Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. There was three feet of snow in my backyard, I resolved to do backflips off of the railing of my deck into all of it for practice. That's a ten foot fall as it is, and in addition to that I'm terrified of backflipping. That's how deep it was, I felt confident in attempting this.
…It did not end well.
Chapter 28: The Difference in Resolve
The day of fights had made Naruto feel numb by the end of the proceedings. There were still a few first round fights left, but his team was through to the next round, as was the Shade Alliance. That was good. No one was really that hurt. He, Kenichi, and Miu had gotten kicked around a bit (Kenichi more than anyone else), but they would be good to go by the morning.
Naruto was good to go right then actually. He could have sworn Kaku's attack ruptured something, even with the flak vest on, but hours later by nightfall he was fine other than when he bent too far forward. That wouldn't be there for much longer though.
It was weird. He'd always been that way to an extent, and he didn't always have Ryouzanpaku's wacky medical treatments to scapegoat it onto either the way he did right then. No matter how sore he trained himself to be during the nights he would always be 100% with a night's sleep.
Anyway, it didn't really matter much if he needed more medical attention anyway. The masters were off conversing about… something or another. It had to be important to them though, since none of the kids had the slightest inkling about what was up.
Hey, everybody had their own crap going on apparently.
"This is such a complete load…" Naruto said to himself, "I didn't think it'd be over that easy, but I didn't think they'd send anybody else so soon either."
More ninjas. And this time there was something about that team that freaked him out. It wasn't that they were good. He'd fought enough tough people that as long as they weren't head, shoulders, knees, and toes better than him he could think clearly. Those people just seemed blank.
No names? None of them?
They were everything that he didn't want ninjas to embody, in every respect imaginable.
Looking up from where he'd been sitting in the corner of the Shade Alliance's suite, Naruto saw that he hadn't been the only one affected by what he'd seen today, but for different reasons. There were so many strong people there. Naruto actually wanted to fight some of them, but some of the others were the types that anyone with common sense would have to think twice about taking on.
For people that weren't crazy and hadn't been left out after dark to play with killers the way he had been, a lot of this had to come as a sudden shock to the system. The matches had been brutal at times.
Out of the advancing teams thus far, other than Team Ryouzanpaku and the Shade Alliance, there was the Nameless Team of ninjas, a Capoiera Team, Team Black Force, and one solo fighter doing battle under the banner of Tenchi Mushin Ryuu.
That guy was trouble, and they were fighting him next. But there was that team of ninjas probably waiting in the wings to strike at any moment.
Coming to a decision, Naruto stood up to his feet and put his backpack on before punching into his palm and moving to leave the room, "I know what I have to do."
The other Shade Alliance members in the room noticed him, as he'd been sitting still for quite some while in thought, "What's up Uzumaki?" Kisara asked aloud, hand on her hip as she paused in her practice to regard his not-so-outburst.
"I'm gonna go kick that ninja team's asses," Naruto said with a grin, figuring that it was a great idea. Yeah, why not? It would let him focus on one thing at a time instead of everything at once. Compartmentalization and all that jazz.
That caused everyone in the room to stop their training that had originally been intended to calm their nerves for the coming day, all so that they could look at Naruto as if he'd grown a second head. Then they remembered who they were talking to.
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say out loud," Kisara pointed out dryly, "That's really saying something too. And how long did you think that one through for?"
"Long enough," All of five seconds to be more precise. But to Naruto, what little logic he chose to go with was sound, "It's either jump them or let them jump me, and that didn't work out too well the last time I let that happen."
He wound up spending about a week in the mountains training with a pervert and a collapsed lung before returning to get his rematch.
Besides, this ninja crap always had the potential to go bad. If there was one thing that could be expected, it was that those fuckers usually had a plan, and that plan would oftentimes screw him at the worst possible moment.
It was like clockwork really.
"Right," Naruto heard Freya say before he felt a shadow loom from behind him, "Thor?" Naruto found himself caught in a huge bear hug that kept him from going anywhere, "Thank you Thor."
"Oi!" Naruto shouted indignantly. Sure he could have gotten out, by either headbutting backwards or kicking Thor in the balls. But neither of those things were very friendly, "Guys, what the hell?"
Freya simply walked up to Naruto and pointed directly in his face, "I don't understand. Do you try to insult your friends on purpose, or is it just some strange 'honor' thing of yours?"
Naruto of course, replied with every hint of eloquence his current circumstances would allow him, "Huh?"
"You proved in the first fight that you can actually work together with your friends in a fight," Freya explained, sitting down in a chair and calmly crossing her leg over her other, "And I've heard about this happening before. I've seen this happen with you before. Tell me why it is that whenever ninjas get involved, you tell us to step aside or run away?"
Naruto scowled and was about to loudly and perhaps vulgarly protest this point until he stopped and realized that this was indeed the case. Wow. He sucked, "…Okay, but I actually had a point when we got our asses kicked by that guy in the facemask in Tokyo."
"True enough, but then again why was it your responsibility to sidetrack him so that Takeda-san and I could escape?" Freya asked, remembering that particular encounter, "We were all in danger."
"…Because why would I let you guys stick around for all three of us to get killed when he was only after me in the first place?" Naruto reasoned in an obvious tone of voice, "…Duhhr."
Freya was not amused. This much was clearly evident to anyone who knew her.
"Ooh," Kisara said under her breath so that the others could hear, "Freya-nee's gonna break him."
Ukita coughed uncomfortably and adjusted his sunglasses, "Why do you sound so excited about that?"
"Because I love it when someone can make Uzumaki stop running his mouth," The redhead replied with a grin and a shrug, "Come on, it can't be just me can it?"
"It actually might be," Takeda said, "You're the only one that argues with him enough to get angry about it."
Freya wanted to argue with Naruto after his last comment. Really, she did. But there was no way to get into an argument with an idiot like Naruto and win. He'd drag her down to his level and beat her with experience. Still, there was always one smart bomb she could always throw at him that would hit the mark every single time, without fail.
"You're such a child…" Freya reasoned with a sigh.
An offended gasp came from the wayward ninja's mouth. Blasphemy. He paid bills. Granted, it was with his parents' money, but he still had to make sure everything got to where it needed to. That was just one example of the adult things that Naruto found himself responsible for.
"I am not a child! I'm a man!" An affronted Naruto insisted hotly, even whilst still caught by Thor, "I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn! That's what kind of man I am!"
Things didn't really go any further than that. A sharp whistle from the open balcony window of the suite attracted their attention to some white-haired boy standing tall on the railing with his hands in his pockets, "Hey!"
All of a sudden the mood changed, and Naruto put on a sneer of all things, "Kanou Shou," One of his least favorite people in the world, and he hadn't even tried to kill Naruto before. That was a rare distinction, "What do you want?"
For some reason, without even needing to hear it from Naruto, Thor felt compelled to put him down and proceeded to do so. Something told him that this was something that stopping or getting in the way of would end well for. There weren't a whole lot of people out there that could elicit a quiet-angry Naruto. Loud-angry Naruto was much more commonplace, and actually the safer of the two prospects.
"To talk to you actually," Shou said with a grin, "I actually wanted to break you in half for what you did to my bike, but that would probably screw up Maestro's tournament, and that's one guy you don't want to piss off. I just came to drop off a warning to ya, and you can take it to Shirahama since he's not around."
Naruto's glare didn't lessen. He merely flicked his own earlobes to let Shou know that he was listening.
Shou just chuckled before killing intent flooded the room, "If you ever let anything like what happened today happen to my shooting star again, I'll make the two of you suffer."
He'd been thinking about it all day. Even with all of the fun that came with watching so many different styles of martial artist go at it, he couldn't get his mind off of how those two idiots almost dulled the shine of Miu's talent.
"Because you two suck so badly, she got hurt," Shou continued, less and less of his normal good nature shining through as he carried on, "If she hadn't had to carry the two of you to that win, there wouldn't have been a scratch on her. So I'm saying it right now. If you want to be anywhere near my angel, you'd better be good enough to protect her. Do we have an understanding?"
Naruto's rebuttal could only be summed up in two words, as it was all the explanation he needed for anything that happened during the fight against the Three-Headed Dragon team, "…Fuck you."
Everyone in the room inhaled as one, as even without really knowing who this person was in earnest, they knew that 'fuck you' was the wrong answer to any question he asked.
"What was that?" Shou asked in a voice as hard as iron.
"Miu-chan's way too strong to treat like glass," Naruto said, walking to the window without a thought, "Who do you think she is that she needs anybody like you to make sure she's safe. And anyway, Kenichi's the only person you want to threaten about watching over her, not me. Me and her used to kick the hell out of each other all the time."
