The Newest Challenger

by Kenchi618

No way home? Maybe so. But one Uzumaki Naruto doesn't believe that. This world is strange, filled with interesting people and things, but no matter where you are one thing never changes; with a strong will anything is possible. A few clones never hurt either.

39. Hiding in Plain Sight

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Street Fighter. You have until December 25th, Christmas to procure the rights to one of these things for me… if there is indeed a Santa Claus that is.

You're on the clock holmes.

Chapter 39: Hiding in Plain Sight

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The lifestyle of a ninja, roving martial artist, or general travelling warrior is charmingly ridiculous.

For example, one could go all the way to the final round of a heavily promoted, worldwide sponsored tournament, fight their heart out against their greatest frienemy, forget everything that transpired in the final moments of the battle, and wake up in the back of a piece of crap rental car with the press and fans mobbing your car at stoplights to try and get a word from you.

You're on a cloud, or maybe that's the endorphins from the amount of sheer agony your body is supposed to be in. For the record this is the charming portion of the explanation. The ridiculous part is yet to come.

Then the press leaves and the fans are gone, because word broke about Sagat's death and the whole country is in mourning. And you realize that the fact that there's no ambulance for you is making your trip to the hospital the most painful and miserable ride of your life. And you're going to miss your flight home out of Bangkok. And you left most of your money and gear in the temple that fell apart during your fight. And you've now got to find a new way home where by the time you get there the novelty of your awesome achievement will have worn off.

Let it be known that Aohura City, Japan with all of its weirdness was a very 'what have you done for me lately' kind of town. It had to be in order to adjust to all of the crazy things that happened there.

All of that, and not a yen's worth of prize money gained in his name.

Even with all of that, Uzumaki Naruto took it in stride, and within a matter of four weeks after his return life fell back into its normal paces. Normal by his standards and the standards of the extraordinary people that surrounded his life at least.

'Normal' meant that he was back in school for most days, which leads to his current situation.

"How do you not know if you won or not?"

"Leave it alone man."

"No, really teme, I want to know."

"Batsu. I got picked out of a crater that I can't remember how I even made, or if I even made it."

Back in his normal life the hero can be found, fresh out of school for the day, hanging out with Batsu because the latter was bored.

"You healed up pretty nicely from that by the way." Batsu pointed out as he sat in the driver's seat of his jeep with Naruto lazing about in the back, "What about ol' what's-his-face, Sasuke?"

"He's running that Genhanten restaurant on the other side of town again." Naruto said, wishing that it wasn't too cold out for Batsu to have his ragtop down. He really wanted to look at the sky. Southern Japan's mild winters sucked, "He doesn't know what happened either. That or he knows he lost and he's covering it up, but that's not really him. If I'd have won he'd have said so."

Yeah he would have, and Batsu could acknowledge that. Whereas Naruto and Batsu were legitimate friends based off of similarities and camaraderie forged in the days when there were tons of kidnappings of middle and high school kids in the city, Naruto and Sasuke had some kind of weird begrudging respect based on mutual hatred that had been established years before Batsu, Sakura, or any of them had ever met Naruto.

In other words, Naruto and Sasuke knew each other like they were close friends, but they really just wanted to punch the other in the face. There were times when Naruto and Batsu wanted to violently maul each other, but never to such an extreme that it was a detriment to their hanging out.

"Where's your class school trip before summer vacation going?" Batsu inquired to spark some idle conversation. Naruto was probably getting the feedback from the clones he'd sent out to do odd jobs while he'd been at home training, "We're going to Okinawa. It's gonna be awesome."

"Lucky bastard." Naruto replied, wondering why Batsu was even asking that question. It was the middle of January. Why was he talking about the summer? "We don't know where we're going yet. We won't know for sure until a few weeks before Golden Week. I might just skip it like I do every year."

"Pssht. Lame." Batsu openly lambasted Naruto while turning the wheel to take a corner, "I can't think of anything better than hanging out with Hina-chan on the beach for a few days."

In return, Naruto just sat up and deadpanned into the rearview mirror that he knew Batsu could see him through, "I just came back from Thailand, where I destroyed most of a temple and had a chance to win a world-recognized tournament. I'm looking forward to hearing your next travelling story that I'm not involved in."

"Yeah, but while you were in Thailand you didn't see scantily clad boobs." Batsu pointed out smugly, "Unlike you, I will be seeing boobs, and probably touching them depending on the nature of the rooms we get." He waited for a heated response, but received none in return, "…No rebuttal bud?"

"No. What do you want me to say?"

And Batsu immediately slammed on the brakes, traffic be damned. That was a big red flag there! Naruto always had something to say, especially when someone was obviously messing with him, and always whenever someone brought up something sex-related to make fun of him.

Fortunately, Batsu had the intelligence to quickly pull off into a parking spot where he immediately turned the car off and turned around in his seat. It was better than remaining stopped in the road.

"What did you do when you were gone?" He immediately began grilling Naruto to find out what the disturbance of the force was that had caused such a thing to occur, "You were supposed to freak out and verbally snap on me, not turtle up. Now eye contact!"

"What?"

"Eye! Contact!"

At Batsu's rather forceful behest, Naruto did as he asked and gave him eye contact. All the while Batsu was backtracking through their conversation while searching Naruto's soul for what set him off. Needless to say it didn't take long, "You saw a girl naked. Don't you lie to me boy."

"So what if I did? I live with an immodest girl." Naruto said with a scoff trying to blow it all off, "You know I've seen Cam naked before." Hell, Batsu had seen Cam topless before. Inside of Naruto's apartment as a matter of fact.

"No one said anything about Cammy." Batsu pointed out while continuing to search Naruto's eyes, "You didn't." He finally said before a grin slowly broke out across his face, "You did. Why Naruto, I do believe you've taken it upon yourself to make Cammy a woman."

"You want me to be all timid about it?" Naruto's cheeks blazed red for a moment, grateful that they were the only two having that conversation at the moment, "Honestly… I'm just grateful that you didn't turn that around and make a joke about Cam making me a man."

Now that caught Batsu off-guard as well. Naruto was actually admitting it without a fight of denial. Well that kept it from being as fun as it should have been for him, "Either way, bravo. Took you long enough too. But the girls are going to go on the warpath when they find out you're dating Cammy."

Naruto had to palm his face and smooth his hair back to settle down, "I'm not dating Cam."

"Huh?"

"Cammy doesn't even know what dating is about." Naruto said, leaning his head back in his seat with a sigh, "She just didn't want to be alone that night. We were both hurt, tired, messed up in the head, and one thing led to another."

Batsu just stared long and hard at him before shrugging and starting the car once more, "Alright, I understand."

"You do?"

"Yeah. Cammy might like the rest of us, but she has complete trust in you." The car was directed out of the parking lot at Batsu's behest, "Getting her body taken over the way you guys told us hers was would have had to have freaked her out." Everyone felt vulnerable sometime, even if someone like Cammy didn't show it very well, "You comforted her. It just so happens that you did it the fun way."

Yes. It was extremely fun. It was almost worth getting next to no sleep and getting nearly torched by his opponents countless times in the next two rounds the next day.

Batsu understood completely. That still didn't stop him from reaching back and thumping Naruto on the forehead with one of his knuckles, "Oi! What was that for? You said you understood!"

"I do." Batsu said, not phased at all from feeling the need to hit Naruto, "But you need to understand. You've got to date one of these girls, if only to give it a shot. The only reason I can think of as to why you haven't yet is the same conclusion I keep coming back to."

"And that would be?"

"Sakura."

And just like that, Naruto let out a loud and annoyed groan, "Let it go. You've been barking up that tree for two years. Let it die already!"

"I can't let it die, because I really can't think of anything else!" Batsu complained, "I've wracked my brain, and I can't think of any other reason as to why you keep trying to sabotage a relationship with the girls you know. Ibuki is cute, and everyone can see she's into you. Karin is scary, but she's hot, and you know full well she digs you too."

Naruto was not daft. Not that daft anyway. He'd spent more than enough time around women his age to know better than to assume that they didn't feel something for him. He'd known better, ever since he'd had that date with Ibuki a while back and since he'd spent that time with her in her village while he'd been healing after waking up from the run-in with Akuma. He'd known better since the final battle against Mad Gear and what had occurred with Karin. He'd even had a date or two with her as well.

And then there was Cammy. She might have been the one with whom the relationship had gotten a touch 'physical', but Cammy's own mind was still a haze of mystery and confusion. The only thing that was certain for sure though was that she saw Naruto as important enough to give herself to. In Naruto's own words in the not-too-distant past, trying to mess around with one of the Dolls would probably get your junk ripped off.

But he just would not make a move. It was maddening for the people that surrounded him and could point this out. The adults in their lives such as E. Honda or Chun-Li were well aware of this also to a certain extent.

"Your point?" Naruto slapped Batsu in the back of the head for bringing this up, but it did not deter his senior of sorts.

"I'm making it." He replied as he shook his spiky black head after the slap, "Then there's the weird shit with you and Sakura and how you both keep dancing around each other. You've got commitment issues for some reason brother. What's up in that head of yours?"

Sakura was his true best friend. It was kind of surprising to think that Naruto hadn't told even her about what he'd done with Cammy. They already talked about everything else anyway and there probably wasn't anyone else in the world that knew more about one of them than the other.

Really, if one didn't know better at first glance one would believe that Naruto and Sakura were on the verge of establishing something intimate. But they'd been barking up that tree for years and to no avail apparently as nothing seemed to move forward with them.

Batsu couldn't put his finger on what it was. It wasn't the whole aspect of Naruto being awkward with the idea of having a relationship with a friend, because when Batsu had first divulged that he'd wound up with close friend and former comrade Wakaba Hinata, Naruto did nothing but pat him on the back and congratulate him. He didn't subtly try to steer him away from the prospect or anything. He was ecstatic about it for him.

