Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. It's not as simple as you think, it's complicated! There's layers to this whole thing guys! Layers!

Chapter 37: To Attack Is Safer Than Defend

Shikamaru didn't know what possessed him to head over to the Shade Alliance headquarters on his day off from school, but he did. Soon after arriving, he very quickly regretted it, "...What the hell am I watching right now?" He asked, seconds after walking into the door.

In the middle of the room, surrounded by ecstatic underling members of the organization, he saw a dark red blur spinning around rapidly, singing amid the cheers of his friends and comrades.

"Proxy General Shikamaru! Siegfried's back!"

Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation and let out a sigh, "I can see that," He said, muttering 'troublesome' under his breath as he attempted to slip past the ruckus. It was too much of a drag to get drawn into.

Yes, he was glad Siegfried was back. Eccentricities aside, the man was tough and talented, something that the group could use now that they were facing down a double-onslaught from YOMI's armed and unarmed divisions.

Shikamaru didn't want to fight. He felt that their enemy's reasons for coming after them were shallow and silly. Still, that didn't change the fact that they would be coming regardless. They already had. Hard. The only thing that had kept Tenten from being six feet deep was that her opponent had been unprepared for the guile of a ninja that had been looking over her shoulder for several years. She was still recovering from her wounds.

That wasn't going to fly. Not with Shikamaru. The closer these shaves kept coming, the more he realized that statistically someone's number would eventually be up.

Something going wrong one time out of a hundred was all it took for one of his friends to not make it home.

So he needed help. And that left him to turn to the non-combatant of the Shade Alliance with the most influence over basically all of them, Niijima Haruo.

This was the person that knew everyone on their team in and out. Shikamaru's strength was in the logistics. It wasn't in gathering and amassing information, it was what he did with the information after it had been obtained. It was how he processed that information and used it after the fact that allowed him to shine as a tactician.

In this regard, Niijima was invaluable. While knowing much of anything about actual battle was most certainly not his forte, the odd boy had a penchant for getting every speck of dirt he could dredge up on any given individual, allies and enemies alike.

That was good. Creepy, a tad unnerving, but good. They needed that.

Right now, what Shikamaru needed more than anything else was someone who knew every aspect of the Shade Alliance worth knowing. If Shikamaru was going to put anything worthwhile together to help them all survive when the moment arrived, he needed to know what they were working with beyond just the fact that the top brass members were all skilled martial artists.

He needed intimate details, ranging on invasive.

It didn't take him long to find Niijima in one of the rooms reserved for the tech people, hounding the lot of them to dig for more dirt on the internet, or come up with new designs for their website. He rested a hand on Niijima's shoulder, scaring the daylights out of him at his complete lack of presence.

Shikamaru didn't have the energy to even care.

"We need to talk," He said, getting Niijima's full attention.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Ninja House)

For once, Jiraiya had gotten to train with Naruto while it was still light outside, as Shigure had not returned from her weapon hunting trip abroad. That meant that until she returned, Naruto was doubling up on his ninja training, which was great. Double the progress.

But Jiraiya's solo session with Naruto seemed different that afternoon.

It wasn't in his work ethic. Naruto was still giving 100%. It was the only way the kid knew how to operate. But even though there was no lack of effort, there was a lack of focus. His mind was wandering, and it showed.

"Time," Jiraiya called, hitting a stopwatch in his hand to stop the clock. He looked down at the floor and counted several chains and padlocks before looking up to where Naruto was hanging from the ceiling upside-down, stuck in a mass of chains and locks, "You got fifteen off in one minute. Too slow."

Naruto had managed to work his way up to eighteen in a minute. Failing to reach that number by three was just inexcusable.

"Damn it!" Naruto complained at his shoddy showing, wiggling in his chain cocoon like a butterfly trying to break free, "Put 'em back on. I can get higher than twenty this time, I know I can!"

"You said that last time! I already let you try again eight times!" Jiraiya poked at the ten chains and locks still covering the genin-level missing nin. "It takes longer to put those stupid things on than it takes to get them all off! I'm bored!" He then remembered what it was he wanted to talk about, "Listen, I know you can get more. But you're not focusing. Something's got your attention split. What's going on?"

Naruto stopped struggling and swung in the air, visibly dejected and sapped of his usual spirit. He knew what it was, what he had been thinking about all afternoon when his mind had wandered during school and during training. There were two things, but only one of them that he felt Jiraiya could even come close to helping him with.

"The other day, I met this guy. He used to train at Ryouzanpaku. His name was Ogata," Naruto started to explain, "…He said something about why my parents quit their mission. Because the One Shadow wanted me to be the Sole Disciple."

Jiraiya turned away and let out a sigh. He had investigated for years as to why Minato had did what he'd done, and when he found out he had understood. It hadn't made things any easier to stomach, but he'd gotten why Minato and Kushina decided to check out instead of continue along with their undercover mission.

Naruto took Jiraiya's silence as a signal to keep speaking, "Ogata is one of Yami's big badasses, so he would probably know something about it, and I didn't feel a bit of a lie in him. He was being totally honest with me."

It was then that Jiraiya chose to say anything in response. The facts were the facts. What was done was done, which was why he'd never said anything about it himself. At this point, the only thing that mattered was Naruto's response to them, "Does that change anything? Does it make you want to go fight for Yami or something? Fulfill your potential and get what you deserve?"

Showing marked distaste at the thought, Naruto shook his head. There was nothing there for him, and he would never risk killing his friends, "No. It's just…"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes, wondering what it was that he was dwelling on. They had established that the past was the past, "Oh, don't tell me something like you blame yourself for Minato and Kushina dying," He ventured to say, only to get no rebuttal from his student. Jiraiya stared Naruto down and narrowed his eyes dangerously, "…If that's what this is, we're sparring right now, and I'm gonna beat you until you realize how stupid that idea is."