"What?"
"Yep," The blond drawled, letting Shou stew on things for a moment, "Because she's a martial artist, and sometimes people beat them up."
Shou's growing anger dissipated as if it were never there, and he only laughed at Naruto instead, "Maybe the ones that suck do. People like you. But I wouldn't know anything about that. Those with wings, like Miu or myself, insects like you don't ever touch us unless we're swooping down to rip you apart."
What did you say to someone who didn't have to work to be great? Who didn't have to bleed, sweat, or break as many bones as you had to, and could consider themselves to be your superior in every way in your chosen field?
How could you relate to someone that didn't know what it was like to struggle or fail?
You couldn't. That was just it.
And that was why Naruto couldn't see eye-to-eye with Shou, because there was no common ground. There was nothing similar between them.
Kanou Shou was tall and chiseled. His entire body meant to be used as a tool of the martial arts. He was handsome and supremely talented enough to have Yami's top brass pass down all of their techniques to him. He was eloquent, at least if his stupid bird-related metaphors were anything to go by. He had never lost a battle or had even been challenged in combat with anyone around his level of skill.
He was perfect in every considerable aspect of the word.
Kenichi liked to think that he was a regular, everyday, normal guy, but if anyone exemplified human imperfection, it was Naruto.
Naruto wasn't that much taller than regular Japanese kids his age, and he had a slimmer track athlete's sort of build that was underwhelming at first glance unless you knew what sort of valuable muscles you were looking for. He didn't think his facial features were in-demand with the opposite sex from his lack of an actual girlfriend in life, he had a nasty scar on his chest that he hid like a curse, he wasn't an astute linguist, and he knew more about defeat than he cared to let on to those who didn't have to know.
But just because he wasn't perfect didn't mean he had to kowtow to someone who was. For a quarter of his life he'd been trying to punch 'perfect' in the face and rob it, so why stop now?
"Whatever pigeon-boy. Why don't you take that weak shit to the park? Maybe the squirrels will care," Naruto eventually said, unceremoniously shutting the window doors right in Shou's face before turning around and walking away from them, "Gah! Fuck that guy!"
Ukita cleared his throat before taking the initiative and walking forward to Naruto, "You realize that you did that to the strongest guy I think I'm ever going to meet, don't you?"
Naruto walked right past him and plopped down on the couch next to where Freya had been sitting before Shou showed up, "Yeah, and he's not gonna do anything but sit his ass outside and think of some more stupid wings quotes for the next time he talks to somebody. If you're not fighting him, just try to ignore that guy."
But if you were fighting him pay attention. Pay very close attention. Otherwise you'd probably end up dead.
…Eh, you'd probably end up dead anyway.
"I can't ignore you," Kisara said, arms crossed over her chest, "What makes you think I'll be able to ignore him?" She was sort of amazed that Naruto could downplay that kind of sheer presence. She didn't think anyone their age could do that. She hadn't really met any adults that could do that sort of thing before.
"Because at least when I'm being a jerk I do more than make stupid bird references," Just thinking about it made Naruto want to gnash his teeth, "God that guy pisses me off!"
Really, making fun of Naruto and talking down to him was just fine. He'd heard his fair share of it. But if Shou had to do it he could have at least tried to be a little more original with it. The bird stuff was novel at first, but he was really running it into the ground.
"So," Freya said, sitting back down on the couch, this time next to Naruto. If he knew what was going on more than they did, why wouldn't she sit next to him? She was curious, and that was the only reason she'd admit to as to why she sat so close, "That was YOMI?"
Naruto nodded, noting with a momentary blush how close she was sitting and how good she smelled. Damn it Kaname, why were you so fine? But Naruto kept his head in the game and remembered what he could from that night at the theater, "Y-Yeah. That was Kanou Shou. He's like the Kenichi to Yami's Ryouzanpaku, I think. He's being taught all of their stuff at once."
Every person in the room that had already fought Kenichi and felt that hurt inhaled sharply at the same time. So he was like an evil Kenichi? And he was actually inherently good at fighting?
…It then came to their realization that Naruto had just poked him with a proverbial stick.
"And your great plan was to piss him off?" Takeda asked, biting the cap off of a bottle of water to cool down after all of his shadow boxing, "Nice Naruto-kun."
"Pffft. He's not even in this tournament. There's other stuff to worry about first," Naruto said, "That brother and sister, Castor and Pollux, the ones that haven't fought yet. They're YOMI too, but I don't know how good they are."
If they were as strong as Radin Tidat Jihan, or even stronger, that would be nothing but trouble.
XxX
Elsewhere, in the Ryouzanpaku suite, Miu checked over where Kenichi slept. Looking at his slumbering form from the doorway, she spared a soft smile before shutting the door back and heading into the main room.
It had been a pretty rough opening day in the tournament. There was YOMI, and more ninja trouble that would undoubtedly unfold for Naruto later.
Kenichi would be fine by the morning. Probably way before then. He'd wake up later in the night ready to go twelve rounds if he had to. That was how good Akisame and Kensei's medical skills were. She had faith in that.
Still… things were only going to get harder. She'd seen that Tanaka person fight. That was not a disciple. That man wasn't a disciple at all. He might have been under the age of twenty, and that was the only qualifier for entering the tournament, but other than that, the sanctioning rules were extremely lax.
'It seems like the only rules this tournament has are the ones the host makes up,' Miu thought sardonically as she went outside to stand on the balcony and look out over the beautiful resort accommodations of Despair Island.
Ahh, it was such a lavish place. The lap of luxury. She wished she could enjoy it as much as she wanted to before having to go back to Ryouzanpaku… where all of the lazy masters who never made any money made things tight around there. But there was so much happening, there was no way she could take her eyes off of the ball.
Kenichi was counting on her to help get through the tournament, even if he never said so, and even if he felt the need to fight things out the way he did with Kaku that day. Naruto would be counting on her too, even though he definitely wouldn't have asked, being hardheaded in that way.
Just thinking about it put a pout on her face. Why did Naruto have to be such a… such a… ooh, she didn't even know how to describe him without getting vulgar, and she most certainly wasn't going to go there. He was a great friend but he seemed to fail to pick up on the fact that it was a two-way street, and not in the normal way that people failed to pick up on it.
Instead of never helping his friends with their problems he did the opposite. He never wanted anyone to help him with his problems.
And he had so many.
Sighing, she decided to forget about it for now. There was nothing they could do until tomorrow, and with any luck that team would lose before they'd ever have to face them.
Before she could react to anything, she felt the presence of another person land on a balcony banister close to her suite's balcony. Turning her head, Miu's eyes widened at the sight of Kanou Shou, "It's you…"
Ah, Shou felt reborn. Dealing with that massive jackass Uzumaki Naruto was enough to drive someone to murder, but seeing Miu's face made him feel at peace, "It is. You have no idea how good it is to see you right now."
"What are you doing here?" Miu asked, inwardly steeling herself for a fight. This man was YOMI's leader, and with Kenichi in the next room who knew what he'd come for?
"I came here for you of course," Shou said, standing straight up from his crouch on the railing with a handsome grin, "I can't get you out of my head, you know? I've been thinking about you ever since we met in that theater."
Miu didn't understand. Why would he have cared about her one way or the other? It didn't seem like he'd been thinking of her in order to come up with a way to defeat her.
So quickly that it gave even her pause, Shou jumped from the balcony he'd been on to the floor of hers, extending his hand to her as she stepped back, "Fuurinji Miu, come away with me."
Say what?
"Are you insane?" She asked in return, shaking her head, "W-Why would I ever do that?"
"If it's you, YOMI would welcome you with open arms!" Shou insisted brightly, "I can take you to Fuurinji Saiga. If you'll just come with me."
Miu's heart felt as if it had stopped for a spell. Fuurinji Saiga, as in her father. That was his name. Shou was offering to take her to see him. Sure, she'd be handing herself right over to Yami's clutches, but it might have been worth it.
This was an opportunity that she never would have figured she'd have ever had.
"I…" She wanted to go. She wanted it so badly. Just to see him, just to confirm with her own eyes that he was still alive. She couldn't even remember what her father looked like. She didn't even know why he'd gone away, "I… can't."
In the end, she couldn't bring herself to accept it however.
Doing so would let so many people down. It was too selfish.
Frowning for only a moment, Shou put on a face of understanding, "Hey, hey, I get it. It's okay. You don't want to cut and run right now. You'd be leaving your loser friends alone in this tournament, and I'm pretty sure you don't want that blood on your conscience. That's why you're my angel."
