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.

46. The Art of the Deal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Street Fighter. I'm going to try and pitch a video game idea to Capcom involving the latter.

As far as I know they've never tried it yet, and if they buy it you'll all definitely know, because I'll post a notice anywhere that all of you would possibly look and you'll never hear from my black ass again.

Chapter 46: The Art of the Deal

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In the early dawn, the vast halls of the Kanzuki Mansion were dead silent with the exception of the workout compound where the thunk of a machine firing tennis balls followed by the smack of a racket smashing into them could be heard.

Karin had woken up so early that even her ever-loyal and ever-present attendants Shibazaki and Ishizaki weren't even awake to report to their posts of exclusively seeing to her. That was fine. Neither of them would have been worth the effort of requesting them to have a match against anyway.

Due to the lack of equipment in her family home adequate enough to train her body for combat appropriately, Karin had decided that she would do something fun instead for that morning's training and chose to play tennis.

It was strange, and it occupied her mind while she effortlessly hit back balls from the machine's highest setting. She had always figured that her father Daikenjuro was more powerful than she was. He'd been practicing the martial arts before she'd been born, and as she grew up she'd always perceived him as being stronger than her. When did that change?

She hadn't noticed or even thought about it before. Perhaps it was just because he was her father and she held him on this pedestal of being better than her, or perhaps it was his own attitude on how a girl couldn't be smart enough or strong enough to inherit the zaibatsu in his place and keep it running smoothly.

She detested Daikenjuro, but she was certain that she loved him too… somewhere, but he'd always been so hard on her. Her mother Nadeshiko was kind and loving to her, infinitely more so than her father, but she was also the consummate trophy wife that never ruffled her husband's feathers, so there wasn't much support of any substance coming from there either.

Karin did love them though… at least she figured that she did. She felt something akin to attachment, even if it was always made clear that her father wanted a boy instead of a girl.

Granted, it had been a long time since Karin had been on the estate of her family. Ever since she had first decided to head to Aohura City and do her own thing while preparing to take her place as the heiress of her father's corporation she hadn't been back to the domicile of her younger days. It had been around three years since she'd been there.

She'd seen her parents plenty during that stretch of time of course, taken extended visits at some vacation places with them, reported to her father on the business things she'd managed to secure for him, gone to shows and gatherings all over the world. All sorts of things.

There was a reason she hadn't gone back home for any sort of extended stay though. Aside from the fleet of nannies, butlers, and stewards that raised her over the years (eventually settling on Shibazaki and Ishizaki), she had basically no parental guidance.

Her father, the only thing she could ever remember him really doing was showing up to test her and watch her progress. She did what was expected of her and always excelled because if she didn't and if she had failed at any endeavor set before her by her father he would have cut her out of one day controlling his company. This was why any time that she did anything praiseworthy it usually got a response from her of it being natural, because it was. She wasn't allowed to screw up or make mistakes.

Thinking of this exact fact of her life, Karin gritted her teeth and smacked back a shot sent her way. The hit was so powerful and well-aimed that it punched right into the cannon of the machine and broke through half of it, also rendering the ball entirely obliterated.

Oops. She was supposed to have been holding back so that she didn't break the things around her.

And her mother loved that game. She'd have to make sure that got fixed before Nadeshiko noticed. Either way, with something expensive completely destroyed due to her far-greater-than-normal strength, Karin decided that it was her cue to depart and hit the showers.

She should have brought someone to come with her. That would have been more fun than coming alone. Shibazaki and Ishizaki were good to her as it was their job, but they weren't the least bit fun or entertaining. At least if she'd brought Naruto under the bodyguard guise things could have been fun.

Damn her and her benevolence to send Naruto out to see to Sakura instead of requesting his presence with her for the meeting. That was Sakura's only freebie. Everybody got one, and Kasugano Sakura used hers the previous night from her.

Well she wouldn't be there for long. She'd hear what her father requested her presence for, deal with it, and go back to her personal manor in Aohura City until she was needed again. The sooner the better she hated to say as she got out of the shower and put on a new white and red tennis dress for the long trip back to her quarters.

'I had almost forgotten just how vast the family mansion was.' Karin thought to herself as she stood out alone in the halls after finishing her short workout and getting herself together for the morning, 'There was a time when I could go days without seeing my parents, even though we lived in the same home.'

Perhaps that was why she had no problems taking up residence alone in the much smaller mansion at the edge of Aohura City. Sure, it was laughably smaller than the Kanzuki Estate, but it was homier. It didn't feel lonely there the way that it did here, despite the fact that she knew for a fact that her parents were there. They greeted her after her helicopter had landed and bid her goodnight, but she knew she probably wasn't going to see her father until breakfast was served and then after that she would only see him for the meeting.

Then she would head back to Aohura City again until the next time she was requested to return home. That was turning out to be her actual home. The people there that she spent time with actually saw her every day and seemed happy to see her more often than not. They didn't see her as untouchable aristocracy. With her friends she was just Karin.

If her parents were aware of the fact that she actually enjoyed the company of mere commoners, and that Uzumaki Naruto was more to her than just a similarly-aged bodyguard… ooh that could get ugly.

Her father would be so royally pissed. And she would probably love it if the fallout weren't guaranteed to be so nasty.

"I never thought I would say such a thing, but perhaps this home is too large." Karin grumped to herself as she got into an electric cart solely meant for transporting one's self all over the mansion in a somewhat timely manner, 'It really has been quite some time since my last stay here if I'm no longer used to moving around this way.'

The phone in the pocket of her dress went off while she drove, getting her to fish it out and quickly answer it, "Yes father?"

"I need you by my side today to watch the meeting I'm going to finalize today Karin." Daikenjuro's powerful voice said over the line, not even sparing her a 'good morning' or any other courtesy greeting before getting right to brass tacks, "It begins in two hours after our guest arrives on the premises."

Two hours. Got it.

"I understand father." Karin said, almost robotically trained to respond to him in such a manner. Goodness, where did her backbone go? She was supposed to be fierce and confident. An heir to the most powerful company in Asia was not supposed to be diffident, "Is there anything in particular you would like me to wear for the meeting?"

"No. You're meant to observe and learn in the capacity of my daughter, not as an active participant. Learn how someone of your to-be station is meant to close a monumental deal." As if she hadn't done her fair share of them herself in the past, "Wear whatever you like as long as it is respectable, but be present and prompt to greet the VIP alongside me."

"As you wish." An abrupt end to that call came and Karin went silent and even stopped thinking to herself all the way to the main kitchen and the grand dining table where she found her mother cheerfully awaiting her, fully dressed in a flowing black and silver outfit that looked like it cost more than Naruto made in a year, "Good morning mother."

"Karin dear!" Kanzuki Nadeshiko had short blonde hair and a beauty mark just above the corner of her mouth. Despite being middle-aged she had reached that age gracefully, still extremely lovely despite being over twenty years Karin's senior, "Oh, let me look at you! It has been so long since I have been able to see my child in the daylight."

Nadeshiko was where Karin got most of her facial features from, although she got the sharpness of Daikenjuro's eyes instead of the emotive roundness of her own.

Karin couldn't help but smile as her mother held her by the chin and fussed over her, asking if she had been eating properly and when she was going to find a suitable gentleman to marry so that her father would calm down more, amongst other things, "Mother, I am fine." Karin stressed, gently removing Nadeshiko's hands from her so that she didn't harm her by accident, "Things are well, and I am… happy."

Nadeshiko let out a relieved sigh and held her daughter's hands before moving them back to the table to take a seat as the help began bringing out plates and silverware to prepare serving the meal.

There really was a closer relationship between mother and daughter than father and daughter, and it was something that Karin always knew about even if none of them ever said anything about it. If only the relationship between father and daughter was even half as pleasant.

"I'm afraid Daikenjuro won't be dining with us this morning." Nadeshiko said with a wistful expression, "He's getting all sorts of things prepared for his meeting later today. I don't remember seeing him this excited about work in quite some time." She noticed that Karin had nothing to say about that, merely keeping her eyes to the table, "Oh darling… I wish you weren't so hard on yourself when it comes to your father."

"Like I said, I am fine with it." Karin said with a weak smile, "I am used to it. For something I have been dealing with ever since I can remember, it would be rather silly if it began affecting me now." She was too tough to let something like this turn her to jelly after a lifetime of scrutiny and criticism.

Nadeshiko smiled sadly and reached out a hand to stroke her daughter's cheek, "You mustn't feel that way. You're wonderful just the way you are. I have always been proud of you."

"Thank you mother."

"Now if only we could find you a proper husband."

"Mother…" Karin said in a voice of warning.

"What? Out of all of the young bachelors that you have charmed per your father's request there has to be one that you would find suitable."

There was, but it was one that neither her mother or father would find as substantial marrying material for a family such as theirs.

XxX

(Aohura City – Hotel Room)

"Achoo!" Naruto sneezed before rolling off of the twin-sized bed that he had been sleeping on to fall onto the floor, "Ow! Motherfucker!" He quickly sat up with sleep in his eyes and his hair in a greater mess than usual, "I hate twin-sized beds! What does that even mean? It can't fit twins of anything!"

Due to his home being turned into a demolition zone the night before by a Juri Han kick, with Sasuke barring him from staying over, with Batsu all the way across town with no room at the inn so to speak, and with the air between him and Sakura still being too dangerously amorous for a sleepover, Naruto and Cammy were allowed to stay in the hotel that housed Chun-Li and Guile.

He had to sneak himself and her into the room, but that was easy compared to how the rest of the night had gone before that.

Upon hearing Naruto fall out of bed and subsequently curse twin-sized beds with a blood-feud kind of hatred, Chun-Li opened the door to the attached bathroom, wearing a towel around her hair and otherwise nude body as she observed him grumbling to himself, "Good morning to you too little brother." She said dryly in greeting.

"Tch." Naruto got up off of the floor and sat down on the bed that he'd slept in that also housed the still slumbering Cammy, "…I hate these wimpy little beds. I used to fall off of Sakura-chan's all the time when we were kids."