"Some other time." Naruto said, leaning against the side of the jeep as he looked out the window, "It's not really fun to bring up, and you'll think it's stupid when I talk about it." Batsu sorely felt like Naruto was underestimating his capacity for empathy, but a bummed out Naruto was unnatural.

For the sake of not psyching him out he let it drop. For now anyway.

XxX

(Downtown Aohura City – Town Plaza)

School had been pretty uneventful despite the primary perpetrator of the troubles that went on there having returned. For the most part, Naruto just amicably slept through every single class all day long due to the lack of actual classwork. He even slept through gym class.

…How many clones did he make to do his work and train his techniques that day?

Ever since his return from the tournament and the reactivation of his prepaid phones, business for Uzumaki Naruto had been basically booming. It was a pretty good time to be the freelance mercenary ninja if one enjoyed money and the pursuit of it. On the other hand it was a bad time if one had the propensity to be overrun by the workload.

It was also a bad time if one were indirectly connected with the freelance mercenary ninja and the workload that had the chance to begin overrunning him, because the clients had to get into contact with him somehow to request work.

For what seemed to her like the hundredth time that day, Karin's phone went off, beckoning her to answer it in an almost snappish manner, "Yes?" She asked, waiting for the caller to give their reason for calling. After hearing it she rolled her eyes, "No." She stated before ending the call and shoving the device back into a pocket on her fur-rimmed jacket, "I should have known that this would happen."

"What's the matter?" Sakura asked, as Karin had been in something of a touchy mood for most of the afternoon. Not a fun way to spend a rare day off from school in the middle of the week, "What's got you upset."

Karin sent a look to her chief rival before her face softened. It wasn't her fault it was happening. That distinction belonged to someone that wasn't present, "Naruto-san has something of an addiction to using disposable cellular phones for anything involving possible business."

"Yes. We knew that already. What's the problem?"

"The problem is that he oftentimes finds it tedious to empty his voicemails for space, and he's used my personal cell phone to forward calls to in the instance that it fills up."

"Ooh…"

"Yes. Exactly. Clearly he never envisioned himself being bombarded with enough calls for that to actually happen."

"Me too. That's why I have a disposable to go with my real one."

In other words, Naruto was getting an absurd amount of requests for work and other things, things that he was never going to accept due to the fact that many of the jobs were things that he was not going to be able to get to in a timely manner, even with the system of clones he had working around the clock to procure his income.

So much so that Karin's phone had recently been bombarded by the calls of the common folk, something that she was not fond of whatsoever.

"Why does Naruto have so many missed calls?" Ibuki asked, taking some time with her friends in town. The leaders in her village were giving her more and more wiggle room to stay outside of the village. Whatever had done such a thing, she was grateful for it for certain, "He's definitely working. He's got clones all over the place. I saw four on the way into town this morning."

Sakura smiled slightly and held up seven fingers, "He's got seven phones because of the low memory, not counting his personal one. He's got a thing for burners. Sometimes he'll get sick of one phone in particular getting 'blown up' all the time and he'll just toss it and buy a new one." She let out a giggle at the memory of actually watching him chuck one prior to the tournament, "He needs a landline secretary or something."

"What about Cammy?"

"Cammy is not really secretary material." Sakura replied, still grinning a bit, "Naruto actually has her taking a good chunk of his missions to earn her own money during the day while we're at school. She'll work certain missions with his clones or go it alone on some of the others that she can do herself."

"Mmm…" Ibuki said with a smirk and half-lidded eyes of her own as she played with the zipper on her jacket, "I still think she'd be a really good secretary though. Think about it. She's cute; I think she'd look good in business clothes, she looks at everything professionally already, and she's infinitely more organized than Naruto is. What's his business plan?"

"The only reason he started it was to pay his bills. It used to be way more bare-bones than it is now." Sakura answered with a shrug, "But he always kept a really good ledger. It's pretty complete. He puts everything he earns and spends in it. Even little stuff."

"I finally convinced him to actually store his money somewhere secure." Karin informed them, sounding rather proud at that fact, "Do you know he kept his savings in a trick space underneath his bed before now?"

Oh yes, the hidey-hole where he kept mementos, money, and now weapons since the armory was now Cammy's room. Sakura watched him hollow that out underneath the floorboards in his bedroom years ago when they were twelve. She had to run lookout in case the landlord started banging on his door from the noise complaints. Good times.

She liked that and was sort of sad to hear that it had outlived its original usage. It had been cute to watch him fish stacks of money out of there whenever he went to count it all up.

He'd been very busy since returning from the tournament two weeks ago, and Sakura hadn't gotten any much to sit down with him and talk about how he was feeling. After the experiences he had been through over the course of two days, many of which were televised, he probably had a load to get off of his chest. But he was really forced to launch back into his work first thing after coming home.

He'd never had so many contracts for things before and to not strike while the iron was hot and provide himself with some monetary padding would have been foolish. He had to get while the getting was good, even if he hadn't yet had time to come down emotionally from the tiring experience of over 48 nonstop hours of hell on Earth.

Also on the topic of him, Naruto hadn't even gotten the time to wake up during the walk home from school before Batsu pulled up out of nowhere and basically pulled a snatch-and-grab on the spot to basically abduct him. It was actually amazing to see considering who his target was and taking note of the fact that he never even stopped his vehicle to pull it off.

The purpose of their sitting around in a quite public place in town was due to the fact that Cammy had finished the last touches of her work for the day, thus they were all waiting on her to spend some time before Ibuki had to go home to her the Glade of Ninjas. It was only fair, and it was good of Naruto to give Cammy something to do during the day. She didn't go to school, and all she did the rest of the time was train, so doing some of his jobs during the current time of overflow for her own money as a partner was a great idea.

It was apparently working out as well, because word was spreading that Naruto's little rent-a-merc service had her as an option to hire, and already she was incredibly popular in certain circles (*cough* guys *cough*).

Speaking of the devil, or angel depending on one's gender and/or personal persuasion, it didn't take that much longer for Cammy to make her arrival. Due to it being winter she wore a fur-rimmed grey coat, and a grey leotard beneath it. She didn't even bother wearing leggings of some sort with her bare legs to keep from catching cold. Strange girl, but apparently she could deal with it well enough to wear it out, so no one said anything.

It wasn't like they were in Siberia though. They were on the southern end of Japan. So their winters weren't really that cold even compared to a northern region like Hokkaido.

"Hello." Cammy greeted, holding a very large fold of paper money in her hands as she was seemingly counting it on the spot and had been for most of the way there. Didn't she walk from the site of her last job, "I think I may have underestimated how rude this town is. I believe there were a few people who tried to mug me on the way here."

With the big wad of money she had, and in a town like that it was probably very likely that they felt lucky enough to take a shot, even if they did happen to know who she was. The poor, poor bastards.

"How much is that by the way?" Sakura asked as she moved a bit to the side and let Cammy take a seat between herself and Ibuki.

"Roughly 33200 yen at my count."

"Yikes. Naruto's workload must really be backed up if that's what you got in one day."

"Yes. I'm sure this will pay for quite a few of my own expenses without having to resort to relying on Naruto as much." For those that knew enough to tell the slight disparity in the pitch of her normal speaking voice, Cammy sounded rather happy about this, "I want to help all of you, not be a burden."

All of the other girls looked at each other with a similar look shared between them. Cammy was anything but a burden.

There was a reason why in spring Naruto had so readily accepted her living with him despite the loss of his budding armory room to do so. The loss of space meant nothing to him when he had lived by himself for well over a decade beforehand, thus any space in his house besides what he needed in his fairly Spartan existence was all extra. Or at least it had been until he'd gotten a roommate.

"If you want to help…" Ibuki said, sidling up to Cammy so closely that they were touching, "…You live with Naruto. So you've got to know all kinds of secret things. Useful things that could help a girl maybe win him over, if that was one's intent of course. Care to share?"

'Oh God…' Sakura palmed her forehead and was grateful about the white headband around it because she was certain that it had left a red mark underneath, 'You could just ask him questions like that yourself!' She thought to herself loudly before turning to Karin who didn't seem to care about the turn in the conversation, much to Sakura's surprise, "You don't have any interest in this?"

"Not particularly." Karin admitted while tapping away on her smart phone, "Any personal information that I felt would be helpful to know about Naruto-san I dispatched Shibazaki to obtain before I ever began hiring him." Why did she have to sound so proud of it? Did the woman have no shame? Sakura really didn't need an answer to that question, "I believe that anything our former assassin of a friend can tell us would only be retread intelligence for me."

"Secret things…" Cammy said to herself, trying to think of something that she was sure Naruto wouldn't get sore over her talking about. They were all friends there after all. Oh wait. There was that one thing that involved her too. She could share something that was hers to tell as well, "Well during the tournament, he and I had sex."

Dead silence.

It seemed like even traffic in the streets in sight of the plaza vanished and the people around disappeared.

"…Ah no, you asked for something that would help you win him over. I'm sorry. Let me try again."

XxX

(With Naruto and Batsu – Aohura City Downtown Back Alley)

Naruto's hand shot to his chest and clutched at his heart out of absolutely nowhere, looking around suspiciously as if he were about to be ambushed. Appropriate given his surroundings, but then again it wasn't that. Sure, the people he currently found himself around were shifty, but that was like the pot calling the kettle black.

No, his instincts could feel it. There had been a disturbance in the Force… or whatever it was that ninjas felt around them in place of the Force.

"Damn it Naruto, you missed! I have money on you! Shape up!"

Oh. Right. He'd been in the middle of something when he'd felt the pressure of the world punch him in the stomach. Turning to his left, Naruto saw his current opponent standing with a hang-tongue smirk on his face. Man he wanted to cut that blond eraser-top right off of that purple uniform-clad young man's head.