"Kenichi-kun and Naruto-kun aren't losers," Miu defended, feeling a protective streak run through her.
"You don't have to defend them," Shou said to her, quickly grabbing her hand and raising it to his mouth, "People like you and I, we're better. We soar, while all they'll ever be able to do is crawl."
With that, he laid a kiss on the back of her hand and dove off of the balcony. She rushed to the edge to see if he was alright after such a fall, but he was nowhere in sight by the time she was able to check.
Backing away from the railing, her back hit the wall and she sank down to sit on the ground, looking up at the moon as she tried to slow her mind down. Her father was alive, Shou knew where he was, and she'd turned down his invitation to take her to him.
She bit back a shuddering sob, teeth pulling on her lip to keep things bottled up inside.
"Miu-san?"
Poking his head out of the window doors leading to the balcony from inside, Kenichi revealed himself, partially bandaged up after his earlier fight.
Seeing Miu on the ground in a vulnerable state was rare. It was so rare he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen it, "…Miu-san, what's the matter?" He had to ask, had to know. She looked just short of letting the floodgates fly open.
Miu just shook her head and tried to open her mouth to say something, but stopped before she could even utter a syllable to assure him that she was fine, that nothing was wrong. Anything she would have said would have been too much to handle without losing control and outright crying.
With a frown marring his face, Kenichi stooped down next to her and looked her right in the eyes. He didn't have to say anything else to her. There wasn't anything more to say in the first place.
Kenichi was knocked onto his backside from his crouch as Miu grabbed him and sobbed into his shoulder. As uncomfortable as it was to have someone literally taking his shoulder to cry on, it was still Miu, and he'd let her cry as long as she needed to.
"And every girl needs a hero; even a tough one like Miu-chan. Who knows? It could be you!"
Damn it… was Naruto clairvoyant?
XxX
(Homeland Island)
The dead of night was such a peaceful time for one as old as Danzo. Younger ninjas usually found the nighttime to be the scariest time of the day. That was because most of them had the uncertain, fearful days of their training fresh in their minds. In those times, the darkness ensured pain, guaranteed life-threatening danger.
Only after years did they start to develop a mindset closer to his, that the dark was nothing to fear. It could just as easily be your ally as be your enemy.
To Danzo, it went a step further. To him, the dark was the only place for a ninja to be. It was their place. No one else belonged there, and they didn't belong anywhere else. The scent of tobacco in the air filled Danzo's nostrils. The only sign he had at first that there was anyone with him.
"So this is where you are old friend," Hiruzen said in greeting, finding the one-eyed ninja with one good arm in the forests where the young trainees were taught during the daytime, "How are you?"
"As well as can be expected," Danzo replied, acknowledging Hiruzen with a nod. Neither of them could see the other in the conventional sense. Both were simply so powerful and adept at picking out the ki of others that they didn't need their sight and hadn't for decades, "I'm certain you have more pressing affairs than idle conversation with me."
"Not particularly," Hiruzen replied, smiling at Danzo's usual frosty demeanor. He was a tough person to be friends with, but both of them had survived for upwards of sixty years in the field and they had earned their places dictating the direction of the clan, "All currently completed missions have been accounted for. The active jounin and chunin are off of the island and progress reports on the genin from their handlers don't come in for another few weeks."
Danzo smirked at that, reading between the lines of Hiruzen's cryptic statement that he was bored. This was the calmest time of the year for the island. Other than the chunin teachers that were training the youngsters, there was nothing on the island going on. Now was the time of the year that most of the kage-level ninjas took their yearly two week departures to go and see their families or attend to other things that they wished to do in the outside world.
Those that didn't leave killed time sometimes by picking fights with each other. Hiruzen and Danzo used to do that all the time, until Danzo suffered his two injuries.
"If you must know," Danzo said, sensing that Hiruzen had rolled his eyes in the dark, "I'm still waiting for word on the team I dispatched from their handler."
"Your team?" Hiruzen said, remembering the blank faces of the genin that Danzo had been bringing up himself since their arrival on the island. They were his pet projects, and despite his lack of outward emotion under any circumstances, he knew that Danzo was very proud of the work he'd done with them, "You don't normally seem so preoccupied with their missions in your spare time."
"I don't normally send them on missions that our very best genin failed either," Danzo said, "If the talents of Hyuuga Neji weren't enough to kill that boy, I figured this approach would bring a new dimension to our problem-solving," Hiruzen's silence in the face of this information was very telling, "…You still don't see the boy as a problem."
"I won't say that," Hiruzen said, "But we owe them more than killing their son. We kept their cover as traitors and let them die at our hands for it. They never said a word about their mission."
"The mission that they abandoned," Danzo said, walking away from Hiruzen. That conscience of his. It was such a weakness, "That we still don't know why they abandoned. Minato and Kushina were well aware of what they could be asked to sacrifice for Konoha. Everyone does. And if you don't remember correctly, that boy has the results of our secret technique buried in his psyche, as malfunctioning as it is. It is too dangerous to leave him to roam."
"We owe them."
"We don't owe them anything more than we owe any other shinobi that died for the clan. It was their duty. It should have been their son's duty to continue it, and now it's his duty to die before he endangers our way of life."
Hiruzen exhaled a plume of smoke from his mouth that filled the air, "I think you're exaggerating."
Danzo stopped walking and remained deadly still, "I do not exaggerate Hiruzen. Iruka was barely able to stop that boy from killing Hiashi's daughter with his bare hands during a spar when he went out of control. That was five years ago. Would you like to wager how much more dangerous he could be now?"
That boy was a ticking time bomb. It was only a matter of time until he went off, and Konoha would be the ones responsible for setting it. That meant it was their responsibility to handle it.
XxX
(Despair Island – With Naruto)
After leaving the Shade Alliance suite, Naruto traversed the hallways of the vast palace that the competing teams were shacked up in, just taking a walk to clear his head before bed. Tomorrow there wouldn't be any more breaks. The tournament was going to be fought out to its conclusion.
Was it dumb to leave and walk around all by himself? Of course it was! Did he care? Not particularly.
Maybe he was looking for trouble.
Maybe trouble didn't have to try very hard to find him, as Naruto found himself standing at opposite ends of a long corridor facing the mouthpiece and the leader of the nameless ninja team. It was a sign that Naruto was getting used to people trying to kill him that kept a grin on his face the entire time.
"How do I say this? You're not the brightest," Sai declared with a blank smile.
"Because I came out here alone?" Naruto asked in return, arms wide as if to beckon him for a fight.
"No, because you figured that I would think you came out here alone."
With that bit of logic presented, making it clear that Sai was not going to initiate an attack, Naruto blinked and looked around before shrugging his shoulders, "Can't blame me for trying," Admittedly, he had been baiting Sai and whoever else he might have had watching from the shadows to take this opportunity to strike at him and get something started.
"Not at all," Sai said before turning around to walk away, "Even if you were alone, we've learned from our predecessor's mistakes. No battle will be fought unless it's on our terms. We know where you are now, and we can wait as long as we need to for a good moment to take you on."
They weren't like Neji in any way, shape, or form. Sai and his cohorts had no personal vendetta against him, no disdain. They desired his life, his blood on their hands, not out of any bid for pride or increased status. Their desire to kill him was strictly professional.
Well if that just so happened to be the case…
"And why wouldn't I just finish you right now then?" Naruto asked, his hand feeling a strong pull to move to his backpack and grab some weaponry, "It's still my terms."
"You wouldn't, because it's still not your terms. Defeating me and me alone means nothing. There are still seven others that won't stop," Sai stopped and looked dully over his shoulder before continuing on down the hall, "If dwindling down our numbers would be your motivation for fighting me, I doubt 'Laughing Fist' has the patience for any more surprises that he didn't plan. You aren't the type to get your friends disqualified after coming all this way."
He was right. Sai was alone, so taking him down and him alone wouldn't stop anything. It wouldn't even weaken the Nameless Team any because there were still more than enough to fill out a team for a tournament round.
In addition, Jiraiya's point from way back when also came around full circle. Naruto wasn't just some ninja fighting for survival. If he was, that would have made everything so much easier. He wasn't just doing this for himself.
Here he represented Ryouzanpaku as Shigure's student as well, and he wouldn't just do something that would risk the tournament slot and screw over Kenichi and Miu, especially since it would probably screw over way more than those two in this circumstance.
Speaking of the other devils…
Naruto waited for Sai to fully leave before turning back around and speaking up, "Hey. It didn't work. He knew you were there."
