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.

45. Remain in the Light

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Street Fighter. If I wound up randomly shooting a Hadoken one day while going through the motion for it I swear I'd probably die on the spot from a heart attack. I'd never live long enough to profit from it.

Chapter 45: Remain in the Light

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A stern knock at his front door roused Naruto from his slumber at six in the morning. Thus, the local law enforcement were greeted with the strangely intimidated sight of Uzumaki Naruto with bed-head over his eyes, a white tanktop, and orange frog-patterned boxers opening his door like a zombie.

"Uh…" The first of the two officers said as he and his partner looked at each other and then at Naruto, "We have some information that might be relevant to you. You might think it's pretty important."

Since when did the police ever tell him anything about anything? It was usually the other way around. And then after they didn't believe him he usually had to handle the whole thing within his own house so to speak.

So when they came actually bringing something that they thought was important to Naruto, he quickly rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and woke up, "Really? Why are you guys telling me though? Cops don't like me." He and the company he kept were basically vigilantes… at best.

"Actually we do. Or we want to anyway." The second police officer said, chiming in, "You make our job a lot easier when it comes to the big criminal activities. We have to go through miles of regulation and red tape to get anything done, so having someone like you handle things works usually."

"You get the job done for sure." The first officer said, "It's just that you destroy so much stuff. That's the problem. Someone has to sign off and deal with all of that after you do it you know."

When the police destroyed private property the city paid for it. When someone like Naruto or the multiple superpowered people in the town destroyed private property, who paid for it then?

They had a point. Perhaps he could start finding ways to deal with domestic threats that didn't end with nearly as much collateral damage as it did? They might sanction the things he did if he could. That would make taking missions a lot easier.

Okay, he'd hear them out. They'd taken the time to come and see him anyway. Other than that they seemed like alright enough guys. Pretty young officers, so he probably didn't have to expect much snark and cynicism. Why not be friendly?

"Sure." Naruto said with a shrug as he scratched at his scalp and grinned at them disarmingly, "What's up you guys?"

Now at this, both of the upstanding officers of the law looked at each other rather nervously before one of them decided to just get it over with and tell him what they'd come to say, "We think that Cammy White has been killed."

At that, Naruto's blue eyes went wide as he stared at them, "What'd you say?"

"The girl that lives here with you." One of the men said, "In the early hours of the morning we found a massive amount of blood all over Nanahouhou Street. Blood tests showed that it's similar to only one other kind of DNA in the area. Hers."

Naruto took a second to let that sink in before slightly tilting his head in confusion, "That doesn't sound right."

"I know it's hard to believe, trust me. I saw that girl go during the tournament, she's like a buzzsaw, but there are a lot of strange things happening to people all over town that are supposed to be strong."

"No." Naruto said, cutting him off before he could start explaining his side of the reasoning further, "I mean that doesn't sound right because unless she was sleepwalking and I'm so numb I can't feel anything she didn't go anywhere last night."

This time it was the turn of the policemen to be confused, "What?"

Naruto just turned and yelled back into his apartment, "Cam! Come here!" It took a moment, but then they heard the sound of someone getting out of bed and then of footsteps down the hall before Cammy peered tiredly around the corner with sleepily drooping eyes, wearing a rather oversized shirt as she looked at the officers and waved at them with nary a scratch on her, wondering if Naruto had done something worth being arrested for, "See?"

She was such a pretty little thing, even in the morning. And that was definitely not her shirt, they were absolutely certain of it, which extended their imaginations a bit when Cammy turned around to return back to the room to get a little more sleep.

"Nice." One of the officers said before the other one elbowed his partner, "Ahem, well that leaves us with a problem then, because there isn't anyone else in any database with DNA that comes even close to hers. Local or otherwise."

"You guys are being kind of vague." Naruto said, rubbing his belly idly, wishing he had some breakfast, "You guys are talking like what you found isn't 100% Cam's DNA."

"Well it isn't. It's damn close though, but there are a few things. For one bloodtype is different, but it was close enough that we went out of the way to give you a heads up." Well there was a benefit to the fact that police officers happened to be fans of his. A perk of taking on Karin's initial request of trying to become the greatest fighter in Japan.

He idly wondered how that was going for a moment before quelling the thought, keeping it from raging out of control like he knew it would due to the habit of his ego. More important things were afoot than his own delusions of grandeur about how awesome he was.

There was someone walking around with a seriously close match to Cammy's genetic material, and they'd apparently left enough blood on the streets to make the police think that she'd been killed in a violent street fight.

"Huh." Naruto said, with a pensive look on his face before nodding, "Thanks then guys." The officers tipped their hats to him before departing from his door, allowing Naruto to close it behind him, "Well, I know what I'm doing today." Finding some way to locate the trail of someone that had a more than passing connection to Cammy.

Speaking of whom, was it too late to shack back up with Cammy for an hour before he actually had to be up for school?

XxX

(That Afternoon – Saikyou-Ryuu Dojo)

"Yeah I was all big and heroic last night." Dan bragged to the green-skinned jungle man Blanka who was listening raptly to his friend's exaggeration of his role in last night's affair while enjoying a blended fruit smoothie, "You should have been there Jimmy. I was so badass. That Juri Han chick isn't as tough as that Uzumaki kid was saying."

He wasn't really lying to Blanka at all, as impressionable as the feral human being was, "That so cool Dan! You really save somebody?" What Blanka did not know that Dan neglected to mention was that he had gotten his ass kicked. But withholding information wasn't necessarily lying though.

"Yep." Dan said with a big, shit-eating grin, bandages on his face not compromising his story one bit despite his wounds, "It's just a day in the life… when you're awesome like me." He turned and called out brazenly to his former master in order to get a rise out of Gouken, "Do you hear that old man? I'm a national damn treasure! The biggest man in town!"

"Yes, impressive Dan." Gouken said to try and placate the flamboyant pink-clad martial artist before turning his attention back to Sakura as they were in the midst of mind-clearing meditation, "Now my dear, you need to find the root of your desires."

Sakura's eyes popped open as her face went red, "M-My desires?"

Her desires weren't the kind of thing she wanted to think about when the sun was up, the lights were on, she was in public, and was nowhere near a bed.

Gouken went unaware of this as he stroked at his beard and continued his clarification, "Yes. What you want. What is it that consumes you to the point that you are willing to kill and destroy your friend?" He already knew it, but she needed to be able to openly admit it.

Well that was kind of straight to the point wasn't it? Sakura wasn't going around spilling her guts to the person that it was all about, so what made Gouken think that it was cool for him to outright ask her about it? She hadn't known him for that long.

"Uh, that's kind of personal isn't it sensei?" Sakura said, trying to come up with some reason to keep it to herself. She was a good girl with traditional values, which meant that her business was meant for her and those close to her that she trusted with sensitive things like that.

"That's the problem." Gouken stated firmly in a slightly booming voice that echoed when it really shouldn't have. Not in that room should anything he'd said should have echoed, "This is why it so readily came forth from you the other day. You're not denying yourself the things you desire most, you're ignoring your feelings altogether and setting the thoughts that plague you aside. That is very unhealthy."

"Most other people do it." Sakura defended, albeit a bit weakly. She couldn't sense Gouken… technically, but the apparent void of nothing that seemed to emanate from him was more telling than the most authoritative aura would have been, "They put aside things like that for reasons too."

Many reasons.

For their careers or things related to that.

Because it's not timely for whatever they want to do with their lives.

To please others around them.

Or in Sakura's case, because she had such a fear of screwing up the things that she already had, the things that she loved, that she didn't want to try and take the chance to get what she wanted most.

"Most people also don't have darkness in them that tends to take over when they openly deny themselves." Gouken retorted handily, giving her a one-eyed look, "If you cannot admit it to me, a man that has absolutely no reason to judge you and no personal connection to you outside of training you, you cannot admit it to yourself, who it really matters to. Admitting your own weakness and shortcomings in all of their forms is the first step to learning how to utilize the Chikara no Hadou (Surge of Power)."

"I thought your power was called the Kyomu no Chikara (Power of Nothingness) old man." Dan pointed out, getting Blanka to whip him up a fruit smoothie of his own to enjoy. It really cut down on power usage when your best friend could generate thousands of volts of electricity for kicks, "You trying to throw my best student off?"