"Well you lose." Gedo High School's resident knife-thrower extraordinaire 'Edge' said cockily, pointing at the set up bullseye at the end of the alley that was the usual hangout spot for Gedo High's resident gang, "You couldn't have screwed up that last throw any worse than you did. It's those ninja weapons you use. Shuriken aren't reliable and kunai are shaped weird. Not like my sleek and awesome army knives."

Taking his turn to throw, Edge lined up the necessary points on the board and pegged them all before bowing with a flourish and turning to get cheered by the no-name members of the gang in the hangout.

"Fine, you win this time." Naruto said as he dug into his pocket and handed over a wad of bills to the victor. He would have thrown better if his senses didn't go all wacky on him, "…Can still kick your ass though."

"Not saying you can't." Edge jibed at Naruto's expense, "But this ain't a fight. This is just a good ol' game of 301. It looks like you're a runner-up in more than just fighting." Naruto looked at his own hands and mulled over the consequences of trying to strangle him on his own turf, but the strong voice of the Gedo High leader chided Edge before Naruto could try and throttle him.

"You shouldn't postulate like that Edge."

Off in the background, Batsu frowned and proceeded to pay Kazama Daigo and Isurugi Gan for betting on the wrong horse in that race. The massive Gan was basically in good health, as was Daigo, though he still had to use a crutch to help him get around after the entire episode with Mad Gear, "It's a mystery whether or not he won or lost." Level-headed Daigo said as he counted up his winnings from Batsu, "I have my problems with the kid, but I can't make an assumption when no one knows the answer. And even if he did lose, would you have even qualified for it?"

Edge turned away from his leader and grabbed at the collar of his own uniform as he went to retrieve his thrown knives from the targets, "…I don't know." He muttered under his breath.

"But Akira says there's no chance that Uzumaki beat the Uchiha guy." Gan said, scratching his head as he didn't bother to count his money before pocketing it, "Shouldn't we take her word for it?" A snicker from Batsu reminded everyone that he was still there, "What's that about?"

Batsu stopped mentally amusing himself long enough to share why, "Akira's got it bad for that guy, and she hates Naruto. So her word is a bit biased. She saw just as much as the rest of us did of the ending; which was nothing."

"I see." Daigo said, narrowing his eyes at hearing that his little sister had a crush on someone. It was a good thing she wasn't there to dispute what Batsu was saying. He was rude and blunt, but he was not a liar, "It's unfortunate that I can't find this Uchiha Sasuke then. I would like to observe what kind of person he is."

Gang leader or not, he was still an older brother. Aside from that, as far as delinquent gangsters went, Daigo was vastly more honorable than any of the others. He was pretty big on that.

A lightbulb went off in the head of both Naruto and Batsu at that exact moment, "Um…" Naruto started to say helpfully, "He owns a restaurant in town. And he's probably there now because he lives on the second floor."

"So if you really wanted to go, Akira might be there right now too." Batsu added on, a grin slowly spreading across his face, "She's really into hanging out around that place. They get along pretty well."

Because when her face-concealing motorcycle helmet was off she was quiet, and unlike most other girls she wasn't annoying to Sasuke. Due to the fact that most things in the world did this, when things didn't annoy him he tended to treat them better than normal.

Basically the dynamic that comprised what existed of their relationship was the fact that they got along because Akira didn't talk and Sasuke was just fine with that. He was actually quite happy with it as a matter of fact. He seemed to prefer communicating via enigmatic grunts and angry facial expressions anyway.

Daigo had taken a minute or two to contemplate deeply before coming to a decision. Yes he would definitely like to meet this young man, "…Directions?"

"The restaurant's called Genhanten." Batsu said before shrugging and pointing at the end of the alley for them to depart, "I'm not your GPS. Google Maps dude."

Daigo growled lowly and bent his tall frame enough to get eye-to-eye with Batsu, "When my leg heals I'm gonna crack your skull, just like old times. But for now…" And with that he gestured to the rest of his gang for them to leave the alley to accompany him in finding Genhanten, "Let's keep this civil men!"

"Yep, civil!" Edge shouted, before chuckling to himself. He followed behind his larger leader and even larger partner in Gan, adjusting his collar and shoving his hands into his pockets afterwards, "Come on Daigo, you know I'm as civil as they get."

They made themselves scarce while Naruto and Batsu watched them leave. They watched them all completely vanish around the corner before they started heading out themselves. Batsu bumped an elbow into Naruto's ribs to get his attention, "Sasuke's gonna murder those guys isn't he?"

He didn't know Sasuke very well, but he'd seen Sasuke fight both in person and on TV on separate occasions, and even if Daigo had been healthy he'd have put him down no questions asked. No one else in that gang was above the level of regional threat other than Daigo, and that didn't bode well in the case of a fight.

"He's not gonna kill them." Naruto responded, throwing his hands up behind his neck, "He might put Edge and a lot of the weak ones in the hospital, but he won't attack Daigo, and he won't kill any of them."

"Why Edge in particular?"

"He's blond. He's loud and stupid. He's cocky. He's annoying."

"So it's because he's you, only cranked up to eleven on all of the negative traits and then some, and he's not even close to being as strong to compensate?"

"Basically."

"Wanna go watch?"

"I don't think we'll make it."

"What? They're on foot. We have a car. We'll beat them there and have time to order something before they catch up."

"No we won't. I think I heard Edge slashing your tires on the way out."

That momentarily stopped Batsu in his tracks before he sprinted for the outlet of the alley and turned to look at his jeep. Lo and behold, the front and back right tires were flat. And the Gedo High School Gang was gone, so no retaliatory rumble in the street would be happening today.

It was just as well. Neither Naruto nor Batsu were much up for fighting that day anyway.

Naruto just walked out and stood beside Batsu as both of them stared at the helplessly flat tires. How close was it to the nearest tire place?

There wasn't even anger on Batsu's face, nor astonishment. Really, they should have seen something like that coming. That was what they got for hanging out with delinquents that they'd spent years feuding on and off with.

"Man… most of our guy friends suck." Batsu said, staring at his tire as if it would re-inflate if he focused hard enough on it.

"We're friends with them?" Naruto asked incredulously. Honestly, Hibiki Dan was more of a friend than they were. He'd only fought Dan the one time. He'd fought the Gedo High gang dozens of times over the years, and some of them were admittedly bitter affairs, "I thought we just came here to hustle them in darts."

That was a good point put in the form of a question. They weren't really friends. It was just that an unofficial cease-fire of sorts had been established during the whole Mad Gear fiasco, and it had never been taken down.

The reason for that being because Batsu, Naruto, Sasuke, and women that accompanied them fought alongside them had indirectly asserted that their group was way better than Gedo's.

Winning a steel cage match against the giant of a man that had slaughtered a ton of them singlehandedly and taking out an attack helicopter on foot would tend to prove that quite nicely.

Naruto and Batsu hadn't fought with them in around six months. For most other people they were just not worth the trouble of messing with anymore after crushing the structure of an organization that had decimated all of theirs, "And to think," Batsu said, "I almost felt bad about what we just got them to go do."

Naruto nodded before patting himself on the chest idly, "I still feel bad. But I don't think it's because of that. It wasn't a karma slap." Or was it?

Something in his head told him to stay out for a few more hours. It was a good thing that they weren't going anywhere until that jeep got its tires changed.

XxX

(Elsewhere in Aohura City – Naruto and Sakura's Neighborhood)

"You and Naruto-."

"Yes."

"…Really?"

"I don't know how many more ways I can confirm what I've told you. Do you want me to be more descriptive?"

"No thank you. Ah, maybe later?"

After the bit of a bombshell that had been dropped in the plaza, the gathering remained behind without splitting off for various reasons. Karin had remained quiet and thoughtful with an unreadable look on her face. Sakura had been almost catatonic and basically blanked out at being left alone with her own imagination. Ibuki had been the only one that remained animated, instead asking Cammy dozens and dozens of questions.

All of them of course pertaining to her intimate moment with Naruto. After the initial shock of hearing about it wore off for her, which actually took five minutes to do, she seemed extremely intrigued and bombarded Cammy with more questions than a middle school sex ed. student.

That was contrary to Sakura's line of questioning, which was less of a bombardment and more of a circular conversation, as she really only asked two different questions in different ways each go-around.

It was a testament to Cammy's unnatural and nigh-saintly patience that she hadn't tried to make her stop, as they had been walking home for quite some time by the time they had reached their neck of the woods so to speak.

Finally Sakura had fallen into silence for a moment, hands in her jacket pockets as she contemplated the whole thing, "Wow." She said, sounding as if she had finally wrapped her head all the way around it, "And you said it was good?" A nod in response, "I didn't know Naruto would be a natural at something like that." She said with a blush on her cheeks.

A natural? Cammy blinked in confusion before turning her head to Sakura with a curious tilt, "So before he and I did it, you and he never did?" She would have figured that Naruto had experienced some sort of practice or familiarity with the female body in the past since he didn't fumble around with her much at all. She had yet to bear witness to Oiroke no Jutsu, "Not one time did you ever practice or-?"

"N-No!" Sakura sputtered loudly, "We've been close for a long time, but we never did anything like that!" Even looking to the side at her nigh shameless friend got Sakura's cheeks to flare fire engine red.

Really, they'd been friends for years. Best friends actually. And indeed, there had been a time before things in their life got crazy on an international scale where they'd spent the vast majority of their waking hours together. They were still basically inseparable for the most part, but they weren't almost joined at the hip like they used to be.

He loved her and she loved him. This much either would readily acknowledge to the other's face, but it just didn't go deep enough to manifest in a way that they would... well, copulate.

Once again, Cammy just stared at her before frowning and turning back to look down the sidewalk, "Well I don't see why you wouldn't have. You clearly trust him at least as much as I do and you care for him, so why not have a first experience like that be with someone you trust and care about?"

