Disclaimer: See previous chapters
LeCrazyWaffle - And now we're bringing more
SHADOW FLAMETHROWER - Pretty much.
SulliMike23 - Heheh, funny thing...
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"Grahh!"
With a frustrated groan, Natruo plopped back from his meditated seating, his hands flailing back into the sand of the beach that both he and Liu Kang were sitting on. It was the afternoon of the next day and the Shaolin monk didn't waste any time in teaching the two as he began early in the morning. Initially, it was similar to what Kakashi was teaching them, relaxing their minds in order to sense the sensation of the violent intent in the air. What made it different was that Liu Kang was telling them to learn about the violent intent within themselves.
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"Within us?"
"In each of us, there burns the fury of a warrior. In every generation, a few are chosen to prove it. This is the one of the only elements of the tournament that has remained unchanged."
"Yeah, okay. But how does that help?"
"Because part of the reason for the aggression you feel is because of that fury. Shang Tsung can only manipulate you if you let him. Being aware of his machinations is only part of the solution. To stop him fully and harness your strength fully for the tournament, you have to learn how to channel your soul."
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For her part, Sakura seemed to be learning how to follow through. Her experience, while upsetting, helped her to get a sense of it within her. Liu Kang was quite impressed at how quickly she was able to pick up on his instruction. It was clear that she was academically smart and knew how to put what she learned into practical use quickly, progressing well ahead of what Liu Kang would have thought. 'A worthy student…' he mused.
The same couldn't be said of Naruto's progress unfortunately…
In all honesty, it wasn't his fault. While this wasn't his strong suit (he said so himself), Naruto didn't let that stop him from trying and continued to work on the meditation exercise. Liu Kang found himself admiring his determination. But it seemed like at the points where he would start to show progress, his concentration would break. 'Likely by the beast's power...' Still, Naruto didn't give up and would try again and again, trying to force his mind to focus and work on what Liu Kang had said (even if it did still confuse him a bit).
"I had it! I almost had it!"
"Yes, you did." Closing his eyes, Liu Kang encouraged. "Try it again."
Pushing himself upright, Naruto positioned himself to go again, but paused to ask. "But…how can this help when I start fighting? It's hard enough to control this sitting still."
"It's not about control, at least not completely. It's about accepting."
Naruto blinked in askance and the Shaolin monk opened his eyes. "That fury; that aggression, is as a part of you, just as the beast, -the Kyuubi- inside you is a part of you. You have to accept both first."
"Accepting…?"
"It may manifest itself in your anger, but you have to remember it is still your anger, not the Kyuubi's." Liu Kang explained. "You must accept it. Accept everything, good or bad. This extends beyond this tournament. It is a way of life."
Naruto mulled silently over his words, finding some truth within them. His thoughts drifted to his days before entering the academy, when he was alone and treated with scorn from the other villagers. He had never understood why he was treated that way and initially, he felt nothing but hatred. Only his dream to become Hokage and his friendship with Iruka, and later on many others, that kept him from not only from delving further into his hatred, but also allowed him to gain a more positive outlook on life, developing an unrelenting sense of determination.
"Wow. You kind of sound like Kakashi-sensei."
Liu Kang raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"Kind of like the times when he always taught us to see underneath the underneath."
The Shaolin monk quietly listened as Naruto went on into ramble-mode, relating to him the story of the first bell test with Sakura and Sasuke and how they had passed when they learned about the value of teamwork. It reminded Liu Kang of his own training, both in the Shaolin temple and within the White Lotus Society beforehand. Lessons weren't always straightforward and much of what was learned, students had to figure out on their own, a fact he related to Naruto.
"You'd think they'd just tell us from the beginning and save us some trouble."
Liu Kang shrugged. "Probably. But we both know it's better to learn it on our own, even if it is frustrating."
"I guess." Looking about, Naruto then frowned. "Hey, Sakura didn't come back yet?
Earlier, Sakura had wanted to take a break from the training and had gone on a walk, telling them that she would be back in a minute. Needless to say, it has been a bit longer than a minute.
"Not that I've noticed, no."
The jinchuuriki's frown deepened in his attempt not to worry about her. After all, Sakura was strong enough to take care of herself. But then again, with the way this tournament was going and the fact that they still haven't seen or heard from Kakashi, his attempts at not worrying were quickly shot down.