Of course it didn't work. He hadn't really expected it to, but members of the Shade Alliance insisted on helping him. He was the only one that was even halfway trained to sneak around. Seriously, Naruto could feel their footsteps without even trying. Then again they weren't trained in silent walking from adolescence the way he was.
Poking their heads out of adjacent empty rooms in the large hall. Lesser members of the alliance popped out from behind hallway tables and statues, including Matsui and his flag.
"Hey," Ukita said, smiling with a shrug, "I think we did a good job with hiding, seeing as we're not ninjas or anything."
"Aside from the big, fat elephant stomps from everybody getting into place," Kisara said, peering out from around a corner, grinning all the while, "I'm pretty sure a parade could have come through here quieter than most of you did."
"I'm proud of my big, fat stomps thank you!" Thor expressed with a puffed out chest, barreling his way through the door he'd been hiding behind, "A sumo's footfall is his power."
"Tch. So the 'sucker-'em-in-and-beat-the-shit-out-of-all-of-'em-at-once-plan' didn't work," Naruto said, snapping his fingers and stomping his foot as everyone flinched at the horrible plan name, "Oh well! Back to the drawing board."
"That's why you should leave the plans to the actually tacticians," Niijima said, making his appearance and patting Naruto on the back from behind, "That's why you're just my Operations Commander. You carry out the tasks your General and Proxy General dictate for you."
"I'll 'general' you!" Naruto took a half-hearted swipe at Niijima that missed, but served the purpose of getting the odd bowl-cut boy away from him.
"It wasn't a complete loss," Niijima crowed, emerging from where he'd hid behind Thor's massive shoulder, holding his fingers around his eyes as if they were some kind of special optics, "Thanks to my scanning ability I know what kind of person that Sai guy is at least."
Naruto squinted his eyes and furrowed his brow in deep thought, "…You don't say."
So that guy could be useful outside of trickery and fanning chaotic flames after all. Well that was interesting.
XxX
(The Next Day – Fortuna's Coliseum)
"Are you ready?" Shigure asked Naruto, watching him stretch out and limber up. His next match wasn't for quite a while, but he'd ignored one of the matches that had already taken place. Team Black Force, team of military-trained martial artists, had fought an extremely violent match against a team of Filipino kickboxers that practiced the rangy style of Yaw-Yan.
It had been quite the showcase, but Team Black Force managed to advance… barely, pulling through by sheer numbers.
Either way, it was almost time for the desperate side of the Desperate Fight of Disciples to begin. Most of the teams had already fought a round. All except for Team Gemini-.
*CRASH!*
Alright, it was over now.
Everyone winced as the female member of the two-man Tean Nanken was piledriven off of the edge of the ring by Castor. Her partner had already been beaten to a bloody pulp on the mat by Pollux when he tried to intervene to avenge her.
Castor and the female member of Team Nanken were also topless. This was a notable incident.
…
…In hindsight perhaps Naruto should have paid closer attention to that matchup at an earlier point. You know… because Team Gemini were members of YOMI. Not because he'd missed the lion's share of bare boobage. No sir, because that would mean that Jiraiya's influence ran deep. And that was wrong. Yes, he only wished he'd watched to study their fighting styles!
Yes. That was the only reason.
He was definitely paying attention now though. So was every male member of the Shade Alliance.
"And Team Gemini, containing the splendid disciple of our esteemed host Diego Carlo, advances easily to the next round! And now you see why they're the favorites to win the entire tournament! What else could you expect from the very best that Yami's next generation has to offer?"
The Shade Alliance had gotten their first look at an actual YOMI disciple, and just how dangerous they could be. With the way the lots were situated, they had to fight Team Gemini next.
But that was later on down the line. Now it was time to make magic happen, because the odds weren't in Naruto, Miu, and Kenichi's favor, even though the odds were three-on-one.
"The next match will be the kids who survived a tough first round match against the three Chinese Kenpo users; Team Ryouzanpaku! They'll be taking on a solo fighter, fighting under the banner of Tenchi Mushin Ryuu; Tanaka Tsutomu!"
And suit-sporting glasses-clad young man stood in the ring, on his cell phone as he waited for his opponents to arrive.
"Are you ready?" Kenichi asked, holding his own ribs. He was good enough to move around and fight, but he was still pretty banged up, "…Ugh, am I ready?"
"You shouldn't draw attention to your injuries idiot," Sakaki reprimanded his Karate student, seeing Kenichi cradle his torso. The bandages on his body couldn't be seen underneath his clothes, "It's going to be hard enough to fight that sort of person as it is. There's no need to let him know he's got a bullseye to aim at."
Kenichi nodded, understanding through Sakaki's harsh words that he was giving him real advice. Letting an enemy know that you were hurt or that your wounds bothered you was the worst thing that you could do in a ruthless environment.
But he'd been taught well, and he had good teammates at his side. Even if this guy was some sort of scary-good fighter, which he didn't know because he hadn't seen Tanaka fight, if they worked together, if they didn't give up, they could win.
Naruto jumped up and down anxiously before deciding to lead the way down. Miu followed after taking a deep breath, and Kenichi went to go with her until he was stopped by Hayato's hand on his shoulder, "Remember your techniques Ken-chan. We prepared you for this tournament as completely as we could. Now it's up to you, Naruto-kun, and Miu to come through."
He was right. The three of them had to trust in each other and dig deep.
XxX
(Elsewhere in the Coliseum)
Shou's eyes lit up at the sight of Miu emerging from the entrance to the coliseum and he quickly made to silence Rachel as she recounted her victory that he'd just seen her get, "Castor, shut up. Miu's fighting next."
Rachel, the showy woman that she was, did not take this kindly.
"Do you want to run that by me again Suparna?" Rachel said, a dangerous aura emanating from her as she stared over at Shou leaning against the railing overlooking the arena "I don't think I heard you right."
Shou glared back at her, sending out killing intent, "I said shut up so I can watch Miu fight. I'd rather do that than hear you talk about how you beat those Team Nanken losers."
Leader of YOMI or not, Rachel wasn't about to let that slight slide, and Ethan would step in to protect his sister no matter who the opponent was.
On the side, Fortuna laughed at the sight of some of YOMI's best about to come to blows, "Such spirited, powerful children. This tournament is your best work yet Laughing Fist!"
"The show isn't over yet Mister Fortuna," Diego said before barking an order at the disciples present, grinning all the while, "Shou, show some respect to the others! Castor, don't fight with your leader! At least not without an audience!"
Shou eyed Diego, and knowing that he was one of his masters, respected his will. For the most part anyway, "It's too noisy down here anyway."
With that, he jumped onto the top of a decorative pillar and used it as a perch.
"Tch," Rachel walked off to cool down, Ethan following her just in case she came close to having another blow-up, "I wish somebody could give him the beating of a lifetime."
"But no one can beat Suparna," Ethan said, getting Rachel to turn her ire-filled look onto her own brother.
"I know that," She snapped, clicking her tongue as she could only hope and dream that someone existed to show that guy what it was like to lose. She knew better though, "...The bastard is perfect."
XxX
(In the Ring)
"I'm still away on that business trip dear," Tanaka said over the phone, trying to keep out the crowd noise and all of the other coliseum noises that would come up over the call, "I'll be here for another day. I should be setting out the next day I believe."
The guy seemed to be talking to his wife. Talking to his wife and keeping her out of the loop before taking part in a no-holds-barred tournament. Weird. But hey, the world had all types. It was hard to believe he was under the age of 20 though.
With a sigh, Tanaka hung up the phone and turned to his younger adversaries with a smile, "Well, Ryouzanpaku huh? My master had ties to your dojo a long time ago."
Miu didn't know that. It was probably back before she could remember. Either that or it was when she'd been out traveling around the world with her grandfather. Either way, it didn't mean anything for the time being. They still had to fight him, and it wouldn't be a friendly spar.
"Even if it's three of you at once," Tanaka said, making sure his glasses were secure on his face before taking his stance, a smile evident, "I won't lose you see. I'm in this tournament to look for someone. I can't drop out until I find that he's here or not."
Miu took her own stance, on one side of Kenichi while Naruto stood on the other. A formation? A very basic formation, but still a formation nonetheless.
Kenichi gulped down any apprehension he had on taking the fight and looked at the two blonds, "So do we all remember what we're doing?"
"Yes," Miu said, getting the previous night's meeting with Shou out of her mind. As she reasoned back then, Naruto and Kenichi were depending on her, "You can count on me."
"Yep," Naruto said in return, wondering if he should risk pulling out one of his two new big guns for this fight. Jiraiya told him to keep them close until he needed them, "Just one thing though."
"What?"
