's eyes lit up at that. "WHAT?! NO WAY!"

Goku looked blankly as his bald companion. "The Ten Bu Whaty?"

The young monk smirked at Ranma. "Man, he doesn't even know what the Tenka'ichi Budōkai is. What a moron, right Ranma?"

The pig tailed teenager just shrugged. "I don't know what it is either."

The nose-less monk sighed at the sheer stupidity of his training mates. "You guys must have been living under rocks. The 'Strongest Under the Heavens' tournament is the premier world martial arts competition on Earth. The best fighters in the world take part in it."

Ranma perked up upon hearing that. "Really?"

The Turtle Hermit could sense Ranma's eagerness. "Yes, it's all very exciting but I'll only enter you three if I truly feel you're ready."

"When is this tournament thing?" Goku asked slightly confused by all this.

"Oh it's still many months away," the old man explained. "No need to worry about it now. Simply concentrate on the training."

With that the group delivered the milk to the monk and bid him farewell, moving on to their next destination. The milk run did not get any easier form there as the route involved treading across dangerous rushing water, mountain paths, and even forest heavily populated by man-eating (And apparently very hungry) dinosaurs. While Ranma, Goku and Kuririn were surly skilled enough to make it the run without any real problems they were completely exhausted by the time they finished.

"Well that's it of the early morning exercise let's move on to the morning exercises" Kame-sen'nin told his young students.

Just as Ranma predicted the training did indeed get harder. Throughout the day the three martial artists were forced to engage in various exhausting activities that involved plowing fields with their hands, construction work, swimming shark infested waters, and even dodging angry bees. It was all physical torment however as they were allowed some breaks; lunch time, nap time and also a special "learning Session" where the Turtle Hermit attempted to "sharpen their minds" (Though this may have been more for Goku than the other two).

At some point Goku and Kuririn got into an argument with their sensei about "leaning moves" and made some weird deal about moving rocks; honestly Ranma was spacing out during the conversation. The fact was that the pig tailed boy, while unhappy about the brutal nature of the odd exercises, was more accepting of it then his partners. Genma had instilled in him an odd appreciation for off-the-wall training that would have positive effects on his overall skill. He himself often turned mundane activities into training for himself (Such as balancing on top of fences on the way to school). Of course none of his training was nearly as intense or dangerous as this (With the obvious exception of the Cat Fist training) but even so he figured that this was pretty much of the training they were going to get.

He was wrong. They would be doing all of that everyday but while wearing extremely heavy turtle shells. For the better part of a year.

The first day ended well enough except that Ranma's body decided to stop working right outside Kame House so now he was spending his evening flat on his back on the front lawn, hoping that Lunch didn't rob and murder him in his weakened condition. Luckily it was Ukyo who found him first.

"Ranchan? You look like hell" the young chef stated.

"Then I look better than I feel," was Ranma's weak and barely audible reply.

The teenage girl sat down on the grass next to her old friend, giving him a nice smile. "Well I guess the training's going well. I didn't train but I had an interesting day as myself." Ranma's weak moaning was all the reply she got, so she continued. "So it turns out that Lunch and that little girl Chi-Chi had never had okonomiyaki. In fact they'd never even heard of it. So when I went to town to get some supplies to make some for lunch I find out that no one on this whole island had ever heard of it either."

Ranma thought about this form his grounded position. Now that he thought about it he'd never come across any okonomiyaki during his travels. "Maybe it doesn't exist on this world," he said, with barely any emotion in his voice.

Ukyo grinned evilly. "Well I guess then that means I can corner the market."

If Ranma was less tired he may have been unnerved by that. As it was he simply wanted to go to sleep...for a few years.