"Oh really now?" An impish grin spread across the Chinese Interpol agent's face as she sat down on her own nearby bed with her legs crossed. She wasn't going to give the kid a free show, "Are you upset because that bed's too little to sleep with Cammy on?"

"I did sleep with Cam on that bed." Naruto said while pinching his nose shut so that he could get used to the picture in front of him. It was too early to be getting messed with.

"I meant the other kind of sleeping." Chun-Li said, idly buffing her nails on the front of her towel while simultaneously forcing her assets to give a little jiggle, "You know, the kind of 'sleeping' that doesn't involve any actual sleep."

Naruto just looked at her intently for several seconds, eyes drifting all over her body as he did, "…Are you getting laid? Seriously, I want to know. Because every time we hang out you've got to mess with me about doing Cam at least once like it's something to talk about."

"Oh, I'm just teasing you." Chun-Li said, reaching out to pinch Naruto's cheek, "It's losing its novelty since you stopped being embarrassed about it so I probably won't be doing it for too much longer. Just let me enjoy it."

Naruto rolled his eyes and lifted one of his hands in capitulation, "Alright, whatever nee-chan. You might want to put something on though."

What? This was her hotel room to begin with. She wasn't about to have her state of dress dictated to her by someone around four years younger than her, "Cammy's not wearing a stitch of clothing." Chun-Li said with a bit of a pout, and as if she could hear that she was being talked about, the sleeping Cammy turned over underneath the covers, giving her back to the ongoing conversation, "Double standard much?"

"Cam never sleeps in clothes." Naruto pointed out in return, "But whatever. If you want to walk around here all morning trying to give me a heart attack that's cool too."

"Aw, got a crush on your big sister now too?"

"No, but sexy is sexy damn it."

A knock came at the door to which Chun-Li immediately answered with a 'come in'. Guile proceeded to walk into the room and nearly turned around when he saw the lack of clothes on Chun-Li,

"Seriously?" Guile asked, getting a hapless shake of the head from Naruto before he let it slide. For a woman that was so professional in the field, Chun-Li loved ribbing people at odd times of the day, "Anyway, we've finally got some backing with the upper brass about S.I.N. at last to investigate them. We've got some leaked info that Osprey that turned your apartment complex into a pile of rubble was heading out Tokyo way before they disappeared."

Leak? What leak? Who the hell was going to leak anything about them? But still, fine. Lots of things were in Tokyo. Big whoop. That wasn't much to go on. There was a big chance that they were going out that way to begin with.

"Okay." Naruto's dull reaction was to be expected. 70% of the key things about modern Japan to begin with were situated in or around Tokyo, "That's like saying that a fly is hanging out a manure field. There's no telling what kind of shit it's there for."

"They weren't just running away though kid." Guile said, rubbing at the American flag tattoo on his bicep before pulling out a comb, "Why would they have possibly run away? In that thing they could have turned all of us to hamburger meat and left before anyone else even got there."

"Speak for yourself." Naruto said with a cocky grin as he ran a hand down Cammy's bare back, eliciting a content sigh from the little assassin, "I shot down an attack helicopter with my bare hands. I totally might have been able to take that gunship on."

"Right, because you were doing so well against it before it left." Chun-Li said sarcastically, pulling on Naruto's whisker-marked cheek again until he tried to bite at her fingers, "Ooh, you're grumpy in the morning aren't you?"

"Trust me kid, a chopper and an Osprey are two completely different things." Guile said as he combed up his eraser hair style, "But here's the thing, where do you think they could possibly land that damn thing?" None of them were pilots and none of them knew, but Guile did, "Since we're finally allowed to investigate S.I.N., authorities would be all over it if it landed anywhere in Tokyo now."

So where was it? It was going to Tokyo… and then it wasn't. It didn't just up and disappear. It wasn't a stealth aircraft at all.

"The door's open so I guess we just head on in." From outside, the door cracked open with a pair of pretty brown eyes peeking inside, "Good morning! Good morning!" Ibuki chirped cheerfully as she walked in dressed in casual clothes of a mauve skirt and a frilly white blouse instead of a school uniform, "So, since your house got pulverized I guess we're not going to school today, right?"

When Ibuki had showed up that morning in the neighborhood for school she was promptly filled in by Sakura as to what had transpired during the night and had quickly changed into more comfortable clothes before heading with Sakura to where the blonde housemates had stayed for the rest of the night.

The near-relations that were almost had between Sakura and Naruto were passed over in the explanation of course.

"Ibuki-chan!" Sakura chided as she wandered in behind her wearing a white sundress decorated with pink and orange flowers, "You don't say something like that to someone that just lost their house!"

"Meh, I don't really care about my apartment Sakura-chan." Naruto said, taking the air out of Sakura's sails as Ibuki bounced over and jumped at him to give him a gigantic greeting hug that he returned fully, "It's everyone else's on that floor. We'll be fine, but what about everybody else that lived there?"

That was the thing that really pissed him off.

He had enough money stashed away to afford somewhere new to stay when he found it. It wasn't like the other folks had a bunch of different prospective crash points to spend the night at until a new place of residence was located.

He and Cammy had Batsu's place, Sakura's house, he could probably pressure Sasuke in letting him sleep in the restaurant, E. Honda in Tokyo had a pretty sweet pad, and then there was always Karin's mansion.

If she didn't have enough room at that place for Naruto and every last clone he would ever create, there was something wrong there.

Speaking of the pretty little she-devil in human form… she was conspicuous by her absence.

"Why is Chun-Li naked?" Sakura asked with a raised eyebrow as she finally noticed the fact that Chun-Li's modesty was only covered by a towel. Slightly affronted at the fact that she was the only one being pointed out on this, Chun-Li opened her mouth to rebut until she was cut off, "I don't need to hear why Cammy's naked. She always sleeps like that."

So why did everyone have to bring up her lack of clothes? It was annoying, "…My room."

"Are you trying to give Naruto a heart attack?"

"So where's your rich friend?" Guile asked, noticing that they were two short. Batsu's was explainable. He was on the other side of town. Karin lived at the outskirts, but she was usually extremely early for everything she chose to attend, "I figured that she would have been front and center after hearing what happened."

"Karin doesn't even know because she's not even in Aohura City." Ibuki informed everyone, "I saw her off last night when she left. She went back to her parents' property for something about doing a meeting with her father with some person named Seth."

Like an animal that had heard something threatening coming her way, Cammy perked up and pushed herself up on her hands abruptly, scaring Ibuki right out of Naruto's lap, "Did you say Seth?"

"Oh my God, don't ever do that again!" Ibuki shouted from where she was instinctually clinging upside down to the ceiling with her ki while holding her skirt down, "I almost threw weapons at you!

"Did you say Seth?" Cammy repeated, staring up at Ibuki while leaning on Naruto and using his body as a cover for her own, "It's important. Did you or didn't you?"

"Yes, Seth. That's the guy's name." Ibuki confirmed as she dropped back down from the ceiling neatly. She had been talking and training extensively with Karin the previous evening… and she was actually a rather pleasant person to spend time with alone, something Naruto had clearly picked up on before anyone else, "That was the only thing about the meeting that Karin knew. Her dad's a real jerk and doesn't think she should know anymore since she apparently isn't good enough to close a deal with whatever business the guy is running."

Sakura walked over to Naruto and Cammy's bed and sat down, putting a hand on the girl, "What's wrong Cammy?"

Cammy tapped her temple with a finger as she tried to dredge up some useful memory from last night that didn't involve Juri outclassing her in battle again, "That horrible woman said something last night before the aircraft destroyed the building next door to our home. It sounded like she was reporting to someone in the middle of the fight."

"Seth, do you want it done fast or do you want it done right?"

And she'd departed in an S.I.N. aircraft.

An S.I.N. aircraft picked up Juri, heading to a place outside of Tokyo. Apparently her boss was named Seth, a person that was about to meet with the Kanzuki Zaibatsu, Karin's family's company.

It might have just been the paranoia over the fact that whenever events like this happened they never ended well, but both Sakura and Cammy due to their close proximity to him let out a shiver of lust when they felt an extremely primal spike of Naruto's chakra that gave both girls goosebumps even though everyone in the room felt it.

Naruto just started shaking his head as it all started sticking together in his head, "No." He said flatly, "No, no, no. Our luck isn't that bad. I'm not gonna lose my house, get cockbl-…" He stopped himself from blurting out something personal once he got a look at Sakura's reddening face, "…-I mean miss our target, and lose my boss lady in less than a day."

Bad things came in threes, but at some point these kinds of things had to get absurd.

No. It wasn't happening like this again. Karin was tough enough that he normally wouldn't worry so much, but it hadn't been that long ago when she'd been hurt. Her injuries had been far worse than anyone else's, and she wasn't him with a biju in her belly. She had to heal like a normal person, and she wasn't 100% yet. Hell, if she was 70% he'd have been surprised.

If something serious was happening she was in serious trouble.

"Okay." Guile said, breaking the tension as quickly as he could before Naruto could start to rant as he was wont to do in times of duress, "I'll see what I can do to get something together to get us out there fast. Now to everybody not wearing clothes… go put some goddamn clothes on!"

XxX

(A Few Hours Later – Outside of Tokyo – Kanzuki Estate)

Per her father's demands, Karin met him on the third helipad on the roof of the estate, waiting for their guest to be flown over from the airstrip where their personal aircrafts were to land. Karin hadn't changed clothes from her tennis outfit, but she figured that it appealed to her father, making her look like the cute, dutiful little daughter of the economic powerhouse instead of the business shark that she actually was.

Standing close at her side was her father; Kanzuki Daikenjuro. He was a tall, broad man that wore a no nonsense grey suit and black tie. He had a thick graying mustache on his upper lip and thick black hair with portions of grey that looked slightly like horns if you looked hard enough at them. His facial expression was stony and unpleasant, with sharp black eyes that didn't even bother looking over at Karin, instead looking at the sky for the sight of the incoming helicopter that was to reach the mansion at any moment.