Naruto proceeded to gesture to their surroundings as if to ask 'what the hell' to those around him. For their match the ring had been transformed into white-collar hell. Desks, chairs, file cabinets, and glass cubicles abound. It seemed like an accountant's home away from home.
"First a ring, then a Chinese house, now an office?" Naruto asked, yelling up at Diego who was laughing at the young team's reaction to the change of scenery inside of the ring, "What? Is everybody gonna get a specialty stage? Are we gonna fight E. Honda in the bathhouse next or something?"
"Well you won't get your own stage brat!" Diego bellowed at the top of his lungs. No microphone necessary, "Of course if you have a problem with it you could always come up here to 'discuss' it with me!"
"I-I'll totally do that!" Naruto shouted back up at him before taking a step back and turning around to face Tanaka, "…Right after I win this round! I can't let my team down and all…" He had to try and save some sort of face.
"HAHAHAHA, THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT!"
Damn it… stupid Grandmaster-level fighters. It wasn't like you could swell up to them, especially not to a Satsujinken one. Not if you liked living.
"Now FIGHT!"
There was no hesitation on the part of Team Ryouzanpaku. All three of them went right at Tanaka with a plan of action. Naruto was the first to reach him, but to Tanaka's surprise, Naruto ghosted right past him instead of making first contact.
In a matter of moments though, all three had been rebuked for their attempt to take him down.
All of it had occurred in the span of a pair of seconds, and barely anyone had been able to get all of the moves that had occurred in the exchange. Of those that tried, most of them found their attention split and missing particularly important portions of the overall approach.
XxX
"What was that?" Sakaki asked in a grouchy tone, directing his words at Shigure who was perched on the railing of the balcony as she and Tochumaru watched the fight, "Your brat needs his eyes checked Shigure. He ran right past the guy at first."
Shigure turned her head back at the Karate master and simply stared at him until he became uncomfortable. She didn't say a word and he didn't apologize. He didn't even consider it, but he did avert his eyes and turn away first.
"It wasn't a bad try honestly," Ma Kensei pointed out, "That attempt played on all three of their strengths and separate philosophies in their fighting styles," Especially impressive because after the first round he felt that their styles might not have meshed.
Out of the three of them, in raw speed the order went from fastest to slowest; Naruto, Miu, and Kenichi. This was the basis of their strategy.
As the fleetest of foot, Naruto was the first to reach Tanaka, but using his feint technique simply bypassed him altogether. He hadn't been planning on overwhelming someone that they knew was better with speed, but he could get his full attention.
Second fastest, Miu had been the second to reach him and while semi-occupied with Naruto's attack that never came despite the convincing sell the boy made that he'd be trying his hand at taking a shot. The main portion of the attack came from her, and she'd been fully intending to take him out. Tanaka had been able to stop her and immediately react to the third member of the team.
Kenichi's entire purpose for getting anywhere near Tanaka was simply to activate his Seikuuken. Not for attack, but purely for defense. Out of the three, Kenichi's injuries made him the slowest, but his outright defensive blocking ability was the highest. Better than Miu's and Naruto's. In a hand-to-hand exchange he could last long enough and keep Tanaka's attention for the secondary attack of the formation.
Naruto's sharp, crushing attack from behind. The main purpose of his initial feint; to get the chance to Rasengan him from his blind spot.
It still failed, but it had been a good opening gambit. No disciple would have been able to stand up to even half of that sort of attack, YOMI or not. Against a disciple-class opponent, even one that outclassed them singularly, it would have destroyed whoever it was.
But this was not a person on that sort of plateau.
"This could be good for them," Hayato pointed out, "Until now they've either fought people on their level, or stronger to a degree where they could overcome them with effort and skill. This won't be that sort of enemy. Tanaka-san is an expert."
"Most people would see that as a minus against their disciple facing him," Akisame said, before taking a moment to think about it, "I can see your point however."
Hayato nodded, "They need this."
XxX
"Maestro what the hell?" Shou asked after seeing that Team Ryouzanpaku was going through with the fight, "Why'd you set it up so my soulmate would have to fight that guy?"
"Why, because it's entertaining," Diego said with extensive laughter, "In the end, that's what it's all about. After the training I've given you, you should know that it's not just about your strength, but the ways in which you can show that strength!"
Shou simply glared down at the ring. He didn't give a damn about either of those weaklings Uzumaki or Shirahama, but if Miu was hurt, those two would have hell to pay, "…What I said to dimwit last night still stands."
Sitting off on his throne in the shadow, Fortuna just watched with interest, "How interesting these children must be if the Laughing Fist things that a battle between them and this man would be entertaining."
There was something to be said for his unhealthy interest in children, even as martial artists.
XxX
Tanaka continued to smile, even as his opponents recovered from their failed attempt to overcome him, "That's just outstanding!" He said, earnestly impressed with their moves, "Really, I guess Ryouzanpaku does raise special fighters if you three were able to string something like that together."
"You can't say things like that after you stop us cold!" Kenichi said after being easily driven back several yards despite his powerful defensive technique, "That's just patronizing us!" To set them all back at once, it wasn't normal. It was unnerving.
"He's no disciple," Miu commented, her forearms throbbing from her attempted block, "But he's no master either," If he was, there was no way just the three of them could have taken him. She was astute enough to recognize that much, "I think Tanaka-san is an expert-level martial artist."
"Well whatever he is, he's badass," Naruto said, centering his vision after being sent for a loop. Tanaka had not been kind at all when it came to stopping his attack, and with good reason. Naruto had been aiming his Rasengan at the base of his spine. Nothing good would have come from that connecting, "There's no way to actually block the Rasengan. He just nailed me before I could hit him with it."
Tanaka's reaction time was so fast. He'd blocked Miu's aerial assault and driven Kenichi back from his Seikuuken with his hands by the time he'd kicked Naruto and broken his Rasengan attack. There had been less than a second of time to adjust and react between the attacks. If they'd attacked him all at once, he wouldn't have even let them touch him.
"Huh?"
Naruto was no longer where he'd left him. Miu had a sly smile on her face from where she'd been standing in waiting and instead of continuing to wait for Tanaka, or attacking him herself, she leapt over the wall of one of the glass cubicles in something of a retreat.
She was retreating?
Kenichi didn't understand at first until he realized that he was alone with Tanaka and put his guard up, "What are they doing…?" He muttered under his breath to himself. There wasn't any time to think about it. He was hurt, and he was facing an enemy that would take him out.
"That was the Seikuuken that you used to protect yourself," Tanaka pointed out, "You had really good control of your space there. But it's too bad Tenchi Mushin Ryuu has a technique to its name that can break any defense."
He was bluffing… right?
…Maybe Miu and Naruto had the right idea. At least, he thought so until he saw Tanaka take off elsewhere into the office stage. A shock of yellow had caught his eye and he'd taken off after it, deciding that the danger out of his direct line of vision was more pressing than the one right in front of him.
Kenichi saw it as well, and from the shade of blonde knew that it was Miu, "H-HEY! I'm your opponent!" He shouted, launching his attack against Tanaka. His focus back on Kenichi, Tanaka had no problems taking him down first if that was what he wanted, 'Great… now what am I going to do to nail this guy?'
As Tanaka moved forward, a desk slid and crashed forcefully through a pane of glass right into his path, much to his surprise. He effortlessly crashed straight through it with his palm without losing a shred of momentum, but that little opening was all Kenichi needed to pick his approach from his copious amount of moves and fighting styles.
This time when Tanaka reacted with his only usable hand after breaking the desk, Kenichi was able to see the style he used to fight. No fists. Simply palms and knife-hand strikes. Knife-hand meant he was attacking from an angle, palms meant he was coming head on; the way he'd broken the desk.
Kenichi blocked the knife-hand strike at the inside of Tanaka's forearm and shot his free hand forward with a twisting punch, "Rekka Sajinbaku (Blazing Dust Blast)!"
Tanaka leaned his head out of the way and forced Kenichi past him, prompting the boy to safety roll over the remains of the desk he'd broken earlier. This boy was tenacious in his attack, and speaking of tenacious…
Naruto sprang out from his hiding place, launching an aerial kick at Tanaka's head and landing on a remaining half of the desk after missing. Flipping off with an ax kick that also missed, Naruto didn't stop attacking, continuing to launch hard-edged spinning kicks at Tanaka's face that he had to backpedal to avoid, 'These aren't the attacks a Katsujinken fighter would use.'
The curve of his heel in those kicks caused the impact point to be so concentrated that the killing potential of such an attack was emphasized over other kicks of such a nature.