Sometimes things with Cammy were just that simple. From how she had ingratiated herself from being an amnesiac assassin into being an everyday staple of their lives it was hard to remember that Cammy had really only existed in society for less than a year.

She had literally been born and lived for sixteen years with the sole intent of being an artificially created killer. Emotionless, with no thoughts of her own, to eventually become Bison's replacement body. There wasn't a need for her to have free will, or to understand the people in the world around her past what it would take for her to kill them easier and accomplish her missions.

Therefore there were still quite a few things that she didn't see the way most other people did. This was one of those things.

She also didn't see that this was quite embarrassing to talk about while walking down the street. So it was up to Sakura to bear the brunt of that embarrassment, "Hah… it's not as simple as that. It's kind of complicated."

That wasn't to say that she'd never thought about it. There was no way she could spend every single day with someone that she liked that much without the thought of dating him flitting through her head... or more than just dating.

Many a stray daydream or so had a Naruto cameo appearance in it instead of Ryu.

And the training for the tournament had done his body good. Naruto looked bigger in his school uniform nowadays, seemingly having added on more muscle mass with his obsessive strength and conditioning exercises with Batsu.

...But it was still complicated. It just seemed too strange a concept for her.

Once again, Cammy didn't see how, but she didn't say as much, otherwise she'd have been the one keeping the conversation going around in circles. Perhaps she'd have to ask Chun-Li or a more worldly, responsible woman about what she was missing here.

Either way, she and Sakura eventually had to go their separate ways to head to their respective homes, bidding each other farewell with one seemingly hounded by thoughts plaguing her and the other just as untroubled as she was upon waking up that morning.

Taking the few extra blocks to the apartment complex, Cammy walked up the stairs and opened the front door to find Naruto sitting on the couch in front of the TV, doing his own homework for once and simultaneously pointing a laser pen all over the room with his non-writing hand to occupy the kitten Agent Jack.

Scooping up the furball into her arms once it scampered over in her direction via laser pen prompting, Cammy's presence in the apartment was acknowledged by Naruto who waved his laser pointer holding hand over his shoulder in greeting, "Hey Cam."

"Good evening Naruto." Cammy said with a small smile before walking over to sit down next to him, kitten in her lap, "You never do your own homework." She pointed out. Damn that perception of hers, "How was your day?"

Full of unexplainable look-over-your-shoulder paranoia, shoulder-to-the-plow odd jobs, and dubious street punks.

So basically-, "Same as usual." Naruto informed her, still looking down at his school assignment, 'Why the hell am I doing this myself?' Naruto thought to himself before remembering that he pitied his clones for their day of hard work, thus he endeavored to give the jutsu a rest and do his own damn homework for once, "Did you do anything cool today?"

Aside from blatantly telling all of their female friends that they had done the deed?

Normally this would be the time to warn someone that a potential hellstorm was coming.

But Cammy telling others about her personal business didn't qualify as something cool, and from Cammy's point of view she had been given a pretty specific question. He didn't ask if something interesting or if anything of note happened. He asked if she did anything 'cool'. She knew what cool was generally perceived as, and nothing cool happened to her that day.

Therefore…

"No, not really."

XxX

(The Next Day – Tamagawa Minami High School)

Okay, there was something up. If there had had been an inkling of trouble yesterday, it was an all-out klaxon warning him of pending doom today. And it wasn't the kind of doom that running away would solve, like an enemy planting a bomb in the school. It was more like the kind of doom that you could run to the ends of the planet and never find a way to escape.

Running would not prevent it. It would only postpone it.

First of all, the walk to school with Sakura had been quiet, and she hadn't been very perky at all. Not the usual way she usually was. The girl was more often than not a damn hummingbird in the morning much to his usual chagrin. Sure, she greeted him at the front door in the morning with a smile the way she usually did when they walked to school, but something was seriously off and it followed them right into the building and into class.

It seemed like only the non-fighter out of his group of female friends appeared to be acting like normal, because she seemed just as confused as he was as to the feeling surrounding all of them, "So you don't know what's up?" Naruto asked her, actually leaning over in Kei's direction to speak to her, "Is it just me?"

"You mean that 'whistling through the graveyard' feeling?" Kei replied, "Yeah, it's not just you. I think it might be everybody in the class feeling it actually. Not just you or me." And indeed, everyone else felt like there was something off, but the rest of the class even more so than Naruto and Kei could not figure out just why things felt out of whack.

Looking around, Naruto saw that Sakura wasn't the only off one that morning. Off behind him and to the side he could feel Karin's eyes upon him every so often for just a split-second. And when he tried to look back at her she simply would not or could not meet his eyes. Ibuki on the other hand was just staring a hole into the back of his head. He'd turn and look back at her and she wouldn't shy away. Her mouth would merely twitch into a small smile and she'd raise an eyebrow, as if to silently inquire if he had something to ask her.

'I'm missing something here.' Naruto thought, turning back around in his chair to wait out the rest of homeroom. He didn't flinch when the bell went off to signal the end of the period as their teacher got up to leave. As the teacher left, Ibuki latched onto Naruto's bicep and got his attention, "Meh?"

"Can I borrow you for a minute?" Ibuki asked, "I'll bring you back in a bit. Promise."

'Go with Ibuki for… whatever reason, or stay here and deal with English class first?' Since he could already fluently speak English and since he hated sitting down in class to begin with it was an easy decision and he nodded his consent to leave with her.

Her grip on him shifted from his arm down to his hand once they made it outside of the classroom. Naruto didn't say a word, electing to instead keep his mouth shut and go with the flow until informed enough to decide otherwise.

It didn't take long for them to make it to one of Naruto's favorite class-skipping haunts; the rooftop.

Walking to the edge of the roof, Naruto pressed his fingers through the safety gate as he looked down on the quiet traffic driving through the street. Ibuki just stood behind him a few feet away, hands behind her back and rocking on her heels as she observed his back.

"Remember back when we first met?" Ibuki said, finally moving forward to stand next to him and look down on the road as well, "It was a while ago." They'd been friends for well over a year. Letting out a bit of a laugh she kept speaking, "I put you through hell that first night. I don't think I ever apologized for that."

"You didn't." Naruto replied, a smile slowly breaking out over his face at the memory. It had been quite painful for multiple reasons, "But it's okay. A lot of my friends did stuff to me when we first met that they still haven't apologized for yet." And he was quite certain that the opposite was true as well in a few cases.

"I remember that I didn't want to go home yet, and I asked you if I could stay there with you for a bit." Ibuki said before turning a sly look his way without being seen by Naruto, "So what's it like living with a girl in your apartment? You like it?"

"Cam's a good girl." Naruto said, "It's actually really nice to go home and know somebody's there. She doesn't ever laugh at anything and it's pretty hard to get her to smile, but we'll get her there."

Ibuki nodded, taking a moment to choose her next words wisely. She then decided to cast that straight out of the window, "So does 'getting her there' involve nailing her?" Naruto's head slowly craned in her direction as if there was resistance to his neck to get him to turn, "She didn't smile after it was over?" From the way she talked about it she seemed as if she had been more than satisfied.

"…No, she did." Naruto answered carefully before looking around for something. This was weird. First of all that she knew, and second of all that she seemed so cool with it, "…Am I being Punk'd?"

"You're not really worldwide mainstream famous Naruto."

"Oh, that's right."

Naruto then wondered if he climbed over the gate if it'd be reasonable to run down the side of the school and hightail it back home as Ibuki set her small hand on his shoulder and gave it a few pats as she could probably sense his current tension, "Yep. I know, Karin knows and Sakura-chan does too. Thank Cammy for that. She's really not shy about much."

He would have banged his head on the fencing if he thought it would do more than just give to the push and at worst leave a mark on his head.

Not that it was supposed to be a secret that one took with them to the grave by any stretch, but did it really have to come out with the most inconvenient timing possible outside of a major crisis?

"So now what?" Naruto eventually asked, shrugging haplessly. What was he going to do, deny it? No. Why would he? Cammy was a sweetheart, and they didn't owe any kind of explanation to anyone if that was what they wanted from them. Cammy would probably give one anyway, but that wasn't really the point, "If you're mad I'm not gonna apologize. Nobody's getting one of those out of me. Not for this."

"I don't want an apology. I want a chance." Ibuki said, pointing right at him before walking close enough to poke him in the chest, "Do you understand?"

"I think so." Naruto confirmed with a slight nod, looking at her with squinted eyes, "But you didn't have to take me away in private to say that. You could have called me anytime, or said something whenever."

Ibuki shook her head and sighed, "I know that out of all of our friends I'm the one that's the farthest apart from the group." That was how Ibuki really felt. She'd missed out on so many things that everyone else had endured. The entire Shadaloo episode, all of the Mad Gear troubles, and she couldn't go to the tournament either, "It's because of where my village is, and I don't get to be around as much."

Yes, Naruto knew about that, "But you'll be graduating soon from being in-training right? Right around the time we all graduate high school? Didn't you say that they'd let you do whatever you wanted then?"

"Another year?" Ibuki said with a bit of a humorless laugh, "Who knows if you guys will even still want to be friends with me in a year? I just wanted to date a cute guy, kind of blunt, with some gravity to him. And I found one, and I can't find a moment to even spend any real time with him."

That was something that Naruto didn't know how to fix. He'd tried on multiple occasions to pull the wool over the eyes of the higher-ups in Ibuki's village to results of varying success, but in the end they always ended up getting busted.

"I've got to graduate now." Ibuki said, shaking her head and looking down with her hands on her hips, "No matter what the final test will be. It's what you would do isn't it?"

"I'm not really the best example to follow." And that hurt to say out loud, because Naruto always asserted that he was the most awesome human being walking the face of the planet. Having to dissuade someone from thinking this was the last thing he ever thought he'd have to do.

