Disclaimer: I don't own CCS or anything else in this story that relates to the series, but I have cookies!

A/N: I know, I know, I procrastinated again, but between my rekindled passion for online rpgs and school summatives at the end of the semester, I barely have enough time to sleep and eat… I'll try to remember to do the review responses at the end of the next chapter (I'm updating two chapters at once to make amends) but if I don't, don't think of it as me ignoring you guys. Actually I wanted to update this one first because of all the new reviews I got but the temptation of watching Dude Where's My Car proved too much for me yesterday, without further waiting, we will continue…

Black Eye Of The Tao Abyss

Chapter Nine:

In Love With A Four Year Old?

Sakura quickly jumped up from the person below her to see a familiar masked face staring at her. It took a mere second, but Asura abruptly but somehow gracefully stood up and offered what seemed to be a curious look before wiping out any emotion from his eyes. (It wasn't going to by Asura who bumped into her, but I guess it's better than what I thought of before… even though it's a bit over done.) "You should be careful about where you go, especially in times like these." He said about to turn away and leave a flushed Sakura.

Before he did though, what appeared to be a fastball of brown hair bumped into Asura's legs and caused him to look down. "Su-Su!" it exclaimed. Sakura bent down and realized it was a little boy with surprisingly similar features to Syaoran, just more like… a chibi version. He clung onto Asura's pants before turning to look at Sakura. "Who pretty lady?" he asked, seeming unable to say a full sentence and looking back up at the older man. Asura looked at Sakura, asking her silently to introduce herself.

Sakura, flustered at being so openly called a "pretty lady" and the intensity of Asura's eyes gazing at her, stammered and muttered a soft "Sakura". Noticing that the little boy did not seem to hear her, she knelt down eye level to him and said, "My name is Sakura, what's your name?" "Sa-ku-ra?" the little Syaoran asked before answering her question. "My name is Taroh." Saying the last word in a singsong voice before trying to say her name again. "Sa-… Sa… Sa-Sa!" He cried out delightfully seemingly giving up trying to pronounce Sakura's full name.

She couldn't help but giggle at Taroh's antics before voicing her newest thought. "Is that why you call Asura Su-Su?" failing to hide the amusement in her voice. She noticed Asura looking at her, wondering what she was getting at. "Yup!" the little boy answered. "I have all sorts of other names for my brother too, wanna hear some?" So he's Asura's brother. She though, before agreeing. "I call him Su-Su, Ra-Ra (Sakura can just guess what's coming up next) and my favorite ASS-"

"That's quite enough." The commanding voice of Asura said, as serious as ever. Sakura wasn't fooled though, it was obvious that he was very fond of his younger brother and this amused him more than anything else. Through another fit of giggles, Taroh stuck out his tongue at his older brother. Sighing, Asura put his hands into the breast pocket of his uniform and gave Taroh what seemed to be bubblegum.

The little boy squealed with delight and took the candy into his mouth without hesitating. After a few content chews of the gum, Taroh appeared to try and say something but couldn't open his mouth and a look of childish anger appeared on his face. "Oh shush, you know you like it." Asura said once more turning to walk away. "What did you do to him?" Sakura asked, she didn't like seeing small children uncomfortable. "It's an extra sticky gum that keeps his mouth shut, my personal invention, loaded with sugar to keep him content. Now I bid you goodbye and good luck on the tournament Ms. Sakura." With that, Asura left with Taroh trailing after him waving Sakura goodbye.

Taking a deep breath, Sakura finally remembered the reason she was running in the first place. She looked around for the green stone but couldn't find it anywhere. Fighting back a great rush of despair, she tried to use her own piece to detect Syaoran's stone. It appeared to lead her back the way she came from and she was met with her friends who were looking into the center of a crowd. "What's going on?" She asked, keeping her cool. Meilin remained strangely silent as she slouched off towards to a group of girls who Sakura recognized as Syaoran's sisters. Tomoyo and Eriol heard her though and explained the situation…

SCENE CHANGE

"You think you're hot stuff taking down the imperials, but I know you're just a faker, I bet you're weaker than that kid behind you." A tall, green haired boy retorted, pointing at the cowering form of Taroh. "If you're so great, then beat me, right now. Let's see how you fair against a real magician."

Asura raised an eyebrow behind his mask at the ignorance of this kid. While around the same age, he could tell that this kid, Zanki, was really immature for his age.

"Step aside, I have matters to attend to, you have no idea what you're asking for. You don't know anything about me and I know everything about you, so I suggest you leave. This is your final warning, and leave my brother out of this."

"All talk! That's what you are. Come on, if you're so great and all-knowing, then tell me all about me." Zanki snapped, radiating with confidence. He wasn't really ready for the response though as the apprentice began to tell him and the audience all about Zanki Goreus. "Your name is Zanki Goreus. You are age 16, birthday June 6th. You are an expert level Rune Craft user, advanced level shaman, and master level necromancer. You deck is built for endurance over long periods of time. You usually start with 'Undead Call' to summon an undead warrior each turn followed by 'Soul Unity' to place a soul into an undead each turn while the same action increases your magic level. The normal last card for your combo is 'Rune Armory' sacrificing one undead warrior with a soul to equip another into full runite armor and weapons, all the while these sacrifices continue to heal and empower you. Shall I continue?"