"You look well." Daikenjuro commented without even looking over at Karin, "I am pleased that you haven't allowed yourself to be corrupted by the amount of time you spend with the commoners in that school you wished to transfer into."

There was nothing 'common' about the people she spent time with. Every one of her friends were amazing people, and while they weren't of blueblood stock it didn't matter. That was one thing she had learned while being away from her place of birth and earlier years; the company she kept could solve real world problems better than any wealthy person could.

They were dedicated and (mostly) honest people, and she had fallen in love with one of those 'commoners'.

"Father, do not think me so weak that I would be affected by anything so easily." Anything including his backhanded compliments and his false praise. She hadn't needed his emotional support in nearly eighteen years and she didn't yearn for it even now, "I am here to handle whatever task is required of me on your part."

"All that is required of you is to watch and learn." Daikenjuro insisted, "Do you understand?"

"Of course." As they spoke to one another, one of the several transport helicopters that they used to move around their sizable terrain flew their way, ferrying their high-ranking guest to their home, "If I may ask, exactly who is this meeting with?"

"The top producers of military science in the west. More than likely the entire world by the next quarter."

He obviously said it in that manner to give Karin some information while still keeping a good portion of what he deemed to be above her head away from her, but she was no fool. It wasn't subtle enough for her to not immediately break it down in a matter of three seconds. She was not negligent in regards to keeping up with things like this.

Especially when her friends had been fighting them elsewhere in the world.

"Father, this is a bad idea." Karin said, trying to plead with Daikenjuro even thought it was already far too late to do anything preventative, "S.I.N. is not the kind of company that we should reach out to. The only thing that can come of this is-."

"I will not hear this from you right now." Daikenjuro cut her off before she could even begin reasoning with him, not that she had the time to do so, "You are not accountable for this. I will not be told how to do business by my own daughter."

"Then what have you been giving me all of these tasks for?!" Karin snapped at him angrily, "Why have you been tormenting me with all of your 'tests' that I had to pass in order to keep my status as the heir? If you are never going to defer to me, or even listen to my input when I have more intimate knowledge on the subject than you, then tell me what it is all for!"

"Know your place child."

"You will destroy your own company by infecting it with this cancer of a partnership!"

What was he going to do to her for raising her voice at him? Try to lay an unkind hand on her? Good luck with that. The only thing left he had on her was respect, and if he was fool enough to not even listen to her when she was telling him something that she was stressing was important he was going to quickly lose what was left of that as well.

"KARIN! We will talk about this later."

"You have no idea how right you are about that father."

If they survived until later that is. S.I.N. didn't do meetings. They never did in the entire history of their existence. Was he really so arrogant to believe that the C.E.O. of S.I.N. was willing to break this just to come and close a deal with him?

Karin formed a fist and tightened the muscles in her body only to cringe in discomfort at the test. She was still injured, but if push came to shove she was well enough off to fight. She'd learned that she could at least keep up in a spar with Ibuki the previous evening.

Then again they hadn't really hit each other at all, so her body hadn't been forced to exert itself very much.

The helicopter landed right on the helipad right in front of them and the spinning blades began to slow to a stop as Daikenjuro prepared for a greeting befitting of a powerful potential business partner until the door opened up and the figure stepped out.

The clothes were formal and befitting of a C.E.O., but his skin was chrome. He didn't look human.

Even so, it had to be commended that Daikenjuro took the entire thing in stride despite the fearfully cold and beyond mortal appearance of his would-be guest, "Welcome to my estate Mr. Seth." He greeted in English, "It is a pleasure to have you here to speak with today."

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine." Seth replied with smile that Karin found unnerving, as if it was unnatural for a creature such as that to smile. Did he even know what emotion was to be associated with smiling? She couldn't help but feel like she was looking at a void that would drain the life out of her when he looked at her, "And I'm making the assumption that this lovely young woman is Karin."

Oh God, and he knew her name.

"Yes." Daikenjuro cut his eyes at Karin for her previous insolence, but it was only for a split-second, "But we should be onto more important matters. Come. Let's discuss this in my office."

"After you." Seth insisted, choosing to follow Daikenjuro's lead as they left the rooftop helipad. As he departed with the Kanzuki patriarch and his daughter he affixed his solid-eyed gaze solely on Karin, "I've heard that this young lady is quite the skilled martial artist. One of the most talented young women in the world."

"She can't even manipulate ki like the fighters in the World Warrior Tournament." Daikenjuro said, cutting down Seth's compliment to Karin.

"Doesn't that make her all the more impressive?" Seth insisted, "Are you aware of the company that your daughter keeps? She surrounds herself with perhaps the most talented fighters in her generation, all people that routinely utilize ki, and she is seen right along with them as the best that Japan has to offer."

"Being seen by the common folk as better than them is the way that things are supposed to be. If she were seen as anything less she would be a disappointment as a fighter."

Seth had an impossible shine in his eyes as he could feel Karin's ki spike angrily. Her power was wonderful for a human being that never learned how to unlock her power to utilize in combat. Was her father sexist, or just a fool? That girl could crush Daikenjuro with her index finger despite his size and apparent physical ability. Karin was just leagues ahead of her own father and he didn't even notice it.

Her ki wasn't anything significant compared to what he'd already collected from more powerful fighters, but her combat data was incredibly valuable, especially in regards to her technique and sheer knowledge of the martial arts. When it came to sheer hand-to-hand combat she had pure skill superior to the company that she kept in Aohura City.

All the way to the conference room, Karin couldn't ignore the cold feeling coming from her left as Seth was constantly observing her with his odd smile, 'This cannot be a human being. He feels entirely unnatural.'

"Let us get down to business shall we?" Daikenjuro said spiritedly as they all took their seats at the extremely long table, "There is no company better in all of Asia to choose from if you endeavor to spread S.I.N.'s wares to military complexes around the continent."

"I am well aware of the amount of reach that comes with the Kanzuki Zaibatsu name." Seth said, lacing his fingers together about the desk, "The last time that you've ever had any workings with military technology however was back during World War II, which is impressive that you've managed to rebuild and maintain such a substantial fortune without delving into military development until now, but I guess there is no such thing as too much money."

At that, Daikenjuro let out a booming bark of laughter, "True enough Mr. Seth. Now, let us put our heads together and work out a relationship amongst our respective companies shall we? The JSDF is starving for superior technology to keep their place as a conventional fighting force along the Pacific Rim. Would you like to reach out to potential clients in Australia, or would you like to start strong with the Chinese? There is no shortage of potential investments for us to take."

Seth began to laugh to himself, "Do you believe that the reason I've come here today is to request a partnership in searching for clientele in regards to our product? S.I.N. has no need for any such thing."

"Then what do you require of the Kanzuki Zaibatsu?"

"Do you remember over a year ago when you were presented with a list of demands sent to you by the Shadaloo organization?" Seth asked evenly even as both father and daughter tensed up, "This is a lot like that situation… only now I'm here in person to make the demands myself."

Karin slapped her hands on the table hard enough to break it on their end, "M. Bison was killed for his insolence in trying to demand anything of my family!"

"Yes, but it wasn't your champion that did it was he?" Seth asked as he already knew the answer, "He failed to destroy Master Bison, and only recently did he ever find himself truly killed at the culmination of the Second World Warrior Tournament… once again, not by Uzumaki. I am more powerful than Master Bison was, than any human being can be. You had best remember that."

"You believe that you are more powerful than Bison?"

"I know that I am. That was what he created me for."

"Karin." Daikenjuro said, keeping a suspicious eye on Seth, as if there was anything he could do to stop the synthetic human if things were really to break down, "There is nothing that you can do here. Stand down and allow me to handle it."

"Actually…" Seth interjected, chuckling as he found something quite amusing, "…There is more that she can do at the moment than you can, seeing as how control of the Kanzuki Zaibatsu publicly belongs to her as of midnight last night. Well done child."

Without a moment's hesitation, Karin propelled herself over the table, swinging both of her arms downward, "Ressen Ha (Violent Massacre Break)!" It was such a sudden move that her entire body appeared to be a blur arching through the air.

Her powerful attack was blocked by the mere lifting of Seth's forearm, stopping her cold, "Was it something I said?"

"That was not your place to inform him of such a thing!" Enraged at having such a sensitive secret revealed before she could find the appropriate moment to tell her father of this herself, she flipped through the initial attack that was stopped and launched a rolling kick at Seth's head, "Die!"

"Humans are so disgustingly emotional." Seth commented as he endured Karin's ongoing rampage of offense, merely defending himself by blocking even as the ferocity of her assault tore his clothes to tatters, "You place one of them in a situation of discomfort and even those that think themselves superior will crumble, such as your father. He has yet to even blink since I've revealed to him what you've done."

A rather sharp kick tore away the clothing at his belly, getting Karin to stop when she saw a slowly rotating black and white device that looked like a glowing yin-yang. That looked exactly like the thing that Naruto and Batsu had described from the S.I.N. tank that they'd fought in India, but it was embedded in his body.

Taken aback at the sight of the engine, Karin stepped back, "What are you?" She asked before being brutally swatted away.

"The most powerful being on the planet." Seth said, ripping away the rest of his top to reveal his heavily muscular form and just how inhuman he truly appeared to be, "I am beyond human comprehension. Etch my name upon your soul and know that my name is Seth, and I shall unleash destruction upon this world."

Just a backhand strike felt like she'd been hit by pure iron. Her face was red and bleeding from the right side of her forehead where the blow had cut her delicate skin. Her mind was swimming and she felt nauseous.

"And what do we have to do with any of that?" She snapped at him as she tried to get up from her backside, though she could feel her resolve shake in the face of this… creature. Or maybe that was the concussion she'd just received? "In the end we're just a company. We have no political influence in the world at large outside of Japan."

In a heartbeat, Seth teleported from his previous place to right in front of Karin where his hand held her cheek. Her eyes flickered in fear at the sudden closing of the distance and she bit her own lip hard enough to draw blood to refrain from showing it any further.