"Well no, not for certain things." Ibuki admitted sheepishly, "But at least you know how to put yourself on the line for what you believe in. I believe I'm ready, so I have to prove it. I love my village, but I'm tired of having my life tethered the way it is you know? I just want-. Just, can you promise me that when I finally get the assignment you'll help me if I need it?"

Ninja tests were no joke. This Naruto knew from his own brush with them. And Ibuki was already incredibly strong. Any test that she hadn't taken yet being as skilled as she was had to be a killer.

She'd been fretting over the possibility of her final exam for months, and she was looking quite uncertain of herself now. But she was tired of spinning her wheels. She was good and she knew it. She wanted to see the world and being a student while her outsider friends went off to see and do incredible things didn't appeal to her.

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Naruto said with a firm nod. She didn't even have to ask him that. She'd been there for him several times, and even if that hadn't been the case she'd be hard-pressed to find a way to keep him away, "You still didn't have to take me out of class to talk about any of this."

Ibuki sent a frown his way before quickly blurring out of sight with her short-range speed technique before appearing in front of Naruto with her arms around his neck, "I'd rather talk with you alone. I don't get a lot of chances like this, so I'll take them when I can." She moved her face closer to his but stopped. Naruto wasn't pulling away, but he wasn't holding onto her either, "I just want a chance to be a normal girl and go on dates… stuff like that."

Normal? As if anything about him and the people he surrounded himself with were normal.

Naruto grinned in a wry manner at contemplating the common definition of normal and what his life consisted of, "If you want to be normal you should really stop hanging out with me."

"Hmm, no." The bright-eyed kunoichi replied with a big smile, "It's not like I'm trying to get you to put a ring on my finger or something. We're 17, and I like you. You know that I do. I feel a bit of a spark, and I want to think that you do too. I think we could have a lot of fun."

Could she possibly have pressed herself against him any tighter while saying that? The answer was no. And a certain part of his anatomy was starting to react to the proximity of the lovely kunoichi, 'Did I slip into another coma in my sleep or something? Because this doesn't seem like something that would happen while I was awake.' "Fun you say?"

Damn those eyes. It was like she had lights dancing behind them. It was unfair for such a lovely girl to look at him so fondly. It went contrary to everything he'd come to expect over the last few years. And he wasn't so sure about that connotation of 'fun' that she'd spoken of. His nose almost sprang a red leak when he heard her say such a thing.

Ibuki was awesome. She was tough. She was a ninja like him and good at what she did to boot. She was always seemingly in a good mood, and was always a lot of fun to be around. They got along wonderfully and being around each other made even the most mundane of activities a blast. Even sitting in class all day wasn't as boring as it could have been because she sat right behind him.

And once again, the fact that she was so pretty it physically hurt wasn't necessarily a mark against her either.

"Ooh, your face isn't turning red, but your eyes are as wide as saucers." Ibuki said with a grin as she poked her nose up against his, "Why's your mind so dirty Naruto?"

Naruto hoped that the next thing that came out of his mouth would be something that was eloquent and somewhat smooth, but before he could attempt an ill-fated cool comeback line the ringtone for the main phone in his pocket went off.

Both of them looked down at his pants pocket before Ibuki looked back up at his face and raised an eyebrow. Naruto clicked his teeth and reached for the phone before putting it up to his ear, "What's up Karin? Something wrong?"

"You would not currently be in mid-coitus would you Naruto-san?" Well that was certainly blunt.

'That's my boss lady.' Naruto thought while blocking a sigh. He looked right at Ibuki who hadn't looked away from him yet, and she could hear the reverb of the phone easily, so she got all of that, "…No?"

"I see. I only ask because both you and Ibuki-san have been absent from class for quite some while. And I know how fickle teenage hormones can be at times."

"Oh what the fuck ever." Naruto replied a bit snappishly. Was this how it was going to be for a few weeks now? That was complete b.s. as far as he was concerned. And when Naruto found something to be b.s. he got angry. And an angry Naruto shot from the hip, "The only reason you and me didn't already do it back during that incident we had is because… goddamn it, this is on speakerphone isn't it?"

He could hear the echo halfway through his rant.

"Yes. It. Was." She sounded mad. Seething mad to boot. Not-yelling angry Karin was scarier than yelling angry Karin by a huge margin. Because when she was mad and didn't yell at you it was simply because yelling wouldn't be enough to get across how livid she really was.

"Well then." Ibuki said, trying to somewhat salvage the situation, "Maybe that'll teach you not to make calls in the middle of class?" She couldn't help but feel as if this were partially her fault.

"I will remove both of your spinal cords with my bare hands."

"I'd rather you didn't."

"It's quite unfortunate that your opinion on this matters little kunoichi-san."

Ibuki took a moment to soak in that odd comment and pouted, arms crossed over her chest at such a stony response from the wealthy young woman once she figured out just what had rubbed her the wrong way about what she'd said, "…You're distancing yourself from my name so you can kill me with an easier conscience aren't you?" It was odd how casually she was taking the whole idea of that.

Naruto was contemplating sending a clone back to class in his stead, but he was sure that Karin would just punch it or hurl half of the classroom at it once it popped its head in the door, "Can we talk later?" He said over the phone.

"Of course. You can be rest assured that we most certainly will." She was probably so mad her face didn't even show any expression on it. He could see it now. He'd only done that once before, once by complete accident, "I still have need of your services at the end of the week regardless, if you remember."

Oh. That was right. That had been set up in advance a short while after he'd made it home. Another bodyguard mission. So she wouldn't try to beat his head in now at least. She could wait until later when she'd get him alone, or mostly alone, to do it. And she'd have a few days to build up further ire beforehand. Great.

"Okay." Naruto said, trying to keep the sigh out of his voice. It was always one thing after another it seemed, "We'll talk later. Bye." And with that he hung up the phone.

Ibuki waited for him to do so before making an observation, "You never apologized for blurting out what you said."

"…I didn't did I?" He couldn't keep himself from sighing this time, "I knew I forgot something." In his defense it could have been worse though. He could have said that the incident was during a heart-to-heart, on the lawn of her mansion, and that the only reason they didn't probably have sex then and there was because he had twenty rifles trained on him.

And with a hung head, Naruto slogged his way back to the stairwell to leave the roof. The rest of the day was going to absolutely suck. He didn't even feel like pricing the rest of his jobs that afternoon after school.

Ibuki just waited behind as he left before hearing the slam of the door. Without moving from her spot she frowned and looked up at the sky with a shake to her head, "You won't even let me kiss him will you? I can't even get just a kiss. Is Cammy's karma really that much better than mine?"

She got no answer from the unseen forces of the universe, but she was sure they were having quite the ball at all of their expenses.

XxX

(Two Days Later – Industrial Aohura City – Training Junkyard)

"Come on. Bigger. That's barely any better than an Odama Rasengan." Sakura said, sitting on the hood of a long since immobilized car, hands on her cheeks as she watched two Narutos try to form the biggest damn Rasengan in the world, "You can make it bigger than that can you?"

"Maybe, not safely though. But if it blows up are you gonna carry me to the hospital?"

"You did it for me when Shinkuu Hadoken backfired a billion times at first didn't you?"

She was at a safe distance of course, because she'd rather not get caught in the blast if Naruto's control slipped and he blew himself away. She loved him, but just not enough to die in a junkyard because of a training accident. One of them had to stay healthy enough to help the other. Unless they were sparring that was the approach to their technique training that they always used. For safety reasons of course.

Naruto slowly phased down the Rasengan to safe size before letting it and his clone dissipate from existence, "I'm telling you Sakura-chan. A bigger Rasengan just isn't safe. Not with my control." He said as he wiped sweat from his face.

He was good enough at chakra control now to make one Rasengan in each hand by himself and create all kinds of applications for the concept that formed the jutsu, but making them bigger than he already had was just one bridge too far.

But he needed to stay one step ahead of Sasuke and what he'd learned to do with the lightning manipulation of the Chidori. Right now they seemed to be dead even in the application and development of their signature jutsu concepts, with basically an even number of separate attacks using Rasengan and Chidori theory as a base. It was a decent and welcome break from his seemingly impossible self-given task to find a way to safely counter ki attacks from his enemies.

This was good though, even though the training was tough. It had been a while since Naruto had just hung out with Sakura. Since back before the tournament when he'd thrown himself into improving as fast as he could before opening day.

He'd finally managed to pull some time to take it easy, finally managing to quell his workflow of missions after a month of being overbooked to an extreme degree. His bank account sure was happy about it though.

"Next time there's a massive situation like what we just got through doing I'd feel a lot better if I had more guaranteed backup than Cam." Naruto said with a big grin before Sakura couldn't meet his eyes when he turned her way, "You too? Look, I'll apologize for things like what I blurted out over the phone to Karin, but I'll never apologize for sleeping with Cammy."

Sakura didn't want him to apologize. Naruto was an adult and basically had been for all intents and purposes since she had met him. That still didn't make it kind of strange to look him in the eye, because it did.

"I don't want you to. I don't think anyone wants you to." Sakura said with a shrug as Naruto walked over to her and took a seat and a drink of water from the bottle sitting between them, "And yeah, it was surprising at first, but I'm over that by now. That's not the thing."

"Then what is the thing?"

"I wish I knew. I'm confused myself."

"Reh…" Naruto muttered, passing the bottle to Sakura so that she could take a drink also, "Well when you find out could you tell me too?" He said before deciding that enough was enough and it was time to get back to work, "Okay babe, it's time to fix your damn Shinkuu Hadoken." He said, poking her in the belly in a ticklish spot to get her spit out what she had been drinking, "It's still too slow."

