Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Street Fighter. I don't own the IOC either or I wouldn't have made the dumbass decision they just made. Getting rid of wrestling for 2020… what the hell?

Chapter 44: Vicious Cycle

"Dude." Batsu said, sitting by and watching Naruto take his turn in their preferred heavy-duty training area of the junkyard in the industrial district, "You seem off these days. What's going on?" He asked, and Naruto didn't say anything at first, instead choosing to shove his hand into the ground and force out a shockwave with the power of his chakra to chunk up a circle of rock around him, "…It's the Sakura thing again isn't it?"

Naruto just sucked his teeth and pulled his hand out of the ground, blowing off the dirt on it. Having his clones do the day-to-day maintenance work of his techniques while he worked and went to school was paying off. He was getting better with the Rasenshinsen as he didn't need his clones to deal as much damage at a further distance anymore. Even the Rasenbakufuu was getting better as well.

He couldn't dwell on that though, since he had been asked a question, "It's not a thing Batsu. I told you already what I almost did." Sakura couldn't look him in the eye and she couldn't even speak to him. It had been three days.

Naruto really wanted to just patch this up so he could move along and find some way to nip this whole Juri Han assassin thing in the bud before it got out of hand like it unquestionably would. Sasuke probably had the right idea about trying to hunt her down, but he pitched his idea in the most ass way conceivable, turning Naruto against the idea almost on instinct.

Batsu didn't really see what he had to be so out of sorts for. Things had been explained to him quite clearly, "She wanted it."

"Her dark side wanted it, not her."

"You've got a dark side, she's got one too... so why don't you both hook 'em up and have a blast?"

"Because it's not really her consenting you jackass!" Naruto shouted at him, shaking a fist his way. It wouldn't have been right, and if his what his brain had been telling him was correct it probably would have been more about a carnal battle for dominance than any sort of expression of love or affection.

Batsu scratched his head and crossed his arms in thought, "Wait, wait, wait. You said that the Satsui no Hadou crap was the purest manifestation of Sakura wanting to do whatever she had to do to get what she wanted… all of that rage and anger and whatever the hell you were talking about."

He was admittedly tuning in and out after Naruto explained the whole him and Sakura almost having sex in the school gym part. That had been by far the most intriguing part of the story. Freaky-deaky powers or not.

"It is."

"So technically that would mean that the real Sakura did want it… a lot."

Naruto stopped preparing to run through his next jutsu and actually stopped to ponder that. Satsui no Hadou acted on the user's dark desires. So that had to sort of mean that Sakura desired him, and then his brain turned off.

"Well what now? Why would it have been so bad to have happen aside from the obvious reasons of time and place?"

"…Because…" Naruto said before a quick chakra cloak of red engulfed his body and he shot out a claw of energy Batsu's way, "Boom! 'Tough actin' Tinactin!" With it he smashed Batsu off of the car he was sitting on and knocked him back several meters in the dirt, "Chakra Claw to the face! That's why!"

It was a rather childish way to change the subject. But it changed the subject to say the least.

"Oh you sucker-punching motherfucker." Batsu jumped back up to his feet and threw his school uniform top to the side, leaving him in a mesh shirt, "You're barking up the tree for an asswhooping!" He didn't even bother with the pretenses, quickly firing up into his Burning Vigor state if he would even have a chance of matching Naruto, "You're gonna tell me what your deal with that girl is if I have to break your fingers!"

Side effects of Burning Vigor mode included a much more aggressive Batsu than usual, which was actually quite a feat in of itself. But the angrier and more fired up he got in that form the stronger he became.

In response to Batsu's threat, Naruto turned his hands up with his middle fingers sticking up, and his chakra claws did the same as well as his chakra tail waved spiritedly behind his back, "Why don't you start with these then?"

"Someone check the clock." Batsu said cracking his knuckles, "'Cuz I believe it's go time."

"Boo…" Naruto jeered openly, "If you're gonna trash-talk do better than that."

If a normal person unused to making out fine details of such quick objects had been around to bear witness to this, it just looked like two messy orange and red masses colliding with each other again and again all over the junkyard.

Every so often, the naked eye of the common human would be able to see a full-body view of one boy or the other here or there in the middle of a sudden motion, but just as quickly it would go back to dueling masses and make one wonder if they were watching some weird, backwards game of Pong taken up to the highest speed level on the console.

In the end, a single clash sent the two figures flying away into a pile of stacked, flattened cars. It hadn't been a bit of technique at all. It had just been the two of them running into each other again and again until one guy got nailed with something.

The first to jump out and land back on the ground was Naruto, cheek smarting with a grand bruise that was already healing, "Nice punch you jerk. I didn't think you could keep up with one tail."

Batsu kicked an entire junked car out of his way before punching into his palm, his nose bleeding from Naruto's own attack, "I told you all before, I'm not getting left behind by any of you. Pull out as much of your monster chakra as you want, it'll just make me angry. And you won't like me when I'm angry." He finished with a smirk. Hopefully Naruto wouldn't get the reference.

"Lame!" Damn it!

"Shut up and fight!"

"Chakraaaa-!" Naruto shouted, putting Batsu on guard before another tail grew from his chakra cloak and both shot forward swiftly, "-Tails! Suck it!"

Batsu managed to fend off one, but the second one grabbed him around the waist and reeled him in right toward Naruto who was grinning toothily with a fist cocked back and ready to strike. Batsu's legs were still free to kick around and his foot collided with Naruto's fist, creating another shockwave and knocking him free.

Backflipping out of his previously dire situation, Batsu landed in a crouch while Naruto seemed to be hunched on all fours. Both were smiling at the other like idiots, because they were having a blast trying to kick the hell out of the other's enhanced form, even though one was facing increasingly dire odds when it came to possibly doing so.

Why was this fun? Because they were dumbasses, and getting into a superpowered slugfest for shits and giggles was entertaining. It just was. There wasn't any science or psychology to it. What were they going to do, not abuse their hard-earned abilities for their own leisure? No way. What was the point of that? They were seventeen and eighteen years old, and they had the means, so there was no reason not to.

"My vast powers..." The Kyuubi said with what sounded like something of a sigh, "Reduced to the plaything of an idiot and his equally mindless berserker of a friend."

'Hey! This is training!' Naruto asserted as he shook himself out, 'Besides, you can't sit there and tell me you're not having fun too.'

"...Fine. This is better than just sitting around."

'There you go! And on that note-.' "Hey Batsu?"

"What?"

"…Three tails."

Why the hell was that so easy for him now? And with the formation of the third chakra tail the fun was over… mostly. For Batsu at least.

If nothing else it got him to stop asking questions.

XxX

(Some Time Later - Saikyou-Ryuu Dojo)

Dan couldn't believe it.

That morning when he'd opened up his doors for all aspiring customers… err, students, the last thing he'd expected was for a basic ghost of his past to show up firsthand and grace his studio with his nigh-blank presence.

"Uh… sense-." Dan stopped himself from referring to his master with respect upon remembering that Gouken kicked him out of his dojo after barely teaching him anything. He still resented the old man for that, "What do you want Gouken? Do you want a discount on lessons? Can't do it. I don't play favorites."

Gouken wanted to roll his eyes at his least productive student, but he remained respectful. This was Dan's dojo and he would show it reverence, the same that he would expect inside of his own, "Tell me, are you aware of a girl named Kasugano Sakura?"