Tanaka caught one of Naruto's kicks and lifted his own leg to kick Naruto underneath the bottom of his. Naruto went with the momentum and backflipped, possessing enough body control to stop his rotation mid-fall and lash out with a dropkick. Tanaka blocked it but then had to duck under a sweeping follow-up, "Ni Ryuu (Double Dragons)!"
'Damn it!' Naruto thought as he landed, 'How did I miss from that close?'
Upon landing, Naruto rushed forward again, feeling a push from his back he grinned upon realizing that Kenichi was backing him up. Tanaka was ready, but this was going to be worth the danger.
Just before reaching Tanaka, Naruto slowed himself enough for Kenichi to match his speed and step at his side. Instead of launching a dual attack, Naruto altered his steps and went around as he rotated in a smooth, quick motion, "Maruyoudou (Circle Feint)!"
Splitting Tanaka's attention again, both boys reached his sides. He had glasses, so his vision couldn't have been that good.
"This is it!" Both Naruto and Kenichi shouted, waging their attacks on opposite sides.
"Gemon Tepii!"
"Tekiatsu Satsugai (Cyclone Kill)!"
Kenichi's jumping knee/kick combination was stopped by one arm, Naruto's swiftly rotating backfist haymaker of a punch aimed at Tanaka's blind spot was stopped with the other. Tanaka held them both back with a bit of effort. If either one of those had landed it would have been a game-changer. If both had, the fight would have been an afterthought.
Tanaka eyed Naruto suspiciously. Despite blocking his punch and already having heard that he was a ninja he was befuddled.
'He's a disciple of Ryouzanpaku that uses Ninjutsu, but Ryouzanpaku doesn't have a master of that sort from what my master told me about them,' He thought to himself, 'So who there is teaching him?'
A grin spread across Naruto's face despite one of his favorite finishing knockout attacks being stopped cold, "Metsubushi (Eye Closer)!" With a flick of his wrist, Naruto opened his closed fist and hurled a black egg the short distance into Tanaka's face, "Yes-! Gurk!"
Both Naruto and Kenichi felt heavy palms stricken into their bodies that sent them away. Naruto had meant to keep him in place after his last good move, but Tanaka had put an end to that.
Thus when Miu made intent to attack him known, she'd only managed to find herself in a hand-to-hand fight against an expert.
Against a faster opponent you closed the distance to neutralize their speed advantage. This was simple strategy and Miu knew it well.
Getting low in order to duck her way out of a series of arm-based attacks from Tanaka, Miu grit her teeth and swung her leg up and around in a high kick at his face, "Hyoui Kazakiri Bane (Possessing Spring Wind)!"
The kick didn't land, but it knocked his glasses off of his face. Miu gasped when he knocked her leg to the side with one arm and with a twist of his body knocked her down with a hard side chop. The man moved his hands like blades!
"Ugh. Sorry Miu-chan," Naruto moaned, laying on his side after being propelled through a pane of glass and overturning some file cabinets, "I didn't get his eyes."
Instead of being blinded by a nasty concoction of whatever Naruto had put into that hidden weapon, Tanaka's face and glasses were covered in black powder.
"Uzumaki's dirty ninja trick to blind Tanaka FAILED! He and Shirahama were still put down by the awesome power of the Tenchi Mushin Ryuu style! Even Fuurinji Hayato's granddaughter failed!"
Even though he hadn't necessarily been blinded, he'd still breathed a good portion of it in. Clear to all to see when he coughed, "Was there gunpowder in that?" All he was doing was scratching up the lenses of his glasses in trying to get it off.
"That and some other stuff…" Naruto said, pushing himself back up, glad he'd taped his hands and fingers well for the tournament. The stupid office stage would have had him bleeding all over the place if he hadn't.
"That was a… dirty move Naruto-san," Kenichi chided halfheartedly. At this point he didn't really care. He was just saying, "All you did was make him take off his glasses."
"If I get a lit match near his face I'm pretty sure that'd be spectacular," Naruto said, glad that Shgure had given him mesh armor that covered his neck and a good portion of his arms. Otherwise lying in broken glass might have been far more unpleasant, "Damn it… I don't care if he's an expert and we're disciples or not! There's still three of us and one of him!"
"Go tell him that then," Kenichi's body ached, he was short of breath after the strike, and he was seeing double after getting his brain rattled, "Miu-san."
Hearing Kenichi call out to her, Miu responded, having already risen up to her knees after being knocked down, "I'm fine." And she was. She didn't know why she was, an expert had hit her dead-on, but she was, 'Tanaka-san's aim was off,' Miu saw, a small smile coming to her face, 'Naruto-kun's move worked better than everyone thought it did.'
Without his glasses, Tanaka's vision wasn't just slightly off. It was absolutely awful. What a mundane weakness for someone so good.
XxX
"While it's true that a disciple simply can't defeat a master, nor do they have much of a prayer against an expert-," Akisame said astutely, "-If talented enough disciples work together, they can overcome people out of their league," The trial and error of Naruto, Miu, and Kenichi trying techniques finally had something stick against the wall.
Kisara suddenly appeared in the traditionally dressed man's face, getting him to lean back half an inch, "You really think so pops?" She asked concernedly. Having them lose in a tournament of disciples because of that 'under the age of 20' caveat that let anyone fitting the sole parameter compete despite their actual skill level just didn't seem right, "Shirahama, Uzumaki, and Fuurinji are all good enough to get this done aren't they?"
He didn't answer. Instead, insight into Tanaka's fighting ability came from the oldest amongst them.
"That man is talented," Hayato said, "From his moves, he's not far from it. Even for one so young, I can see someone like him becoming a master very soon. Not only that, but I remember a man named Midou Kai being the master of the Tenchi Mushin Ryuu. It's a shame he's no longer alive. I saw something great enough about this style to pass down a technique of my own creation to him; one I've only taught to two people."
The thought of someone potentially possessing a move obtained from that monster of an old man chilled most of the younger fighters. What he added on to that information didn't assuage them whatsoever.
"It's a move strong enough to break Ken-chan's Seikuuken, or any other technique."
"WHAT!?"
Hayato ignored the yells of disbelief from the youngsters until Takeda pointed something out, "But that doesn't make sense does it? If you know the Seikuuken it's supposed to let you defend against anything in your range isn't it?"
"Enough force will render it useless if someone uses an attack powerful enough to nullify the defense," Hayato continued to explain, "There is a better version of the Seikuuken though, and Kenichi knows how to execute it. He finished the training to activate it back when he trained with me in the mountains."
Jaws dropped, but the first to recover was Niijima, wondering why this had never come up before. He'd learned the Seikuuken months ago, "Well why the hell hasn't he ever used it before!?"
"Because using it requires an absolutely calm mind," Akisame finished explaining for Hayato, "And while that's fine in training, he hasn't fought a single battle where he hasn't been confused, angry, or frightened."
So in other words…
"He hasn't used it in battle because he's never been clear of mind enough to use it in battle."
XxX
Okay, so Tanaka's vision was crappy, and Naruto had screwed his glasses into disuse. Miu would have preferred a clean, debilitating hit to land, but she'd take what she could get in this instance.
Naruto had gotten back up and looked double-pissed. Not that it took much to fire him up in the first place. With a growl he reached into his supply pockets and hurled shuriken at Tanaka. He merely caught them out of the air with his fingers through the holes.
"Fucking showoff," Naruto muttered, feeling a distinct sense of hypocrisy before deciding to just go for it himself, "Alright, stop this then!"
Kenichi pushed himself up off of the ground and did the same. If they both attacked together, eventually something had to give. They'd come just short of pulling off a successful move several times already.
Tanaka backed himself up against a wall where he could see all three of his opponents at once, but without his glasses they were messy blurs for the most part.
"This is so stupid!" Naruto said, taking a deep breath for courage before leaping at Tanaka.
Well… not quite at Tanaka so much as in Tanaka's vicinity. He got to Tanaka's rear left corner of vulnerability the hard way. That was what he wanted.
More accurately, at the glass wall he'd chosen to put his back against. Springing off of the wall with a feather-light touch, Naruto lashed out with a rebound kick. Kicking had to be his bread-and-butter now. After his last little sleight of hand trick, there was no way Tanaka would let a punch fly even halfway close to him again. And if Naruto absolutely had to throw kicks, misdirection was his best friend.
Something amazing happened. The blow struck home. Naruto felt the bottom of his shin come clean across Tanaka's face, 'I hit him? I hit him!' Pressing his advantage, Naruto landed and immediately shot his elbow back at Tanaka's chest, but he had enough poise to recover and block it, "Kenichi!"