Sakura's eye twitched at being called Dan's best student, what an insult, but she stayed her tongue out of respect for using his dojo to train with Gouken for free, "Nothing of the sort, I can assure you." Gouken said with a good-natured and hearty laugh, "No. The Kyomu no Chikara is merely the pinnacle of my own study of our style. The peak of my own branch of it. The Chikara no Hadou is a necessary step that must be taken to develop that far."

"But what about the Satsui no Hadou?" Sakura asked concernedly. What about that? It was the entire reason she'd opted to take the training. It scared the daylights out of her that she could lose herself to her inhibitions, "I need to learn to control that don't I?"

"Only my master Goutetsu was ever able to properly control it without becoming a raging demon of a human being." Gouken said with a shake of his head, "My brother Akuma, it can be said that he mastered it, but instead he lost himself to it. He's letting it consume and drive him. But he doesn't care about that. He's content as long as he continues to grow in strength and battle powerful enemies that can challenge him."

"Naruto fought against that person before!" Sakura said, remembering just how awful Naruto had been hurt all those months ago, "Isn't he strong enough already?"

"It's never enough. The Satsui no Hadou only exists to consume and destroy. It is the darkest portion of human nature, concentrated in the trained ki of our warriors." Reaching out, he set a hand on Sakura's shoulder, "As human beings we all have darkness. It's just a matter of how that darkness manifests in each particular person. Akuma's drive is to find an opponent worth unleashing his full power against."

How selfish.

What was it about being strong that made people want to be that way? Sakura would probably never understand it, even with her own little touch of insanity steeped in her soul. She didn't want to be that way, it just happened.

"Your friend is lucky to have lost a battle to Akuma and survived the ordeal." Gouken claimed, standing up to pace about with his hands behind his back, "He doesn't fight against enemies without doing so with full intent to kill. I can't imagine that my brother would have left him alive."

That was the thing though. Akuma didn't leave Naruto alive. He didn't even leave him for dead. Akuma figured that he'd stricken him down with his final attack. No one else that had been hit with it had actually survived. The attack was not just on his body, it was on his very soul itself.

The Kyuubi had performed a rudimentary form of necessary separation between his and Naruto's connection to allot them enough wiggle room to barely live through the Shun Goku Satsu. The damage for the technique was split between them, with Naruto's body taking the physical portion and the Kyuubi within him taking the spiritual half. Had Naruto taken all of it, both parts of the Shun Goku Satsu, he would not have survived.

Of course that just meant that he was strong enough to endure a blow such as that from Akuma, and that would spell nothing good for the boy's future if the mystery of how he endured intrigued Akuma enough to get him to seek Naruto out again.

It wouldn't bode well for Sakura either as he would try to cultivate her Satsui no Hadou in order to bring up another potential worthy challenger for him one day.

A spark of a feeling flared up in Sakura's heart, exclaiming in her mind that if someone like Akuma wished to take Naruto away she'd sooner kill them first, and that shocked her. It was loud! She'd had bad thoughts before but they were so easy to quell and suppress before, just a matter of asserting mentally that whatever the ill-boding thought was wasn't right.

This one was insisting that she crush, kill, destroy. That the only thing that mattered was making sure that she could have-.

"What's plaguing your mind girl?" Gouken asked, taking note of a shift in Sakura's demeanor. She'd stopped trying to focus entirely on their previous endeavor of establishing a meditative baseline for her in order to listen to his explanation, and in the middle of it he'd felt the slight jerk of her emotions. He already knew what it was, but she needed to openly admit it before she could begin learning in earnest, "Fine. Until then we will work on your technique to give your mind time to clear."

XxX

(Meanwhile – Karin's Manor)

While resting up while healing from her injuries tended to make her go stir-crazy while her home was being rebuilt, at least the downtime allowed Karin more artistic pursuits such as the rekindling of her attention to the piano, which she had neglected to practice intensely with ever since fighting became the crux of her focus when not working.

In between the work that she was constantly doing, having to go to school, and the fighting-related trouble that occupied her she'd had no chance to play in quite some time. Even while she was supposed to be looking in on more of the Kanzuki Zaibatsu's to-be business arrangements in preparation for meeting with her father on their family lands, she needed to take a break as well and catch up with the current concerns of her friends.

"So that is why you requested the services of my doctors to get a sample of Cammy-san's blood." Karin said in understanding of the explanation she had just received as her fingers danced across the keys before her, letting music spill out through the vast halls, "I must admit that it is rather disconcerting that there is another, shall we say, copy of that detestable man Bison out in the world."

"Well whoever it is might not be a threat even if they are evil." Ibuki commented as she lounged on a nearby couch, slinking her body over the armrest languidly. God, Karin's new furniture was comfortable and she was just fine with breaking it in herself, "If whoever it is lost enough blood to the point where they thought Cammy was killed, I don't think they got far from where the fight took place."

On the way to Karin's house after school that day they'd passed by the road that the apparent fight had taken place on and noted that it would be closed for some time.

The pavement all along the sidewalk and in the street was torn to shreds with pretty deep gaffs in the ground. A lone car on the road had been overturned and seemed like it'd been in a speedy accident, and the entire front wall of a building was busted open by said car somehow hitting it on the second story.

It was being cleaned up at the time, but there were just some things that you couldn't finish sprucing up by the time school let out. Not like Karin's mansion, which was being rapidly reconstructed to the point that the main issue was now going to be what she would do with the revamped interior design that she needed to see to.

"Well my clones checked all of the damn hospitals in town." Naruto said, walking into the room with Cammy who had a bandage on her arm from having blood drawn just a few moments ago, "No one came in with unexplained blood loss related wounds last night or this morning, so whoever this is, they're still out there."

"I wonder why Sakura isn't here." Cammy idly wondered as she took a seat and poked at her own arm momentarily, "I don't remember her ever missing anything like this happening before." Sakura was usually there for the odd occurrences that they got themselves involved in.

"She's still avoiding Naruto after her dark side almost got them both to have-." Ibuki stopped referring to the recent incident in the school gym when she felt Karin's fingers plunk down heavily on a few keys as her killing intent rose, "-Nevermind. We all know what happened." The chesty kunoichi didn't want to draw the ire of the well-to-do heiress and her nigh inexhaustible resources.

Naruto slid in on the piano bench next to Karin, but she pretended not to pay him any mind as she refocused on playing the instrument at hand, even when he scooted closer to blatantly try to get her to speak to him. She was a bit miffed at the fact that a perfect storm of hormones and tension almost resulted in her chief 'frienemy' Sakura basically mating with Naruto on a gym floor like animals, but she couldn't justify it enough to be outwardly upset. It was something beyond their regular control, and that was saying something because Naruto had extremely good self-control.

That didn't mean she couldn't be passive-aggressive as hell about it though.

But she found it difficult to do so. She couldn't. Maybe in the old days it would have been easy to give Naruto the cold shoulder, but there wasn't enough ice left on her heart to spend on trying to mess with his head. And it was downright adorable when he started trying to plunk on keys in an effort of trial and error.

God help her, why was she about to say what she was going to say? It made no feasible sense for her to do so, "…You should really speak to Sakura-san about what happened to you two." Karin said softly, quietly beginning to play again once Naruto's hands left the piano, "It is not healthy for the two of you to leave such a thing up in the air between the two of you."

At hearing that, Ibuki perked up curiously. Even Cammy seemed to be paying rapt attention to the heiress and her soft-spoken words. Was Karin actually trying to encourage Naruto to go and repair what was screwed up between him and Sakura? Why would she do that?

Ibuki and Karin full-on acknowledged one another as rivals in the ongoing 'subtle' struggle to procure the delicate affections of the man between them. Both of them also acknowledged that Sakura was probably more dangerous in this instance than either of them were separately to each other. And something had occurred that had caused an awkward rift between Naruto and Sakura. So why would Karin coax Naruto to make a move in order to try and fix things quickly?

She asked herself that, and she already knew the answer. It was because it didn't feel right without Sakura there with them.

"Sakura-chan doesn't want to talk about it." Naruto said with a sigh as Karin continued to fill the room with music, "If she doesn't want to I can't force her."