So he worried…
Flipping back, Sub-Zero narrowed his eyes as his opponent rushed at him in a feral dash of fury, murder clear in his eyes for the injury the Lin Kuei had given him. Sub-Zero could see that; in fact, he felt it. Like almost everyone else in the tournament, he sensed and was affected the violent intent in the air. Unlike everyone else, he wasn't turned into a berserker because of it. But it wasn't because he quelled the intent. He didn't have to.
He already intended to kill his opponents…
As a member of the Lin Kuei, Sub-Zero was taught to kill and there was no hesitation in him not to do so. He just didn't turn into berserkers like the rest. Case in point, his current opponent, a fighter of reasonable skills, yet, due to the violent intent, his attacks were somewhat predictable; predictable enough for Sub-Zero to stop him short with a well-timed ice blast, leaving him momentarily frozen and at his mercy.
Or rather, lack of mercy…
Tightening his fist, the Lin Kuei smashed the back of it into his opponent's face, breaking him out of the ice, but also breaking his nose in the process as well causing him to stagger back. His opponent daze, Sub-Zero moved quickly, his fingers freezing white as he reached for the back of his opponent's neck and his fingers flash-froze the contacting flesh. But not stopping there, Sub-Zero dug into opponent's neck, grabbed hold of the vertebra, and with a swift backward jerk, snapped off the entire head from the body, taking a large of the vertebra with it
"Sub-Zero wins! FATALITY!"
The headless body slumped to the ground as Sub-Zero briefly held up the head and dangling backbone in the air in victory, with his victim's face frozen of complete shock. 'This is what it means to be Lin Kuei' he thought, his mind drifting briefly to the last time he had executed a foe in such a manner.
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His mission in the temple had now reached its end as Sub-Zero stood in the chamber where the targeted scroll was held and was now stationed before him. He had to go through various challenges and traps the temple possessed to reach this point, but it had been done, as expected of a warrior of his caliber. Now all that was left was to obtain the prize and bring it to the Grandmaster.
Swooooo!
Nothing short of battle trained instincts caused the ice warrior to dodge the flying point of the wired kunai that came seemingly out of nowhere and toward his head. Rolling over the ground, Sub-Zero rose to face his attacker; a ninja dressed in similar garbs as he, but yellow in color, a visual insult to the Lin Kuei. That and the use of his weapons told Sub-Zero all he knew about who he was facing.
From the rival clan of the Shinrai-Ryu; Scorpion…
The battle that commenced between the two erupted quickly and fiercely. Both kombatants were one of the best of their respective clans and as such, were equally proficient and deadly in their arts. Blows were exchanged and wounds were inflicted. But in the end, and under the narrowest of margins, Sub-Zero managed to freeze his opponent just before another kunai stabbed itself into his shoulder. Considering that it had been aimed at his heart instead, the Lin Kuei considered himself more than lucky.
He didn't give his frozen opponent the same chance as he mercilessly tore his head off…
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Lowering and then ultimately dropping the severed head along with the rest of the corpse, Sub-Zero walked out of the battlefield, but not before noticing a glimpse of yellow in the distant treeland. The yellow disappeared, but it didn't matter. Sub-Zero had already heard word of a yellow-clad ninja in the tournament. Though it seemed impossible that it could be someone of the Shinrai-Ryu clan (they had all been killed off), there was always the possibility of a survivor (as unlikely as that seemed).
Whether it was a survivor or not made no difference to Sub-Zero. If this really was a survivor of that fallen clan looking for vengeance, then so be it. Sub-Zero would have no difficulty sending him to meet the rest of his clan in the Netherrealm. He had a mission to complete and nothing would get in the way of it. He was Lin Kuei.
Failure was not tolerated…
'Just breathe.'
Watching his opponent stand there dazedly, Tobias stood posed, ready to finish him off. But rather than doing so, he took a step back and then another, never lowering his stance or guard in case his opponent tried something. But that didn't happen and his opponent slumped to the ground, unconscious.
"Tobias wins!"
Letting out another calming breath, the young man lowered his arms and strode out of the arena. It had been a hectic couple of days to say the least. After that first day of the tournament, everything escalated. His fights became more difficult, the opponents became more viscous, even he was starting to behave a bit differently. He never had to fight so hard before in his life.