One free arm, Tanaka took aim right at Kenichi, "Enact your Seikuuken, attack me or not, I'll break through it. Tenchi Mushin Ryuu: Kazoe Nukite (Counted Overhand Stroke)!" With his power arm, he lashed out with a straight hand, aiming with the tips of his fingers. He wouldn't let children stand in the way of finding the man he wanted revenge on, "Four!"
XxX
"That's the technique I taught the master of the Tenchi Mushin Ryuu. Kazoe Nukite," Hayato said, closing his eyes calmly, "Kenichi can't stop himself at this point, otherwise the attack will destroy him. He can't block it. If he tries the Seikuuken, he'll be overpowered and he'll be crushed."
"He has to dodge it then," Ma Kensei said, arms folded into the sleeves of his Chinese shirt, "Dodge a point-blank attack from a martial artist beyond him."
Akisame smiled slightly, his interest fully set on watching his sole pupil make his move, "To avoid an expert's attack from that range. He really will need that technique."
XxX
Time seemed to slow down for Kenichi as he took the same sort of calming breath that Naruto had earlier before throwing caution to the wind for his successful attack. Like his friend, he couldn't be afraid.
There were scarier things awaiting him further in the tournament, even if he was currently facing an expert instead of a disciple.
He was well trained. He believed in his masters.
He had his friends by his side. He believed in them.
He trained hard. He believed in himself.
And that was all he needed to know.
The tip of Kenichi's upturned fist barely grazed Tanaka's Kazoe Nukite before Kenichi turned his hand thumb-up to let the attack pass right along, cutting through part of his dougi as it did, "Shiraha Nagashi (White Blade Slide)!" Instead of simply choosing to nail Tanaka and put him through the glass wall behind him, he followed Naruto's original lead and bound him from getting out of the corner, 'I did it!'
The close shave of Tanaka's hand even so much as brushing him felt as if he'd lost the skin on his body underneath the chain mail, but he'd dodged it.
He had moved perfectly. Kenichi's Sei ki had been perfectly balanced, set at a thin layer barely coming off of his skin. He'd dodged at the last possible second; the best time to avoid an enemy's attack, a time when they could do nothing in return to recover and optimize their own mistake.
'That was beyond Seikuuken,' Tanaka thought as he felt a feather-light touch on his shoulders right above him. A smile came over his face as he accepted what he'd gotten himself into, 'Heh. I didn't underestimate them… but I was so certain that I was taking them deadly seriously that I overlooked certain things about them.'
Pushing herself up over Tanaka for a spinning boost into the air, Miu grabbed one of her legs and flexibly held it straight up over her head. The other remained close in and cocked as she continued to whirl rapidly. "Fuurinji Kouhou Yoku!"
Miu's single strongest attack.
Like a drill she extended her lower leg and drove Tanaka into the ground. He had nowhere to go, his arms had been occupied by Kenichi and Naruto, lest they destroy him as well, and his vision was abysmal without his glasses.
The versatility of Kenichi's training, the overall martial arts knowledge of Miu, and The deceptively wily, unpredictable approach of Naruto's fighting nature.
"Heh…" Tanaka couldn't do anything but smile despite the numbness he felt throughout his body from the final attack, "This is what happens when you look ahead I guess…"
"Ryouzanpaku's disciples win! Ryouzanpaku advances to the next round!"
XxX
Diego chuckled as the sound of spirited clapping came from Fortuna's throne nearby, "Well, well, well! You certainly do know how to seed an amazing tournament Laughing Fist!" The booming voice of Mister Fortuna couldn't have sounded more pleased, "How did you know that they could win?"
"Honestly, I hadn't expected them to," Diego replied, his ever present grin spread across his face, "But now they'll either die in the next round, or in the finals against your team or mine."
"Yes… yes, this is quite the show," Fortuna declared, "But you allowed those 'Shade Alliance' children to enter. You're honestly that confident that they won't stand a chance against your disciple and her brother?"
Laughing as if it were the funniest joke in the world, Diego shook his head as he calmed down, "Just because I like a team's style, doesn't mean I'll give them a prayer against Castor or her brother. That just wouldn't be common sense."
"Then I'll just look forward to the clash of your children against mine!" As far as the two of them could see, there would be no other outcome to the following matches, "A battle between my chosen children and YOMI's pick of the litter… I can't wait."
Diego didn't know how to tell him that Team Gemini would still smash the Pankration Team without upsetting one of Yami's biggest benefactors. Instead, he turned his attention to Shou, who couldn't turn his attention away from the ring with a peaceful expression on his face, "Well, do you wish you'd bugged me to get in on this now?"
"Nah…" Shou said wistfully, "Actually, I'm kind of enjoying the bird's eye view of my angel in action. That last move of hers was gorgeous."
So Shou was smitten with the One Shadow's daughter was he? That was interesting in of itself, and rather ironic all things considered.
XxX
Team Ryozanpaku walked back into their waiting balcony with the others, Naruto the first to drop into one of the spectator's chairs in a heap. He wasn't as tired after that fight as he had been after the first round match against Three-Headed Dragon, but his body hurt more. Just blocking Tanaka's attacks hurt like hell.
"There," Naruto said, pointing to Kenichi who was walking more gingerly than either Naruto or Miu had, "He's back in one piece. And he did… something cool to get away from Tanaka's last attack. What was that anyway?"
"The Ryuusei Seikuuken (Flowing Water Control of the Air Sphere)," Kenichi said, pleased despite how battered he looked, "That's the finished version of the Seikuuken."
"So the Seikuuken that you had wasn't even the finished version?" Naruto asked, scratching his head confusedly. That was good technique as it was. It had always seemed like it was complete to him, "…Why the hell didn't you ever do it before then?"
Kenichi didn't necessarily want to admit that it had been because he'd always been over-thinking some part of a fight to an almost neurotic degree ever since he'd started fighting, and probably would in the future.
"I finally got my head clear I guess," He alluded somewhat cryptically, still keeping Naruto confused about the whole affair.
He took it at face value though. They won, they weren't dead, and there were more important fish to fry coming up in a matter of moments. Not just with who they'd more than likely be fighting in the next round, but because of who his friends had to take on next.
"And now for the next match, the shadowy unnamed team of ninjas! They'll be taking on the destructive Capoiera Team, who advanced out of the first round using only one member to fight!"
Naruto couldn't have been paying any closer attention to the Nameless Team had he been standing ringside himself. It was odd for those who knew him as a guy that couldn't sit still unless it was a necessary part of his training to watch him stare at anything without blinking, paying rapt attention as if lives depended on it.
…A lot of them had thought at one point that Naruto had some sort of undiagnosed attention disorder from the way he normally acted and fought. He was currently stomping all over that theory.
"Apa," Apachai alarmed Naruto by sticking himself directly into the youngster's field of vision, "Apachai doesn't get why Naruto's so serious. People tried to kill Apachai all the time. Whatever happens, happens, apa."
Normally Naruto would agree. Getting hurt before had never really been that big of a deal, because until recently it had been just him. He found it a lot harder to play things off when others were in the crosshairs of paying just because he didn't crawl into a hole and die.
"Right…" Naruto said with a nervous grin, "Whatever happens, happens."
XxX
(In the Ring)
"I'm afraid we can't lose here," The Capoiera Team's leader as both the eight-person ninja team and his own five-man group of freestyle fighters garbed in tight tops and loose pants faced off on the tournament floor, "We won't be showing you any mercy."
Sai smiled his chillingly blank smile in return, "I'm sorry as well. You're all fairly good, so we can't take any chances with you. We have to stay healthy for the next round you see," His smile then fell to show his true emotionless expression, "…That's what you say before you do something horrible to someone isn't it? You're supposed to apologize in advance?"
One of the Capoeira Team members with dark hair and a turban-like head wrap walked forward with a cocky smirk, "Do you hear this pasty kid? Let me take him on. I can probably put away his whole team the way Aisha did with those street fighters yesterday," He said with an earnest smile to the aforementioned only female member of the team.
She hardly noticed him however.
Sai shut his eyes and jumped into the ring without even acknowledging that he'd been challenged or looking for approval from his masked, nameless cohorts, "Don't be mistaken, I didn't get into the ring myself because you said something. It's because we don't have time to stroke your ego. My teammates will be going over the plans for our true target while I handle this. On the other hand, this is my warm-up for our actual challenge."
The turban-clad boy growled at Sai's rampant disrespect and jumped up into the ring, "If you keep talking like that, I'll have to kill you."
"Eliot…" The Capoeira Team's leader said in warning or his hotheaded teammate's approach to the cold, calculating leader of the ninja squad.