"Ah, my best student!" Dan exclaimed, patting himself on the back, "She barely needed any teaching from me at all to go out and kick tail! That one's a real gem! I mean, I can still whip her six ways from Sunday, but other than that…"

Right. Sure. He could defeat Sakura. Maybe if her hands were bound behind her back? Oh no, but then she'd still have her legs free to stomp a mudhole in his ass and walk it dry.

Basically, Gouken just flat out ignored all of that empty boasting and continued on, only having chosen to pay attention to the portion of Dan's rambling that had any importance to him and his query.

"So you know her." Gouken stroked his beard in thought, "That means that you would know of Uzumaki Naruto as well." Was picking Dan's brain for an in-depth view of those two possible before he began training the girl? Every little bit would help him better teach her when the time came.

"Feh." Dan spat derisively, "I mean, he's an alright disciple of mine I'd say… but that still doesn't keep him from being a blindsiding, cheap-shotting, sucker-punching, self copy-making motherf-." Apparently he couldn't hide his lingering distaste at getting publicly smashed by Naruto behind a veil of lying about him being a pupil of his the way he could with Sakura.

"I understand your point." Gouken cut him off from verbally cutting down the teenage extradimensional ninja any further, "I would like to ask you, if it wouldn't be rude to request, to stay with you, in your dojo until I have finished my business here."

Dan's eyes gleamed. Finally. A chance at getting even and showing Gouken what a massive mistake he made in cutting him loose from his teachings so prematurely, "Of course sensei." Dan said, stepping back and squaring off with him, "Free of charge if you can beat me of course. And if I win, you'll teach me your secret techniques. The ones you've even kept from Ryu and Ken!"

"Very well then. That sounds reasonable." Gouken said, standing straight up with his hands behind his back, "You may begin whenever you're ready."

He could do this. He cleanly defeated the late, great Sagat! There was no way that man threw the fight against him out of pity! He could definitely beat a crusty old man like Gouken. Those muscles were probably all for show nowadays anyway!

With a veritable war-cry inspired by his own self-confidence, Dan charged his unprepared sensei head-on, set to show him just what he was made of.

Several hours later, Blanka would return from a bountiful day of exploring the city to find his unconscious best friend half hanging out of a back wall, and a strange old man sitting and enjoying some of Dan's stocked instant dinners for a meal.

Well, if nothing else he was able to look at it this way: at least this guy seemed nice enough to be a new friend.

XxX

(S.I.N. Private Jet – Hiroshima International Airport)

'Boy oh boy.' A very testy Juri thought to herself as she walked to a private hangar that was temporarily reserved for S.I.N. usage. Forgoing her usual combat clothes she wore more casual jeans and a cream-colored backless halterneck top with a deep front 'v' that went halfway down to her stomach, 'I wonder which one it is? How about the one being protected by all of the goons in white uniforms? That sounds about right.' She mentally jested sarcastically.

Upon reaching the hangar in question she was faced with a wall of said goons that seemed to wish to prevent her from getting any farther.

"And me without my employee ID." She said to no one in particular as they started to form up. Before they could even begin moving on her she got behind them in a matter of two seconds from where she'd been standing, "You all do realize that even if I wanted to do something to the plane and the person inside of it, there's nothing any of you weaklings could do about it… right?" She turned back slightly with a somewhat maniacal look in her eye.

It did the job though, and managed to get the rest of the would-be tough guys running security for the VIP onboard to back off. Good boys. She really didn't want to have to slaughter any useless people like that. It was a waste of effort.

Without a care she walked into the hangar and right onto the private jet where she found her smartly dressed boss sitting and seemingly waiting patiently on something. Probably her. She didn't care though. Pushing his buttons to find the limits of what the inhuman Seth would tolerate was funny to her. One thing was for sure, if he was going to conduct some kind of business with others he'd better have some sort of disguise or whatever meeting he was planning on going into was going to end very quickly in fear.

"You rang?" Juri asked with a facetious, sweeping bow that almost exposed her breasts beneath her loose top, "This was a two hour drive to get here from that city you sent me to so it better be worth the mileage."

Seth ignored the rather crass young woman and her impolite attitude, instead handing her a small file that she took from the advanced being to look through herself. Seeing her raise an eyebrow at what she was reading, Seth decided to speak, "Consider this another one of the worthless remnants from Bison's days of constantly trying to ensure his own continued survival with a new body. It was a failure though, much like Killer Bee, but these predated her."

"Blonde hair… blue eyes." Juri said, looking at the first picture available to see in the docket and finding a tall, well built man that seemed to be covered head to toe in various scars, "Hello handsome. But that archetype for a body seems really, really familiar to me for some reason. Makes you think doesn't it?"

"It does seem like M. Bison did seem to have a bit of a liking to the whole 'Aryan' outlook didn't he?" Seth actually let out a chuckle at that, "Be that as it may, this last… malfunctioning body is free and roaming, having escaped disposal like the others of his generation and for some reason has drifted into this nation now."

He believed that he was searching for something. But the only reason they picked him up was because he had placed himself 'on the grid' by legally obtaining a passport and other official papers signifying that he existed. That meant something along the lines of him not knowing of his own origin. How quaint.

"-And you want me to catch him for you." Juri tried to finish before he could say it, rolling her eyes, "Seth, honestly, if I keep doing these little snatch and grab missions for you I'm gonna lose my edge. I'd much rather focus on getting to Killer Bee so I can kill her instead of doing this."

"Oh I don't need him alive." Seth said, surprising her with his infuriatingly superior smile, "By all means, go ahead and kill him when you find him. What the scientists are going to do with him when they get a hold of him would end his life anyway, so better to leave it to someone that would at least enjoy it. As long as you bring the body back do what you will."

"I'm not really into killing some putz that wouldn't even know how to throw a punch straight." Juri had absolutely no problems with killing, but she really preferred it when her targets were capable of doing more than turtleing up and praying for divine intervention, "If he was just meant to be another body and was supposed to be disposed of, how good could he really be?"

"I can assure you, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the capabilities of the target."

"Whatever." Juri said airily, waving the file around aimlessly before turning to leave, "Make sure you've got transport for extraction ready. I don't want to lug a dead body around to a drop point all night long."

"Confident aren't we?"

"If your stupid Feng Shui Engine doesn't malfunction on me again in the middle of the fight I'll have it called in just after midnight."

Seth just chuckled again, "I'm sure you will. But don't underestimate this quarry. These extra bodies have a strong propensity to… survive."

XxX

Sitting in the back of a car that had been granted to them by Interpol for the duration of Guile and Chun-Li's stay in Japan, Naruto and Batsu seemed to be like kids being chided after getting picked up from school by their parents.

Batsu had a bloody nose, a mess of bruises, and an absolutely ruined school uniform, courtesy of the blond sitting next to him. Naruto had healed from the little wounds that had been incurred during the friendly little scrum.

"You nuked an entire scrapyard." Chun-Li said, sounding very unamused at having to speed down to the scene. She and Guile had been told that it was a matter of national security as a massive bomb had apparently gone off at the end of town, but when she got there she merely found Naruto and Batsu, apparently having clashed powerful attacks with the kickback being… rather destructive, "Do you know that they were about to call in the JSDF to deal with you, just to be safe this time? Then what would you have done?"