"If they'd have just let me do it-."

"-You wouldn't be anything like who you are now," Jiraiya said, cutting him off, "You know who you'd be like? That Kanou Shou kid that grinds your gears. You'd be just like him. Maybe worse since, you know, you're kind of an asshole as it is to begin with."

Naruto visibly gagged and swallowed, "You comparing me to Pigeon-boy just made me throw up in my mouth a little," It was either that, or he had been upside-down for too long.

Jiraiya cut through the chain connecting Naruto to the ceiling, dropping him to the floor. Even wrapped head to toe in chains, he still landed on his feet, "They still would have been giving you away. Have you ever stopped to wonder just what it would have been like to eat, sleep, and breathe martial arts all day, every day, with nothing else to live for? It sucks! Why do you think I have so many interests?"

Like looking at naked women, and writing.

…And writing about naked women that he'd looked at.

Come to think about it, now that Jiraiya had mentioned it, if that had indeed been how Shou had been raised, it made Naruto feel a bit sorry for him. That sounded absolutely horrible. Naruto loved being a ninja, but if it was the only thing he was allowed to be or do, all day every day, he would have gone insane.

"Minato would have only had as much time with you as would have been allowed by your training schedule. You probably never would have even seen Kushina," Jiraiya continued to say, "He wouldn't have been your father. You wouldn't have been his son. You would have been a pawn, put in peril, twisted and warped by outside forces, molded into a human weapon, just so they could get closer to their target. Your life would have been ruined, and then they probably would have had to go through you at some point to topple Yami for good."

But they didn't do that. Nor did they risk putting his life at risk by going rogue. He was a child, and deserved the opportunity to make his own life, whether it was as a ninja of Konoha, what he was now, or otherwise. They loved Naruto so much; they were willing to sign their own death warrants just so that he could have the freedom to choose his own future.

Naruto could think about how his life might have been if none of that had ever happened. How it could have been better, how his parents would have helped him along in his life, or even if they would have been proud of him now.

They were just pleasant thoughts though. That was all they were. He could keep them inside, and there was nothing wrong with them, but dwelling over something that could never be was just sad. It wasn't him, and he wasn't going to let it become him.

Life was good now, and it had the potential to get better. Always better. You just had to fight for it if you really wanted it.

"Alright, Ero-sennin," Naruto said, bouncing on the balls of his feet despite still being wrapped up in chains, "What's next then? I've got a lot to do if I wanna be ready to make Sasuke eat dirt."

'That's right,' Jiraiya realized, 'Another one has showed their face.'

He did have another run-in with a shinobi of Konoha. But at least they seemed to be adhering to the conditions he had threatened them with. He wasn't going to impede their attempts to take Naruto's life, but if they sent someone impossibly powerful to handle, Jiraiya would kill them himself.

However, Jiraiya had no idea how good this person would be, which was fine. It didn't matter how skilled and strong he was. Naruto didn't have to fight him.

He didn't want Naruto to fight him. He hadn't wanted Naruto to fight any of the shinobi head-on, but he had been forced into most of them because conflict had always been initiated on their terms. Sasuke revealing himself to Naruto opened up a method of solving the problem that Jiraiya hadn't figured a shinobi would allow someone like Naruto to have.

"Lucky for you, we already know who the enemy is, boy. And you're lucky. He's underestimating you," Jiraiya was pleased to see a stiff grit to Naruto's teeth at hearing that, "He thinks you're going to sit back and prepare as best as you can for his strength until he's ready, because you're not strong enough," Yet another jab to the pride that riled the blond teenager further, "Even if that were true, it won't matter anyway. You're going to find him, you're going to attack him before he's ready, and he'll never see you coming."

Getting Naruto wound up was like shouting out orders to a trained German Shepard. You would say the right thing, and then watch him pin his ears back and bare his teeth, like clockwork. It was nice to know that the formula to motivate him was so damned easy.

Goddamn, Jiraiya was a great trainer. At least in his own mind.

In the middle of getting pumped up at having to handle his own business yet again, Naruto stopped and turned to look at Jiraiya in embarrassment, "...Uh... is it wrong that I'm, like, rock-hard right now?"

Not bothered in the slightest by the admission from his first student's son, Jiraiya guffawed and threw an arm around his shoulder, "Are you kidding? It would be wrong if you weren't!"

XxX

(Kouryo High School)

Kendo Club. A club full of would-be swordsmen.

Hyougo couldn't stand watching their excuses for practice. It made him sick.

Wearing thick padding. Using practice weapons instead of real blades. They took away all of the threat of suffering injury during training, which was part of the motivation that made you improve. Without that, it was a waste of time. Learning how to deal with getting hurt was just another part of learning how to fight.

And these people had the nerve to call themselves martial artists. Fighters. He heard them talk, commenting on how good the battle was, or how they could tell how much stronger they were getting. It was an awful joke. They were hobbyists at best.

As much as every fiber of his being wanted to vomit just standing there and watching the abomination they called swordplay, his girlfriend was a member of this club. And good, diligent boyfriends waited for their girlfriends to finish club activities so that they could walk them home.

He had noticed when watching Makoto spar with the other club members that she was quite good compared to the majority of them. Even for a second-year, she gave even the club captain trouble. Some of the moves she used were real techniques, not the sort of thing you would pick up in passing in a club setting.