Seven months pass. During this time Ranma, Goku and Kuririn begin to get a better hold of the monstrous training. Despite their differences a certain amount of camaraderie is formed between them, probably out of desperation to survive the harsh tutelage of the Turtle Hermit. Meanwhile Ukyo kept busy during all of this. She, with the help of Chi-Chi and to a lesser extent Lunch (Who, let's be honest here, can't really be trusted) opened an outdoor okonomiyaki restaurant in front of Kame House called "Ucchan's". It wasn't much but it was doing well; the people of the island were so intrigued by this new kind of food that they were packed with guests every day for lunch and dinner.

All in all things were going well...so of course something unpleasant had to happen. And so it did.

This day in particular was actually for slower than it usually was at this time of day at "Ucchan's". Ukyo fund herself very very bored behind the grill. She wondered how Ranma was doing today and thought about going to visit him but she was unsure exactly where he would be at this time of day. Depending on where he was a distraction from her could very well kill him!

Her thoughts were interrupted by the words of her new apprentice. "Ukyo-san," she head Chi-Chi say. She turned her attention to Goku's future wife (Something that amused her as she was informed that Ranma had accidentally gotten them engaged. The irony was hilarious). "Ukyo-san it's noon. I'm going to head to the construction site and bring the workers their daily lunch. I should be back soon."

Ukyo starched out he arms. "That's okay, honey. I think I'll go ahead and do it myself. I could use some excitement."

Almost immediately before she could get the words out the two girls found themselves being interrupted by the screaming of their housemate Lunch. It was coming form down the road. Quickly the two raced over from the origin of the sound. Sure enough they found the girl (In her blue haired persona) standing over what appeared to be a passed out teenage boy.

"What the hell happened, Lunch?" Ukyo asked. "Did you mug someone again?"

"No, it wasn't me" Lunch claimed looking rather embarrassed by the fact that she's the first suspect in such a situation. "I was just going grocery shopping and then I found this boy on the road. I think he may be half starved. I needed help moving him."

Chi-Chi looked carefully at the passed out youth on the ground before napping her fingers. "Wait! I know this guy! This is that guy who was with Yamcha. What was his name? Ryogi or something... ?"

Ukyo thought about this for a bit. "Friend of Yamcha? That bandit guy who Ranma knows?"

Chi-Chi nodded. "Yes, Ranma-san knows this person too. He was with us when Goku-san wished Ranma-san back home. I think he was actually with Ranma when that happened."

The okonomiyaki chef nodded at that. She vaguely remembered something about some guy coming with Ranma to rescue her. "Let's get him back to the house."

And so Hibiki Ryoga, who at that very moment was dreaming of crushing Saotome Ranma's skull as he often did, was dragged to the home of the very man he swore to kill.

To be continued...

Preview of next chapter:

Ranma: Yo, Ranma here. So Ryoga found me after all this time, huh? Still haven't let that bread feud thing go? Fine, we'll settle this once and for all at the Tenka'ichi Budōkai!

Ryoga: Fine by me! You'll have nowhere to run this time!

Bulma: Easy on the testosterone, boys. Luckily I'm back to make sure the story doesn't get too dull.

Ranma: Oh great. Bulma's back. Just what we needed; an annoying self-centered brat.

Bulma: Next time on Ranma and the Monkey King: "Beautiful Bulma Strikes Back!"

Ranma: Wrong! The next chapter is called "Tournament of Dreams Part One: Team Ranma Reunited!"

Yamcha: Don't get too comfortable, Saotome. Things have changed...

Author's Note:

This chapter took as long as it did to write mainly because of writer's block I had while working the last quarter of the chapter. To solve the problem the ambitiously long original Chapter Ten was cut in half to about normal length. Originally there was to be a lot more to this addition, but I guess I'll have to include it in the next chapter. Anyway with all that in mind the pacing of this chapter isn't up to my set standard but it was either that or wait even longer to post something. I chose to post.

Also, as far as I can remember I don't recall seeing anything that resembled okonomiyaki in the Dragon Ball comics. Though I didn't do a panel by panel check of every single chapter to confirm (And also I don't watch the anime anyway) I'm just going to go ahead and assume it doesn't exist. It's my story, I can do that.