If the Japan Self-Defense Force really would have mobilized for little old them that would have been something praiseworthy actually. Enough weird shit kept happening around there that he was surprised that the armed forces didn't keep a vigilant watch on the town at all times.

But if they had been confronted at gunpoint by the good guys his greeting to them would have been rather straightforward, 'Welcome to Aohura City, where 'amazing' happens.'

Batsu had been the one to lose, overwhelmingly, but he still kept some of his edge even while being chided by the sexy Interpol agent, "…Nuked seems like way too strong of a word for what happened in the junkyard." After all, he still had his hearing after the most recent explosion.

"Now that weird tank we blew up the other week…" Naruto interjected suddenly, "That's closer to nuked." A pair of debaucherous grins just couldn't be kept off of Naruto and Batsu's faces at the thought of their coolest and most up-to-date team victory.

"What are you becoming kid?" Guile said, trying to take shots at Naruto while he drove them home, "Destroying space-age tanks made by S.I.N., causing orange alerts in two different countries in one month... almost fucking high school girls on gym floors in broad daylight." He just had to throw that last one in there. It was his right as the boy's elder, "Yes, I heard about that. Shame on you."

Naruto just stared a hole into the back of Guile's head before saying anything. He could have argued, but he really didn't want to. Even if he knew Guile was joking, it wasn't something he wanted to get into with anyone other than Sakura herself, and that wasn't going to happen until making eye contact with each other stopped being awkward.

Naruto's face didn't change, but the inflection in his eyes did, and Chun-Li could see that through the rear-view mirror. If anyone paid close enough attention and knew him well enough, Naruto's eyes could tell an entire story of his emotions even when or if his mouth wasn't willing to. It wasn't his fault. In his case the eyes really were the windows to his soul.

Being the only one in the entire vehicle that one could deem 'compassionate ' in the least bit to other people, because Batsu and Guile were just too salty to get the point, Chun-Li was the only one willing to bring up the topic to him in a way other than boorish remarks about what would have been cool for him to do at the time, and belated jabs at his expense.

"You're going to have to talk to her about it eventually if you want to stay friends." Chun-Li remarked, turning in her seat to speak with Naruto. It wasn't a very surreptitious discussion, but Guile mostly didn't care about other people's personal problems and since it was already established to Batsu previously that Naruto and Sakura didn't have sex he lost interest quickly, "Don't avoid her. That'll just make things worse between you."

He wasn't avoiding her. They still walked to school but it was still just so awkward. They didn't know what to say to each other. What did you say to that? There wasn't anything you could do to play that off. You couldn't act as if nothing happened after what actually went down that day. There wasn't any ignoring it or sweeping it under the rug.

If this was a problem that could be solved by punching things or blowing something up, Naruto would be right in his element. Matters of the heart and mind weren't exactly his forte. He winged it more often than not for those things and he somehow hadn't screwed things up in that department yet.

Of course, advice from someone that didn't first choose to solve most of her problems by punching them first and deducing why she punched it second was very welcome indeed.

"I'm not avoiding anything." Naruto said firmly as he sat back in his seat and looked passively out of the window, "Look. Can we just… do something? Something productive?"

"Sure." Chun-Li said with a happy smile, "We can drop you off at Sakura's house instead of at your place and you two can sort this whole thing-."

"I mean something productive about… S.I.N." He specified, cutting her off from continuing to map out a 'happy ending' plan that was not going to work a bit. Even if his 'something productive' was complete bullshit, it still had reasonable basis behind it, "Yeah, those guys. Do something. These aren't really good people. I don't know what they're all about, but if they're blocking off rivers in India what else are they doing? Open a case damn it."

"We already looked into it after you told us about it. There's an investigation pending." Chun-Li replied, glaring slightly at Naruto for changing the Sakura subject, but this was still important too, "Did you get any actual evidence, take any pictures, get anything important from this place, or did you just blow it all up?"

"Um…" They didn't really go inside. That was Ibuki's job. They were just meant to run amok outdoors and attract attention. She was the one that had skulked around inside and had caused the floodgates to open, "I still have the clothes covered in the black tank gunk from when we blew it up."

"…That actually might be useful." Guile admitted, ignoring the glare from Chun-Li over how Naruto successfully changed the subject. For someone that was bad at lying he was certainly good at avoiding having to talk about the truth, "Yeah, let's go check that out kid."

And since he was driving, he was the man in control. So they were going to be heading wherever he wanted to go, not where she wanted to make Naruto go.

XxX

(Downtown Aohura City)

Sakura had very simple tastes as far as many things went. She liked clothes that were comfortable above things that looked expensive and valuable. She was a very good cook that liked to focus on making simple things as good as possible, which was why Naruto thoroughly enjoyed ramen that she made so much. She was diligent and focused in schoolwork, keeping straight-A's for the entirety of her school career.

If there was a weakness that she had, it was that she could be easily distracted and left to think deeply. She simply couldn't set thoughts that she felt were important aside, with a tendency to ponder things until there was no other place to go with them, and then she would do it all over again.

When she had something on the brain, it stayed there. And there wasn't anything she could do to clear her mind until whatever issue plaguing her was settled.

On this occasion though it wasn't something that the lovely schoolgirl was eager to face down directly.

Being his usual easygoing self, Naruto had tried to play it off and chalk everything that had happened between them in the gym that day up to a mutual chemical imbalance or something else when it came to her dark side, that he had affectionately dubbed 'Sunburned Sakura-chan' to try and get some sense of normalcy to occur once again. It didn't work.

She couldn't look him in the eyes after what she'd almost made them do.

The heart wants what the heart wants, no matter how much the head tries to rationalize that it isn't a good idea. It just so happened that her heart had a propensity to become so strong that it overrode her rational thought.

It made her come off as a girl that she really wasn't, and it really rattled her. What Naruto must have really thought of her. And Ibuki… oh God, she needed to apologize. The thought was mortifying.

When she was distressed, Sakura trained extra-hard, a habit picked up from Naruto and her own work ethic, but her body couldn't hold up at wicked paces nonstop every day the way that Naruto's could and she had to stop eventually and relax.

Even when relaxing she couldn't let her mind settle too much and busied herself with some roadwork, endurance running through the neighborhood. She wound up running after school for far longer than she'd originally intended to, for hours, and went far farther than her own neighborhood, venturing in a direction that would not carry her past Naruto's apartment due to her fear of facing him.

The constant pain in the back of her throat from the running was a welcome distraction from her already distracting thoughts. At least she could focus on something else, optimizing her cardiovascular conditioning in the most grueling manner that she could at the moment. Just so long as she didn't stop. If she stopped they'd start again. Those damned thoughts.

She wound up running into the middle of the city, without stopping or turning her eyes away from straight ahead of her path.

"You seem like you have a lot on your mind young one."

Running past the corner of a building she stopped suddenly after hearing someone say something to her. So engrossed in her own thoughts was she that she almost stumbled into the street upon coming to a stop to face the man that had spoken to her, "You!"

Gouken was leaning partway out of the door to a building. Dan's dojo as a matter of fact. Good lord, what in the world was someone like that doing there? Actually, what was she doing there?