From inside, she noticed him and waved at him shyly. He waved back with his typical easygoing smile and watched her gesture to the locker room, indicating that she would be taking a few minutes to change clothes and shower.

Hyougo nodded his consent and returned to the business of just waiting. It was so boring, especially without his fellow disciple Yui around to bother to pass the time. But what kind of scumbag would bring another girl when he was walking his girlfriend home? Yes, he was basically using her, but there was still etiquette involved!

It had been a good idea to get with Makoto to get under Uzumaki Naruto's skin. It was definitely working. Plus, there was the added bonus that Makoto was rather beautiful. There wasn't any rule laid out by Yami that said that members of YOMI couldn't have fun while they were in town to kill their assigned targets.

But he needed this relationship to pay off somehow to make going into it worth anything more than a way to kill time. She wasn't a member of the so-called Shade Alliance, as Naruto had vehemently kept her from having anything to do with them. He also never spoke with her whatsoever about anything to do with fighting, or even martial arts in general unless they were talking about her sword techniques.

Idle waiting was boring enough that his feet started to wander, taking him inside of the nearly empty club room. Noticing that his presence had garnered attention from the few students remaining behind to clean up, Hyougo raised an arm and his voice, "Don't mind me. Just waiting on Makoto."

The three male club members all smirked at each other at the sight of him. They had heard plenty about him. Even if he hadn't been dating Makoto, he was one of the new pretty boy students that had been getting attention from the high school's female population.

"You're Himeno-san's boyfriend, eh?" One of them asked Hyougo as they moved closer to converse with him, "You know, you look bored to death. Fancy going a round while you wait?"

Fighting the urge to roll his eyes at the thinly veiled attempt to throw their weight around as fighters, Hyougo tried to keep things cordial. That was his way whenever he had the option, "That's okay. It shouldn't be that much longer right?"

Another club member tried to dig the needle in further to try and spur a 'friendly spar' out of him, "Come on. We won't hurt you," 'Much', was how he clearly wanted to end that sentence.

Alright, this was apparently happening now.

"Oh, I couldn't," Hyougo continued to play coy before pretending to let himself be pressured into agreeing, "Well, if you insist."

There wasn't anyone around to see or hear any of this anyway.

One of the more confident club members handed him a bokken before stepping back with one of his own, a patronizing smirk on his face as he prepared for the match to begin. Hyougo stared at it oddly before breaking off the top fifteen inches of it as though it were just a run-of-the-mill stick.

The others stared at him as though he had lost his mind when he took up a stance, holding the small sliver of the practice weapon, "What are you doing?" One of them asked.

Their befuddlement at his treatment of the weapon meant to be used to defend himself caused them to ignore the fact that he had broken a hard wood instrument with the ease of an Italian breadstick.

"It's not what I'm used to, but I don't need to fight a real battle with it," Hyougo said as his smile grew fake in appearance and a cold look registered in his eyes, "I only need it for a second. Now start the match."

Quick to make his move, the club member attacked what he perceived to be a novice at his words of disrespect. Closing the distance between them, he lashed out with a horizontal slash with as much speed and power as he could put behind it. It might as well have been coming in slow motion.

Hyougo didn't move, instead swinging the sliver of practice blade he held in his hand at the incoming weapon. Much to the club member's surprise, his strike hit nothing, and he realized why when he finished his swing and stepped back to reset and try another attack.

His entire sword was gone, down to the guard, cut clean through.

Terrified, the club member fell to his backside and scooted away from Hyougo, frantically trying to get his distance, "M-Monster!"

"Tch," Hyougo said, glaring at the piece of wooden sword in his hand before crushing what was left of it to splinters in his grasp, "Piece of crap. It was only good for one move," In his hands at least.

He didn't normally go slumming like that, but sometimes it was good for the ego to crush someone that far beneath you, to demonstrate to yourself that all of your hard training made you that much better than the billions of regular people all around you.

"How did you do that?"

The urge to scoff at so foolish a question was strong.

"I trained," Hyougo said, as though it were obvious. And to them, it wasn't. As far as they were concerned, they trained. But to Hyougo, it wasn't real training. It was nothing more than a game with rules and limitations, "I put my life at risk every day just to get a step better, because if I'm not improving I'll probably be killed in battle anyway. This is just a way for people like you to play with sticks shaped like swords and make-believe like you're brave, powerful samurai, but for people like me, the only playing we do is playing for blood."

The other two simply stared at Hyougo in a mixture of amazement and terror. He noticed their stares and after a moment of thought, an idea came to mind. If they wanted to be tough guys, perhaps he could throw them a bone in exchange for a service rendered?

"Do you want real strength?" Hyougo asked, "If you want to learn a real technique that would let you beat any other member of this club, I'll need you to do something for me."

"W-What?" The club member still seated on the ground across the room stammered out, "Why would you do that? And what do you want?"

Because they could do something on his behalf that he wouldn't like to be caught doing. Maybe what he had planned for them could help speed things along? Uzumaki wasn't going to put himself in a position to be beaten, and straightforward challenges weren't getting the job done.

"Don't worry. It's nothing difficult. I'll tell you what. We can worry about that after I teach you the technique. Deal?" Hyougo said, much to the delight of the gullible wannabes before him, "…And of course, if we could keep this little discussion of ours from Makoto, that would be great."

"O-Of course."

"Anything you say!"

XxX

(Ninja House – Naruto's Room)

Nice clothes weren't Naruto's thing. He just felt so out of place while wearing them, like he was someone else masquerading as himself. That was fine when he was trying to blend in. Then it was like a game. But in this instance, he was expected to act like everything was fine and he was just going for an outing with friends.