"There is no need to put up a false front my dear. It is only natural to fear me. But do you really think that I would simply tell you my plans just like that?" He said in a condescending manner, "My own subordinates are unaware of my plans except for the portions that they are necessary for. You will be nothing more than a means to an end, and that is all you need to know."

The fight was not gone from her however, as Karin grabbed his arm that was touching on her face and pulled herself up and in for rapid-fire knee strikes to the body, "Arakuma Inashi (Enraged Knee Lancer)!" Her final move of hurling his body to the floor failed, letting her know for certain that she'd done little more than annoy Seth with her attacks.

This time he grabbed her by the throat and held her off of the ground before throwing her back over his shoulder with enough force to send her flying all the way across the deep room and off of the wall at the end of it.

"I thought you would be more valuable than this, I have already assimilated your most useful maneuvers. Why do you hold back?" Seth asked, slowly walking Karin's way until he saw her cough up blood onto the ground, staining her white tennis outfit with her own life fluid as well, "Ah, I see. How fragile human bodies are. This body of mine is merely a vessel. Should it become frail I merely find a replacement. You do not have that luxury though, do you? You are still hurt from your run-in with my employee. My apologies. She is rather easily excitable in battle."

'I should have asked Naruto-san to come.' Karin thought to herself, inhaling every bit of air that her lungs could hold as she fought to stand back up, 'But I never expected my father to invite the leader of S.I.N. to our home… and that he was some kind of enhanced being.' Her gaze drifted back down the room to her father who was still sitting at the head of the table in catatonic shock, "Father…"

Seeing her reach her feet again, Seth frowned and brought his hands in front of the yin-yang orb in his torso, "Tanden Engine." Changing colors to a navy blue, Seth's eyes turned black and sucked Karin in towards him where he caught her by the front of her dress and held her off of the ground, "I did not want to resort to violence in order to get you to cooperate, but you humans are little more than animals, always looking to fight when you're cornered."

"K-Karin." Daikenjuro finally said after seeing his daughter in dire straits, "Where is our security?" Not that he figured it would help with the way that Karin and Seth had been battling, but still.

"Where indeed?" Seth said in turn before reaching into his tattered pants and pulling out a device for communication, "Viper?"

XxX

Outside in the spacious halls around the conference room there were well over one hundred broken security guards.

Electric burns were ripped into the walls and floors and an entire long section of wall was engulfed in flames. Crimson Viper stood directly in front of the door seemingly bored as the upgrades she'd made to her combat suit had shown themselves to be quite effective, "Kanzuki security is being neutralized as we speak Seth. Juri is out handling any others that are looking for a way to try and attack the room."

As if they would succeed even if they had amassed every bit of security they had. But searching and destroying appealed more to Juri than waiting and defending, so the black widow of S.I.N. was set out to find and prey upon any groupings of the security force trying to regroup.

"There's nothing to be concerned about." Viper assured him as she paced about, making sure that no one else was anywhere near fighting condition, "You have all of the time to accomplish whatever you need."

XxX

Back inside of the conference room, Seth just laughed to himself again, "No, I think we should depart as soon as possible. We have complete control over the airstrip do we not?"

"That we do. The Osprey was a big help in getting air superiority, and Juri's already taken the anti-air defenses of the estate and turned them to our side. She had experience after breaking into the property outside of Aohura City."

"Excellent." Seth said, eyeing Karin closely as she glared hatefully at him, "Since the Kanzuki have been so hospitable to us, I believe we should show them the same courtesy and continue this meeting back at our own place of business."

"I'll tell the team on the ground at the airstrip to prepare-." Viper stopped speaking only to pick up a few seconds later, "Sorry. Apparently an errant aircraft was just shot down at the western edge of the estate's airspace."

"That is…" Seth narrowed his eyes and looked at Karin who was trying and failing to hide a smirk despite being held up at his mercy. So he could be rattled, "…Viper, prepare to depart to the airstrip. We've got what I need to continue with my plans."

"Naruto-san is going to pulverize your chrome skull." Karin said, brown eyes dancing with anticipation for this… thing, to get its comeuppance.

"Do not mistake my common sense tactic for refusing to fight an unnecessary battle as cowardice." Seth said, giving her a violent shake, "If a mere human wishes to commit suicide there are far more effective ways to do so that wouldn't trouble me nearly as much. I won't indulge a child. There is nothing new that I need to assimilate from him. It is time to go."

Karin's eyes drifted over to her father and figured that this would be the last time in a long time, if ever, that she would probably get a chance to speak to him, "Father, I did not do what I did to cause you pain. I took majority control because it was the philosophy that you taught me yourself. I love you, but I will not tolerate being undercut and underestimated. You can hate me if you would like, and I understand if you do, but I wanted to tell you this myself."

Daikenjuro's eyes just widened. His mouth moved but no sound came out, except for one word, "Karin…"

That was the look that she had been waiting to see on his face for years. One of worry. One of care for her well-being. And for the first time that she could remember she could say something to set him at ease, "I will be fine father." Karin assured him, "As a matter of fact I will not be taken from this property. My beloved will see to that."

Beloved? She had a beloved? And one that she felt would protect her against this creature? This was news to him. What gentleman had she charmed that had the standing to be at her side and the strength to defeat whatever Seth was?

"Your 'beloved' was shot down." Seth informed her briskly, "Even if he survived, do you honestly believe he would be in any kind of condition to fight?"

"If what you have said is to be believed you have assimilated his ki… so I believe you already have the answer to that question."

XxX

(Elsewhere on the Kanzuki Estate Grounds)

"Gah!" Naruto complained as he tried to maneuver himself out of the branches of a tree that his parachute was caught up in, "I thought you said parachuting was easy!"

On the ground, Ibuki and Guile, the former dressed in her ninja gear and the latter clad in his entire pilot's suit, cast off his own parachute pack and stared up at the struggling Naruto who had yet to free himself, "Everyone landed just fine everywhere else except for you apparently you idiot. Cut yourself free and let's get going!"

"I've got him." Ibuki said, dropping her own parachute pack onto the ground and stretching her shoulders out.

She pulled a kunai and jumped up into the tree and sliced the lines of Naruto's chute allowing him to fall to the ground and land on his feet smoothly before shoving Guile, "You didn't say anything about jumping out of a damn plane when you said you were going to get something together." Naruto complained.

Jumping out of a plane wasn't really the original idea, but no plan ever survived contact with the enemy.

"You didn't say anything about damn antiaircraft missiles for security." Guile said, throwing his pilot's helmet onto the ground and letting his hair pop back up into its appropriate shape, "What kind of civilian has those?"

"To be fair, Karin kind of had those at her house in Aohura City too." Ibuki pointed out as she dropped down onto the grass and returned her weapon to its proper place, "I hope everyone else landed alright." She was slightly shaken up at the sudden turn of events, but otherwise alright.

Getting shot down out of the sky was a first for her she had to say. This was a month of firsts. First time going to India, first time being dispatched on a mission abroad, first time being teleported over a long distance, first time in a plane, so the busty kunoichi could only imagine what was next.

Guile pulled a short-wave radio off of his jacket and fired it up with a short burst of static, "Hey, I've got Naruto and Ibuki with me Chun-Li. What about you? How many kids are you short? Over."

"I'm not down any kids. All the rest landed around me. Yep. Sakura, Cammy, and Batsu are all fine, over."

Naruto snatched the radio for a moment and contacted Chun-Li again, "Yeah, did anyone get stuck in a tree over there? Uh, over."

"A tree? No. Where we landed there aren't enough for that. Everyone landed clean." Silence from Chun-Li and muffled speech over the channel came until snickering could be heard, "Sakura says 'Naruto probably asked that question because he got stuck in a tree,' over."

"Well you tell Sakura-chan to shut her cute little ass up because I never parachuted before, over!" Naruto snapped back with leaves and twigs in his hair until Guile tired of the tomfoolery and grabbed the radio back.

"Whatever." Guile grumped before pulling up a device with a virtual topographical map on it, "This place is huge and we're three miles out from the airfield. From what I can see from you you're farther away. You want to make a call here or leave it to me? Over."

"I don't see how we're going to make a different call here. We can actually see the mansion from where we are. You guys go to the airfield since you're probably going to be moving faster anyway. Our group will split up and send half to the security station, the other half to the mansion itself to see what the hell is going on there. Any issues? Over."

Not really. It was a basic strategy for the situation. Naruto, Guile, and Ibuki were closest to a sensitive area and they would have gotten there first, thus that was their target. Chun-Li's group was comprised of people that would move slower over longer distances due to the inability to tackle terrain the way that ninjas did.

Batsu could, but he wasn't nearly as smooth and quick about it. And everyone else in the party were fairly swift across short distances, but their ability to move with a higher output of speed over significant stretches of space left more to be desired.

"Alright, then that's where we're going, over." Guile said, motioning to the ninjas to move out. They did so, taking care to cut a pace that he could actually keep up with on the ground as they leapt through the trees, "We're heading to the airstrip first."

"What? She won't be there! What about the mansion?"

"Calm down kid." Guile said before Naruto could begin losing his temper. What a day when he was the one that was the voice of reason, "The others are on their way to the mansion and they're closer to begin with. They'd get there before us even if we went that way. We're covering the only real way off of this property."

Basically, if anyone wanted to leave, they had to do it through the airstrip. There weren't any roads or gates in or out. The only way to enter or exit the Kanzuki Estate was through the air.

XxX

(With Chun-Li and Cammy – Kanzuki Estate Security Station)

"Whoa." Chun Li said as she and Cammy came upon the outstation roughly half a mile from the main mansion. It was a simple grey, sturdy building the size of a small law enforcement station, not meant to overshadow the grandiose nature of the mansion that it was meant to look out for… not that it could even if it was elaborately decorated in the slightest.

And the outside of it was littered with the bodies the security force that had been posted there to watch over the Kanzuki family.

"This is recent." Cammy pointed out, stooping by some of the deceased bodies and feeling that their lifeless bodies were still warm to the touch, "…And familiar."