A scoff came from Karin in turn as she rolled her eyes, "Yes you can Naruto-san. Sakura-san would do anything for you that you asked of her. You simply never request anything difficult of her. You hardly ask for anything difficult from any of us as a matter of fact."

Of course he didn't. He never even asked Karin, a young woman with extreme means, Ibuki, a highly skilled kunoichi with the backing of an entire village of ninjas supporting her, or Cammy, a powerful assassin-trained girl indebted to him that would do anything for him, for anything. He asked Ibuki to go with him to India, but that was more for her than for him since she often stated that she wanted to travel more.

"I don't spend time with all of you girls because of what you might be able to do for me." Naruto said in a bit of a deadpan.

"Right." Ibuki said, relaxing in her chair once again as she inspected her nails idly, "You like spending time with us because you're a healthy, hetero young man, and we're all sexy."

"That's not why I hang out with you either." But yes they were all very sexy, "I don't pick the people around me just because they can do stuff for me. You're all special. There's something about all of you that I like." Ibuki placed her hands on her own chest and smirked, getting Naruto to roll his eyes, "That's not what I meant." Again though, they didn't hurt one bit, "I was talking more about personality."

Karin's sheer force of will was probably the most impressive thing about her, enough so that she was able to stay viable as a powerful fighter without open access to ki or some other abnormal ability to bolster her skills the way seemingly everyone else did. As far as pure martial arts went she was more polished and refined than any of them. She seemed frosty to people that didn't know her, but once one did get on her good side her traits were rather endearing, and she could be sweet in her own way.

Cammy was perhaps the most inherently innocent girl that anyone would meet in their life, method of fighting notwithstanding. She was a very smart girl with a large propensity for empathy, but was socially awkward due to the combination of amnesia and probably due to the life that she'd lived before ever meeting them, causing her to come off almost robotic at times. She seemed like she was still finding who she was, and for some reason it was just something that appealed to Naruto.

Ibuki had more spirit than any other girl he knew. She was a kind girl, if not a little blunt, but that was one thing that Naruto really liked that about her. They always managed to find a way to have fun together, even when they were in the middle of something that could probably kill them. It was just the way that they were together. The fact that she was a ninja somewhat like he was and that she was exceedingly hot were just bonuses.

There probably wasn't a more positive influence on Naruto's life than Sakura had been. She was oftentimes patient and disciplined in regards to him when she'd had every right to lose her temper or give up on helping him get along. So often she'd been cheerful and upbeat in the face of some terrible things that had happened around them. She was the first concrete thing that Naruto had managed to latch onto, someone he'd found that made him want to protect something precious, even if he wasn't in his world anymore.

"I know that, as does Sakura-san." Karin continued to explain with surprising tolerance and serenity, "But she is frightened and embarrassed at her lack of control. Unlike you, who has had time to come to terms with your own dangerous power, hers are new to her. This is not an issue that can be solved by giving her space Naruto-san. This is about you, thus you must be the one to reassure her. To soothe her mind."

"She's training with Gouken about it, even right now." Naruto said, placing his own fingers on the piano to try and play again, this time with a rather pleasant music coming forth this time. Karin was surprised, but even so a soft smile found its way to her lips upon seeing that he somehow managed to remember some of what she'd been playing earlier, "I mean, won't I just distract her?"

"Even so, there are more things that you can do to help than he can." Karin said, "In the end, all he can do is assist her in dealing with her Satsui no Hadou. In order for any of that to work her mind needs to be settled. As she is now, you are the one that can fix this."

After a moment of contemplation, Naruto stopped trying to play by ear and looked over at Karin. She wasn't smirking at him knowingly or giving him a stony look to mask something, she was just giving him a smile. That was rare.

It was because she believed in him. She would never say that he was the smartest, but when it mattered he always seemed to do the right thing by her and everyone else.

Not minding how it looked due to it being in the privacy of her own home for the most part, Karin quickly kissed Naruto on the cheek. Had they really been alone she would have kissed him far more intimately, but she was still demure when it came to letting her guard down in public, "I-I believe in you after all."

'Bitch!' Ibuki thought to herself, watching Naruto blink in surprise at the sudden gesture from the wealthy young woman, 'She was not supposed to have the heart to do something like that in front of other people, even if it's just us.' The only time Karin was ever reserved in her personality was when she endeavored to try and show a softer side.

After a few more minutes, Naruto got up to leave with Cammy, only really indicating in an oddly reserved manner that she was going to hit the streets for a while and look for some kind of hint of what exactly was going on, and he was going to go somewhere safe to train as he was close to yet another major breakthrough.

Once he was gone, Ibuki cast her eyes over to Karin who had gone back to her previous activity of playing the piano with, this time playing Polonaise in C minor, "You mind telling me what the hell that was supposed to be just now?"

"I am quite certain that I do not know what you are referring to Ibuki-san." Karin said calmly focusing on the music, "Enlighten me if you would not mind doing so."

'Enlighten her' she says, "You know Naruto's a total softie on Sakura-chan. Why'd you tell him all of those things?" Ibuki asked, bristling a bit at how she seemed to play on Naruto's empathetic demeanor when it came to all of them, "She's going to be stuck on his mind now. I don't get what your plan is."

"I do not have a 'plan' as you say." Karin replied, ceasing in her playing to turn around on the bench to address Ibuki, "I believe I have made it very clear what I want. But if I win him by default because my rivals are indisposed I will not have earned him properly. Naruto-san will be mine the right way, and not by process of elimination."

"So you told him all of that to get him to talk to her out of the goodness of your heart." Ibuki raised an eyebrow skeptically. Karin was usually greatly opportunistic and all about the bottom line, no matter how she got it, "You're as ruthless as they come. That really doesn't seem like something you would do."

"I know." Karin groused with a frown on her pretty face. Whatever happened to 'All I need is victory'? When did she lose that? She already had a bit of an idea as to what the catalyst for that change in mind set happened to be, "…I blame him. He did this to me. Damn him."

"You're still in love with him though."

"Oh hush and help me prepare to depart." Karin said, changing the subject entirely, "I need to return to Tokyo tonight at father's behest. He did not tell me what the nature of my visit was meant to be, so I suspect this will be another one of his tests to keep me from inheriting the Kanzuki Zaibatsu."

Ibuki huffed, but quickly got over it. It did her heart some good to know that she wasn't the only person that had to put up with constant tests and trials just because she was a kunoichi. So she could help Karin get ready to go for hers before she headed back to the Glade of Ninjas.

"So your parent's place… how big is that?"

"200 acres."

"…"

"Oh, my apologies. Were you asking about just the mansion or all of the land together?"

"Why?"

"Because 200 acres is only just the mansion itself."

XxX

(Genhanten)

Abel awoke with a numbness in his body to some kind of chatter of a language that he didn't know how to speak. He didn't even bother trying to keep up with it, instead trying to figure out where the hell he was.

The last thing he remembered was limping away from the scene of an asskicking. Oh, and that girl with the kicks cut his arm off with one of them. That was going to be a problem later.

Opening his eyes he couldn't help but let out a pained groan even though he couldn't feel anything. That got the talking to stop as the low light of the room he was in filled his eyes, "Oh, would you look at that Sasuke. Your guest is awake. Impressive." An old man said in English, probably for his benefit.

"You said you gave him enough sedatives to keep a horse down for three days." A vastly younger male voice said in return, "And with his arm like that he should have been out for way longer."

The smell of good food filled Abel's nostrils and he tried to sit up only to be pushed back down forcefully. As his vision cleared he could see a rather small, but still rather intimidating old man holding him there with a mere finger, "Moving around right now would not be advised young man. You've been through quite a bit from the scope of the injuries you received. My apprentice found you outside and we've overseen you for the last sixteen hours."

"One more time, I'm not your apprentice you old bastard." Turning his head to the sound of the other voice, Abel saw a young man with his arms crossed leaning against the doorframe of the room they were in, looking rather detached from everything.

Abel looked between the two of them before staring up at the ceiling, "Merci. Thank you, I mean." His arms felt like lead, but Abel was able to lift the left one that he wanted to see up in front of his face to find that from the forearm down he had a stump. Strangely this didn't affect him as much as Sasuke and Gen thought that it would have, "Damn woman… who was she?"