-And not getting a closer look at an enemy and scoping him out to see if he was trying to hurt him through the ruse of a relationship with one of those friends.

Looking at himself in the bedroom mirror, Naruto frowned at the casually dressy way he'd been advised to go with for the evening. All black with a short-sleeve button-up shirt tucked into nice black jeans, "No way," He said, sticking his tongue out at the reflection of himself in distaste. There wasn't a stitch of color he would have liked on him.

"Come on, you look fine," Tenten insisted, kicking her legs behind her lazily as she lied down on Naruto's bed. She had been his consultant on how he should go about dressing for the evening after he was about to leave the house looking like he was heading out to stand in the crowd at a cage fight, "Hey, just listen to me. Remember, you trusted me enough to go to me about this instead of Miu."

There was a reason for that. Tenten was being much more even-keeled about this than Naruto expected Miu to be. He just knew she would have been squealing and fussing about the whole thing the entire time. Plus, whenever he wound up leaving to meet with the others, Miu would have probably tried to follow him.

His friends had a tendency to try and do that. Whenever any of them felt nosy enough about something, it always wound up with them trying to be sneaky about it. Fortunately for Naruto, the ones that weren't ninja-trained were all pretty awful at it by comparison.

"Alright, fine. I get it. You're right," Naruto said, smoothing down his hair only to wince when it bounced back up to its normally spiky shape, "Thanks for helping me make this look legit, by the way. I wouldn't even know how to put a regular date together, let alone a fake double date."

"Don't worry about it," Tenten said, waving off the concern with her good arm, "I live in your house and contribute nothing to the grocery bill. The least I can do is try and make sure you sort of know what you're doing out there," She joked, "So you're really never been on a date before? That's kind of hard to believe."

"Even if I was somehow good with girls, until last year I was trying to fly under the radar and hide who I was," Naruto tried to reason, "The only friend I really had was Kenichi, because he was so normal. Shikamaru counts too, I guess. But he didn't want anything to do with me back then," He explained, "He didn't want anything to do with anyone, really."

"So Shikamaru never went on one either?" Tenten asked with some interest. Of course he hadn't. That much was obvious if Naruto hadn't, "No girlfriend ever, huh?" Her attempt to be sly and inquire on the non-existent love life of her lazier teammate would have been embarrassing had she been speaking with a sharper guy, 'Ugh. Be more obvious that you like Shikamaru next time, why don't you?'

Fortunately, Naruto never picked up on the slight cues that had been presented to him, "All Shikamaru wanted to do was crawl under a rock and stay there forever. I feel bad that I more or less took the choice away from him," He said earnestly, remembering how he'd constantly needled Shikamaru to do what they were trained to do back before he knew the truth of their expulsion, "He had a second chance to stay as far away from ninja stuff and fighting as possible, but he jumped into it to get my back."

"That must mean you're a friend to him," Tenten said, getting up off of the bed to pat her partner on the shoulder, "If it helps, I wouldn't think of getting out of this now either. I used to think I was a failure as a ninja, but now… I dunno. Maybe I can be a good ninja after all?" She finished with a smile.

Naruto squinted at her seriously before shaking his head, "Nope. Good's not good enough," He said, surprising her both with his words and at throwing his arm around her neck in a friendly one-armed hug, "If you're hanging around me, you need to be great. The best. You see, I'm heading to the top. And I'm dragging all of my friends with me, kicking and screaming if I have to," He said, grinning all the while.

It was infectious enough to get to Tenten as well, eliciting a smile out of her, even as she gently elbowed her way free, "Gee, thanks."

XxX

(Undisclosed Location)

Ogata Isshinsai's chief disciple had been defeated by Ryouzanpaku's Strongest Disciple. Ryuuto had been overcome by Kenichi in one-on-one combat. But instead of being angry, he was more excited than anything else. The mystery of what would happen with him next was too intriguing to muddy with such negative emotion.

He found Ryuuto moving around the base, fairly gingerly in his steps. Rimi lagged slightly behind, clearly wishing to help but knowing that it would only get her harshly admonished. Ryuuto's ego had been bruised enough by his loss to Kenichi. Receiving assistance just to get around while he recovered was something that was a bit too far for him.

However, the fact that he was heading to the gym to work out and train was something that could not be overlooked. Ogata was willing to watch his disciples destroy themselves reaching for new plateaus of combat, but to see them stupidly harm themselves because they were too impatient to properly heal… he wouldn't allow such a thing.

"Don't be so quick to get up and return to work," Ogata said, allowing his presence to be felt by Ryuuto and Rimi, "Times like this can be good for you in their own right. Instead of rushing to get back, take a moment to reflect and take inventory."

Ryuuto looked down at the ground, gritting his teeth at being 'advised' to sit down on the sidelines and recover. Ogata's suggestion wasn't much of one. Though veiled in good intentions and caring it seemed to be, there was an underlying

He hadn't been disposed of for his defeat. The influence of Ogata as one of the One Shadow Nine Fists was likely the only thing that kept this from happening, and that was because he was still intriguing, still had uses for Ogata's quest to delve deeper into the dangerous mysteries of martial arts.

The moment Ryuuto became a hindrance on that quest he would no longer be useful. At best, he would be fed to another person who had garnered Ogata's interest. At worst, Yami would have him snuffed out without so much as a fight. They would send someone he could not dream of keeping up with to keep any loose ends from existing.

"You're a man who cares about strength above all else," Ogata said, gently guiding Ryuuto back to an area to rest his body, "You can lose it by overdoing things just as easily as you can gain it, Ryuuto. Don't let a defeat derail all of that promise you've brought out of yourself."