This looked a lot like the scene on Karin's front lawn the morning after the fight inside of her Aohura City home where they were first introduced to Juri in all of her brutally efficient glory. Just with way more dead guards.

Standing up from checking over the fresh corpses outside, Cammy pulled her gauntlets tighter on her hands and stared at the station building with a laser-like focus in her baby blue eyes.

Whenever Cammy focused like that, Chun-Li knew that she was deadly serious about whatever unlucky thing attracted that kind of attention from her. It was a subtle shift from her usual demeanor that one wouldn't notice if they didn't know her, but for those that did she might as well have been openly sneering.

"Cammy." Chun-Li said carefully upon noticing her dangerous change in attitude, "Don't pull a Naruto and run in there to tear into whoever you think is in there." She knew what she was about to do, because she'd seen her do it before, even back before she'd lost her memory.

"I don't think just anyone is in there." Cammy said calmly, despite the slow and deliberate walk that she was taking to the front doors of the building and the growing bite of her tone, "I know that detestable woman Juri Han is in there. She severely injured my friends and twice tried to take my life, she destroyed my home, she shot at the man that I care for with an assault aircraft, and she shot our plane out of the sky with this estate's defense system in a bid to kill us… again."

…Well when she put it that way she had ample reason to be gravely upset with Juri beyond logical, tactical reasoning.

"…And now I'm going to go in there and twist her head off of her shoulders."

Sometimes for such a cute girl Cammy could be downright terrifying.

She held no pretense about her as she strode right into the station, marching right past the security that was littering the interior, a few even put halfway through walls and ceilings. In some places the floor was slick with blood, but none of these things deterred Cammy, and Chun-Li already knew what to expect for the most part after learning of what had happened at Karin's Aohura City mansion.

Eventually the two women entered an open-aired office with a balcony circling the room that led up to the next level. In the center of the room was a mass of cubicles that probably served as the working stations of the guards. Upstairs around the balcony was probably more of the same.

"You just keep on coming don't you kitten? Didn't we just do this last night?"

Cammy didn't say anything after hearing the predatory, intrigued voice of her female target. She merely slid her body into her tensed ready stance, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she prepared to react to anything that would come her way.

Chun-Li just hoped that Cammy would be fighting with her head instead of with her heart that was gradually baring more and more of itself as time passed with her loved ones. Either way, she would be there with her so that set their odds as being significantly better, didn't it?

Sitting on the safety railing of the second level balcony, Juri looked down at the two of them with her purple eyes shining dangerously. And why wouldn't she look that way? She'd won twice against Cammy no matter who she was fighting along with.

"I was hoping to be done with fighting both of you by now, one because I'd killed you and the other because I'd just never see you again." Juri commented, flittering her hand in front of her loosely, "I hate fighting women. It's just not as fun as playing with the boys."

"You're insane." Chun-Li said as she watched Juri stand up on the guard rail, "What has all of this been for? What are you attacking people for? And don't give me the crap you gave Sakura about how you can!"

"Oh, you want the technical reason. Well Seth came here for his own reason. I don't know what it is." Juri answered, hands on her hips as she balanced and walked on the rail, "My mission was really simple though. To collect samples of potent ki for the BLECE Project. Killing pretty little Killer Bee down there was just supposed to be a bonus."

Wait, the what project?

Whatever it was, it didn't sound good, and if she knew anything about it that couldn't be overlooked for interrogation purposes, "Cammy, keep her alive."

"I'm not making any promises." Cammy replied before jumping up and running along the tops of the cubicle walls until she got close enough to the balcony Juri was on to take a jump at it. Juri merely jumped straight up into the air as Cammy grabbed the railing and slingshot herself up to perch on it.

Juri fell down in a powerful stomp, but missed and bent the entire railing hard enough to break it. She missed Cammy however, who jumped off onto the nearest wall where she sprang back off at Juri, flipping through the air in a ball, "Hooligan Combination!"

Upon reaching Juri, the two got caught in a jumbled mess in midair, sailing over the first floor until Juri managed to free herself and kicked free of the deadly grapple attack. The force of her kick allowed her to land smoothly on another side of the second floor balcony while Cammy had to manage a rather shaky landing on the floor, sliding on all fours in the opposite direction of Juri and craning her head up to stare at her.

"That was much better!" Juri said, clapping animatedly for Cammy's effort, "You actually grabbed me that time! Good for you!"

"Hyakuretsukyaku (Hundred Rending Kicks)!"

Shit! Juri had lost sight of Chun-Li due to Cammy's wily attack. And she hadn't wasted the opportunity either, rushing up the stairs to the next level behind the maniacal S.I.N. agent and unleashing her signature attack, with lightning-speed kicks landing from her single fully extended leg against Juri's back.

For once she had been hit, as the kicks sent her sailing over the railing and back into the air where Cammy's eyes followed her like a cat's would a swinging ball of yarn. With one powerful jump, Cammy inverted her body to lead upward with her leg in a powerful driving kick, "Cannon Spike!"

'You've got to be kidding me!' Juri thought to herself as she was driven straight into the ceiling by Cammy's kick, "Kuk!" For once she felt her own blood being driven past her lips, welling up from her own internal injuries.

Cammy flipped down after her kick had driven Juri up as far as she could smash her into the ceiling and she stared up, rather pleased as Juri seemed to be stuck in the plaster that comprised it.

Chun-Li couldn't help but pump a fist, reveling in the slight victory. Cammy was the learner. She could pick up a massive amount of nuances in a fighting style from simply seeing it once, let alone competing against it. She had seen it, she had fought against it twice.

She'd been able to break Juri's methods down and had two separate trial and error tests to come up with a way to deal with how difficult she was to hit. Chun-Li had given her the opening, and she hadn't missed her moment. The Cannon Spike struck true.

Juri stayed up there, shaking in place as pieces of debris fell down from the ceiling, "You bitches… you really think you've got me don't you? You landed one move on me and you're thinking you've finally got my number don't you?"

There was visible pink ki spilling from her left eye, reflecting the obscene levels that they could just feel pouring from her body. It was more than Chun-Li had ever felt from her, even when she summoned enough ki to obliterate Naruto's apartment with a single kick.

For Cammy it was similar to how much ki she summoned to try and combat Sakura's first Satsui no Hadou tantrum in Karin's Aohura City mansion, and it wasn't a pleasant memory.

"Shinkusen (Flash of Suffering)!" Like bolt of lightning, Juri shot herself out of the ceiling swiftly at Chun-Li, wasting no time as she landed three booming kicks that sent the young Chinese woman flying, smashing through the cubicles that were on the second floor, "Hit me again! Come on, I dare you to! I could turn this whole building to rubble in one move if I wanted to!"

"Damn it." Chun-Li muttered to herself, pinned underneath so many office walls, her body still feeling the punishing blows that had just been dealt to her, "I didn't think… anyone could move like that. I swear I dodged it." It was like she already knew which way she was going to move before she'd even tried to evade the dive bomb kicks.

From behind, this time it was Cammy that had taken the initiative, wrapping both of her arms around Juri's waist and bridging her own body back to lift her up and slam her on the back of her head and neck, only for Juri to bend her long legs forward enough that they touched the ground first, rendering Cammy's suplex nullified.

Cammy let go and slid her body away on the ground, shocked that someone was able to do something like that to a move that should have killed them, but Juri just stared at her with her left eye glowing dangerously and a smile on her face that promised nothing pleasant, "Oh Killer Bee, Killer Bee~… sting me if you can…" Her entire body became cloaked in the sick pink energy as she lifted one leg high into the air, "…Survive if I let you."

And then she let the hammer drop.

XxX

(Kanzuki Estate Main Mansion – With Sakura and Batsu)

There wasn't any difficulty in getting into the mansion… because there was no more security left. They were able to go straight through the entrance that they were able to reach from their position outside and took off through the halls, but that was where a second problem could be found.

There was no way they were going to get to wherever they needed to get to in time with the size of that fucking place. Not a chance. It was like a labyrinth with halls the size and length of city streets.

Luckily, Batsu was more or less the first student of the Uzumaki Naruto School of Improvisation.

The way they'd entered was through the garage… so they doubled back and procured some transport. It was easy enough, as due to being so damn rich that their garage was filled with dozens of vehicles, they kept all of the keys on the wall closest to door leading inside.

"This is a horrible idea Batsu!" Sakura shouted over the sound of the luxury car's engine that the wild-haired senior high school student had borrowed to drive through and find their way, "Who drives in someone's house?"

"There's enough room for it goddamn it!"

"That's not the point! Do you know what kind of mess you're making?"

At that, Batsu looked around at how the entire place seemed to be a battlefield of sorts with bodies of the Kanzuki family's mercenary security force littering the hallways. They'd stopped trying to count the number of bodies after the number had gone past sixty and that had only been on the first long corridor before Batsu decided to turn,

"I don't think a few tire marks on the floors matter that much right now." Batsu said, swerving to avoid running over a body in the middle of the floor only to rub the side of the car up against the wall and lose a side mirror, "Whoops! My bad."

His deadpan tone was not lost on Sakura when it came to how silly a concern like that was, but someone had to be the reasonable one out of the lot of them and the onus for such fell to her.

Years ago, if you had asked a twelve-year old Kasugano Sakura what she would be doing five years from then and then told her that she would be riding shotgun in an Italian sports car that was speeding through the hallways of the wealthiest family in Asia to try and save her rival/friend from being harmed by the top arms company in the world after getting shot out of the sky she would have stared at you like a deer in the headlights.

And now it seemed to be normal enough of an occurrence to her that her next immediate thought wasn't that they were doing something that outlandish, it was that she sorely wished that she had her own driver's license just like Batsu did.

"You know how your house is just a little too big?" Batsu asked before pointing at the screen affixed to the dash, "When GPS can navigate its way through the inside of it. Christ, how can three people live here?"

"Two." Sakura corrected, "Kanzuki-san doesn't really stay here too often. So it's just two; her mom and dad. But anyway, I can feel her ki. It's weaker than it should be though. Just keep going…" Sakura then remembered that they were inside, "Um, in that general direction!" She finished lamely, pointing outside in the intended direction.