Oh man, she ran all the way to Dan's place? That was around the middle of town! Her mother was going to chew her out later for being gone for so long.

"Oh no." Sakura fretted, pacing around in her exercise clothes, "I should have only been gone for an hour, not three. I'm so dead when I get home." She was still a teenage girl with regular teenage girl issues no matter what it was that came along with it, "Sorry Mister…" She said, realizing that she'd never gotten his name after the first inauspicious meeting that they'd had.

"Gouken." The old man said kindly, choosing to step outside of Dan's establishment to converse with the girl that he wished to teach, "Thinking so hard about whatever seems to be bothering you is very unhealthy child. But I can guess what it is."

"I'd rather not talk about it with someone I don't know." Sakura said, face turning red as her eyes directed themselves toward the ground, "It's kind of personal. It's really only my business and someone else's." She just had to get up the nerve to talk to him about it directly.

Gouken nodded and remained silent for a moment, "Dear, do you know why you wound up wandering here of all places when you could have ended up anywhere else in your city?"

"…Probability?"

A laugh of all things came from the style master, "No, not quite. Fighters in our style find it very easy to locate each other based on the familiar pull of others trained similarly to us. I can tell where all of my students are at this very moment." He could feel where Akuma was too, but he didn't deem that important at the moment, "It was how I found you. Dan as well."

Okay, admittedly she could sense the complete aura of nothingness from Gouken and was fairly certain that if she went forty blocks in any direction she'd still be able to, but that was kind of an outrageous thing to state, "I can't feel anything like that from Dan. I never have." Ryu and Ken, maybe, like when they were in Thailand, but other than that… not so much.

"Well there's a very good reason for that, but since I'm staying with him for the time being I really shouldn't say." Gouken said under his breath before shaking his head, "Either way, you came here because of that. I don't know if you were informed of it or not, but I would like to train you properly." Sakura's face reflected deep shock, "For you to have come as far as you have all on your own, that shows remarkable talent, and I simply couldn't forgive myself if I let someone as pure of heart as you to fall prey to the allure of the Satsui no Hadou."

"Is it really that bad?"

"If you had fired the Hadoken that you had been charging at that girl and I hadn't stopped you, you would have destroyed the entire building we were in and everything in the direction you were aiming in for a quarter mile. Think about it."

Neither of them said anything for the longest time while Sakura did indeed ponder it all over. Her face slowly descended into a frown and paled until she finally shook herself out of her musing. Gouken had said the 'magic word' before bringing up her dark side after all, "…Okay, so you said something about training?" She said, trying to sound bright and sunny despite her own internal turmoil.

As long as it sidetracked her from thinking about her actual problems for the time being it was ideal, until the combat-adept lass was ready to look Naruto in the eye again with some kind of measure of pride.

"Let me tell you something about what lies within you."

XxX

(Elsewhere in Aohura City – Genhanten)

Gen's idea of a vacation from Hong Kong did not include attending to the day-to-day running of the restaurant of his namesake. That was what he paid Sasuke and let him stay out of China to run the Japanese end of the assassination racket for. But the boy was more irritable and grouchier than usual lately, because of his one run-in with Juri Han.

He was obsessing over using their underground connections to find her, since he knew that someone had heard of or dealt with her before.

The restaurant was settling into an early evening lull in the time just before people that had been working all day would go out with their families for dinner, so Gen had some time to go up to the room that Sasuke was using as his quarters since Gen had stolen Sasuke's actual abode from him for the duration of his stay in Japan.

All that was in the room was a single futon and a light. Even more Spartan than his actual room's setup was as eerie as that was. And Sasuke sat in the middle of the floor, tapping away at the keyboard of a laptop.

"Boy, what did I tell you about obsessing over things?" Gen said, sleeves covering his hands as he placed them together in front of his body, "It will only lead you to ruin."

This wasn't some Itachi pipedream that he couldn't reach from this world though. This was entirely different. The person here was very reachable, she had pissed him off in a rather personal way, and getting her back was a very, very obtainable goal that would probably make him feel much better about himself after he did it.

"I'm not obsessing." Sasuke said, not looking up from his personal computer and the prepaid cell phone at his side. Damn it if he'd admit it but Naruto's burner phones were a great idea that he was going to steal, "This is actual work. She's buried after a certain point when it comes to records on her. If she weren't a psychopathic bitch that I'm going to set on fire with a smile on my face I'd say I was impressed." He was about to head to Tokyo and putter around there. Hopefully he'd stumble across something.

"Are you getting laid?"

"…What?" Sasuke actually stopped and looked Gen's way as if he'd grown a second head.

"It's a simple question." Gen said before repeating himself slowly, "Are you getting laid? By that Akira girl that's got you all out of sorts over her injuries. I can't think of why else you would care this much about anyone getting injured. You didn't care this much when Yang and Yun got beaten up by your friend Uzumaki and his ninja girl."

Sasuke didn't even care when he'd found out that Gen had leukemia. At the age of fourteen he actually laughed at him all those years ago when he'd found that out. He didn't even wait to get behind closed doors first. He did it in the middle of Gen's Genhanten restaurant in Hong Kong, out loud, in front of customers.

He truly, truly despised that man.

"Yang didn't even get beaten up that badly and Yun completely deserved the Rasengan he got from Naruto." Sasuke insisted with a glare, "That was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen him do. I told him not to pick a fight with the dobe." He continued, setting his computer to the side, "Akira didn't do anything to get singled out the way that she did other than being around me at the wrong time."

"Which leads me back to my original question of are you intimate with this girl?" He inquired while stroking his long white beard.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response you old son of a bitch." Honestly, Sasuke caught enough of that crap from Naruto and his idiot friend Batsu whenever he was around as well. He didn't need to hear it from someone he wanted to kill as well, "Get out."

"I've seen her. She's quite lovely and just your type. Why not take her out? Do you not like women?"

"I'm going to piss on your grave when you die."

"I'm getting cremated you miserable brat."

"Great. I'll do it myself and piss in your ashes then."

XxX

(Early Evening – Naruto's Apartment)

"Holy shit." Guile said as he held up the remnants of one of Naruto's outfits from the mission to India and set it on the kitchen table. He had to wait for Naruto and Batsu to thoroughly wrap the table in plastic wrap first, the reason being that it was covered in some thick, black residue, "Kid if you were wearing this I think you might want to go to the hospital and get yourself checked out for radiation poisoning or something."

It looked like some kind of waste from some sort of generator of energy, and Naruto talked about a future tank, so future equaled nuclear stuff in the mind of Guile.

Exhausting the last of the plastic wrap on the table, Naruto threw the empty container aside, "No. I was gonna burn it, but I didn't want that black and white fire thing to happen again around here so I just sealed it up and kept it until I figured out what to do with it."

Dropping the clothes on the table, they let out a strange audible thump as if it weighed something significant, "What the hell is this, dark matter?" Guile asked, looking at the black residue on his hands that remained just from just holding the suit up, "I'm going to need some damn Lava Soap or something to get this crap off aren't I?"

"Yes." All of the teenagers in the room, including Naruto, Batsu, Cammy, and Ibuki who had been spending her afternoon there with Cammy, said simultaneously as they all pointed over at Naruto. He had to shower for two days with the heaviest duty soap he could find to finally get all of the black stains off of his skin.