"That's what I want to know." Sasuke said, pulling a chair by the bed and sitting down in it, "You were beaten badly last night, so how? Who? Why?" He was giving off the impression that how he answered would determine the extent of his hosts and their hospitality, "I'll know if you lie by the way."

Who were these people?

Either way, Abel had no reason to lie, "I was attacked by a woman that utilized many kicks. So fast and strong. So dexterous." He could see the expression on Sasuke's face change, but he didn't speak, prompting Abel to continue, "She said something about me. That I was a clone, or a spare body for experiments."

Sasuke didn't care about any of that. The first part of what Abel had said was the only thing really of interest to him, "You fought Juri Han. Where is she?"

"I-I don't know." Abel admitted, "I took an opportunity presented to me by a distraction and fled. I ran as far and as fast as I could until I blacked out from loss of blood." Which was when Sasuke came across him, "I wouldn't look for her if I were you, if that is your intention. That woman is the most dangerous person I've ever met in my life… and I'm a mercenary."

"You're not me." Sasuke returned rather rudely before getting up from his seat, "I'm a ninja." He walked out of the room and grabbed a manager's jacket before preparing to head back downstairs, "You can stay here until you think it's safe I guess."

"You're not going to make him work?" Gen asked with a smug smirk as he followed Sasuke out to continue pestering him, "You're getting soft boy. Such mercy."

"Tch. How can we put him to work?" Sasuke asked flippantly. 'Mercy' his ass, it was practical, "He can't fight like this, and he's covered in scars, not counting the fact he's missing his left hand That's not really something we can put out front as a waiter or a greeter."

"Wait." Abel got Sasuke's attention before he left entirely, "I still need to find someone so I'll ask you. Do you know a young woman that I'm looking for?" Sasuke stopped and turned to look at him, wordlessly giving him permission to continue with the query, "I know it's a long shot to ask a random person like this, but if you could point me in the direction of Cammy White I would be very grateful to you."

Sasuke gave him a dry look, mouth slightly opened in disbelief before he palmed his face and continued onward, "Ugh… my Kami…" Forget running the restaurant, he was going to go somewhere and train.

Gen chuckled silently at Sasuke's displeasure at remaining connected with Naruto's group and the crap that they got into. Apparently it was just something he was going to have to get used to, 'The boy pretends that it bothers him but he's shown more spark and interest in the last year than he has since I've known him.' "You'll have to forgive Sasuke here." Gen said to Abel, "He's not really a 'people person'. I'm not either admittedly, but I believe I'm better than him."

"I can see that." Abel said, keeping his serious expression on his face, "…You're still rather unnerving though, I hope you don't mind me saying."

"Not at all." The old legendary assassin said with a scary leer at the Frenchman as he moved his hand through his wispy white beard, "I would have probably been insulted had you felt otherwise. Heal to a satisfactory extent and we will see what can be done about your little search."

It wouldn't be much of a search… because they had an address, and most of the people close to her with the exception of the wealthy blonde girl had a tendency to stop in there and try to get discounts on food because Naruto was friends with Sasuke, but Abel didn't need to know that.

Not yet anyway.

XxX

(That Evening – Naruto's Neighborhood)

Naruto had trained for a few hours in solitude, which wasn't really solitude because he had his clones as company, and he'd gotten into the work ahead of him at the Kyuubi's behest. The overpowering fox was a serious taskmaster, forcing Naruto to flex his chakra control muscles to learn what it was meaning to teach him. The new jutsu that it had developed solely for Naruto to use with its help.

Apparently lasting over six months without demonic help, surviving all of the crap he had to endure in the process made the Kyuubi gain respect for him since he still never slowed down. As well as the fact that he went out of his way to cure the taint that was separating them when he didn't have to, saving the biju from spending the rest of Naruto's life in the dark. Helping him like this was apparently its way of paying him back.

It was a shit-ton of work. Monotonous, tedious, paint-by-numbers work to get the motions and the process down. But it was going to be oh so sweet when he would finally be able to execute it in a full-scale battle.

However when practice ended and he started heading home his mind wandered again. And he had to pass by Sakura's street to reach his own abode. As his relationship with the Kyuubi started to improve, he got better at naturally sensing the ki/chakra signatures of others, especially his friends and loved ones. And he was unconsciously moving toward one ki in particular that was getting stronger and stronger these days.

His mind wasn't the only thing that chose to wander, as his feet did as well, and they brought him right to the back fence of Sakura's home.

"This is so weird. I can't go in right now." Naruto said to himself as he stared at the high fence, "…Fuck it, I'm a ninja. This is what we do." With that, he jumped up and over in one bound and wandered his way to the back of Sakura's home and looked up.

She was hanging around right at her window looking down at him the entire time before giving him a wave and a little smile, "I sensed you coming. Sensei helped me get my ki reading ability down better so… ta-da."

"I can't sneak up on you anymore?" Naruto asked, still standing down on the ground.

"No, you can, it's just harder now I guess. Especially for you, you've got so much."

A silence lingered between the two of them before Naruto got sick of it. Let it never be said that the young man wasn't brave and social, "So can I come up? Is that okay Sakura-chan? I really wanted to talk to you anyway."

Arms resting down on the windowsill, Sakura sat her chin down on them and let out a sigh, "Yeah. Yeah, you can come up. Come on." She surmised that it would have to be like pulling a band-aid in this case. If she kept putting it off it would be worse when she had to deal with it. She wanted things to go back to the way they were anyway.

In one more agile jump, Naruto landed on the bit of roof right beneath her window before sitting down under it, his back against the wall and his head against the bottom edge of the sill. Sakura reached a hand down and ran it messily through his hair one good time, eliciting a grin from both of them as they looked at the moon and sobered their moods back up.

"So all these years and you're not gonna talk to me about what happened?"

"I don't know what to say Naruto. You were there, and you know what we almost did." Once again, at the thought of it, Sakura's face turned red, "What she almost made us do with each other."

"'She' being Sunburned Sakura-chan." Naruto added cheekily, getting a sharp tug on his yellow locks for the trouble of it, "Ow. I'm not gonna stop calling your dark side that. It's nicer than just calling it your dark side."

"I guess."

From her response, it was clear that she still wasn't easy with talking about it. Naruto often took great pains to keep Sakura from feeling uncomfortable, but since this was placed before them here and now he was going to get them over it, even if he had to drag her along kicking and screaming the entire way… proverbially of course.

Well… maybe literally too if it really came down to it.

"So what's your trigger?" If they were going to go and get into this whole thing, beating around the bush would make no difference. Thus Naruto went straight for the jugular right off the bat, "If I was just a little bit cockier I'd say it was just me, but you did it before too. So it can't be just me that made you go off."

"It's passion over the things I love." Sakura said, face red and trying to bite back the comment that Naruto was plenty cocky enough to make that estimation, "That Juri Han girl made me so angry, someone that was so strong and only wanted to use that power to hurt people just because she could… she was abusing martial arts, something I love."

It made sense. Sakura was a passionate girl. She energetically put everything she had into the things that she did and always had, be it schoolwork, training, fighting, helping others (namely him early on), or anything. It was one of her most endearing traits.

She did indeed love fighting, and she had always been significantly enamored with it all. She held it in high esteem. It was the strongest influence in her entire life since it had given her most of the things that she loved, and she felt that people with power had something of a responsibility to use that power the right way, to use it fairly. It was her concept of the inherent good of mankind that she wouldn't stop believing in.

Juri basically scoffed at that whole concept and stomped on it with cleats. Her approach to her revenge was petty, as she was lashing out at those that had absolutely nothing to do with her past woes. She even claimed that Bison was already dead. She just wanted to take that rage and hate she had and unleash it on something, and wouldn't even try to justify herself in what she did.

But then what about the day in school?

Knowing that this was next, Sakura slowly removed her hand from going through Naruto's hair and continued, choosing to look up instead of down at him, "And then there's you I guess." She had to take a deep breath to muster up her remaining courage to speak, "Naruto, you're my best friend. Not my best friend that's a boy, you're my best friend period. I know everything about you." She then stopped and peered down at him questioningly, "Right?"

"Yeah, you do now." She didn't for most of their friendship, like the dimension-hopping stuff, but she knew enough to say that much before, "Honestly."