But then again, that was the point of this tournament, to deal with the foes within as well as on the outside. It took him a bit to realize that factor. Actually, it took nearly splitting a previous opponent in half to see that. It took a lot for him, but he learned that how to take a step back when he saw victory. That in itself was hard as there were red-vision moments where he believed victory meant ending the opponent for good.
It was a good thing he trained for this…
As he made his way to his camp, Tobias briefly wondered about the other fighters and how they were faring in it. Specifically, he thought about the two Konoha shinobi that he had met on the first day here. Even though the tournament was rough and he hadn't seen them around, he felt fairly certain that they were still alive and fighting. If the confidence that Naruto displayed was any indication, then most definitely.
Perhaps he would face him in the finals after all…
'Just a little tournament', I said. 'Good for the career', I said. Yeah, right.'
To say that this tournament was nothing like what Cage expected would be a supreme understatement. Not just for the fact that his opponents would more than likely be trying to kill him, but also that he felt that feral urge himself. And he felt that was just the beginning. He was in hostile territory, completely unprepared, and surrounded by people that probably wanted to kick his butt. 'It's like being back in high school!'
He could only wonder what his producers would think about this…
In all honesty though, his producers had been against his participation in the tournament from the beginning. But that was largely because of worry of appearances and other lame Hollywood excuses. And then there was the no-so-lame answer of the fact that nobody had ever heard of the Mortal Kombat tournament. It could have been a fake, or an excuse for the paparazzi to get their quota of photographs. But something told him that there was something special about this tournament. He didn't know what it was, but he felt it in his gut. And that wasn't something he ignored.
No sense in backing down now…
Finishing the nursing of his wound, Cage rose up from his seat a distance away from the arena he had fought in. A brief glance over at the arena gave him a glimpse of the blond haired beauty of a woman who spoke to him after the match. He hadn't said much to her then, but he would make it a point to speak with her again as she seemed to know a bit more about what was going on here.
Plus, she was easy on the eyes…
Following the shadow monk to the next match location, Sakura geared her thoughts for the coming fight, all the while mentally cursing the situation. She was just taking a brief walk to relax from the meditation training Liu Kang was giving them when a shadow monk approached her, informing her of her next match. Initially, she had thought to inform Naruto, but decided against it. He was working so hard to quell the violent intent that she didn't want to disrupt his efforts. Telling him about her match would only cause him to stop and watch her, and she didn't want that. As it stood, he needed the teaching more than she did. She just had to hope that what she had learned so far would be enough to help her stay focused enough to deal with her next opponent.
The monk led her toward the palace and moved around the side to a great open courtyard. It seemed a bit bare and weathered, but it still a grand sight to take. The shadow monk had stopped so it was clear that this was to be her battleground, but her opponent had yet to arrive. Sakura used this moment to take a covert look over her surroundings, looking for anything she could use as an advantage in the ensuing fight. Hopefully, she won't become too riled up to the point where she would forget what she learned from Liu Kang and if there was a quick way to end the match through the terrain, she would take it.
That thought died as soon as she saw her opponent…
Her shocked eyes were frozen in place as she watched Sasuke came up from the opposite side of the courtyard, led by a shadow monk. His dark eyes gazed up at her, but if he was surprised, he didn't show it. If anything, his gaze seemed to have gotten colder upon seeing her. She should have expected this as a possibility; she had expected this as a possibility. But until now, it had seemed a remote possibility.
And here it was; a possibility that was now a reality…
To make matters worse, without Kakashi or Naruto in her corner for support, she was virtually on her own in this fight. She started to regret not asking Naruto to join her, but remembered why she didn't do so in the first place. Naruto needed that training if he was to progress in the tournament. That was more important than finding Sasuke.
So she would do this on her own…
This was what she had trained for all those years since he left, to be strong enough to bring Sasuke back. And now was her chance to do so. Her eyes closed and opened in a slow blink, replacing her shock with determination as she half-glared at her former teammate, tightening the gloves on her hands as she did so. If there was anything she learned, is that words alone would not get through to Sasuke. His fights with Naruto showed that much. He had always been stubborn that way.
That was fine with her. She could match that stubbornness as well.
She lifted her fists into fighting stance while he remained in a relaxed pose. She supposed she was a bit annoyed by that. If he didn't take this seriously, she was going to make him pay for it. But again, that thought was squashed when the monk declared the start of the match and Sasuke disappeared from her vision. She didn't have to turn to know that he was right behind her, his voice a silent whisper in her ear.
"In the way again…. Annoying…"