Notable by his frustration at the ongoing situation was Batsu, who hadn't toned his adrenaline down since the moment they'd had to jump out of a low-flying plane to survive the first stages of this little infiltration, "Alright, I'm sick of playing rat in the maze here. Stand up in your seat a bit Sakura, can you shoot a Hadoken from a moving car?" Batsu asked.

"What? Why?"

"Well it's either that or crash this thing through walls and I don't trust this thing to be tough enough for too much of that." It wasn't like his jeep after all. A Ferrari was made to drive really fast, not take a beating.

"I'm not doing that!" Sakura insisted upon hearing the exceedingly stupid idea.

"Then switch places with me and drive!"

"I don't even know how to drive!"

"Well damn it, it's either drive or shoot sister! Pick one! Or do you have a better plan to get to rich girl fast enough?"

Sakura just pouted and glared at Batsu in her seat before standing up enough that she could aim over the top of the car. She indeed did not have a better idea, and the Kanzuki family could afford to replace everything that they broke for the rest of their lives and never go broke.

'The Law of Mechanical Motion better apply with ki blasts.' Sakura thought to herself, as she realized that one thing she'd never done before was fire a Hadoken from a moving vehicle. This could end badly, "You're not gonna turn are you?"

"Nope." Batsu said as they accelerated toward a wall, "Shoot."

With a sigh, Sakura drew her hands back and built her blue energy up between her palms, "Alright, Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" Shooting the big ball of ki ahead of them, Sakura had to cover her face as it destroyed the wall they were driving towards, letting them fly on through, "It worked!"

"Shoot again, shoot again, shoot again!"

"Ah! Hadoken (Surge Fist)!"

Sakura had forgotten that behind the walls of a hallway there were these things called rooms… and that there were a lot of them in a mansion the size of this one. Thus, she would be expending a lot of energy in order to create a shortcut.

Blast after blast until finally they crashed through a wall and the first thing they saw was a massive, muscular chrome man with a yin-yang engine thing where his stomach should have been. A flash of momentary surprise was on his face as the next few moments played out in slow motion.

Seth's face shifted back to one that clearly didn't care about the Ferrari convertible flying at him with the two teenagers in it. In one motion he hurled Karin's body away from him far enough that what he was about to do would not affect her in any way.

His yin-yang engine thing started to spin rapidly, cloaking his body in pungent black energy before he threw himself forward at the car and slammed his body into the front of it with his shoulder leading.

Not only did this stop the car, it flipped up over Seth's body and soared through the air, crashing through the wall at the other end of the room.

Karin and her father bore witness to this with, the latter with eyes that couldn't have popped open any wider. Karin tried to get back up again, but her re-aggravated injuries from the beating she'd taken a short time back against Juri disabled her from being a part of the fight, "Maudite soit cette vile femme (Curse that vile woman)."

Her body just wouldn't respond the way she wanted it to. Every time she tried to do something, anything, she would feel the blood inside of her well up.

Two of her friends had just crashed through the wall in one of her father's cars from his west garage. They had been aiming at Seth, and not only was he able to react to it in time, not only was he able to stop the car with his own body, if it left a scratch on him she couldn't see it.

It seemed to annoy him more than anything else.

"Hmph. I am the most powerful being on the planet. Human beings and their more pitiful creations can't possibly compare." Seth said, dusting his arms off as he stared at the smoking, fiery hole in the wall that had just been created, "Oh? There's potential here." He said as he heard metallic creaking and groaning

And with that, the very same car that had just tried to run him down came flying back at him, hitting him flush and putting him back through the first wall.

"Good heavens!" Daikenjuro cried as one of his ultra-expensive vehicles returned through the conference room the way it had come in, "What is going on in my home?"

"A fight old man." Batsu said as he and Sakura walked his way back into the room, "That I just ended with a flying fucking car!" Who needed shuriken or ki blasts when you could just chuck a car at the bad guys? Not Ichimonji Batsu, "I don't know what that thing was, but you can study it after you scrape it off of the bottom of that car."

"Sonic Boom!"

A pair of spinning ki disks flew out of the hole containing Seth, forcing both Batsu and Sakura to dodge.

Seth flew out of the hole with a graceful flip and landed with a flying kick on Batsu before spinning through the moment he landed, lashing out with one kick that spun Batsu in a circle before landing a quicker one. That one kick wasn't just one kick however, "Hyakuretsukyaku (Hundred Rending Kicks)!"

Batsu seemingly took dozens of blows from an unseen force before dropping to his knees, choking on air. He had not been ready for that. But looking up at Seth's smugly smiling face caused him to reset and quickly tap into Burning Vigor form.

"What ki. For a human to be able to unlock that kind of inner potential with raw anger." Seth commented as the wild orange aura began flying off of the young man, "It's still merely ranked third in outright intensity for your party of acquaintances, behind Kasugano Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto."

Clenching focused ki in his hand, Batsu unleashed a hard uppercut with a roar, causing a rip of energy to cascade upward from the end of his fists and into the ceiling. When it subsided, Seth still stood there smiling, only he had a hand grabbing onto Batsu's fist.

"That actually hurt." Seth commented, "Commendable, but let's see how my own stacks up." Lifting his elbow, he delivered a modified uppercut of his own before launching himself off of the ground, spinning as he led with his fist right underneath Batsu's body, "Shoryuuken (Rising Dragon Fist)!" With every rotation he made he dealt more punishment until Batsu lifted off of the end of his punch.

Sakura couldn't believe it. Even with an intense ki fueling him, Batsu was being worked over, 'That was Gouken-sensei, Ryu, and Ken's move!' But at the same time it wasn't, modified to suit Seth's needs, much like her Shou'oken, but so much more effective and true to the original.

Her feet carried her to Batsu as he descended and she was able to catch him out of the air, sliding to a stop on her knees after managing to do so. He was a mess.

"Batsu!" Sakura cried out as she looked at his glassed over eyes and face, "Come on, are you alive?"

"He fought well for just being a human boy, but showed me nothing that was worth assimilating." The chrome humanoid being stated firmly as he set a hand on Sakura's head. She couldn't sense his presence because his energy wasn't natural in the slightest, "You however. You hold something very special. Another time perhaps."

With that, he let go and walked past her, waving a hand in front of the engine in his stomach to create a miniature black hole that sucked Karin in towards him, allowing him to once again forcefully grab her by the collar, "You're going to die." Karin said to Seth's face despite looking to be in rather bad shape herself, "You are not the first person that has tried to harm us. Have you ever wondered why no one that has masterminded such has ever lived?"

"Because in the end, despite their plans, their powers, their ideals, they were only human." Seth said, holding her face close to his, "Inadequate. I was created to be better. To always improve. To transcend the limits of your pitiful mortality."

She looked into his eyes and saw nothing. He truly wasn't human. Was he even able to be considered a life form at all?

He seemingly proved what he'd said when he effortlessly stanched a Hadoken shot at him by Sakura from behind, "Your efforts to fight the inevitable are amusing, but all things must come to an end." Seth was prepared to set her down and quickly deal with Sakura, "Show me something worth integrating would you?"

"Stop!" Karin shouted before coughing more blood, but it served the purpose of stopping whatever was about to happen, "Fighting Sakura-san would only waste more time. Do you not have more important things to do than play with children?"

Seth stared ahead at Sakura and then to Karin before narrowing his eyes at her, "You are correct. But do not believe that this is a matter of you manipulating me. I swore I would never fall prey to the wrathful pride of my predecessor, and that includes fighting meaningless battles for my own personal reasons, amusement or otherwise."

"Of course." Karin said with a cheerless smile as her body went limp in his grasp. She just couldn't find the energy to resist him herself, and everyone else was getting destroyed in trying, 'Ichimonji-san cannot stop this opponent. Sakura-san is surer of herself now, but she cannot do so either without succumbing to the Satsui no Hadou if that would even work. He will kill them.'

Seth would not kill her. He needed her alive to get whatever he intended to distribute out to the world at large. It was the point of his plan of taking her, and ending her life would do no good for him in that regard. She was safe, but the others were not.

"Time to depart Miss Kanzuki." The synthetic being said, tucking her under one arm. She would be no trouble, injured as she was, "Say goodbye to your friends."

"Say goodbye to your face!" Sakura dashed at Seth with ki in her hand, planning to release it in a close-range blast until Seth teleported away, "What? Huh? He can do that?"

He was just up and gone, without a trace.

"I'm not surprised." Batsu said with a weak cough, pushing himself up by what was left of the conference room table, "Everybody's doing it. Bison, Dhalsim… ugh…" He wilted against the surface and pushed himself back up again, "Fuck. Call Naruto."

"Why? He's gone already and he took her!"

"If his teleport is anything like Dhalsim's he can't travel super-far with it instantly, and it takes too much power to use a long way away."

In other words he needed a realistic transport out, and that meant that Naruto was in the right place to cut him off.

XxX

(With Naruto – Kanzuki Estate Airstrip)

"Give me back my boss lady!" Naruto shouted, slamming his hands into the ground and pumping his chakra through it in a spiral, "Rasenshinsen (Spiraling Tremor)!" Turning the ground into a miniature excavation site, he trapped and badly injured over a dozen S.I.N. soldiers clad in thick brown bodysuits with the shifting chunks of land.

This had the added effect of kicking up cover for Naruto, Guile, and Ibuki as they were able to take refuge from the automatic gunfire that came their way from the operatives protecting the pair of Ospreys that were grounded there.

Two of them instead of one. Wonderful. As long as no one got into one and tried to get on the main gun that would be great, and it didn't seem like they were.

"Those are the same guns from the dam in India." Ibuki said, poking her head up just long enough to get a glimpse before a ricocheting bullet willed her down out of the line of fire, "Yep, same guns. This is totally S.I.N., no doubt." She looked over at Naruto and gestured him over to her, "Can I get a boost honey?" She asked, batting her eyes sweetly.