"-And you know everything about me."

He did indeed. For years; he knew the games she liked and hated, her hopes and dreams, what made her laugh and smile, what grossed her out, that she vastly enjoyed white chocolate over regular and dark chocolate and subsequently enjoyed White Day as one of her favorite holidays as a result especially due to her birthday being the next day, that despite her skills as a fighter she was still very self-conscious about her techniques, and the same went for her femininity as a fighter despite being so beautiful.

He knew everything he needed to know and more, because he'd put in the time to learn it all, whether he was aiming to or not.

That wasn't to say that he didn't know personal things about the other girls because he did, but he knew what they let him know. He knew more about Sakura. The other girls still had things they kept from him, things that they hid from everyone. If no one else knew something in particular about Sakura, Naruto knew.

"What are you getting at Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, turning his blue eyes directly up to stare at her as she kept her eyes on the sky, "Come on, don't let up here." She was doing so good getting it all off of her chest. The last thing they needed was for her to go into circles or hit a dead end and clam up.

"I'm passionate about you." Sakura blurted out, not knowing how else to say it, "Even when we were little I was. I trusted you first, I liked you when people tried avoiding you, I wanted to help you back when you didn't know which way was up around here. I don't know why. I saw you fight once and that was it. I thought you were amazing."

"Wow, really?" Naruto grinned and chuckled up at her even though she wasn't looking down, "I like to think I used to suck when I just showed up here. Compared to now anyway."

"I hated that smile you'd give off when you wanted to convince me and others that everything was alright, I wanted you to smile for real." The more Sakura spoke the more passionate she seemed to get as she carried on, "I wanted a good friend, and I got one. More than I thought I would."

"Sakura, you still won't look at me in the eye." Dropping the honorific from her name was proof that he was getting serious. In over five years he'd not refrained from adding the –chan on to her name even once.

"…I don't know what we're supposed to be! I liked you, but I kept thinking it was just because I thought you were strong, and I didn't want to be that kind of person, so I let it go." And apparently switched romantic focus to Ryu when they were fourteen, "But other people know how special you are now too-." Namely women. Very beautiful women, "-And then we drifted apart for a bit, and you almost died, then you talked about leaving to find a way back to your home again, and I couldn't go this time. And all sorts of things."

Culminating with Ibuki basically claiming him right in front of her, which wound up being the straw that broke the camel's back. She basically wound up screaming that he was hers loud enough to break every window near the roof of the gym before trying to launch a Hadoken at the kunoichi with enough force to possibly take the bulk of the school with her.

"If I admit I really feel love like that about you I'm going to screw everything up." Sakura said, leaning her face down into her folded arms on the windowsill again, "Ibuki-chan, Cammy, Kanzuki-san. They'll… I don't want to think about it."

Before she knew it she heard movement come from Naruto and felt his hand rest on the back of her head, getting her to look up and see him with a rather empathetic expression on his face. As she was she still averted her eyes away from him, "…Oh Sakura-chan." Naruto said comfortingly before sighing and abruptly headbutting her in the forehead, "That doesn't make any sense at all." He said in a just as comforting voice despite what he'd just done.

Poor Sakura had fallen onto her backside on the floor in her room, holding her forehead, "Ow! What the-? Did you just headbutt me? Oh my God, you just headbutted me!"

"Yeah, I did." Naruto said, poking his head through the window and the curtains to see that Sakura had been in pajamas for the night the entire time they'd been talking, "Because you needed that. You're doing it again. You're thinking too hard about things you can't control, like with Guy not liking who I am as a ninja back in Hong Kong, or like when Akuma torched me."

"I can control this. They're my emotions." Sakura pouted with puffed out cheeks as she continued to rub what she hoped wouldn't be a bruise. Did he have to do that with the stupid metal-plated headband on?

"Apparently you can't says 'Sunburned' Sakura-chan." Naruto got inside of her room and sat down on the windowsill, putting his shoes back outside where he'd been a moment ago, "You don't control emotions. Just because you don't want to feel some way doesn't mean that you can act like it's not there. You've got to accept them."

Sakura pulled her legs up to her chest as she kept sitting on the floor against her bed, "Would you come over here?" The resident ninja got up from the sill and walked right over to her bed to sit down, leaning against her headboard. Sakura squirmed closer to him and sat between his legs pressing her back against his chest, "Do what you did when we were thirteen, when you showed me what ki was supposed to feel like."

"Why?"

"My dark side likes the feeling of the Kyuubi's chakra. I like the feeling of yours."

Arms snaked underneath her breasts around her stomach to hold her, Naruto shut his eyes and set his chin on the top of her head before channeling chakra through his entire body and passing it through Sakura's. Her smaller frame relaxed against his and took in the feeling of the powerful energy. Even he felt content enough to let himself go limp in the embrace.

The feeling of his chakra from her perspective was even stronger and richer than it was from years ago, so much stronger. And it was still just as comforting. If it was possible to be addicted to someone's life energy, Sakura believed that she could possibly be addicted to Naruto's. It was making her comfortable enough to fall asleep right there.

Barely thinking about what she did next, with half-lidded eyes Sakura's hand reached up to Naruto's cheek and she craned her own head to the side to lock lips with his. It wasn't anything chaste that lasted for just a moment, it lingered.

It lingered for a while. Sakura's hands latched onto Naruto's and guided them underneath her top onto her bare skin, more or less giving him permission to have free reign with her body when they finally broke apart softly, "Hm."

"What?" Naruto asked as they set their heads against each other, "What's up?"

"For some reason I always figured kissing you would taste like ramen spices or something."

"Should I be insulted by that? What, are you disappointed?"

"No, it was just a thought I've had for years." Sakura started undoing the buttons on the front of her pajama blouse and gave him another peck on the lips as his hands rose a bit farther onto her chest, getting a little excited shiver out of her as her eyes turned red for a split second, "So do you wanna blow my back out now, or later?"

"Whoa!" He did not see that coming from her of all people, ever. Ibuki maybe, if she got really worked up, because she was extremely blunt, but Sakura wasn't.

"I'm so sorry! I don't know where that came from!" She really didn't.

"No, don't-! I mean…" Naruto said, taking a moment to figure out just what he wanted to say. How was a seventeen year old young man to smoothly convey his thoughts in a completely reasonable manner, "I mean, d-do you want to? Because I can totally stay, and Cam'll be fine by herself tonight. I'm just a few blocks away."

Sakura stopped and looked to the wall of the room closest to the door before wondering just how much sound could get through them, 'Let's see… mom's room is all the way down the hall, but Tsukushi's room is right next to mine. Still, the headboard isn't facing the wall that way. So if I can keep my mouth shut I think we should be fine.'

Being a virgin she didn't know how the whole thing would go for her, but she'd have to bite a pillow or something if she couldn't keep it down. At that point she stopped and thought to herself that she was trying to break down the physics of having sex in her mother's house and getting away with it. And she was supposed to be such a good girl.

The sound of a loud rumbling crash in the distance disturbed anything that was possibly about to happen as Sakura fell out of Naruto's grasp and out of the bed as if they'd already been caught in the act. Tough girl that she was, she jumped right back up and redid the buttons on her blouse, "W-What was that?"

"I don't know." Naruto growled as he crossed his legs to hide his erection angrily while he went to get up and check out what the commotion was, "But I'm pissed about it." That came from the direction of his apartment, and he could feel some strong presences there, and not just Cammy.

"Uh the police will handle it won't they?" Sakura really didn't want to leave. Even if it was the responsible thing to do, playing neighborhood watch wasn't the game she wanted to get into at the moment.

"Sakura-chan…" Damn him and his hero complex. Speaking of complexes, that was coming from the direction of his apartment. He could see the smoke from Sakura's window.

"…You're right." The brown-haired femme had to admit begrudgingly. The police wouldn't show up for ten minutes at least, and they couldn't leave something alone if it was really dangerous. People with power had to use it to help others after all, at least that was what she believed with all of her heart, "Ah, you go ahead though. I'm gonna go put real clothes on."

XxX

(Minutes Earlier – Naruto's Apartment)

Abel had to come up with some way to thank the scary old man Gen and the crotchety younger guy Sasuke that ran the restaurant he'd been allowed to recover at. Sure, he was still a little (very) injured, but he had to do what he'd come to Japan to accomplish. It wasn't like he had to be one-hundred percent to find out some answers to some questions.