"Ryuuto-sama won't lose twice!" Rimi argued for the sake of her beloved, "He never even got to use the Seidou Gouitsu!"

Ogata's attention turned from Ryuuto to his female student, disappointment clearly radiating in his eyes. It was enough to make the bright, boisterous girl shirk away, "Saying that he lost because he never got to use a particular technique is no excuse. That was entirely in his control," He turned back to Ryuuto, "You didn't take your friend seriously until the very end, didn't you?"

"I failed, Rimi," Ryuuto said, before the girl could risk making their master angry by coming to his defense unasked again, "Me. I made the mistake. Ken-chan found a way to survive and adjusted. I simply didn't adjust quickly enough to keep up with him."

It was a bitter pill to swallow, but he was the one who needed to be carried off of the battlefield. Kenichi was the last man standing out of the two of them. He won. It was as simple as that.

Ogata put his hand on top of Ryuuto's head and pushed it so that he was looking up at him, "Keep your head held high. Fools who think that failure is an inexcusable black mark against a disciple aren't worth considering," He said, taking a direct shot at Yami's policy of punishing YOMI's disciples for losing battles, "Defeat is just another part of martial arts. The ones who die are the ones who fail. As long as you survive and advance you can continue to gain things. You've survived, Ryuuto. Now it's just a matter of seeing what you've gained from it."

Rimi and Ryuuto took that as their cue to leave and continued down the hallway until Ogata's voice reached Rimi's ears again.

"Take care and make sure he rests, then come to me," He ordered, "You and Lugh still have training to do today. If you want to defeat Fuurinji's granddaughter, you'll need more than you have now."

A sharp look came to Rimi's eyes as she processed her master's words and proceeded to do as he commanded. With that conversation done, Ogata continued toward the gym where he could feel an intense Dou ki training inside. Ryuuto clearly wasn't his only student trying to train before their body was ready.

Upon entering, he saw Lugh sitting off to the side, waiting patiently for him to start their training for the day. Ogata walked over to the dark-clad young man and inquired as to what was going on, "Shougo-kun should not be training right now. He shouldn't even be standing up."

Lugh nodded and extended one of his long arms to point in Berserker's direction as the powerhouse disciple continued his Ancient Martial Arts strength exercises, "I said something to him about it already, Kensei-sama. I don't know if he heard me, or if he was just willfully ignoring me, but he's just been plugging away for the last hour."

Ogata sighed and walked over to where Berserker was participating in a full-body tension exercise, using every muscle he had to hold up a collapsing half-structure made heavier by weights behind it. Many of Ancient Martial Arts' exercises were dangerous enough when you were healthy.

With that in mind, Ogata pushed the structure back in Berserker's stead and cleared the weights off of it, much to his chagrin. He walked away without voicing his issues, however.

"It's good to see you up and around again, but you really shouldn't be training," Ogata said smoothly, "Your right knee wasn't the only thing injured in your fight."

Naruto had really been out to stop him, even if it killed him. The two strikes he used to follow up on the debilitating blow that took out the blond juggernaut's leg were aimed at the base of his skull. A forearm and a knee. Had it been a less durable opponent, such as pretty much any other member of YOMI, it would have killed them.

Uzumaki Naruto was absolutely not Katsujinken. Such a move was not part of the life-saving fist in any way, shape, or form.

Berserker ignored him and moved along to find another workout he could do with the use of only one leg. He wasn't going to listen unless Ogata forced him to stop, and he wasn't going to do such a thing. He honestly loved seeing his disciples improve. His little tweaks and adjustments to how they fought were all just little facets of his martial arts experimentation, and successes made him feel giddy.

"Do you think he'll keep getting stronger?" Berserker asked, a strange sense of wonder in his voice, "He beat me. That's never happened before."

A maniacal grin spread across Ogata's face, seeing that he had his most disengaged student's interest, "He most definitely will," The manipulative master said, "That one has a divine spark. I've seen it in his eyes. There's something behind them that he hasn't even begun to tap into yet. If he doesn't die first, who knows how high his ceiling is?"

He was manipulative, but he meant every word he'd said. He believed that Uzumaki Naruto's potential was boundless. All he had to do was survive. A boy like that would never sit still long enough to become complacent ability-wise. Trouble would always follow him, and he would either rise to the occasion, or be killed as a result.

At least now Berserker was taking his training much more seriously. Natural talent could only bring a person so far. Without the drive to improve, something motivating you to put the work in to try and reap the results of it, it was nothing more than going through the motions. You would never see as much of a benefit as you could.

Ogata placed his hands on Berserker's shoulders and looked the young man square in the eyes as he spoke, "Do you understand now, what I've been trying to show you?" He said, "My reality of martial arts. It's not about learning all of the techniques of the world. It's not about displaying dominance as a fighter. To me, martial arts is standing by that darkest abyss, peering inside until your eyes adjust to the darkness and you can see more of the truth. Then you march ever farther inside and do it all over again."

The younger fighter was enthralled by what he was hearing. It sounded dangerous. It put a speck of fear into his heart, something that he was not used to feeling. It made his heart race and his adrenaline pump in barely restrained panic.

A serene smile came to Ogata's face, "Your eyes have adjusted to that part of the abyss, Shougo-kun. And inside, you saw Naruto-kun. Beyond him is more of the mysterious dark. Do you have what it takes to keep going and find out what's beyond?"

Berserker slowly nodded, before shrugging Ogata's hands off of him and returning to his training. He still wasn't going to stop, even if he broke himself trying to improve.