"Oh wow." Chun-Li said, having taken the initiative to run a chemical composition on what comprised the residue on Naruto's beat-up clothes, "Oh this is bad. Or good. I can't tell yet. It's a matter of perspective really. Guys, there's a chemical trace in here that has a signature familiar with the agent of a bio-weapon." The same bio-weapon they'd come across in Brazil.

"Bless you." Ibuki said in turn before realizing that this was supposed to mean something, "Wait, a bio-weapon? That stuff is supposed to be biological?" But Naruto had been covered from head to toe in it when he'd come back… and some of it remained on his skin for a day or so afterwards as well, "Ew."

"Yeah, some sort of new chemical weapon being designed." Guile said, crossing his muscular arms sternly, "We're not able to locate the manufacturer or what the point of it is supposed to be for, but everyone that had been found infected wound up blowing up. Their pressure points exploded from too much ki being forced through all of the spots. More than the human body can take." And then everyone slowly turned to look over in Naruto's direction.

"…" Naruto had been busy snacking from a bag of chips in his cupboard when he'd heard that and had frozen in place with crumbs around his mouth and on his cheeks, "…Am I gonna die?" He asked fearfully with a mouthful of chips before dropping the bag.

"Oh, poor baby!" Ibuki cooed, grabbing Naruto's head while his eyes went wide, noticeably affected. Dying in a fight on his feet was okay with him. Dying in some hospital bed coughing up blood while his body slowly exploded on itself was most assuredly not cool, "I'll find a cure, I swear I will, or I'll be right by your side when you go!"

"You do know I'm gonna explode right?"

"…I'll wear a tarp?"

Batsu, who had been raiding Naruto's fridge for something to drink, slowly shut the door and began backing out of the immediate area altogether, "Oh… man. So he's got some kind of super-sickness like SARS… or bird flu… or a staph infection." At that point a cough came from Naruto as Ibuki kept holding onto him, "See! It's already too late!"

"A chip crumb made me choke you bastard! Fuck you, I'm not sick! I feel fine, 'ttebayo!" Naruto replied heatedly, voice hitching a bit, thus taking a good amount of the bite out of his statement.

"That's how it starts! One second you feel great and then BOOM! T-Virus for everybody! Well not in my town you don't!" Batsu picked up a kitchen knife and shakily held it in Naruto's general direction, "Quarantine him. Quarantine the shit out of him like in that movie… what's it called? Quarantine. Sorry bud, it's you versus everybody else in Aohura City and everybody else outweighs one teme."

"I don't think he's sick." Cammy interjected from where she was looking at all of this over the back of one of the couches in the living room. Her head tilted to the side slightly in thought as she pondered it over a bit more, "…Then again I don't think he's ever been sick, so how would he or anyone else know or not?"

"Cammy!" Ibuki exclaimed, "Get over here and hold him! This could be his last night on Earth and he needs to know that he's loved!" Cammy blinked and was about to jump over the couch to do just that if that was what was going on until another person interjected and stopped her.

"It's not infectious like that!" Chun-Li eventually snapped, taking the knife out of Batsu's hand and hitting him over the head with the flat portion, "It's not airborne or passable by contact with an infected!" She then quickly turned her eyes Naruto's way and tacked something on for his benefit, "…If he even has it to begin with, which he probably doesn't!" She added, holding the knife in Batsu's direction before he could fly off of the handle again.

"So I'm not gonna die?" Naruto asked, sitting on the floor and letting Ibuki rock him with his head against her sizeable bust. Despite being consoled he was still not feeling very motivated to remove himself from her tender mercies.

"The chemical was in the system of the victims. There was nothing from contact. It was put into their bodies somehow." Chun-Li said, tapping her foot on the ground impatiently. She loved them like siblings for the most part, but there was something wrong with them all, "Getting covered in whatever gunk did that to your clothes isn't enough to contaminate you. At the very least you'd have to ingest it as far as we've seen."

"Well this all happened when we were attacking that S.I.N. dam." Ibuki commented, still enjoying her Naruto time while she still had free reign to do so, "It was their tank. So that means that they were the ones that made up the bio-weapon you guys are looking into as well right?"

Both Guile and Chun-Li shared a glance between each other before the former spoke, "S.I.N. you say?" Well that was very interesting, but they couldn't do anything about it with something concrete. They'd wind up investigating it quickly, as soon as they could now that they finally had something to latch onto, "…Thanks kids. I've got an idea, and I think you can help."

Yes, they had a good track record of solving problems without the need for gathering evidence and all of that other frivolous stuff. Sure it tended to be a little destructive, but hey, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

While he was already planning in his head on what he and Chun-Li could do to start gathering evidence on S.I.N. to see just where this rabbit hole led to, Naruto was still concerned with something a little bit more pressing.

"…So am I still gonna die or what?"

XxX

(Somewhere Downtown)

Citizens of the city were giving a rather large, imposing-looking foreigner quite a bit of space as he walked down the street wondering just what he'd gotten himself into.

He had short blond hair that was slightly spiky in the middle like a faux-hawk and had several scars clearly visible to all on his right brow, under his left eye, on the bridge of his nose, and on his chin. He wore a casual leather jacket and black jeans with a travel bag over his shoulder.

'Why did I figure that coming to Japan was a good idea?' The man thought to himself as he stared at all of the signs that he couldn't even hope to read. His eyes kept panning down to a simple translation book, but it wasn't doing him much good, 'That girl. That girl from the tournament. She… there's something about her. Something familiar. I have to find what it is.'

Which was why he was in Japan. From the interview she gave on-air during the Second World Warrior Tournament, she had a distinct British accent, but she lived all the way in Aohura City, Japan, which was a sharp contrast to how she spoke such clear and fluent English.

Aside from that, there was just something about her that pulled at his mind the entire time he'd watched her matches, and he didn't know why. That probably would have sounded a bit weird if he'd told someone, but since his caretaker died he didn't really have anyone to talk about anything with.

Nor did he really have anything to talk about. He'd just been found in some destroyed facility in France one day when he was a young man, and when he'd woken up from whatever had happened to him he couldn't remember a thing, not even his own name. He was taken in for the most part by the odd soldier in and given the name Abel for some reason. But then the man disappeared and that was how it had been since then.

That wasn't important right now. What was important was finding the girl that he was looking for. She couldn't be that hard to locate. She had a very particular appearance, one that wouldn't be common at all in Japan, especially with that scar on her cheek.

If only he knew how to ask around for things. He did not speak a touch of Japanese at all. That probably should have been something he considered when he'd set up the trip to leave in the first place. And this wasn't even a large city.

"God, finding you was so easy." An exasperated female's voice said, speaking up in order to be intentionally heard, "This really wasn't worth wasting my time over."

The man turned to look for the person and found a very particular woman smirking and waving at him on the same public street, standing on a traffic light of all things as she looked down at him.

At this point by now, the few denizens of the town that were on that particular block were so accustomed to high-level battles taking place all over that clearing the streets had become something of a practiced science. Before the foreigner had even known it, he was out there alone. He hadn't even noticed.

"You were searching for me?" He said, blue eyes sharpening on the suspicious woman. So far she was the only person that had tried to speak to him in any language that he'd understood; English.