Either way, while interrupting Sasuke in the midst of his training, he wound up getting an address scribbled out onto a post-it note and promptly left to find the location given to him.

He didn't expect the place to be such a plain apartment complex in such a casual residential neighborhood, but hey.

Slowly taking the flights of stairs to the appropriate floor due to still being rather loopy and out of it due to his wounds and the drugs that had been used to dull his pain, he still made it to the appropriate door and knocked on it.

It was a rather strange time for someone to be receiving callers, but hopefully someone would answer. And to his luck someone did, the someone that he had been looking to find. Curious blue eyes peeked through a crack in the door before opening it up most of the way.

"Yes?" Cammy asked in an English accent that let Abel know for certain that he had the correct person, "If you're here to talk about a mission of some sort, Naruto is away but I'd be happy to listen to what you have to offer as work." She didn't know what to make of this person, as he seemed combat-adept. He was covered in scars, and was he missing his hand?

Abel didn't know what to say at first, but quickly got over his shellshock, "No, no mission. I came here to see you actually." Because that didn't sound strange at all.

"Uh… huh." Cammy said unsurely before stepping outside and shutting the door behind her, "I hope it's not to kill or mentally enslave me. I've gotten quite enough of that lately." There was a bit of an edge to her voice but she didn't make a move against him yet, giving him the benefit of the doubt.

"No, nothing like that." Abel defended waving his hand(s) defensively as he took a few steps back, "It's just, I know this will sound strange, but I feel something familiar about you. Does that sound odd?"

"Yes." Cammy replied without sounding a bit concerned or put off. She never really did seem to, "Yes it does. Who are you?"

"Aww…" A rather sensual, yet sadistic voice said, standing scarily close to the two of them without their noticing until right then, "You found your cousin. Or should I say your little sister? Which one's more appropriate?"

Cammy didn't need to wait or even turn her head to confirm who it was before she hurled her entire body in the appropriate direction, body cloaked in purple ki around her legs, "Spiral Arrow!"

In a single lunge, Cammy instantly covered the distance from her doorstep to the railing overlooking the outside of the complex. Her target jumped directly up to avoid the attack, while Cammy kicked the heavy railing hard enough to take the whole floor's worth of it out, sending it flying off hard enough to clear the sidewalk, street, and bust the front fence across the road.

"Gee kitten, are you still mad about the last time I saw you?" Looking up over the ledge, Cammy saw Juri sitting casually on the edge of the roof looking down at her, "It wasn't anything person-… okay, that's a lie, it was totally personal."

"That woman." Abel said, gritting his teeth in anger, "What are you doing here?"

"I followed you stupid." Juri revealed as she walked around on the roof, "Did you really think I didn't know where you wound up last night? I'm just not going to attack a building with Gen and Uchiha in it. One of them already would already be a tough enough fight and the other one's Gen… enough said."

Luckily for her, Abel was a quick enough healer that he left the following night to finish his task of locating Cammy. Two birds with one stone as it were.

Adjusting her hat on her head, Cammy dragged a thumb across her cheek before preparing to engage the wicked woman in battle, "I'll stop you here." With that she jumped up and swung herself over the ceiling and onto the roof in one nimble motion, "What do you mean about that man and I?"

"He and you are both spare bodies of Bison back when he was obsessed with finding strong enough bodies to house his soul and his Psycho Power." Juri explained liberally, as if the information was a mere trifle for her to know, "You get it now?"

"Clear as day." Cammy said before quickly rushing down her dangerous opponent fearlessly. Her first attempt at a kick was matched with Juri's own spin kick, and was overpowered by the latter's kicking ability, sending her to the ground, "Damn it."

"You couldn't beat me with three people taking me on at once." Juri taunted as Cammy got back up, "You fighting me by yourself? This is going to be quick."

Even someone that was oftentimes incorrectly accused of being devoid of emotions like Cammy found it impossible to keep from smirking at that moment, "What makes you think I'm fighting you alone?"

"Who else is helping? The one-armed wonder down there?"

"Hazanshu (Supreme Mountain Kick)!"

A powerful flip into a falling kick smashed into Juri and the roof out of nowhere, pounding the Taekwondo expert into the pulverized mortar until she leapt out of the dust and debris, looking no worse for wear, "Tch. You call that a kick?"

Dusting off her pantyhose-clad leg, Chun-Li moved closer to Cammy to stand with her in her own fighting stance, "Well admittedly it's not my best. Would you like to see my best?"

Juri opened her mouth for a cheeky rebuttal when she felt another powerful presence flare up energy dangerously close to her, "Flash Kick!" Juri turned around and backflipped out of the way, barely avoiding a powerful, blurry kick that almost tore a part of her off.

Landing in a crouch, Juri's eyes darted between the three carefully, "Alright, don't think that you're good at stealth or anything. The only reason I couldn't sense you two until you were that close was because my eye couldn't pick up your ki. How the fuck did the two of you even get here so fast?"

A proud Chun-Li stood up straight and puffed out her chest, "We figured that if you really hated Cammy that much, you'd eventually come after her again, so we staked her out until you did." She was happy because it was the first time in her entire career that a stakeout actually worked in such a short period of time.

Guile was the cooler and more collected of the two as he shook his head, "You're saying that like we sat out front for a week. It was barely over sixteen hours, after the kid called us and told us about the guy with Cammy's DNA spilling blood all over the place last night."

A small, humorless smile came to Juri's face at the point being made of how they more or less anticipated her without knowing where she was, "Yah, I should start covering my tracks better, but it's never really been a problem before, honest."

"It's gonna be one tonight! Sonic Boom!" Guile swung both of his arms inward, hard and fast enough to launch a spinning crescent wave of yellow-blue ki at Juri faster than a gunshot.

Unfortunately it wasn't fast enough to catch her unaware. Juri dodged it even before it really left his arms and by the time it exploded off of what it wound up hitting, she was right in his face, "You think? But unless that thing fires like an automatic you're never going to hit me with it." Her foot stepped on the exact place where his arms had crossed to fire the Sonic Boom and with a second motion she'd swiftly kicked him in the face in the motion of a backflip.

"Projectile attacks won't work on her if she sees them coming." Cammy warned after watching Guile's failed attempt at one on their enemy.

"Grr." Tough as he was, Guile got right back up and readjusted his jaw, ready to keep on going, "I fucking noticed."

Chun-Li and Cammy locked eyes with each other for a split second before both moving ahead to attack together. They didn't have much in the way of actual teamwork, but they'd seen each other fight enough to know a little something about how they both worked.

The last time multiple people fought against Juri the only one that could sort of keep up with her speed was Cammy, as Karin and Sakura weren't quick enough to do so. With Chun-Li that problem wouldn't exist. Many others would, but the tandem tempo of the two women wouldn't be one of them.

And the odd man out in this equation happened to be Guile, who could only rub at his eyes as he tried to keep up with the sight of the three blurs, blue, green, and purple in color, darting and leaving massive cracks in the rooftop with every move they made. The fact that he was used to operating fighter jets made him able to do so without suffering motion sickness, but reacting physically to it all was something else entirely.

'I'm not even going to try catching up with that.' The American airman thought to himself. Eventually though, one was thrown out and Guile was fast enough to make the move needed to catch it, snagging Cammy out of the air. The confused girl sported a kick-shaped bruise on her cheek before she realized what had just happened to her and the pain from her injury set in, "You alright?"

She glared at the ongoing fracas and was set back down, "I am not losing to this woman again." Cammy tried to time her move accordingly and jumped into the air when she thought she could figure back into the fight, "Cannon Strike!" Abruptly dropping from the sky like a ki-enhanced anchor, Cammy landed in a crushing kick, barely missing Juri who had to stop fighting with Chun-Li in order to dodge her, "Damn it!"

Taking advantage of Juri's momentary lull in the speed she was moving at, Chun-Li was able to overtake her and get behind her. Missing her first attempt at a spinning kick, Chun-Li kept the momentum going and spun through in a series of spinning low punches that Juri had to block with her shins to prevent from harming her.