Everyone looked at the green haired boy to see his face red with anger. "You cheat! Stop the talk and let's see you actually beat me!" Seeing Asura accept the challenge, he calmed a little. 'I can't use my favourite combo, but I can still beat him' he thought to himself. "I shall pick the terms that we will be battling on." He continued when he saw the apprentice nod. "Unlimited cards, unlimited time, three cards per turn, first turn attack, field… graveyard, victory only in the other's total defeat, edge of death."

As soon as the words were said, the area around them turned into a pitch-black graveyard, the rest of the people sitting on bleachers that were magically provided as if this was a morbid football game. Those who didn't want to watch were instantly teleported away though. "Allow me to start," Zanki said with a snicker, drawing three cards from his deck. (A/N: I'm going to hurry this battle up a bit, hope that's ok.)

The first card was the Undead Call that was mentioned before. Next, Zanki used a Multi-Turn card. Every time Zanki was to sacrifice a creature at his disposal, he gets two new turns but not able to use any new cards. This allowed a constant generation of zombies. The last card was Undead Armory, at the cost of not using a new card per turn; he may equip an undead creature with black rune armor and weapons. Within ten minutes, Zanki had an ever-growing army of the undead.

At the crowd, the tension was beginning to show as people began to wonder how the great apprentice was to survive this one. There was attack first turn called, meaning that Zanki can just keep on bombarding Asura without him even having his first turn. A cruel, icy laugh rang throughout the arena as Zanki ordered his first attacks. Thousands upon thousands of zombies, skeletons, and those alike charged at Asura, who didn't move an inch. As soon as a black rune blade even came close to touching Asura, a new magical barrier that he erected in an instant repelled the entire army.

That wasn't all, for as each undead was turned into ashes, Zanki cried out in pain, not able to stand without hurting himself. He stared at Asura with blood shot eyes but said nothing as he ended his turn after making sure that he had at least a million fiends to defend him. 'Next turn, he's dead' Zanki thought, as he awaited Asura's move.

Before Asura did, though, he said only one word that made Zanki's blood boil to new limits. "Cheap." It was now Asura's turn and he was going to show this kid what actual power was. Everyone watched in awe and three golden cards appeared into his hand, radiating great amounts of magical energy and generating a great light.

"Fist Of Grigore!" A great titanic form shining with a silver light was raised above everyone and everything. It was rather obvious that the form was an image of Grigore himself, bounded with a multitude of chains. In one gigantic and forceful punch, each and every zombie was shattered, making Zanki's face look paler than ever. "Choice of Torntaka!" Five portals appeared, each a different colour, taking the pigment of the element that they each corresponded to. Then, a midnight blue dragon emerged out of one of the five. It size gave the image of Grigore a run for its money. Instead of the normal talons and wings like many other dragons, this one took more of the "Loch Ness" monster shape, with various fins on its body. It roared a magnificent battle cry and a blue moon rose in the background. Soon, great tumults of oceanic waves could be heard as a tidal wave crushed everything in its path towards Zanki. Each and every card that he had out was obliterated into nothingness. "Judgment of Zent!" The ancient yin-yang sign appeared and encircled Zanki with him in the middle. Then the two halves of the sign split, causing him to scream in pain, but the attack was nowhere near ending.

In a flash, Asura was right next to Zanki, his other two cards obediently behind him. "Give up," he said, not in any satisfied way, more like in sympathy. A tear stained Zanki silently nodded his head in defeat and everyone was returned to the main lobby.

When they got back, Zanki was in the fetal position, whimpering to himself. 'Perhaps I over did it?' Asura asked himself, but shrugged it off. "Come, Taroh, we're late." He commanded softly, as he headed for the doorway that was blocked from him before. Taroh followed nonchalantly.

SCENECHANGE

When the fight was over, Sakura was in awe at what Asura had done. Zanki was definitely strong, but he didn't even faze Asura. She would definitely have to be careful of him. But back to the task at hand now… A familiar green glow caught Sakura's eye as Asura and Taroh moved through the door.

She gasped as Syaoran's piece of the Lover's Stone stuck out of Taroh's back pocket. Did the little child steal it when she wasn't looking? No. That can't be it. There were no logical explanations that she could think of. There was really only one way to find out, and that's to go and find them.

Before she could though, she was snapped out of her thoughts by Tomoyo's voice. "Tao" she stated icily, and Sakura followed her gaze to see Tao coming towards them. She suddenly realized her friends and Syaoran's sisters were all around her. What was going on?

"I come in peace." He said, in his usual passive and light voice. "You look well Sakura." Sakura, Eriol and Tomoyo took semi-defensive stances while Meilin and the Li's only looked at him coolly, no worry on their faces at all. Turning his attention to Meilin and the others of their family, he spoke grimly. "You saw it too didn't you." Meilin nodded, followed with agreements from the sisters. "That's what I thought, I would be careful if I were you Sakura, Meilin, and the rest of you. Our little wolf has grown fangs." He ended with a slight smirk and started to retreat away. What was that about? She wondered, Eriol and Tomoyo looked confused. It was obvious it had something to do with Syaoran, but the only thing that gave her any clue about what was going on was Meilin's gloom expression…

Ok, I'm done for now, I'll be back to write the next chapter after dinner, and then I'm going to post it. I'll try to remember responses to reviews. You guys are the best. Can anyone guess what Tao was talking about? What about why the stone is with Taroh? Review with your guesses before you read the next chapter… but the answers may not be in the next chapter. On well… bye! See you guys later.

U-T Signing off…