"Yep." Juri said, "Walking around in the middle of town like this all day, you're not difficult to catch up to even though I'm new here too. So do you need someone to show you around?" The look on her face was comparable to a cat that had just eaten a canary… or was about to.

"I see…" Even so, there wasn't much that the French foreigner could do without prompting. All he could do was tread lightly, "Well in that case, would you point me in the direction of a person named Cammy White."

If anything, Juri's grin spread wider across her face from the smirk that it had been before, "I'll do you one better. I'll bring her to you."

"You would do what?" That was hard to believe.

"Yeah." Juri said, jumping down from her previous perch, "I mean, after I send both of you to hell you'll meet up down there somewhere eventually." She said with a casual air, "Maybe you can meet up with Bison too while you're at it… have a gigantic Shadaloo reunion while you're roasting down there."

And now the man was more defensive as ever, dropping his bag onto the ground to prepare himself for something, "Excuse me?"

"Nothing to be excused for." Juri said covering most of her face and grin with her hand, "I'm gonna kill you, but don't worry about it. At least no one'll miss you. You're just one of Bison's failed experimental spare bodies after all, and it's not like he's around to use you anymore."

"My name is Abel." The man said, taking great offense at everything she was saying, "I'm no one's experiment."

"Not anymore duh! I just told you that you were a failed one, or aren't you listening?" Juri laughed, "At least Killer Bee was smarter than you and useful enough to actually get a name before Bison tried to get rid of her. Between you and her I guess the bastard was really losing his touch at genocide if you both got away."

Abel just stood there blankly and blinked before narrowing his eyes and piecing what he could together, "You know of where I come from?"

"I know enough honey." Juri preened, shifting around in place to loosen up, "Whatcha gonna do about it?"

Abel took off his jacket to reveal a white t-shirt and muscular, heavily scarred arms. Throwing the garment away he stood up in what looked to be an active grappling stance, "I'll do whatever I have to in order to get that information from you."

Juri clapped her hands thrice before jumping and spinning in the air, landing in her personalized ready stance for fighting, "Finally! Let's get this show on the road!" First and foremost she sprinted as fast as she could directly in Abel's face, right in between his arms that had been prepared to grab anything that came close.

She was so close and had done it without warning so quickly that he could clearly see the color of her eyes, shimmering with mirth, before he ever even chose to grab for her or react in any way. When he did, he managed to get nothing but air as she had already jumped straight over him, landing on his back and springing back onto the sidewalk.

What could you do about that? Abel was perplexed. He'd never trained with anyone that speedy before. It was uncanny, almost comparable to fighting a hummingbird in human form. It was the closest comparison he could make.

"Mmm…" Juri said, sizing Abel up as he looked her over trying to break her down before they wound up clashing again, "Nope. I'm not very impressed. And here Seth was telling me that this would be entertaining."

"Entertaining?" Abel said before lunging at her to initiate his own attack, "There isn't anything entertaining about a fight! It's about surviving! It's terrifying!" Before anything else he leapt at her in a swift sideways spin, swinging his leg with crushing force, "Coup de Pied Volant (Wheel Kick)!"

Juri's eye flashed for a split-second before she bolted right out of the trajectory of Abel's well-aimed kick, "Kasatushi (Deathly Killing Stare)!" There was a myriad of movements she could have made after doing so, but she was more interesting at watching Abel's kick smash the concrete and force a split from the point of contact thirty feet away. Maybe this would be fun, "I know that fighting is supposed to be terrifying! That's what makes it fun!"

"Fun?" Abel said, facing off with her once again, "What kind of creature are you supposed to be, a demon in the guise of a woman?"

Close enough.

"Heh." Juri's body started to quiver slightly, either in rage or excitement, Abel couldn't tell, "Learn to fight like me, and you'll realize just how boring everything else is!"

Before Abel knew it, Juri was right back in his face again, and this time she didn't do it just for show to prove that she could. Her leg snapped upward at a seemingly inhumanly flexible manner, kicking him right under the chin and lifting him off of the ground slightly until he landed neatly back on his feet, head swimming and jaw throbbing.

Bringing her leg back down, Juri swung it and her entire body around in a spin kick that nailed Abel again and knocked him out into the street.

So far all Juri could say about Abel was that he could take a few kicks and get back up since that was what he was doing. His one offensive attempt had potential, and it probably would have endangered someone else, but not her.

"You're just way too inexperienced." Juri said as Abel got back up, bleeding from his left side, especially from the arm where he had a very nasty case of road rash from landing in the street, "You've got moves, and the way you're conditioned it's clear you were one of Bison's spare body experiments, but you're not used to taking on real opponents."

Abel didn't say anything, just diligently preparing to fight some more, despite the beating he was starting to take, 'There's got to be some way to land a blow against this woman. Somehow.' As he thought that, he wound up taking another kick as Juri slammed her leg into his stomach again, 'How can she…?'

Jumping up from where she'd posted her foot in Abel's body as a step-up point, she basically slapped him three times with kicks from her other leg that knocked him back again onto the hood of a parked car on the side of the street.

"Hah!" Juri licked her lips and jumped high into the air before suddenly rocketing to the ground, leading with her leg straight out to drive through Abel, "Shikusen (Flash of Suffering)!"

Abel rolled off of the car and onto the ground just as Juri kicked down on it so hard that her foot pierced the hood and punched the engine out through the undercarriage onto the ground. That would have run him through like a spear, no question about it. He'd have been meat on the chopping block.

From where he'd rolled onto the ground, Abel immediately hunkered down, grabbing underneath the car and with great and clear effort proceeded to easily flip the car over upside-down with Juri still standing on it. Once again, she was impressed and saw a spark of something there, something that Seth had been referring to when his eyes temporarily turned pure white with black sclera, but even so, "Still just way too green to contest with me!"

Juri flipped off of the car as it was being flipped through the air and landed on the side of the building as the car rolled down the street. As her feet touched the wall her legs bent before springing off at Abel again. A kick that she swore was about to hit him clean in the head and possibly remove it was stopped by both of his arms in a cross-guard that let off a shockwave from the impact.

Backflipping off of the block, Juri landed to find Abel right in her face, fist moving forward to drive straight through her body, "RAAGGGH!" The shift in Abel's eyes represented something that Juri's cybernetic eye felt was quite familiar. It was an unnatural enhancement of his normal ki. Why was that so familiar?

Oh whatever.

Once again, Juri cheated him out of his attack landing, blurrily moving into the air with Abel's arm fully extended from the punch that he'd thrown. While it definitely would have dealt her a devastating injury had it landed, now all it did was give her an opening to do something incredibly cruel.

Quickly dropping down, Juri threw a flipping ax kick that tore through Abel's arm at the forearm like it was part of a paper mache piñata, only candy didn't come out of this… just lots and lots of blood.

She wasn't all speed. When she wanted to sacrifice speed for power in her kicks, it was a deadly trade-off.

Abel dropped to his knees, blood spilling freely from the stump that used to be his left arm. Instead of screaming at the top of his lungs in pain he seemed to be going into shock, shaking badly and staring at the injury with dilated pupils as he hyperventilated.

Juri just clicked her tongue and walked circles around him, "I see… I see. I know why Seth wants you back. His cute little BLECE Project, you're a key to it. That little extra burst that you had at the end there, that wasn't yours. Not all of yours anyway."