On the other side, Cammy launched a haymaker of a punch right for the neck, but this too was blocked. For once however, in order to prevent injury Juri had to actually use her hands to protect herself, "Okay this is more of a nuisance than the last time." She then went wide-eyed when she felt the women latch their hands down onto her limbs, leaving only her left arm free "What?"

"Guile I swear to God you better not miss!" Chun-Li shouted as she shut her eyes and held on as tight as she could to keep from getting kicked off. She had seriously underestimated just how strong Juri's legs were due to the baggy pants, "Hurry up!"

"I got it!" Guile held his arms out, exposing his chest as he built up an extensive amount of energy between them and lunged directly at Juri, "I'd love to see you dodge this!"

The living bonds holding onto Juri kept her from evading, no matter how hard she tried to struggle free, 'Was this their plan the entire time?' They'd been apparently staking her out, so it wouldn't have been farfetched at all to figure that they'd come up with a coordinated method to defeat her if they'd been waiting on her, 'I am not going to go down to an eyesore of an attack like that!'

With her left eye she could see how much latent ki was being amassed for whatever Guile was doing, and she knew what it was because she'd studied him, studied Chun-Li, and studied Cammy.

She still had one arm free, and with Chun-Li latched onto her legs with both hands her head was free. Not for punching of course, that would take too long. A good eye gouge was always a good way to deter someone.

And if she held on anyway at least she'd be taking an eye home with her when she took the hit from Guile, even if it did kill her.

Juri's fingernails frantically raked Chun-Li across the face around the eyes, forcing her to turn her face away lest an eye actually be reached and injured. This loosened enough of a grip on Juri's dominant leg for her to kick it free and lift it up into the air overhead, "Feng Shui Engine, trigger!"

"Sonic Hurrica-!"

With her body momentarily hypercharged with unnatural energy, Juri lowered her leg in a powerful ax kick that slammed the point of her heel onto the surface of the roof instead of an adversary. The point of impact let loose several rippling shockwaves of pink energy that emanated outward in an explosion.

Due to the damage that had been wrought on the structure beforehand and the force that she generated, enhancing her already lethal and dangerous power kicks five times over, the lowering of the boom so to speak caved in the entire roof onto the top floor with a resounding crash. Needless to say, Guile's footing was disrupted and he took a plunge along with everyone else, rendering his attempted coup de grace null and void.

Was it vastly dangerous to do such a thing considering the folks directly below them? Yes, but Juri couldn't have cared any less about it. She'd been in danger, and she did what she had to do to escape, health and well-being of others be damned.

Amid lots of coughing, Cammy pulled herself up off of the floor, moving aside slabs of ceiling that she'd fallen down with. How terrible, "Oh my, that should have worked. It would have worked if she hadn't gotten a leg free." Juri had enough pop in her power kicks to tear the roof down? That didn't seem consistent.

Time for a bit of analysis.

One second Juri could kick several times in the blink of an eye, the next her leg could do the best impression of a wrecking ball that Cammy had ever seen but it was slowed to the point where it was on par with her own significantly slower kicks.

So she couldn't put abject executioner-style force into her faster attacks that were guaranteed to more often than not hit, and her heaviest attacks that would cripple, maim, and kill didn't have the speed of the others.

Perhaps she didn't see that as clearly the first time because of all of the blows to the head she'd taken.

Dusting herself off as best she could, Cammy noticed a bit of movement and smiled when she saw Agent Jack Bauer scurry out from underneath some debris and shake his feline fur out, apparently only mildly annoyed that the top of the building had just come down all around him, "…He really is indestructible just like Batsu said."

Hearing rustling and crumbling, Cammy raced to the site of the sound to see that Juri had leapt from the wrecked apartment to an adjacent rooftop while people that weren't injured in the calamity took to the stairs to get to the street and to safety. Hearing a sharp whistle, Cammy turned towards Guile to see him fashioning his hands for a catapult boost.

Next to him was Chun-Li who was clutching at her right leg with a grimace on her face, scratches marking up her skin around the eyes, "Give me a second and I'll be ready to go again. We've got to capture her and figure out what her deal with S.I.N. is. What they're aiming for."

"You still want to capture her?" Guile asked, "I'd settle with killing her personally. Wouldn't lose a touch of sleep over it." He gestured his head to the citizens, "I'm going to go help the people since I blew my shot at her, now go get her half-pint."

Cammy nodded and breaking back into a run she allowed the blond soldier to send her flying, allowing her to easily clear the gap to the next roof, flipping and spinning in an untraceable pattern, "Hooligan Combination!"

Juri grinned and crouched, trying to get the timing down pat as purple ki built around her legs, "Oh this is gonna hurt… you. Fuuhajin (Wind Breaking Blade)!" Flipping in the air like a pinwheel, Juri knocked Cammy higher into the air with series of rolling kicks before landing and planning to finish things, "Good nig-."

"You're taking too long again. You said you would be finished by now with retrieving the rogue copy, you're almost twenty-four hours late."

Blowing off Cammy as she soared through the air and hit the ground, stunned by the counterattack, Juri touched at a comm. device in her ear and sighed, "Seth, do you want it done fast or do you want it done right? I've already got tons of the guy's blood, but you want the whole thing right?"

"It doesn't matter any longer. What you have is good enough to move the BLECE Project forward if we're right about the DNA of the previously liquidated clones. I need you in Tokyo. We're leaving Japan after I conclude one meeting. Viper is coming to pick you up now, so wrap things up and be on that transport or else."

"Or else… what exactly?" Juri said, letting it drift in the winds as to what exactly would befall her if she disobeyed.

"Or else I'll remove my property from your eye socket with my bare hands while you're still conscious." Seth replied, "I won't tolerate S.I.N.'s innovations in human performance being used by a disobedient."

"Listen, I'll-!" Any rebuttal she could have offered to the contrary of her boss and his threat/request. Her trusty Feng Shui Engine eye picked up two extremely powerful power sources, about to put her six feet deep if the sudden crushing presence of killing intent she felt was any indicator, "Shit! Kasatushi (Deathly Killing Stare)!" Activating the power of the eye, she turned and actually managed to see the two attacks about to destroy her skull in split-second frozen time before she blurrily dashed directly above where the two attacks were aimed.

Both Naruto and Sasuke canceled their respective Rasengan and Chidori once they realized Juri had moved, instead forcing the two to meet in something of a totally unplanned high-five of sorts that they proceeded to ignore had just happened.

Sasuke looked over between Juri and Naruto. While he wanted to hurry up and stab a hole through Juri, there was something… off about Naruto. It took a moment for him to put his finger on it, "Are you sneering?"

"Shut up teme." Naruto said, glaring heated daggers at Juri without tearing his eyes off of her.

"What are you mad about?"

"Let's see. She's been hurting my friends, she just destroyed my apartment, and she kept me from having se-!" Naruto cut himself off before he divulged just a smidge too much information, "-Don't worry about it! What the hell are you doing here?"

"I got called here." Sasuke said, turning his eyes down to the street to find Abel standing amongst the crowd of displaced people, giving the Frenchman a faint nod of acknowledgment, "From your landline actually."

"Meh." Naruto would worry about all of that at a later time. Right now, the only thing he could deal with was what was in front of him, "I'm guessing this is Juri Han."

"A pair of world-class hottie fighters." Juri said, tapping her index finger on her chin, "And they're both interested in me. How lucky can one girl be?" No matter how much confidence she exuded, she knew what those two were capable of. Taking both of them on at once didn't leave her very confident of her chances to defeat them to say the least.

"Oh it's way more than two." Naruto said, making a cross seal with his fingers, "No way out. Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" In a large puff of smoke, a whole company of Naruto clones appeared on the roof with him and Sasuke.

"You couldn't take the two of us on in your wildest dreams." Sasuke stated. He stood strong and ready to go. This was what he had been waiting for.

Either one of those boys had a claim to being the current world champion, and as little as pissant martial arts tournament titles meant to her nowadays, it was still something that a fool would have tried to ignore. It wasn't like they'd earned that claim picking prizes out of the arcade claw machine.

No, she did not want to tangle with both of them. One at a time, with time to recover between bouts? Maybe, she'd probably be into that test. Both at the same time? Not a chance. Not unless she absolutely had to, and she really didn't have to.