Pleased by having motivated his student in his own way, Ogata stepped away and let him tend to himself, sparing a moment to look back over at Lugh, who was smiling serenely with his eyes closed, 'Traveling farther into that abyss is what marks your progression. And if that's the case, who better to progress through the dark than a man who never stood in the light to begin with?'

XxX

(Shade Alliance Headquarters)

Three of YOMI's top disciples had been soundly defeated, one by Naruto, one by Kenichi, and one by Ma Kensei's daughter Renka of all people.

Radin Tidat Jihan, Enshin Chou, and Kenichi's own childhood friend Asamiya Ryuuto.

Aside from the seven that still remained in-place, as the main students of the top brass from the parent group Yami, there was also the slew of weapons disciples that existed. Fighters just as strong as the unarmed disciples that they had been dealing with, only wielding deadly weapons instead. Every time things seemed to move forward and one roadblock was cast out of the way, more always seemed to take its place.

But as Master Koetsuji would say, such was the path of the martial artist.

Kenichi let out a sigh as he walked through the building of the Shade Alliance. For once he had a day off, as Naruto technically had one due to Shigure still being out on her search for more of her father's forged weaponry, and decided to try and spend it around his group of friends.

It was a good thing he had already decided to show up, because on his way there from Ryouzanpaku he had received a text from Niijima that he wanted to talk to him. Getting that message made him want to turn back around and go home to curl up with a good book instead of getting wrapped up in whatever outrageous issue the conniving teenager had set up for them now.

To his surprise, after reaching what amounted to mission control for the intelligence portion of the Shade Alliance, Kenichi found someone there who wasn't usually around, "Oh, Shikamaru-san. What are you doing here?"

"I'm the reason Niijima called you here," Shikamaru said, standing against a wall with his arms folded. Niijima sat nearby, typing away on the desktop computer in front of him, "I wanted to talk to you, and I didn't have your number, and Naruto's busy, so I couldn't ask him."

"You could have just come to Ryouzanpaku if you wanted to find me," Kenichi reasoned before noticing Shikamaru had let off a shiver at the thought of stepping foot past those gates, "Oh, right. Nevermind."

Shikamaru's memories of that place weren't so great, to say the least. Everyone couldn't be as quick to let certain things go as Naruto was, after all.

Niijima eventually spun around in his chair, a wide, toothy grin on his face, "Our Proxy General brought something important to my attention earlier," The scheming young man said, getting a grunt of annoyance out of Shikamaru at being referred to by that title, but remained silent as he continued, "We don't have a plan for dealing with YOMI."

Kenichi raised an eyebrow in confusion. He couldn't really come up with a plan if he didn't know who he was fighting, and even if he did, he was unfamiliar with most of YOMI's fighting styles, "What do you mean? Do you know who's coming after me or Naruto next?"

He had entirely missed the point, which was what Shikamaru had been afraid of.

"I'm not talking about that," Shikamaru said. As he figured, Kenichi would likely be the hardest sell on what he had in mind, which was why it was important to find a way to reason with him early on, "Look, I don't know about you, but I'm tired of sitting back and watching my friends get attacked. I'm going to talk to everyone about what I want to do, but I wanted to speak to you first," He said, sighing as he knew that this would be the hard part, "I want to launch an attack of our own."

The mixed martial artist's eyes went wide. Shikamaru really only spoke with him before because he was Naruto's friend, and now he was coming to him about something of this nature, "Why me? Why not speak with Naruto-san about this first?"

"In addition to the fact that Naruto has a lot of his own crap piled up on his plate lately, it would just be a waste of time," Shikamaru told Kenichi, a smile coming to his face at the thought of the boisterous way in which Naruto likely would have responded, "All I would have had to say to him was that I want to hit these guys first, and he would have been onboard."

"Naruto-san isn't the kind of person who would go out looking for trouble," Kenichi said quietly. He wanted the issue with YOMI resolved, but wasn't this forcing it? They were part of a gigantic organization with tons of resources and actual world power. They were just a bunch of kids defending themselves, "Haven't things been going fine so far? I mean, yeah, these battles have been intense, but no one was hurt too badly. We've won."

Kenichi didn't know about how badly Tenten had been hurt, just trying to keep a sniper from assassinating Naruto. No one other than Naruto and Shikamaru knew how badly her shoulder had been injured in victory. Kenichi and the rest of the alliance's run-ins with the unarmed group might have been somewhat respectable, but from what the denizens of Ninja House had seen of the armed division, they didn't share the desire for a level playing field. They would kill Naruto and/or Kenichi by any means necessary.

Of course, to let him in on all that he needed to know about the situation, he would have had to tell him that Tenten had killed someone. Maybe someday soon that would fly, but not now.

The fact of the matter was that if they kept waiting in the pocket and fending off attacks, they would lose something significant very soon. Compared to Naruto, Shikamaru didn't match up in strength, but he was a student of war. In the case of a siege, the defenders always suffered worse than the attackers; and the defenders rarely earned what could be considered a victory.

"You would be right about that, my formerly useless friend," Niijima said, slipping next to Kenichi and throwing an arm around him. He let go before Kenichi could throw him violently to the ground, "He doesn't look for fights, but he's also not the kind of person that's just okay sitting back and letting people take shots at him. If you think our favorite ninja isn't fed up with dealing with YOMI on their terms, you're just being delusional."

Shikamaru nodded in agreement. He had heard Naruto gripe before about how it always seemed like they were only being forced into fights enough to know that he'd jump all over the idea to go on the offensive if the situation allowed, "To attack is safer than defend. At least, that's how the saying goes," He said, simplifying the platform of his speech to a fine point.