He never said anything about leaving him alive though, so she wouldn't. Lifting her leg overhead to finish the job in one smooth stroke she then had to turn to use a kick to bat away an admittedly feeble ki projectile thrown her way.

She would have batted it away had it not dispersed in midair before even reaching her.

Alright, who was the dead chump that threw that, pathetic as it was? Apparently it was some loser in a pink gi throwing a tantrum at his shitty technique.

"You think you're gonna kill someone in my town? Not while the best in the world is right here!"

XxX

(Moments Earlier)

"Stupid master…" Dan said as he walked back home to his dojo from a convenience store, "Ate all of my snacks… got rid of all of my beer. 'Taints the body' he says. Feh." And he had the gall to give Sakura lessons in his studio, after he'd told him that she was his prized student.

Granted none of that was true whatsoever, but was he really that hard to believe? He was a great teacher! All of his other students said so. Then again none of them could bust a grape with a punch before paying for his training. Some of them still couldn't, but hey, at least they felt better about being themselves!

Quickly draining the remainder of one of the cans from his newly purchased six-pack, Dan had a decent alcoholic buzz going as he immediately opened another can and started guzzling it down. He had to finish the whole thing and the rest of the six-pack before he got back or Gouken would just throw the rest out since he didn't want alcohol in a place of martial arts.

He was going to be wasted by the time he got home.

"RAAGGGH!"

Hearing a guttural yell, Dan's natural sense of wanting to spy on fighters to see if there was anything someone did that was cool and easy enough to steal and say was his from Saikyou-ryuu took over and he sprinted off in that direction to find what it was. Wiping his mouth off he decided to sip at another beer while he ran. Bad idea, but one couldn't dwell on that.

Not when he came across a man on his knees in the middle of the street, blood streaming from a lost portion of arm like an open faucet, and a very pretty woman in somewhat revealing clothes walking circles around him and looking quite pleased with what he figured to be her handiwork.

Just because she was lithe and lovely didn't mean she wasn't as nasty a fighter as they came. He knew firsthand that women were usually the meanest sort to go against.

Which meant only one thing with the alcohol giving ego a bigger boost than usual.

It was hero time.

Without pause, Dan dropped his bag and his beers and charged down the street before cocking his arm back to hurl his best ki attack her way, "Gadoken (Self-Taught Fist)!" And oh baby, it was on target.

The girl turned around to face the thunder head-on, but there wouldn't be any stopping this hurricane. Hibiki Dan was a force of physical nature.

And then his Gadoken dissipated in the air as if it were nothing.

'Damn it why does that keep happening!?' Dan shouted, stomping his foot on the ground before he realized he had the girl's attention, "You think you're gonna kill someone in my town? Not while the best in the world is right here! Imma deck you in the schnoz!"

Juri just stared at Dan before lowering her leg from trying to block Dan's last attack, instead shoving Abel over onto his side with her foot, "I'm sorry, that's a new one. And you are?"

"Hibiki Dan, Aohura City and Japan's most valuable human asset!" Dan said, pointing firmly at Juri, "Now leave that guy alone! You already know you can't beat me even with the axe you used to cut his arm off! That's why you threw it away!"

By now Abel had recovered from his shock enough to know that there was a third person with him and Juri, even though he was still laying down in the street and bleeding out into the nearest open drain, "She didn't use an axe…"

Dan just looked over at the wounded Frenchman in confusion and then back to Juri, "If she didn't use an axe or something sharp to hack your arm off, how'd she cut it off?"

Neither Juri nor Abel said anything, but Juri just flexibly lifted up her leg and foot in clear view of Dan and wiggled her pink painted toes with a smirk on her face. The blood from slicing off Abel's arm was still all over the lower portion of her white pant leg and her bare foot.

He then remembered everything that Naruto had told him about the apparent powerful fighter that was out to possibly target certain notable fighters in town, and realized the fact that she fit the profile that had been described to him very well. Flawlessly so as a matter of fact.

"No…" Dan said, his accusing hand beginning to shake, "No." Why did all of the freaks of nature have to come to Aohura City to fuck shit up? He needed to move somewhere where fighters sucked, because this was ridiculous.

"Yes." Juri replied, reveling a bit in the air being taken right out of Dan's sails. He turned around to run, but before he managed to make it five steps she cut him off by speeding right in front of him, hands on her hips rather provocatively, "You walked into the wrong party."

Frightened at what he'd gotten himself into, Dan let out a girlish scream and threw a punch as hard as he could that Juri stopped with the bottom of her foot. In one slick motion, she pushed his hand and arm down and popped her foot back up into his face with a trio of rapid-fire kicks that he didn't even see.

Dan stood up for a moment before falling down onto his butt to look up at her. She didn't even care about his existence as she walked past him to go back over to Abel and finish the job, "I'm not wasting my time with you. Look at you, you're so smashed you can't even stand."

"Maybe…" Dan said as he got right back up and wiped at his nose, "But I'm not that drunk!"

"Being drunk would at least buy you an excuse for getting back up." Juri muttered to herself before turning and throwing a kick that hurled a purple/pink ki wave low in his direction, "Fuuhajin (Wind Breaking Blade)!"

The ki attack flew low, and cut chunks out of the street before Dan jumped into the air over it, "I'm gonna autograph your face with my fist!" Letting out a war cry as he tried a flying punch while falling her way, he was completely surprised when he was stopped again by Juri's foot, this time with her catching him at his chest flat on the bottom of it, "How did you-?"

"I don't even need my eye to avoid you." She drawled lazily before spinning around and driving Dan into a small crater in the road with a slam of her leg, "What an embarrassment." Juri wiped off her pants as Dan twitched in the fresh new pothole in the street before turning her attention back to Abel, only to find him missing altogether, "What?"

There was a blood trail, but it led to his jacket that he'd discarded at the start and then disappeared, so the bastard must have used that somehow to patch himself well enough to get somewhere safer to hide.

For someone that didn't know much about practical street fighting, Abel was a quick study, or at least had one hell of a survival instinct.

"Damn it!" Juri shouted, stomping her foot on the ground hard enough to punch a hole through the asphalt. When she heard the sound of Dan clawing his way back out of the crater she'd made with his body she turned back around testily, "What?" She asked venomously.

'It's time for the strongest move I know.' Dan thought to himself, showing the violent marks of battle on his frame, 'If I can beat Sagat, this chick should be a snap to finish with this one.' Pushing himself the rest of the way up, Dan ran right at her with his fist ready to strike, "Saikyou-ryuu rules! Hisshou Buraiken (Certain Victory Villainy Fist)! Di-!" He wound up running right past Juri when she sidestepped him and tripped him with an outstretched leg.

She didn't even turn to look at him as he fell face-first to the ground with enough force to crack the road. A hard head was what he had to his benefit if nothing else.

"Tch." Juri dusted her feet off on Dan's gi as if he were an entrance mat and walked away from him. Even wasting two minutes on that clown was too long for her. She walked over to Abel's severed arm and picked it up off of the ground before walking away with it, "This should shut Seth up even when I tell him what happened."

There was no way that Abel was going to be able to get very far with a severed limb, and Seth was going to be in Japan for a week or so to broker more leverage and worldwide standing for S.I.N. with some 'business deals', so he would be occupied and wouldn't try to bust her ass over this.