Juri held a hand to her ear and smirked at the sound before speaking again, "I can be a little bit luckier I guess. My ride's here."

What the hell was that sound? Propellers? Was a chopper coming?

Looking up, both Naruto and Sasuke, along with every other person in the neighborhood, saw a descending V-22 Osprey aircraft with the S.I.N. logo of an open eye over an outline of the world. Only it was absolutely massive, even for such a vehicle. Armed with a pair of miniguns mounted on the belly, they were spinning up and preparing to fire… presumably on the two of them.

"Shit." Naruto said before taking off in a Shunshin-boosted sprint to grab Cammy, just as the guns started firing and tearing through his clones, "Shit-shit-shit! Cam!" Who brought something like that to Japan? Ever? For anything? Who'd they have to bribe or threaten to get that into the country? Forget the police coming to establish order, where the hell was the JSDF?

The force of the guns pulverized the building while Naruto and Sasuke hotfooted it as quickly as they could over the edge and down the side, Naruto doing so after he managed to scoop up Cammy and get her out as well. It wasn't a reinforced or remarkably tough building, and with the miniguns it was quickly turned to swiss cheese from top to bottom.

The entire time this occurred, a line was lowered to Juri that she grabbed onto to be lifted up onto the craft, blowing a kiss to the people she had been fighting, "Bye-bye for now!" She crooned out over the sound of the Osprey propellers and the roaring minigun, "I hope my boss appreciates the ki samples from all of you!"

Bullets didn't stop flying until the original target building was completely unrecognizable. The rain of shells kept going even while the Osprey flew away, heading out of the city.

Naruto landed on the ground and set Cammy down who gave him a smile and a grateful hug before they walked over to Guile and Chun-Li, "So I'm gonna go ahead and say the stakeout worked."

"Not well enough because we didn't catch her." Chun-Li groused, glaring up at the departing airship, "Damn that woman. She turned the top of your apartment building to rubble with a kick." She hadn't been aware that Juri could generate that kind of force from what she'd been told about the fight in Karin's mansion.

Sasuke just glared at the Osprey with his Sharingan hoping that it would somehow spontaneously burst into flames. Preferably black flames, "…If there were storm clouds in the sky I'd shoot that goddamn thing down." His muttering to himself was drowned out by the sirens of the arriving Aohura City PD who reached the scene in force.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Naruto said, waving his hands to get attention from Chun-Li who had flashed her Interpol badge to grant everyone necessary as much immunity from police scrutiny as she could, "Say that again? She did that-." He pointed over at what was left of his former home apartment complex for emphasis, "-With a kick? One kick? I'd have to pull a Rasenshinsen or pull out some Kyuubi chakra to do that!"

Odama Rasengan could do it too, but that would have done more. It would have turned the entire apartment complex into a stack of karate demonstration bricks. That was neither here nor there though.

"Well I did kind of trip and fall while I was holding a Sonic Hurricane." Guile pointed out with Agent Jack somehow on his shoulder before turning away from everyone, "Don't you brats judge me. The roof was coming down and I can't fucking levitate."

Cammy put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and tugged on his clothes to get his notice, "I think I figured out most of her abilities. I'll defeat her when we fight again. I know I will." The determined little soldier then made kissing noises to Agent Jack to get the cat to jump from Guile's shoulder into her arms, "Won't I Jack? Yes I will."

"Well that's great." Naruto said, throwing his hands into the air in exasperation, "You didn't catch the S.I.N. girl, and my home is gone. There was a lot of good stuff in there. Sasuke-."

"No. Hell no." Sasuke said before Naruto could even ask him the inevitable question, "I've got enough problems with Gen and that French guy staying with me. You and the girl aren't freeloading off of me too. Over my dead body."

"What French guy?"

"The huge French guy that's been standing five feet away this whole time idiot!"

"Ah, my name is Abel." Said Frenchman input lamely, feeling quite a bit out of place. He'd seen most of that fight and had done what he could with his battered body to help the regular folks evacuate when the first apartment started coming down, but for the most part he could only just watch, "Nice to meet you."

Naruto and Guile stared at him bluntly before the American airman spoke up, "Why's this guy here? Why's he covered in scars? And why is his hand gone? Come to think of it why do you know anyone French?"

While Naruto and Sasuke broke back into controlled arguing, Cammy walked over to Abel while holding her cat, "So you're supposed to be like me?" An older clone body?

"I suppose so." Abel said looking down on the tiny girl, "I don't know any details other than what I've been told however. You would know more than me." He then looked down at Agent Jack while trying to find something substantial to talk with her about and a bit of a distasteful look crossed his face, "…I am more of a dog person myself though."

Cammy just stared at him for several moments before walking away, "I'm not sure that I like you right now sir." 'Brother' or 'cousin' or not, dogs sucked as far as she was concerned. Abel was in disbelief at the frank conclusion to such a short conversation.

Clearly neither of them were master orators, so at least they had that in common.

XxX

(Onboard the V-22 Osprey)

Juri chuckled to herself as she walked to the front of the aircraft where she found the Battle Suit wearing Crimson Viper sitting in the cockpit piloting, "So, Crimson Viper I presume." They'd never met in person as Viper was more in-tuned with the science and development side of S.I.N., while Juri did the dirty work, "I thought this model wasn't being mass-produced yet."

"It isn't." Viper said, keeping her eyes on her flying, "It's still incomplete as it needs to be fitted with heavier weapons than the guns to sit above the other models that are already on the market for military purchase, but it's complete enough for what Seth wants it for now."

"What does he want it in Tokyo for? He's got his damn jet flying him in from Hiroshima."

"It's part of a show of force. For what I don't know. Seth never tells anyone under him all of his plans." That was just the way the man was; paranoid to a t, and not for lack of a good reason.

"Ooh, sounds fun. To who?" Viper briefly turned her eyes from the skies to see that Juri was lazily leaning over the back of the passenger's chair, tapping her foot on the metal floor, "Aww, come on, we're partners on this mission aren't we?"

"Did you complete the last mission?"

With a sigh, Juri brandished several vials of blood between her fingers and with another sleight of hand made them disappear just as fast, "Yeah, yeah, I've got the DNA from Bison's clone." She would have rather completed the entire assignment and taken his whole corpse, but hey, she was a perfectionist, "You know he named himself Abel of all things? How lame."

Viper couldn't get a good read on just what made Juri Han tick. At times the woman seemed as calculating and as callous as any mastermind she could have thought of, and she always seemed to have the wheels of her mind turning to achieve something in particular. What it was she couldn't figure. But most of the time she came off as little more than a sadistic teenager. Granted, Juri was a sadistic teenager that loved destroying enemies in battle, but for some reason she felt like she saw it all as some sort of game of strategy.

Just a game. How serious a game it was to her was not expressly known.

"Hah, what kind of 'partner' would be worth Seth's time to actually reveal himself in person?" Juri asked, purple eyes dancing in interest and mirth, "He never does anything in person."

Viper had to put her musing of the woman's characteristics aside for the time being. It wasn't the time or the place to get into such a thing, "He's never had to because S.I.N.'s influence and power usually does all of the talking for whoever is the head. But now S.I.N. is trying to establish… some sort of working relationship with the most influential and wealthy conglomerate in all of Asia."

"That's just rich." The female destroyer of men laughed, "Hm, he's meeting with the head of the Kanzuki Zaibatsu on their isolated land?" That was going to be a real blast, "I wonder how Kanzuki Daikenjuro'll react to a gigantic white-blue synthetic human being the head of the most powerful arms company in the world."

It promised to be priceless, whatever the reaction would be.

---

Well I'm hurt again for the umpteenth time in the last twelve months. Not any worse than I usually am, but when you lug a camera and lighting equipment around for several hours on a given day, having cracked ribs really, really doesn't work out too well for you.

I'm gonna get that fucker back though. 290 pounds or not. What's 100 pounds?

He's not really a fucker though, he's actually nice, and a friend of mine… but I'm still going to take a piece out of his ass somehow when we spar again. I wasted my damn Spring Break licking my wounds, and I'm getting my pound of flesh back. That doesn't make me a bad person.

And this has absolutely nothing to do with writing a story, so I'm going to stop now. Until the next time folks.

Kenchi out.