Naruto rolled his eyes but grinned as he held out his hands to give her a foothold before throwing her into the air for her spinning, flipping Tsujigoe jump, giving her more height on it than she had any right to be getting.

The soldiers tried to shoot at her, but Naruto had thrown her right up at the sun, giving them no chance to see her decently, and giving her an opening that she wasn't about to waste once she reached the apex of her flip, "Kazumi Suzaku (Mist Vermillion Sparrow)!"

With three flips she unleashed a deadly barrage of weaponry, different for each rotation. Dozens and dozens of kunai for the first one, massive shuriken for the second, and miniature high explosives for the third.

Anyone she didn't hit was mopped up from underneath by Naruto and Guile who were quick to streak out from behind cover the second fire on them stopped, spacing out to handle anyone Ibuki's aerial attack wasn't hitting, "Rasenrengan (Spiraling Serial Spheres)!" With a Rasengan in each hand, it was like the world's deadliest game of tag as Naruto blew them away with a mere touch of the jutsu while passing and moving along to the next one.

Guile's attack pattern was slower going, but no less effective against those he managed to deal with, sticking to rudimentary kickboxing rush techniques to beat down his targets.

Naruto stopped his moves and dashed right underneath where he knew Ibuki was going to fall so that he could catch her out of the air. She was very grateful for the assist, because he'd thrown her way too high to land on her feet safely, "Aw, my hero." She pulled down her facemask momentarily and nuzzled her cheek against his.

"Sonic Boom!" The sound of the powerful ki blast landing directly behind them prompted Naruto to turn around with Ibuki and find that there had been one last S.I.N. operative that Guile had to put down himself, "Christ, would you kids stop acting like teenagers?"

"We are teenagers." Both Naruto and Ibuki droned dryly as the former set the latter back onto her feet and received a peck on the cheek for the assist before Ibuki pulled her facemask back up.

Muttering grumpily to himself at their stereo rebuttal, Guile walked over to the pair of Ospreys to check them over and clear them to make sure that there weren't any other nasty surprises or troops waiting for them.

Naruto took a knee in the nearby field and looked around in the direction where he could see the mansion over a few rolling hills. The land was lush.

So this was where Karin grew up. It was beautiful, but even though he was outside everything felt so sterile and unable to be touched. Even the trees and grass around the airstrip were imported for fuck's sake. No wonder she turned out the way she did when they'd first met.

"What's the matter?" Ibuki asked, stopping behind him and putting her hands on his shoulders consolingly, "You look a little too serious to be my Naruto, even for this."

"I'm supposed to be her bodyguard Ibuki, for real." Naruto said, grabbing at the grass and ripping it up by the roots, "I know she can take care of herself, but I take this stuff seriously. You girls keep getting hurt around me. She sent me running off to think about myself last night without even telling me she was coming here. I should have been here the whole time."

"This still would have happened." Ibuki insisted, running her fingers over his shoulders lightly, "Your being here wouldn't have deterred this Naruto. If you had been here instead of in Aohura City last night, more of our friends could have died. Sometimes there's nothing you can do to keep terrible things from happening." Leaning down, she wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him from behind, "You're only human too. You can't see everything coming."

He could hear things coming though, as he heard the sound of a vehicle's engine coming toward the airstrip and bore witness to a braided redheaded lady in an awesome suit pulling over in a vehicle that had probably been brought along in one of the Ospreys. Hopping out of her car, she tugged at her black gloves as she slowly walked over to Naruto and Ibuki, "You lot are going to want to leave very soon."

"Oh look." Ibuki said, letting go of Naruto and looking like she was ready for a fight, "It's the old lady I fought in the dam in India."

Crimson Viper ignored the 'old lady' jab as she wasn't going to let some upstart kunoichi blow her cool so easily, "I have to thank you for that fight little girl. Thanks to taking you on I was able to improve on the suit and raise its performance 130%."

Ibuki just stared at her and did the math in her head before both she and Naruto tilted their heads simultaneously, "So, like that means that now you're a little over twice as strong… right?" Math was not their thing, but Ibuki was better at it than Naruto was, "It's only been like… a week or two."

"Yes. It has." Viper said, twisting a knob on her glove before punching the ground, "Seismic Hammer!"

The force of the tremor blew apart the ground beneath Naruto and Ibuki, knocking the two of them away farther into the field, "Gah!" Naruto shouted as he quickly got back up and dusted the grass off of himself, "Damn it, what are you pricks planning on doing with Karin?"

"I don't have any reason to tell you anything." Viper replied coolly only to note a spike of Naruto's ki with her sunglasses.

"Wrong answer." Naruto said, putting his hands into a hand-seal to prepare to beat the answers he wanted out of her.

In the distance the sound of an explosion and a building falling directed everyone's attention for just a moment, and Viper placed a hand on her forehead, "Juri… you just don't know how to control yourself do you?" That had been in the direction of the security station, and it sounded like it had been big enough to take out a good portion of its interior, so it more than likely had been Juri that was the perpetrator.

She got her mind back on what was in front of her as Ibuki slid smoothly across the grass, crouched low to strike from beneath until Viper leapt out of the way only to find Naruto soaring at her in an attempt to grab and punish her.

"Burning Kick!" With a mid-air spin, Viper lashed out with a kick projecting a jet of flames from both of her boots that forced Naruto to cover his face and chest with his arms to avoid the flames. By virtue of this he had to abandon his attempt to finish her quickly and safety roll out of his diving leap in the grass, lashing out with a toss of a kunai to get something out of his first move against her.

Viper threw a spin kick that knocked the blade out of the air and then blocked a spinning jump kick from Ibuki before pushing the quick female ninja away and retaliating with her own kick, but she only hit an afterimage and then found herself surrounded by five of Naruto's Kage Bunshin that then kicked her straight into the air.

'He's fast enough to outpace the suit this easily?! I upgraded it to keep up with the ninja girl's speed!' Viper thought, cringing from the kicks only to see a shadow descending down on her from the air.

"A stupid powered suit isn't enough to make up for actual training!" Naruto shouted as he fell down onto her with an ax kick, "Uzumaki Naruto Rendan (Naruto Uzumaki Barrage)!"

Ibuki couldn't help but grin behind her mask, "So gonna be my boyfriend…" It had been a while since she'd watched Naruto win a battle in person, and it was still just as much of a turn-on as the last time.

Just as she had expected. Even with Viper's apparent improvements on her battle suit, Naruto was still way too much for her to handle, especially when he was good and pissed off. A properly motivated Naruto was one of the most dangerous beings in existence, of this she was certain.

Viper's body fell to the ground like a stone and bounced off of the grass one time as Naruto landed smoothly on his feet and then kicked at the grass, "Crap, I knocked her out! We need her awake."

Ibuki walked over and stared down at the defeated woman with a hand on her hip, "Well maybe you should have aimed for the shoulder or something instead of the head. Not that I'm backseat fighting or anything but-."

From the airstrip itself, one of the two Osprey aircrafts was rocked by an explosion before Guile's body flew away and into the field, smoking before he landed in the grass and dragged a trench through it.

Naruto and Ibuki rushed over to find him coughing and looking like he'd taken some damage. The gruff airman pushed both youngsters away from them to keep from touching his painful wounds, "No! Don't… there's something. The… it has Kanzuki."

"Something has Karin?" Ibuki tried to decipher what Guile was trying to say, and it was like someone had given a trained attack dog the order to be on alert.

Guile sat up on his elbows enough to squint and glare over at the remaining Osprey, "There. That thing… attacked me with a one-armed Sonic Boom." His own move, and he executed it better than Guile could. What the hell was going on?

Blue eyes went wide and before anyone could tell him not to or try and direct him in any manner whatsoever, Naruto tore ass across the remainder of the grass and over the paved airstrip to the loading ramp at the back of the second Osprey.

He found the back open, ramp lowered; with an inhuman chrome man walking into the vehicle, Karin tucked under one arm.

"I can't sense any concentration of power." The Kyuubi said to Naruto, "All I feel is pure positive and negative energy, but I can't tell how much or if it's a threat." Everyone knew the old adage though: if you had to ask…

Upon realizing that Naruto was behind him, Seth stopped walking and turned just enough to let him see one of his eyes, "Today has just been a banner day for testing the limits of my ability. Now you. None of your 'friends' were up to making me see just how powerful I truly am. Perhaps you could be the one to force me to show this world just how superior I am? Another time perhaps. Now I'm busy and have need of young lady Kanzuki's accompaniment."

She was still awake, but her body couldn't move. Her eyes were staring right into Naruto's pleading with him.

It was what she was pleading for that he didn't know. He was forced to guess, and his guess was that she was pleading for him to save her.

This was not the case. Karin was not pleading for him to fight for her. She was pleading for him to let her go, to live and fight another day. There would be another time. A better time, when he would know to a better extent what he was up against, when he would be able to better amass a force to deal with it.

That time was not now.

But Naruto did not know that. Even if he had known, he probably wouldn't have cared. Even if Karin could talk loudly enough to tell him what she wanted to convey, he probably wouldn't have listened. All he could see was her, and the thing holding her under his arm like luggage. All he could hear was the blood pounding angrily in his own ears.

"Let her go." Naruto growled, fists tightening as he could feel his nails grow and sharpen. His eyes turned red and slitted, and his body became cloaked in a fox outline with two-tails, "Let her go, let her go, let her go!" He screamed, his hand snapping open and forming a Rasengan in it, coated in a shell of deadly red, "Shui Rasengan (Vermillion Spiraling Sphere)!"

In interest at this power, a sparkle came to Seth's eye as he threw Karin to the side, her already battered body bouncing off of the metal wall of the Osprey, and that was the only trigger Naruto needed to charge him down and shove that Rasengan straight down his throat.

'Such speed. Such power.' Seth remarked internally the instant he saw Naruto begin to move, 'I find this boy just as intriguing as I figured I would. I will assimilate what I can of him.' Quickly, he swirled his hands around his yin-yang engine and made his own move.