A week was more than enough time to find the broken Shadaloo toy and finish him off.

XxX

He had to get away. That woman was a terror. He needed medical attention in a hurry or he was going to meet his end, 'She knew something… about who I am, or was.' It figured that the only person he'd ever met that could give him some background on himself was out to kill him.

Were it not for the timely intervention of that mentally challenged, weird alcoholic man he would have died. Who knew that Aohura City had such a man-of-action homeless population?

And he ran. He ran as far as his lungs would allow him to go, and that was farther than he figured he was capable of. He amazed himself with how far he was able to go. Miles. At least he figured he'd gone miles. He lost count as he grew weaker and his blood started soaking through his jacket.

Either way he continued forward, no longer running, but basically stumbling along at this point. No hospital. He'd be too easy to find in a hospital. That would be the first place someone like the kicking girl would check for him. She was no fool.

His vision started to blur as he continued to walk, leaning against the wall of the building he was against as he continued along. The blurry figure of a human being filled his vision and a voice rang out in his ears despite how muffled it sounded to his weary mind. Either way, he still couldn't understand Japanese. Hopefully they'd understand something other than French.

Before he blacked out he only had one thing to say, "No hospital… please."

Damn it, why couldn't anyone helpful speak to him in something he could comprehend?

XxX

(Moments Earlier)

Sasuke was in the middle of walking home from visiting Akira, much to Gen's amusement, but he just death glared the bastard all the way out the door as he left that evening. At least by now she was up and moving around, so that was much better than she'd been a few days ago.

All he was doing now was enjoying the tranquility of the night before he wound up back in the living hell of staying in Genhanten with Gen. The day that he decided to go back home would be the best day that he'd have all year.

'What's with the blood smell?' Sasuke thought to himself until he was able to see someone walking down the street, leaning against the wall of a building. His building. His window. Damn it, he was bleeding on his window, 'Why does this shit keep happening around my property?'

Some blond guy (of course he was) with scars all over his body looked like he'd taken one hell of an asskicking, and his left arm was covered in a black jacket that was soaked with blood.

He looked up at Sasuke weakly before uttering something in English, "No hospital… please." And that was all he got out before falling down on his face where he didn't move again.

Sasuke just stared at him for half a minute before sighing and making to drag him into Genhanten to try and save his life. No hospital? He could respect that. And he couldn't rightfully let someone die in front of his property. Business would tank forever when that got out to the public.

"Come on." Sasuke said with a grunt as he tried to do his best not to leave a blood trail with Abel's body as he took him inside and dragged him up to the living quarters portion of the restaurant building, "…I guess I'll hose off the window and sidewalk outside after I get Gen to make sure you don't die."

Well at least for once this had absolutely no connection with Naruto or any of the people that surrounded him.

Yep. No connection to a single one of them.

XxX

"Achoo!"

Naruto's eyes popped open in his bed when he heard the cute little sound of Cammy sneezing. He had been sleeping, but good manners to the sweet young lady just happened to be common courtesy. Rubbing his eyes with one hand he smacked his lips and blearily looked over in the dark of his room, "Bless you Cam."

"Thank you Naruto." She said before returning to her previous activity of trying to go back to sleep with a small yawn.

The only thing that could be heard in the room for a few beats happened to be the ticking of the clock in Naruto's room due to the quiet of the night, but eventually Naruto's eyes turned Cammy's way despite the fact that he couldn't see a damn thing, because he could feel her basically attached to his entire left side.

As was normal for when Cammy slept, she was not wearing a stitch of clothing, finding doing so uncomfortable. She had enough trouble sleeping peacefully with her constant nighttime faded memory spots without adding another problem to that on as well.

"Cam, when did you get in my bed?" A sign of his adjustment was just how calm he was with a clothes-free Cammy hooked onto him.

He could swear that a big pair of bright blue eyes were looking at him in the dark from right at his side. He could totally see the adorably innocent expression on her face as clear as day as well, "About two hours ago?"

It made sense. All of that stressing out over dying via a biological explosion sort of made him waste a lot of energy, so he was pretty tired that night. It would have been pretty easy for someone he trusted like Cammy to slip into his bed.

"What's the matter?" Naruto asked his lovely roommate blearily, still somewhat stuck in the haze between being awake and asleep, "Did you have another blurry Shadaloo flashback nightmare?"

"Not this time. I just have a very bad feeling that a lot of terrible things are about to happen."

She probably didn't even notice it herself, but Cammy's hold on him tightened a bit and he pulled her in closer to try and comfort the confused little femme. And it did make him grin when she sighed contently in return. She was getting better at expressing emotion and the like even if she was unaware of it yet.

Whatever. Anything that was wrong could wait until daytime to be solved. It was so peaceful outside? How bad could anything be right at the moment?

Character Profile

Name: Abel
Nationality: France
Gender: Male
Age: Late 20s-Early 30s (Birthdate: Apparently November 5th)
Height/Weight: 6'6/187 lbs.
Bloodtype: A
Likes: Dogs, Fei Long movies.
Dislikes: Oysters, Shadaloo.
Hobbies: Sewing.
Rivals: N/A
Fighting Style: Wrestling, Judo, full-contact Karate, and other mixed forms of martial arts.
Current Techniques: Coup de Pied Volant (Wheel Kick), Marseilles Rouleau (Marseilles Roll), Tornade Jeter (Tornado Throw), Changement de Direction (Change of Direction), Ciel Tombant (Falling Sky).
Hyper Techniques: Sans Cœur (Heartless), Sans Ame (Soulless), Haletant (Breathless).
Background: Found many years ago in an abandoned Shadaloo base suffering from amnesia, Abel was saved by a man that knew the technique Sonic Boom, but this was all he could get from the situation. Lapsing into a coma, upon awakening Abel was taken in by the soldier that died recently, leaving him a warning to avoid Shadaloo to keep a peaceful life. Months later, during the Second World Warrior Tournament he caught sight of a very young woman competing that he felt some sort of connection to. With no family or anything keeping him from doing so, Abel decided that he could not go on without knowing something of his past and where he came from, choosing to go forth and seek the young woman out as a start on his journey to find who he is. A skilled fighter, when it was determined by his caretaker that Abel had a knack for combat, possibly as a mercenary they surmised. He was quickly taught all of the man's combat skills and given the chance to learn even more, easily picking it all up and blending these styles into a vicious style of martial arts. At times Abel can lose himself to the adrenaline of battle and go into a combat-high trance. He will regain his senses in the aftermath, not able to remember anything that occurred while he was 'out'.

So I just heard that they're taking wrestling out of the Olympics come 2020 if they can't be convinced otherwise. What the fuck man? That's one of the few sports in the damn Olympics outside of the basketball that I actually really DO care about. And for what? For what they're keeping in without a fight?

It's an actual original Olympic sport too, one that still has relevancy. What the hell are kids going through college on wrestling scholarships supposed to shoot for when it comes to a damn 'shoot for the stars' pipe dream now other than getting a base for MMA? And I can tell you from personal experience from doing both that most wrestlers that aren't standout athletes (even some that are) are suckers for guillotine chokes and other neck-based attacks.

Doing that to wrestling in the Olympics would basically kill the sport in this country at its highest level.

Man that makes me mad. I'm actually really pissed off about that.