"Naruto!" She coughed and sputtered. Water going down the wrong pipe tended to do that to a person, "I just learned how to shoot the real version from Ryu's notes while you were training for the tournament! Can't you say, 'Good job Sakura-chan you're getting stronger,' or 'Wow, that's awesome Sakura-chan,' something like that?"

Naruto just gave her an expectant look and smirked, "No. Because even if it is bigger, badder, and faster than ever before you still can't hit me clean with it. And I don't praise stuff that can't hit me!"

"You don't even the praise stuff that does hit you!"

"Well not out loud. But I'd make an exception for you if you ever Shinkuu Hadoken-ed me and it didn't kill me."

He was damn right he would. Sakura set her bottle to the side before jumping off of the car at Naruto to initiate a spar of sorts. It was more for fun than anything else.

Things came easier for them when they were fighting. It seemed like everything was alright when they sparred, as if they were twelve or thirteen again. Back before someone seemed to try and kill them every other lunar cycle.

XxX

(State-of-the-Art Laboratory – Unknown Location)

Dozens of holographic screen projections with names of people all over the world and intimate biological information on what made them physically tick, all painstakingly gathered through the efforts of agents placed all over the globe for quite some time and compounded in the best information sorting hardware available anywhere.

Many of the bios had pictures to go with them, but as quickly as they were being sorted through, many were being cast out of the overall lineup. The main separating point was not nationality or blood type. Nor was it gender, age, ethnicity, or anything of the sort.

The deciding factor in which fighter remained in the lineup was their ability to utilize ki and the potential of their ability to do so in their bodies.

All of this was being overseen by a small, grotesque little man in a lab coat, balding with long stringy hair and beady eyes darting back and forth over all of the info in front of him.

"How goes the research Doctor Senoh?"

That powerful, yet cool and controlled voice was nothing like Bison's. That voice would never be heard again after his quite timely demise under mysterious circumstances at the close of his own tournament. Senoh didn't even risk turning around. For some reason he feared this person more than Bison.

Probably because he wasn't really human.

Probably because he was created by the people that he now commanded.

Probably because of all of those things, and the fact that he could crush Senoh's skull like a grape if he felt that his use had been outlived or if he was going to betray him.

"The research?" Senoh asked, wiping away a bead of nervous sweat that rolled down his forehead.

"Yes." The voice behind him replied without a single hint of negative emotion. There was only a calm confidence about him, "You were M. Bison's lead examiner of ki-based studies. Held in high enough regard to not be set in S.I.N., but instead kept closely enough with him in Shadaloo as a consultant. I'm quite certain that if anyone is skilled enough to lead the BLECE project to a breakthrough it would be you."

"Of course sir." Senoh said with a smirk at the ego-stroking praise from his newest boss. Bison never did anything of the sort. Always so impatient and violent. Perhaps there were benefits of working for someone that was not human, "I've discovered that one of the last things we need to complete the project is something that your other scientists were too foolish to think to utilize."

"Oh? Do go on."

"They were looking for a potent enough catalyst to allow the weapon to work." Senoh's face was full of the smuggest sense of self-satisfaction at his own apparent brilliance, "But they're so set in their technology. Cold steel. Circuits. Chips. For all their technological brilliance they're forgetting the most important thing; that this is a biological weapon. And there is no biological marvel greater than life itself. Life in its entirety. Or should I say life-force?"

"The ki."

"Exactly. The body of a living being has the potential to safely expend enough energy to rival the overload of an electric generator and continue to operate at prime condition, to say the least of what some are capable of." Senoh said with a pleased chuckle as he gestured to the screens in front of him, "What I present to you are the finest examples of the human condition on current record. The most acutely honed sources of the natural energy the human body has the ability to possess."

There was a moment of silence as the leader took in all that he was seeing. Impressively it only took him a matter of seconds to do so and to understand it for the sheer amount of info he had to absorb, "There are dozens. All over the world. But so many are concentrated in one area."

"Perhaps there's something in the water in Japan?"

"Indeed."

"Any ideas on our next move sir?"

"We should begin testing the BLECE project, but not on humans yet. A place with an abundance of life would be best for this."

"Yes. In the meantime what about my theory on the ki of the warriors? You sounded intrigued."

"And I am. Since we cannot use my own quite… potent abilities as a control for multiple reasons, we should aspire to find the next best available subject for testing. We need to observe some of the more impressive fighters with ki mastery and ki potential."

Yes. Senoh enjoyed working for S.I.N. much more than he ever enjoyed working for Shadaloo. Or maybe it was just his boss? There was a man, or a being, that was in control and knew what he needed to get done. Bison getting himself offed in his vendetta against those that had almost brought Shadaloo crumbling was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

The sudden hostile takeover of S.I.N. in the days following Bison's death led to Shadaloo's remaining scientists being transferred over to the weapons development sector of the criminal organization. It was safer, and it was almost legal since S.I.N. had a real presence in the world as a weapons research and development company.

And Seth was a being of vision. Someone willing to use science and knowledge to obtain control unlike Bison who despite being a smart enough man did everything with brute force and intimidation, only willing to utilize science if it enhanced his own ability to do so and maintain control.

It was going to be a grand rise.

XxX

(A Few Days Later – Zurich, Switzerland)

"Oh Kami…" Naruto muttered to himself, once again stuck in his formal bodyguard suit and fighting the urge to tug at his tie. The suit wasn't the only thing making his job hard tonight, "Out of every single language that I hear in this ballroom… I can only speak three of them. If someone's gonna attack you, honestly they've got a pretty good chance of getting the drop on us because I can't make sense of any of it."

"I can speak every language that you are unable to comprehend Naruto-san." Karin stated, calmly sipping on a drink at his side while wearing a rather fetching red dress that hugged her body snugly and a white pair of gloves that went up to her elbow. Instead of her normal blue bow in her hair, she had a silver diamond-plated barrette, "I do not think that conspirators conversing in the open will be of any concern to us however. Not in a place such as this."

It was a gathering of some of the world's economic heavy-hitters. A function held by the very influential international technology company S.I.N. in order for them to announce an expansion of their business, allowing for more investment opportunity and chances for collaboration with intrepid partners. It was all blasé, boring state of the business talk, which was Karin's area of expertise outside of fighting.

The Kanzuki Zaibatsu had occasional dealings with them in the past going back before Karin was even born, as each had a small minority stake in the company of the other, and it was lucrative because S.I.N. seemed to have no ceiling on the profits that they could bring in. As an example, S.I.N. supplied the JSDF with most of their high-tech weaponry that brought their armed forces into the 21st century, a venture that they were still raking in money from.

Yes, and as a company that had a penchant for creating weapons from small arms to unmanned drones, S.I.N. had good security. Good, well-armed security, in superb tactical positions to oversee the interior as well as patrol the exterior of the meeting place. So maybe there wasn't any need for a superhuman ninja to protect a superhuman heiress to the wealthiest family in Asia.

But it couldn't hurt to have one at this party.

Naruto used the term party lightly when describing what was going on. There was light music, but it was mostly stuffy old men and women talking about things that involved more money than he would ever see. Speaking in terms of sums that he would never use in a sentence unless he was grossly over-exaggerating the number of something.

He understood the purpose of it all as this wasn't really his first rodeo so to speak, but he still absolutely despised it. He found it so hard to find something to eat these things. Things to eat that he could actually tell what they were. So he usually went quite hungry while working these things. That was another annoying thing about these VIP missions.

The only saving grace in the past during these events was that he could chat with Karin. But she'd been rather stiff since that day in school when he'd basically blurted out that they'd almost had relations.

That was the third and most annoying thing about the current mission that he was on.

He'd apologized face-to-face and he'd given her some space afterwards. She hadn't hit him yet and he didn't think she would, but then again Karin had always been above physical retaliation despite how tough she acted. She never hit anyone first. She'd make them try to hit her and then she'd kick their asses.

"Karin." Naruto said, trying to get her to talk to him. "Karin." This was how it would go when he usually tried to talk to her directly instead of making a broad statement like the previous thing he'd said, "Ka-rin." She'd act like she was ignoring him until he reached the magic number of requests, "Rin-Rin."

An eye twitch and a rather long sip of her cocktail to hide the reaction? Ooh, that one got to her. At first it used to piss her off that he referred to her without the proper honorific, but she eventually got over it. Now he had a brand-new button to push. Wasn't that fun?

"Talk to me Rin-Rin. I know you're bored. You haven't even tried to go talk about business or rich people stuff with these guys in almost twenty minutes." Naruto reasoned as to how he could tell she really wasn't feeling this gathering, "And I have no idea how many of those you've had." He said while the glass was still at her lips.

He hadn't really been counting, but she was underage by the standards of most countries. She was seventeen like him, only one month older. Granted she wouldn't be driving anything herself or flying them home that night after they left the party so in theory she could get as drunk as her heart desired, but that didn't seem a very Kanzuki-like thing to do.

"I'm not particularly here to make any business dealings with any of the CEOs present." Karin finally started to explain, looking with one eye in Naruto's direction. Her cheeks had a touch of red across them, but that could have meant anything really, "This is more for appearances, which is why I am here instead of my father."

"He seems to be using you a lot more for this kind of thing instead of doing it himself."

"Quite. I am basically doing everything but running things on a day-to-day basis with the amount of work I do every day, even in school. I think the time is coming for me to usurp control of the company's majority holdings from him. It is what he taught me after all, to strike at times of weakness."

For some reason a confident and in control Kanzuki Karin was one of the most attractive things to Naruto in the world. He would never let her command him or tell him what to do as was his nature, but there was something inherently sexy about a beautiful girl that smart, and he had already admitted to himself that Karin was one of the finest examples of woman in his age bracket.

Focused, business-mode Karin was a dangerous, gorgeous creature. Even more so than usual.

As she continued thinking to herself she noticed that Naruto hadn't stopped looking her way for quite some time, "Security overseeing this place or not Naruto-san, I wonder why you are observing me so closely and not our surroundings. An assassin could be skulking amongst the guests here and I don't believe you would be prepared to adequately protect me."