"The positive and negative energies are… pulling away and apart?" The Kyuubi thought to himself in complete confusion of what he was sensing from Seth.

"See what I'm really made of!" Seth demanded, pushing forward an invisible gravity force that made Naruto weightless and shoved him back through the air before sucking him inward into a black vortex coming from the engine, "Become a part of me." With that, he sucked Naruto inside of the engine as it rumbled and shook, glowing brightly as Seth laughed victoriously, "Yes, you will be very useful!"

Once the engine glowed white-bright, he shot Naruto out of the reopened vortex as if he were fired from a high-powered rifle, shooting him back into a nearby lone hangar and utterly obliterating the back wall of it with the boy's body.

"NARUTO-SAN!" Karin screamed in horror at her potential loss. It was as loud a cry as she could possibly muster, and if it went unheard at all it was only because there was no one on the property that could hear her and do anything about it.

She did not have to even consider the consequences of her next action before lunging at Seth with everything she had left just to land one blow that would hurt the monster in some way.

Causing Seth harm was more important than painlessly drawing her next few breaths, and her fist did indeed slam off of the side of his head hard enough to actually move him, but upon doing so her body quivered uncontrollably and gave out once more, 'Damn this body! Damn this creature! I will destroy it myself if it is the last act of my life!'

"Do not fear." Seth said with a wicked chuckle, not minding that he had just taken a passionate haymaker from her, "The direct assimilation process that I have performed on young Uzumaki is not fatal. It is extremely painful, but not fatal. But at its conclusion he was quite alive." His laugh then grew downright cruel, "It is the expulsion step of the process that may or may not have ended his life as you can see."

He was rather impressed with the tenacity, and that little sentimental outburst of hers at the end was amusing, but it was also why he found humans to be so weak to begin with. They were so quick to cast aside the actions that were logical for them in exchange for actions dictated by emotion.

Karin didn't have a speck of energy left in her to do anything to fight back. Tears formed in her eyes as she could only stare at the entirely missing back wall of her family's hangar that her beloved had been fired through like a round of artillery, 'Please stay down, please stay down, please stay down.' She chanted to herself inside of her mind, 'Do not get back up. There is no need for this. Fight him later.'

Shutting her eyes as tightly as she could, she missed Juri sauntering her way up the ramp while holding Viper up over her shoulder, "Hah, the ninja girl and the soldier ran off to find Uzumaki after you shot him off like a rocket. Snuck right past 'em and got her out of there."

"And I was under the impression that there were more in this group." A nonexistent eyebrow on the superior being was raised, signifying that he needed more information than that from her to be satisfied.

"What about them?" Juri replied vaguely before giving another statement of a similar nature, "Oh, by the way, the bugs in this eye have really been worked out."

Oh. Well that had to mean something good.

"Excellent." Seth said with an annoyingly smug laugh as he picked up Karin again and walked into the Osprey, "Then it is time to leave this place. Japan is worthless to us now."

"Good. I was getting bored of this country anyway."

XxX

(Half a Mile Away)

"Naruto!" Ibuki yelled, running as fast as her legs would carry her over to where she'd seen Naruto's body fly unceremoniously through the back of a hangar wall, "What happened?"

Guile languished behind her at a slower pace, but he too found himself sprinting over to the crash site of the blond ninja, "Damn it kid…" His ire wasn't directed at Naruto though. He reacted the way someone that cared about another would have.

It was their enemy that he was upset with, because he was befuddled.

That damn chrome man used the Sonic Boom. His move. That didn't make any sense. He and Charlie were the only two that knew how to use that move, and since Charlie was dead the only person he could have learned it from was him. He definitely would have remembered teaching a gigantic android thing the Sonic Boom.

As Guile and Ibuki reached Naruto they found a large trench dragged through the ground until the end where it formed a large mound of dirt and grass right by a tree that had almost been knocked over by even the diminished impact of Naruto hitting it after enduring all of the other things beforehand.

They didn't even reach him before it was all hurled away from him in an explosion of power, red chakra tails swinging all about wildly as he seemed just about ready to go on a rampage. Guile managed to catch up to Ibuki as she covered her eyes to protect herself from being blinded by the energy and the debris, and as she moved to get closer, she found her way barred by Guile's arm, "What are you doing?"

"You don't want to get any closer to him when he's like that." Guile warned her, having seen what Naruto could do with it at the tournament a few months ago, "Trust me."

"But he could be hurt! Look at him!"

Naruto was covered entirely in a black substance similar to how he looked in India and he had flesh wounds that were steadily healing on the spot, but he cared nothing for those things.

"I'LL KILL HIM!" Naruto roared at the top of his lungs before running as fast as he could, actually getting down on all fours to garner more straight ahead speed as he tried to run the half mile to get back onto the tarmac as the Osprey ascended and prepared to depart.

He had an eagle eye on it as it reached an altitude that he didn't have a chance of jumping up and reaching, even at his highest leap. It lingered there as if taunting him before it took off.

"Isseishageki Chakura Tanki-sha (Chakra Spitfire Volley)!" From his mouth he fired dozens of red-coated blue chakra projectiles, pushing them forward faster than he otherwise could have by using his tails to give them an extra boost to their speed.

His target? The Osprey that was swiftly moving away.

It was clearly in his field of vision, and he was locking on with a cluster attack that would guide every shot right to it with the same jutsu he'd used against Sasuke, until an image flashed through his head and he stopped himself from finishing it.

He'd destroy the aircraft, and more than likely the most precious bit of cargo that was inside.

The jutsu probably wasn't fast enough to catch up anyway…

His eyes drifted to the ruined Osprey nearby, and then to the slower aircrafts inside of the hangar he'd been thrown through. None of those were going to work.

"Goddamn it!" Naruto punched the paved ground and pulverized a crater into the hard surface, ten feet deep and twenty feet around. Another punch dug him even deeper. He just kept punching and punching, until the Kyuubi cut him off from abusing its chakra for such a reason.

If he wanted to tear up something that wasn't alive he could use his own power for that as far as the fox was concerned. But with the loss of the chakra came the loss of Naruto's will to cause catastrophic damage just to satisfy his temper. Now he just felt numb.

Numb enough to just sit down in the crater of his own creation and stare up at the sky, 'Did I fuck up again? What was that guy's deal? I couldn't even tell… what kind of power he was using.' He looked at his entire body and saw that he was covered in black, 'The tank juice?'

So he wasn't even a real living creature? That was why the Kyuubi couldn't sense him properly for him.

Good. That meant that Naruto didn't have to feel any remorse for tearing his head off when the time came.

"Speak with me."

XxX

(Naruto's Mindscape)

Before he could think back an answer, Naruto found himself suddenly standing before the vast cage inside of his head, with water rising up to his ankles. Straight ahead he could see the gigantic chakra creature laying on the floor inside of its prison.

"Yeah?" Naruto asked, hoping that they could end this in a hurry in case too much time passed outside, "What do you need fox?"

"I know how his power works. It is vast and dangerous, even if you can't feel it." That much was clear just from what it obviously took for Seth to repel Naruto's sole attack against him in the manner that he did. It was a power he didn't understand, "I am willing to assist you with enough chakra to destroy that creature… for a price."

"I can't let you out. You know that."

"Did I say that was the price?"

Naruto could see his own reflection in one of the eyes of his tenant, but saw nothing deceitful. After years of hearing the whispers and being told face-to-face about how unleashing the Kyuubi would solve all of his problems, he'd gotten accustomed to a certain look in its eye when he spoke to it.

He had not seen that look since he'd disposed of his dark side, and he wasn't seeing it today either. It was one of sincerity, and was that trust?

"…I'm listening."

---

Character Profile

Name: Seth
Nationality: N/A
Gender: Male(?)
Age: Unknown
Height/Weight: 6'6/285 lbs.
Bloodtype: N/A
Likes: Making plans, world domination, procuring power.
Dislikes: The weakness of humans, being called by his 'number', disobedient underlings, wasting time.
Hobbies: Assimilating new abilities.
Rivals: M. Bison (to outdo his ambitions to dominate), Abel, Uzumaki Naruto.
Fighting Style: Amalgamation of various styles that is beyond human comprehension.
Current Techniques: Tanden Engine, and too many more to count.
Hyper Techniques: Tanden Storm, Tanden Stream, Tanden Typhoon, unknown what else potentially.
Background: The C.E.O. of the former weapons division of Shadaloo, S.I.N., Seth is an enhanced being that was created by Shadaloo with the use of cutting-edge technology apparently to complete Bison's ambition of world domination according to him. Shortly before the Second World Warrior Tournament he became self-aware and began grabbing power while Bison was concerned with destroying his enemies. After Bison's death, Seth wishes to control everything as the ultimate being; the perfect mix of top-notch human-like intellect and physical capabilities beyond that of any living creature on the planet. To this end he has created a plan that involves a substance known as BLECE. He claims to have learned from the mistakes of his creator and will not fail by operating in the same manner, choosing to be cold, logical, and efficient in every step of his ventures. With the use of the mysterious and overwhelmingly powerful Tanden Engine embedded in his torso he somehow has the ability to copy and translate the fighting data of his enemies, allowing him to create a deadly martial art comprised of a blend of every useful technique and style he has come across thus far.

---

I hate Seth. I hate Seth so much… the cheap SOB. He's got everybody's best move and does it better, faster, and stronger with less recoil? Really?

The only good thing about fighting people that use Seth online in SSFIV is that he takes more damage than any other character, even the smaller ones, and his Ultra Techniques don't do as much damage as everyone else's, so if you can dictate the pace of the fight, as long as you don't screw up and let him land one of his Ultras you can pressure your way to a win against most people that use him.

In Arcade Mode you don't have that luxury though, so fighting him at the end on the hardest difficulty is a bitch.

I'm partial to using Adon myself competitively. Jaguar Tooth for life. I can totally make people waste their Ultras and hit nothing but air for it using him.

Anyway, storywise there's now a real reason to go and bust some ass for the good guys, so let's get that party started.

Kenchi out.