Kenichi understood where Shikamaru was coming from, but fighting like that just wasn't him. It was like trying to teach a gazelle to eat meat. It was possible, but so extremely difficult and unnatural that it couldn't be seen as a benefit. He was a straightforward, earnest person. Such a thing just wasn't in him.

"If we spring surprise attacks on YOMI, that doesn't make us any better than them," He said, "I want to win, but if I have to throw aside things I believe in to do it, was it really worth it?"

"You'll still be alive. A lot of people, myself included, would say that was worth it," Shikamaru rebutted as he moved past Kenichi and left the room. It was clear that he wasn't going to be supporting the idea of assigned raids and attacks, "Something like this isn't about who's better, or who's right. It's about who's left standing."

Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets and walked up to the modest garden on the roof of the repurposed apartment building to stare out at the nearby structures of the neighborhood. He wasn't a people person. Convincing people to see things his way when logic on its own wasn't strong enough for them to fight their own philosophies.

Why were people so stubborn about things sometimes? He might as well have been asking why he was so lazy. Nobody knew. Convictions were a thing for most people, unfortunately, and most weren't as flexible about them as most shinobi could be.

Besides, there was a value to not being a wishy-washy person in this world.

"If you can't convince him, you won't convince the rest of the captains," Niijima said, having followed Shikamaru up to the roof after he'd left the meeting, "I can blackmail, extort, and trick people into whatever I want. But because of that, I won't ever have them loyal enough to convince them that you're right."

And Shikamaru wasn't really a people person. A lot of them probably barely knew his name.

"Do you think Naruto could convince them?" Niijima offered as a solution.

"…People usually only listen to what Naruto has to say after he punches them in the face," Shikamaru said with a shrug, "Even if he has beaten half of what amounts to the Shade Alliance's captains in the past, things have changed," They were all much stronger now, and if the might-makes-right rule really had been what had gotten Naruto to sway the former members of Ragnarok he'd fought over to his side, that little aspect wouldn't be in play any longer.

Naruto and Kenichi had everyone's respect for different reasons. Naruto had their respect because despite his quirks, he was good at what he did and he got the job done, whatever the job just so happened to be. Kenichi had their respect because he was the epitome of what they figured the Katsujinken philosophy to be. That, added on to the fact that he was either the strongest member of the team, or at least second to Naruto

He hadn't expected things to be easy, but it would have been nice if things didn't have to be so troublesome.

XxX

(That Evening – With Naruto)

Naruto let out a breath into the night air as he stood by a street corner, waiting on his 'date' for the evening. It was fall, but it wasn't particularly cool out yet. It needed to drop a few more degrees for it to be jacket weather for him, yet he had been instructed to bring a jacket that he didn't need.

Tenten had insisted, and had told him that if anything she'd said to do during the night was wrong, he could spend the entire next day bitching at her about anything that she was mistaken on; no interruptions or rebuttals. He readily agreed to the terms, if only for the rare freedom to run his mouth openly without reprisal.

Idly, his hands moved up to fiddle with his goggles that were normally on his head. It just so happened that they weren't on that particular evening; again a judgment call made by the only girl that lived at his home.

If Tenten didn't know what she was doing, and any of this wound up biting him in the backside, Naruto was going to let her have it later. Absolutely no mercy.

Thoughts on creative ways to casually imply that Tenten was wrong in order to antagonize her had to wait however, as he could see Freya coming his way through the small crowd walking along the sidewalk. She was definitely easy to distinguish from a group.

"Kaname-chan!" Naruto greeted, using her real name instead of the alias most others identified her by, "Glad to see you made it!"

Freya had also dressed up differently for the occasion, leaving her home in a white blouse held closed with one button worn over a light-blue dress, and white heeled sandals, "I didn't keep you waiting for too long, did I?"

"Nah," Naruto said, throwing his hands up behind his neck casually as he tried not to make it so evident that he was looking her up and down, "Looks like it was worth it though. You could have taken another hour if this was what I'd get when you got here."

He had no idea how Tenten knew that the first thing Freya would ask would be if she kept him waiting, or why she told him to respond in the way that he did after she said it. He figured saying something like that would get him hit over the head, as openly complementing girls rarely ended well for him, but clearly Tenten knew more about this sort of thing than him, seeing as how it worked.

Damn it. Points to her, then.

Freya smiled back and let out a soft chuckle at Naruto's attempt at flattery, "Well, this is for your friend, to make sure she's safe. But that doesn't mean I can't try and look the part, does it? Shall we go?"

Naruto nodded and offered up an arm for her to take, his body stiffening slightly when Freya actually looped hers through his. That she did such a thing so easily and with no fuss as they walked down the street was surprising. Then again, she did always say that she was more mature than he was. Perhaps the fact that he thought about it and she didn't was just proof.

"So did you have a plan for tonight, or were you just going to wing the whole thing?" Freya asked, wondering just how much of this her date had already mapped out in his head.

"I told Makoto where we were going to have dinner. Then from there… eh, we'll figure something out," Naruto told her, getting an amused shake of the head from her at his attitude of just letting things roll. As they walked, his eyes strayed her way more than once, and he noticed that she was getting looks from quite a few men on the street. But he was the one walking with her, arm-in-arm, "…You really do look good, Kaname-chan."

Freya gracefully took the compliment in stride, "You clean up extremely well yourself," She said nonchalantly, "I don't think you would have had any trouble finding a girl to do this with you if you'd have just asked them."

The encouragement made Naruto feel warm inside, but the intent that lay behind those words made him stop and contemplate what she may have meant, "If I'd have just straight-up asked you, would you have gone?"