Sai's form stiffened momentarily before he loosened back up and took on a stance, "Dickless people like you usually talk the loudest to hide the fact," Crude taunts usually worked on the weak-minded.
This man was no different. Eliot went straight at the smaller fighter in Sai before unleashing a horribly powerful kick. He was set on breaking Sai's scrawny neck in one move, "Die!"
It happened so quickly that the people watching weren't sure that contact had actually been made, but the immediate stains of red that drenched the right leg of Eliot's that had stayed on the ground during his kick let them all know that something horrible had happened.
Eliot immediately fell to the ground, clutching at his inside thigh as blood spilled from it like an open faucet. In Sai's hand rested an odd tipless tanto that no one in the stadium without extensive experience had seen him draw. Its edge dripped blood onto the ring floor.
Writhing on the ground until his motions became shorter and the blood beneath him pooled larger, Eliot eventually stopped moving altogether. Sai had gotten a main artery in his leg. It all happened too quickly for the tournament doctors to get to him and try anything to save him.
The criminals that comprised the D of D Tournament crowd buzzed lowly in disbelief. This boy was deadly serious. He really killed someone right in front of them. He and his comrades had honestly killed an entire team just to clear a spot in this tournament for themselves.
No one was doubting a trace of that now.
"The second you said that you'd kill me, you threw away any chance of me showing you restraint as an outsider," Sai said to Eliot's motionless body as the entire Capoiera team stared at him in horror, "Life is not to be trifled with or spoken of lightly. When a shinobi declares that they're going to take someone's life, they mean it, and they won't stop until they get it done."
The leader of the Capoeira Team did his level best to keep a straight face, but seeing Sai flagrantly kill his teammate without blinking, and having watched their first round match against the Karate Team, he came to a horrifying conclusion.
As violent as that fight had been, it had been the Nameless Team being kind. The Karate Team were a bunch of point-sparring fighters. Even fighting with all of their might, killing had never been in the equation for them, thus Sai and company responded with the force they needed to put them down hard and nothing more.
Granted, it was far more force than was necessary for a team that weak, but being mauled and put into the hospital for months was still better than the fate that Eliot suffered.
"This tournament doesn't mean anything to us. It's just a means to an end to force Uzumaki Naruto into a corner to kill him, and we will do anything to achieve that goal. That's the difference in resolve between you and us," Sai didn't spare the fresh corpse a second glance, instead turning his attention to the rest of the team, "Victory and defeat mean two entirely different things."
The team leader looked at the rest of his teammates before coming to a decision, "…If I lose the next fight, surrender," If he couldn't defeat Sai, the rest of his team had no chance except for maybe Aisha, "It doesn't matter if we win or lose. Not if it's like this."
"The next fighter please? Like I said, we have more important things to do," Sai said a dull tone of voice. His footprints still carrying Eliot's blood in them.
The team leader went to step forward before he was kept from going up there by the female on the team, "Don't. It's not worth it."
"It's a fight."
"You just said you don't care about winning or losing. Well care about your life," Aisha said quietly, shaken considerably at watching Eliot die, "…Even if he isn't able to kill you, you couldn't defeat him without getting crippled, and then what?"
And Sai would definitely do it. He only cut Eliot's artery in the leg because he'd made it so easy to aim at. If it had actually been a decently thrown kick, he would have lost the entire limb in a messier affair.
Another member of the Capoeira Team jumped in, fully agreeing, "This isn't any sort of test of your skill. A wrong move, and you'll never fight again. None of us will," The entire team was trying to reason with their leader. He was the strongest out of them all, but no one wanted to see any more of their friends die, "It's one tournament."
The white-haired leader looked conflicted before turning away from the ring. Without meaning to, he caught sight of the medics carrying off his teammate's body. That was the last straw he needed to push him over the edge, "We surrender."
Sai nodded and said nothing else before leaving with his seven masked cohorts in tow. This had not been done for ego, or to prove any sort of point. Making them quit without fighting had only been done to save time and energy that could be better spent toward their mission. There was no use in saying anything such as 'wise choice,' or any comment of that nature.
"It only took one fight for the Capoeira Team to figure that they were overmatched! Not the most entertaining of decisions but probably the wisest! And with that, the winners, moving on to face Team Ryouzanpaku in the semifinals; the nameless team of ninjas!"
XxX
"Well that settles that," Kisara said in an unnerved voice, "…Those guys won," Easily, "And that means that next they have to fight…" She stopped talking about it and looked over at Kenichi and Miu before resting her eyes on Naruto.
Freya could see why these people rented a permanent space in Naruto's mind. They weren't just willing and able to attack him in the dead of night without warning, they were powerful enough to devastate enemies in straightforward combat if they felt the need.
Even so, he didn't complain, he didn't even ask for help or protection. He didn't expect anyone to save him, and she was certain that if Naruto had it his way, none of them would have known he was in such danger.
…There was something appealing about that kind of nature, 'Uzumaki…' Maybe he was more grown up than she constantly teased him for not being?
She couldn't help but think back to when she'd fallen to Berserker in combat. She'd seen something there that she hadn't seen except for the first time they'd fought. She saw it again when she and Takeda tried to desperately fight off that ninja with the facemask on their own.
Naruto was a goof, yes, but when push came to shove he had no problems flipping the switch in his head that turned him from 'stand-up' to 'executioner' so to speak.
She wouldn't be taking back the 'immature' remarks though. Naruto was still a tad young in mind and spirit to be taken seriously in anything past fighting for her tastes.
Naruto's mind raced through every lesson he'd ever been taught, both on the Homeland Island and with Jiraiya since he'd begun training with him. This qualified as the hidden portion of one of ninjutsu's staple 18 fundamental skills if what Jiraiya told him on the mountain during his Rasengan training was legit.
"Bourakyu kid. The use of unorthodox strategies and tactics, as well as the manipulation of politics and the exploitation of other current events to assist in the subtle manipulation of the opponent. It could be your best friend under the right circumstances."
"Ugh… if you're gonna give me another lecture, can I stop training for a minute to hear it? This is hard."
"No you fool! Exercise both your body and your mind and listen while you work! If you dislocate your shoulders it's your own fault!"
"I am listening! …I'm just not getting all out of your lecture and the training at the same time! Yeah! So I should be doing one or the other!"
"Shaddup! If you can still yell you're not that tired yet! Anyway, the most effective form of this skill is when you can achieve or get closer to your goal without compromising yourself or shedding as much blood as you would otherwise. Of course, you're not that smart."
"Grr…"
And what Sai did technically counted as Bourakyau.
It was nothing more than a vulgar display of power, but with Sai's chillingly calm Sei ki, he came off as the worst stone cold killer anyone of them could have come across. That wasn't very far off from the truth. If one of Sai's teammates became more of a liability than an asset to his mission and by virtue the clan, he would cut them down.
Naruto's lips were twisted in a horrid frown. If Sai was willing to do that to someone just to get through the round of a tournament, if he and his team were willing to do what they'd done just to enter the tournament in the first place, what would they do if Miu or Kenichi started feeling like a hero?
'Believe in your friends. Believe in your friends. They're not jabronies or something,' Still sore from the last fight, Naruto still stood up and began to walk out of the room, a grin on his face as he left and gave Niijima a pat on the shoulder as he passed, "Hey, you were right about that guy after all."
"Honestly, did you expect anything else?" Niijima said, but this time with no real pseudo-evil or boasting undertone.
Naruto nodded and punched into his palm as he decided to go for a walk, 'Fine then. They can be as nasty as they want. They can't hurt any of my friends if we beat their asses first.'
The plan from the night before was still on, to beat them so completely that they couldn't possibly do anything to them, only it would have to happen when Team Nameless wanted it to happen. They weren't going to initiate contact unless it was on their terms, even if he tried to force it.
If that was the case, he would just have to beat them on their terms then.
After all, it wasn't just about dictating your own terms to combat. Adapting was all part of being a ninja as well, wasn't it?
Hello there children! That's the chapter for now.
I was not going to write out fights for all of the teams that, let's be honest, none of you could really care less about if I paid you to. Also, while I'm an astute grappling practitioner that loves the art and mechanics behind it, Brazilian Jiujitsu isn't really a style that lends itself to breathtaking play-by-play on the page. If you know what that fighting style is all about you know what I'm talking about.
You want the real. And if nothing else, Kenchi618 likes to think he's a man of the people… except for when he isn't.
I'm probably going to be putting out another chapter of this pretty soon, so expect that if you're into it.
Commence to rumbling. Kenchi out.