"There isn't anything I wouldn't do to protect you." Naruto replied, still not taking his eyes off of her, "Not that you really need it. But you are my lovely boss lady, and it's a habit."

"Apparently that is all I am to you."

"What does that mean?"

Karin opened her mouth to say more, but looked around at the ongoing party and decided that it wasn't for the best where they were, "No, it is of no consequence. Forget I said anything."

That wasn't going to fly. Naruto looked around as well with a frown on his face before grabbing Karin by the hand and pulling her along with him in the middle of one of her sips of her drink. Eventually he found a path out of the proceedings and managed to get them out to a balcony overlooking the side lawn of the meeting hall.

Finally freeing her hand from Naruto's grasp, Karin walked away toward the railing and looked out over it, "What do you think you are doing?" She said as he stood behind her leaning against the wall, shutting the door leading back inside, "I do not care much for how you removed me from the ballroom for reference's sake."

"What did you mean by that's all you are to me?" Naruto didn't bother mincing words now that they were by themselves, "Just my boss? That's what you think?" He wasn't even accepting much pay at all for this. He didn't mind travelling with her and he'd have definitely done it for free by now, it was just that she wouldn't take charity work from him as an offer.

"Yes." Karin kept her voice very even and her posture quite stern as she leaned on the railing, back to Naruto, "I mean-. I… I do not know. I am not certain. Expressing what I feel in a manner such as this is confusing to convey, and I am not much for understanding matters of the heart to begin with. And I do not know why I am finding it so easy to say such things now."

"Well now you're confusing me." Naruto said, crossing his arms over his chest, "I mean, before the tournament we danced around dating for a little while, but right before I started training hard for it I played around at asking you out to test how it'd fly with you. You froze up and backtracked, so I didn't. I just trained that whole time and things stayed the way they were."

During the period of training for the Second World Warrior Tournament his clone still saw her every day in school and she treated it like it was him she was talking to. Sometimes she'd show up to the junkyard to see his progress, but she wouldn't do that too often due to the surroundings not appealing to her, which was expected. Nothing seemed any different between them.

If anything he figured that she'd be the last girl that cared about anything he'd do.

'I confused you?' Karin asked, frowning as she continued to sip at her drink and took in the chain of events prior to Naruto's leaving for the tournament in Thailand, "My apologies. I panicked. I still panic when faced with the thought of you as a suitor."

"Yeah, I know I'm not the ace catch or anything. Your old man would probably throw the ultimate bitch fit if you brought me-."

A rather throaty chuckle came from Karin as she still had her back turned to Naruto. She downed the last of her drink and left the glass on the railing before turning around and leaning against the surface, "I am not concerned with a trifle of that nature. It is not what you are, or aren't in this case, that is the problem. It is me."

There was definitely something wrong, because Karin was admitting that she was at fault for something. That never happened. Once again, Naruto looked at her intently and realized that the faint blush on her face that he'd seen inside hadn't faded yet, "You've had more than three drinks haven't you?"

"Yes. Far more."

"How many exactly?"

"I did not keep count."

"Why?"

"Because I did not know how I would speak with you without something loosening my tongue first." She moved off of the railing with a slight sway in her step that he hadn't noticed on the way outside because he'd been guiding her, "I believe it has worked."

"…You're drunk?"

"Considerably so."

"To talk to me?"

"I could not look you in the eye and confront you otherwise."

Naruto didn't say anything else about it, nor did Karin. And upon taking a few regular looking steps forward it was quite clear why Karin's first move had been to move to the nearest sturdy object in the railing once they got outside when she stumbled into him, forcing him to catch her lest she fall to the ground.

"I am afraid that I have intimacy issues you see." Karin mumbled, her face pressed against his chest before she looked up at him with soft brown eyes, "I was taught to mask and bury all imperfections or everything would be lost. To give yourself so casually to another. To allow them to take you as you are, including all flaws and imperfections… these are things that frighten me."

Karin really was more free-flowing with the words with a few drinks in her wasn't she? She was still awfully smart, that much didn't change, but-. Oh holy crap, she was rubbing herself against him now. Oh man, that was not good.

A content little moan slipped from her mouth as she rubbed her cheek against his chest comfortably, "But you do not care about any of that. You know of my few deficiencies and you are not bothered by them. You yourself are a walking imperfection." No, really. Complement him more, "Affection is not something I am accustomed to giving, but I am willing to try."

She let out a few laughs as she balanced herself against him to stand properly, and Naruto came to the conclusion that Shibazaki and Ishizaki were going to try and kill him once he got her back to the limo.

"Okay." Naruto said louder than necessary as he started to lead a rather intoxicated young woman out of the building the way that they came in, "You're still really eloquent when you're sloshed Rin-Rin, but we should get you out of here before something embarrassing happens to you."

"Do not refer to me in such a familiar manner Naruto-san, endearing though it may be." Karin said, blinking as the lights of the ballroom started getting to her alcohol-stunted senses once they started moving back through, "Why must these functions always be so well lit?"

That was the first time Naruto had ever heard someone complain about there being too many lights in a public room before, "Because rich people like lights and don't have to worry about the electric bill?" Naruto answered questioningly, "I don't know. Come on."

He continued leading her out until their way was blocked by a large, muscular man in classic formal Turkish attire complete with a sleek-looking turban. He had red skin and turquoise hair worn in weird circular curls and on many of his clothing pieces he had a very ornate golden lion. Probably a family crest or something. Lions were so overused for things like that.

"Miss Kanzuki." The man said in English in a thick accent. It was just as well. Naruto didn't think Karin knew how to speak Turkish anyway. And obviously neither could he, so it all worked out, "I'm looking forward to setting up the meeting we discussed earlier in the evening. Your family's company is quite illustrious."

"Of course Mr. Hakan." Karin managed to say louder than she should have, transferring her lack of balance too far forward before Naruto could help her pull herself back up properly. He kept her from falling, though, so he just went with the illusion that she was trying to bow, "I'm afraid I must be going as I have responsibilities to adhere to as soon as possible at home." Responsibilities like sobering up and possibly dealing with her first hangover, "But you have my personal number. Feel free to call at any time and we can arrange something."

Naruto skillfully pulled her back upright as Hakan reached out a hand that Karin took a shook, and then did the same for Naruto for some reason, which he accepted. It was strange, but Naruto wasn't about to screw up Karin's work by not taking it. He felt the little bones in his hand crack as the gargantuan man squeezed down, 'Oh my Kami! That's the one Cam broke damn it! Not again!'

His face didn't show a thing, but if there had been a dog in the room it would have been howling at the high-pitched noise coming from Naruto's closed mouth that no human being would have been able to hear.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Hakan said, satisfied at Naruto seemingly not flinching at his strength, "Hearsay of your strength has not been embellished I see. I like that." He looked back at Karin with a grin on his face, "The Kanzuki family really is able to procure the best of everything, even bodyguards."

"Of course." Karin said, patting Naruto on the cheek before the both of them moved past Hakan, "Have a good evening Mr. Hakan." She said with a bit of an airy giggle as Naruto continued to guide her out, "Oh my. I don't feel quite like myself I must say." She said before laughing a bit more and spontaneously planting a kiss on Naruto's cheek, "Ara, you take such good care of your Kanzuki-sama don't you Naruto-san?"

She was a really cute drunk; actually sweet and quite pleasant to be around. But that didn't make the situation any less potentially catastrophic if someone there figured out that she was smashed, "Let's go get your drunk little ass sobered up." Naruto said quietly enough for only her to hear, "…And get me a cast."

XxX

In a place that easily allowed the observation of the party from stairs overlooking the ballroom, several black-suited guards stood in various locations, scouting for potential problems. With all of the important people in the crowd it would be easy for anything wrong to happen, and they needed to be diligent.

Amongst them there was only one caramel-skinned female, extremely attractive, wearing a suit as well but one unique to her.

The outfit of the full-figured lady consisted of tight black slacks into heeled boots with a golden belt buckle. In addition, her open black suit jacket and white dress shirt were short enough to expose her stomach with three buttons undone higher up to show portions of her ample breasts. The button at the collar was done up though, and around her neck was a black tie. She had extremely long dark red hair done in a single braid that reached down to the back of her knees.

From behind yellow-tinted sunglasses she peered down into the crowd much like the other suited guards, but she was not amongst them. She was a different sort of S.I.N. employee altogether. From a point of view only she could see behind the glasses a small icon appeared above the heads of Naruto and Karin as they exited the ballroom, marking them as ki-adept.

She had been watching them all night. Those two and Hakan.

The only reason she had come was because she already knew that they would be there. It was known that the Kanzuki family had been invited, and while it was too much of a trip for the patriarch Daikenjuro to bother making, the daughter was a well-known busybody in the circles of enterprise.

And whenever Karin travelled out of country on one of these trips, Naruto was almost always guaranteed to come with her. Touching at the Bluetooth on her ear to make a call that had already been set up, the woman spoke into it, sounding quite bored, "Three potential candidates for the experiment were here tonight. But I don't really see them as too terribly impressive."

"You are aware that each of them can qualify as the most powerful humans in the world aren't you? Hakan is the most prominent Yağlı Güreş practitioner in all of Turkey. The Kanzuki girl is a part of the top echelon of fighters in Japan, not just amongst women, but in all of the country. And the power of Uzumaki is well-documented by Doctor Senoh even before then."

"Hakan looks powerful, I'll admit that much." The woman replied into her headset, "But the other two are rather unassuming."

"If anyone should recognize that looks can be deceiving it should be you Viper. But then again you didn't get to watch the tournament did you? You were hard at work as always."