He didn't receive an answer.

"I believe that's them," Freya said from her place at Naruto's side. She could see Makoto standing with one of the people that she recognized as a member of YOMI's armed division, "Remember, be calm, be cool. Tonight isn't about a fight."

Naruto knew that. It didn't stop him from wanting to rub Hyougo's face into the concrete, however unhealthy that line of thinking so happened to be. He had to approach this fairly. It was the entire point of this whole thing.

Makoto was a friend. She deserved to be happy. She was happy having a handsome boyfriend who had been good to her so far. Naruto could see it in her face as she looked up at Hyougo before she turned and saw him coming, "Naruto! Hi!"

Naruto waved to her and walked over with Freya, the two of them trying not to regard Hyougo with hostility just yet. It was easy to perk back up and be kind to a girl as sweet as Makoto.

Holding onto Hyougo's hand, Makoto walked up to Naruto with a big smile on her face as she greeted her friend, "This was such a great idea!" She said before taking a moment to regard Freya. She had never seen her around school, or at all, "Your date is so pretty. I didn't know you had it in you, Naruto. Wow," She added with a teasing nudge.

"Thank you. It's nice to meet you," Freya said, "Shall we go inside?" She made certain that Naruto didn't have to say anything to Hyougo so soon. The less chance of them breaking into a deathmatch in the street, the better. For now, at least.

The restaurant was a fairly upscale place with a western menu. As they were seated in a booth, Naruto and Hyougo sat across from each other in aisle seats, subtly glaring each other down as Makoto took to asking Freya whatever she could to sate her curiosity.

"So do you go to a different high school? I've never seen you anywhere around ours."

"I'm actually a first-year college student."

Makoto let out a quiet gasp and grinned at Naruto anew, "Naruto, how did you meet a college student and get her to go out with you?"

"It looks like your friend's trying to be a player and pick up older girls, Makoto-chan," Hyougo chimed in, garnering a giggle of agreement from his girlfriend, "I tip my nonexistent hat to you, sir."

Naruto leaned back in his seat and looked over at Freya with a smug look on his face. Even though he was getting props from his enemy, his ego could still benefit from the compliment. Of course, Freya was not above trying to let out some of the hot air in his head whenever it was necessary.

"I asked him out," The Kugatachi-ryuu Joujutsu fighter stated bluntly, her scarred cheek in her hand, "We're sparring partners, and when this came up I figured, why not? He's good company," Freya eyed Naruto with a teasing smile slowly spreading across her face, "At least, when he's not talking."

"So you know martial arts too?" Makoto said, perking up a bit in interest, "I should have figured. Any friend of Naruto's…" It made sense that his date would be capable of kicking his butt, "What do you practice?"

Freya swirled her straw around her drink and looked out of the window to try and keep from making eye contact, "I'm trained in staff techniques," To say the very least. It wouldn't do any good to explain what she could do in length. Fortunately, she was saved from having to go into detail by the arrival of their food, "Oh, this all looks great."

As the food was passed out, Naruto looked down at everyone's entrée and noticed something extremely important. Hyougo's knife was nowhere to be seen on the table.

Before he could start cutting into his meal, Naruto shifted his knife hand underneath the table to block a stab aimed at either his stomach or his groin. He sorely hoped that it was not the latter, but if it came to any kind of knife fight, Naruto wasn't the one who was going to be afraid to take on the challenge.

Both combatants kept a straight face despite the possibly lethal fight going on just out of sight.

The soft clinking of cutlery clashing under the table in a deadly conflict was drowned out by the sound of restaurant music, customer chatter, and the conversation between Makoto and Freya.

'This guy's really good,' Naruto thought to himself, a slight sweat coming to his hairline as he parried and retaliated with cuts and stabs, 'I can't gain any kind of ground here.'

Hyougo was dominating the spacing of the fight, as most of it was taking place on Naruto's side of the table. His movements were faster, and it took every bit of training and danger awareness through Sakki for Naruto to keep him at bay.

With one free hand, Naruto and Hyougo tried to pretend that they were having a regular meal at the same time; eating and drinking, smiling and laughing, all the while trying to fatally stab each other.

Naruto only had one move left available to him, lest he wind up with a severe wound or worse as a result of a defeat.

At the same time that Hyougo was able to force Naruto's fork up into the bottom of the table, Naruto was able to knock Hyougo's knife to the floor. The sudden clatter pulled Freya and Makoto's attention over to the two of them. Hyougo bent down and picked up his utensil, "Whoops. Butterfingers over here."

Freya looked at Naruto's open utensil napkin and saw his own lack of a knife, "…Naruto, where's your knife?" She asked suspiciously.

He didn't want to let the cat out of the bag in front of Makoto so soon. He'd come on this date to see if Hyougo was a danger to her. They already knew that he was a danger to Naruto. Thus, Hyougo's trying to kill him at the table wasn't a big deal.

He'd honestly been surprised that it had taken all of thirty minutes into the double-date for it to happen.

"Uh… I never got a knife with my silverware, I guess," Naruto lied, "No big deal."

Either way, this was going to be a long night.

And that's chapter. It's date time! Hooray! The stars are aligned, there's romance in the air… maybe. There's also the potential for melee-based violence in the air.

Shikamaru is tired of waiting in the cut and watching the people around him get put in danger. He's not a man of action, he's a man of consideration, and he's considering how he's going to convince the others that launching a strike of their own is a prudent option. He has good intentions, but his moral code doesn't line up with anyone else's. The consequences of a vastly different upbringing in the world of martial arts.

Alright guys, I hope you enjoyed. I'm done for now.

Kenchi out.