A wry smile came to the woman Viper's lips as she turned away from the overlook of the ballroom and walked away, heels tapping on the floor, "There's money that needs to be made. I don't have time to indulge in my downtime as much as most." She pulled her gloves tighter on her hands and her face got serious once more, "So they're leaving. Should I test the potency of their battle ki for the sake of the project?"

"No. We have enough information on Uzumaki's ki from Shadaloo run-ins with him in the past. If you attack the Kanzuki girl in Switzerland you'll have to fight him no matter what."

"What about Hakan?"

"If you would like to risk destroying that brand new battle suit of yours feel free. The prototype is not meant for direct combat."

"It has to be field-tested at some point Seth."

"Agreed. But not here. And you are not part of the BLECE Project either. Not yet anyway. Leave the field work on the project to others."

Viper stopped walking and mulled over his words before shaking her head at speaking to her superior once more, "By others you mean that woman don't you?" There was a distinct distaste to her voice when saying 'that woman', "I wasn't aware that you wanted the candidates dead." She jested dryly.

"Her orders are strictly to test the targets I indicate for her. If they aren't strong enough to survive her when I'm directing her to keep them alive they aren't worth the attention are they? It's the perfect way to field test her new weaponry after all, even if there's the risk of her losing control in her excitement. You may retire from your mission. I will contact you again soon with your next assignment ."

"Juri Han is a dangerous person." Viper said to herself after Seth hung up the phone, "That woman doesn't know the meaning of subtlety. I'd hate to think of what she can do now, especially with the results of her recent surgery."

---

Omake: Meet the Family

(Six Days Earlier – Aohura City, Japan – Genhanten)

Sasuke sat on the stoop in the alley out behind the building that contained his restaurant. His reason for being out there being to oversee the delivery of ingredients to Genhanten while his workers kept things going during the end of the day early dinner rush.

'Goddamn I'm bored.' Sasuke thought to himself, 'I wish something interesting would happen around here. Anything. I don't care what it is.'

Turning to his left he acknowledged the presence of Akira who was sitting right there next to him on the stoop, her bike parked off in a corner of the large open alley. Her helmet was off and she was just looking off into the distance with a content expression on her face. With that helmet off she was really mellow and shy, but when she put it back on she could be assertive and downright fierce. It was odd.

Kazama Akira had made it a habit of stopping around on most days after her high school let out, even if it was only for a little while. Admittedly it was nice company, albeit confusing as to what the point of it was. He didn't know what she wanted.

She didn't want to fight. She never really talked when that helmet of hers was off. And she didn't want to hire him, though she did show interest in him being an assassin and not liking Naruto, probably hoping in vain that he'd take it upon himself to kill him to make her day.

Who knew what she wanted? Maybe she just liked the atmosphere of his restaurant?

Either way it didn't matter.

Eventually though, more people walked into the alley. All high school students from the looks of them, led by three young men. One was of normal height in a purple outfit with weird-looking blond eraser hair, one was massive and looked like a sumo in the making, and the last one was calm and cool... even though he had a crutch to walk with he was the most dangerous of them all.

Akira tensed up and let out an almost silent gasp, but Sasuke didn't notice. As they all looked at him and Akira he felt the need to speak up at this strange situation, "Hello? Can I help you with something?"

Edge was the first to speak up, stepping forward with his hands cockily in his pockets, "Yeah, the first thing you can do is go die. Save me the trouble."

"Ooh." Sasuke said with a smirk before hopping off of the stoop. Somebody came to call him out. He hadn't beaten the piss out of anyone in quite some time, upstanding small businessman that he was, "Ooh is this really happening? Because I really hope it is." That was the most excitement for anything that Uchiha Sasuke would ever show.

"Oh trust me." Edge said, removing a hand from a pocket before pointing it at himself, "You don't want any of what I am right now." He had just beaten the finalist in the World Warrior Tournament in a game of darts and he had an entire gang at his back. It could be said that the small-time punk was feeling rather lucky today.

"Come on then." Sasuke said, beckoning him forward. Something about this guy really made him want to slam his head through one of those delivery trucks, "Bring all five feet of you, or should I count your stupid hair?"

"Pretty big talk coming from a lame-ass playboy pretty boy."

"Pretty big talk coming from a chickenshit wannabe-Yakuza bitch."

Before Edge could literally make Sasuke's day and pull some throwing knives to initiate a fight with, Daigo lashed out with his crutch and swept his legs, knocking him to the ground, "Control yourself imbecile. This isn't Uzumaki. Look at those eyes. He won't just beat you up and leave. He'll actually kill you on purpose."

'Check out the big brains on the boss man.' Sasuke thought, giving Daigo a nod of respect of sorts for keeping his subordinate in line, 'Is that guy serious? I've killed actual gangsters. What does he think I'll do to him?'

Akira tugged on Sasuke's sleeve and quietly spoke to him, "…Kill him..." Was all most people listening in could hear from her. Sasuke was close enough to hear the extended version though and got everything.

"Fine." Sasuke said with a scoff before sitting back down next to her, "For you. I won't kill the blond idiot since he's your friend. But he'd better check that attitude at the mouth of the alley or he might not make it back out with all of his teeth."

From his place on the ground, Edge growled and started getting back up, ready to pull another throwing knife, "Motherfucker thinks he's tough." Before he could get up and do anything Gan sat on his back pinning him to the ground, "Get off fatass! This is a matter of respect!"

Ignoring Edge, Daigo walked forward and looked over at a red-faced Akira, "So this is where you go every day little sister."

"Not every day." Akira said softly, still blushing more than a little bit. Of all things, was she really staying around there enough for Daigo to get curious as to her usual whereabouts? How embarrassing… and possibly dangerous, "Daigo-nii, why'd you come here?"

His eyes quickly darted Sasuke's way and Akira's jaw dropped slightly before she glared up at him, trying to warn him off from possibly humiliating her. Being that he was stronger than her, it did not work, "Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Yeah?" Sasuke replied, eyes up and staring emptily at what he'd obviously by now figured to be Akira's big brother. His fingers twitched a bit at the thought of a big brother, but this was not the time to bring his own family issues into the open, "Is there something I can do for you?"

Daigo didn't say anything, instead just sizing Sasuke up for what seemed to be the longest time. In the end though, he just smiled, something that looked out of place on his face that was probably twisted in a scowl or a frown more often than not, "Make sure you take care of Akira."

Why? Even if someone attacked them stupidly Akira was strong enough to fight just about anyone by herself.

Either way, Sasuke had been addressed and had to respond. With an interestedly quirked eyebrow Sasuke just nodded, figuring that agreeing would get this whole awkward situation to drop as soon as possible, "Sure."

Akira was trying to carve a hole through Daigo's skull with her stare at this point, so much so that the entirety of the Gedo High Gang started taking steps back away from her. She was so going to punch him in the stomach when she got home later. She was definitely not cooking for him that night. He could feed himself for a day or two.

Seemingly satisfied after his quick observation and screening of Sasuke's character, Daigo motioned for everyone to leave the alley. With Gan getting up off of Edge, Daigo picked him up by his collar with his free hand and hurled him all the way out in an impressive show of strength, "My apologies for the actions of Eiji by the way." He said, speaking of Edge, "He lacks manners and common courtesy."

"I know the type." Sasuke deadpanned, "You might want to put him on a leash if you want to keep him."

"I'll keep that in mind." Daigo said with a humored look on his face before turning to leave with the rest of his gang as well, "Akira, I'll see you at home."

Akira's eyes didn't stop following her older sibling until long after he had left and she let out a quiet sigh of resignation. She'd done a pretty good job of keeping the crazy that was her brother's high school gang as far away from Sasuke as possible only for all of it to fall on his head in one fell swoop.

She was seriously going to kick the crap out of Daigo later. That jerk, he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Your brother seems like an alright guy." Sasuke commented idly, much to Akira's surprise. Not only because he hadn't been disturbed by anything that had just happened, but also because he was talking to her period. He barely did that without some kind of prompting first, "He should really keep better company, but whatever."

"…You don't hate Daigo-nii?"

"I didn't say all that." Sasuke said, making sure she understood him correctly, "Let's just say that I hate him less than a lot of other people I've met in this town."

A frown sprang to her face upon hearing that from him, "Is there anyone you don't hate?"

"You. Duh." Sasuke said with a shrug. He felt that much should have been obvious by now, "It's why I let you hang around. Out of everyone I know in Aohura City you're the only one whose presence I can tolerate for more than ten minutes at a time without wanting to bury a kunai in my eardrums."

Disturbing analogy aside, Akira took in the gist of what Sasuke was saying and accepted the heavily concealed compliment that it was meant to be, "Do you mean that?" She asked in a very quiet voice.

"Yeah." Sasuke confirmed, either not knowing or caring about what his words happened to do in regards to her insides doing flips, "Seriously. You're the only person I like. Everybody else I've ever met sucks." Even his other friends.

No. Especially his other friends.

All of his other acquaintances; Naruto, Yang, Yun, Chun-Li on a good day. Every single one of them could be absolutely overbearing when they wanted to be. Even when they didn't want to be most of the time actually.

Akira was better than all of them. She never talked when there was nothing going on. When she did have something to say, it was always useful. She knew how to enjoy the tranquility around her. Yeah, from his viewpoint she would be his first choice whenever he needed a second for something. He might even bother with giving her his phone number in case she needed him or vice-versa.

Hey, you never knew.

All Akira could do was look down at her biker boots with a small smile on her face that she did her best to hide.

---

I don't know how this got so long. But it happened and here it is. Some time has passed and will continue to pass between the tournament and the next arc beginning in earnest. Now if you'll excuse me I've got a big-time presentation to put together by Tuesday.

It's basically the end of my semester and I've got tons of things to do. I've got to prioritize what stories I write according to what I feel like dealing with at the time... and this won the contest of keeping my attention the easiest.

Hope you enjoyed, Kenchi out.