Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Street Fighter. If I did, I wouldn't have to worry about my computers BSODing on me like I do right now. So fucking annoying. I'm legit pissed.

Chapter 50: Peace of Mind

Sasuke was no hero. He would stress this to anyone that made the mistake of assuming otherwise. He was a ninja turned assassin that only fought for himself, for money, to test himself and prove he was the best, and whenever he was angered enough to want to make others hurt.

In other words, he was kind of a prick.

He didn't come to Vegas to save Karin. He didn't care about that in the slightest even though it was the primary motivation of everyone else in Naruto's group. No, the only reason he'd come was to get him a piece of Juri Han, and it didn't even look like he was going to be getting that any longer. So why was he still there? Why was he fighting? Why was he taking on the top brass boss of S.I.N. when there was nothing to gain? Why was he fighting someone with powers that humans shouldn't have? Powers that let him take the abilities and techniques of others (And yes, he realized the irony of that sentiment)?

It was not because he and Naruto were friends and he needed the interference run for him.

Either way, he was fighting, and nothing else was important at the time other than finding a way to survive and if all the planets aligned correctly, win.

It wasn't looking good.

Sasuke's body flew through a wall of flames and landed on the ground in a heap before he picked himself back up, "Ugh… this is killing my wings, damn it." The dark-haired Uchiha said to himself as he faced Seth making his way harmlessly through the fire, "Shit."

"Sonic Boom!" With a swipe of one arm, Seth sent three spinning blades of yellow ki at Sasuke that he dodged, "You're quick." He noted as Sasuke took to the air with his wings, "I somehow keep finding myself amazed at the things that humans are capable of. Hmm."

Creating a Chidori in his right hand, Sasuke took aim from the sky at Seth before finding that he'd vanished without a trace, "What the-?"

He found himself turned upside-down and grabbed around the waist as Seth held him and drove him into the ground headfirst, "Spinning Piledriver!" The impact broke into the floor and Sasuke's body bounced limply before hitting the floor as Seth let him go.

Getting right back up, Seth simply watched Sasuke's motionless form before noticing his Tanden Engine had assimilated something, "Oh. Let me see." He said to himself before grunting in effort, eventually sprouting wings from his chrome body, "Hah… they're functional as well. How wonderful." He remarked as he started to flap them and fly around as a test.

'This is ridiculous.' Sasuke thought, slowly pushing himself up, 'Now I know how annoying it is to other people when I copy their moves and use them in front of them.' He was seeing red, and it wasn't because of the blood on his face or the Sharingan, 'Look at him. He barely knows what he's doing with those things.'

…Wait.

He barely knew what he was doing with those things. Sure, he knew how to fly, but it didn't seem to be as technical as Sasuke's flying had wound up being. It was as if Seth was just flying for the sake of having flight instead of knowing what he actually had to do to use them functionally in a fight.

Come to think of it, he'd seen Seth do that a bit with quite a few of the powers he'd used.

Chun-Li's kicks, he'd used them in his own way, but they weren't done in the manner that they were supposed to be used in. Guile's Sonic Boom, it wasn't used as a way to control his opponents' space. He used it as nothing more than a fast projectile. Zangief's Spinning Piledriver, instead of coming forward like a tank and grabbing hold of his opponent, crushing them as he dropped them, he just drove them down.

Could it be? Yes, it had to be. For all of his fighting data that he'd analyzed, for all of the techniques and abilities he'd copied, Seth didn't understand the correct way to use those moves.

Not only that, but how many actual fights could Seth have been in really? Who had he fought before all of this started? All he had was strength and data. He didn't know anything about the actual intangibles of combat.

And all of a sudden in Sasuke's mind the sun seemed as if it peeked through the clouds.

A newfound sense of purpose in this battle, Sasuke had quickly formulated a plan of action, but he needed a little assistance from his enemy to get it done, 'If I could just sucker in him in.' And that was the beautiful thing. Seth was making eye contact with him. A little hint-hint with the suggestive properties of the Sharingan genjutsu, and it was a matter of setting things up, "It's time to turn this around."

"Oh really?" Seth asked, flapping his wings before dashing with them at Sasuke, "Show me more then!"

Timing it just right, Sasuke Kawarimied with a chunk of floor stung at Seth from behind with his prepared Chidori Senbon attack. As expected, all it really did was piss him off as he teleported out of the way and healed it. Coming at Sasuke again, he grazed him with a full-body shoulder charge and knocked him to the ground. The surprisingly resilient former ninja/current assassin got back up in a roll and took to the sky.

Flying around, Sasuke waited for Seth to take off after him before smirking and vanishing in a Shunshin. Seth had no idea where he moved to, and rotated all around, not knowing that Sasuke was directly behind him, hovering there out of sight until he felt Sasuke's index and middle finger pressing against the small of his back.

Spinning around to swing at him, Sasuke rotated with him, spinning Seth around when he was back above him and smashing him with a spinning backfist to the face, following through with a hard front punch with the other hand that sent them to the ground, and a wheeling ax kick to the neck that smashed Seth into the fire on the ground, hitting with enough force to extinguish a good measure of nearby flames, "Shishi Rendan (Lion's Barrage)!"

He didn't expect that to work. For all of the strength he had behind that combination with the second stage of his Cursed Seal to add onto it, he was well aware of the fact that if he survived a Chidori to the chest it would take more than that to finish him. It was all a part of the plan.

Seth reached for his head and cracked his neck back into place as the front of his throat healed the massive heel-sized groove in it. Damn it Naruto, why couldn't you get some other freaky ability for someone else to steal other than damn near regenerative abilities?

Sasuke floated up the ceiling and stuck himself there waiting patiently for Seth. Normally he would have jumped all over his downed form like a jackal, but it wouldn't do any good. He wouldn't die until he finished his plan. It would be a sure-kill.

"Come on." Sasuke taunted with a smirk, "You talk about all of that power, but all I've seen you do is steal other people's moves and do them half-assed." Again, ironic statement, but it was made for a reason, "If Naruto was here he would have ripped that stupid yin-yang out of your stomach and made you eat it by now."

Actually getting damaged and then hearing the person that did it mouth off afterwards, this was something Seth wasn't used to. Insults and taunts? No one did that to Seth. To say such things to the perfect being was a death wish. And he had enough power to waste on an attack that would eradicate this upstart. He had enough power to do it a thousand times in a row and suffer no ill effects for it.

With that in mind, Seth bent his body around, standing on his feet and head with the Tanden Engine aimed right up at Sasuke as it spun rapidly, "Behold the glory of the Tanden Engine. Tanden Typhoon!" A horrible black tornado was released from the engine, the size of a real one that would be found in nature.

Sasuke had been anticipating something incredible that he would have to dodge by the skin of his teeth, but he didn't know how he was going to do something like that.

No! What kind of quitter bullshit was that? It didn't matter if he could see a way to dodge, he'd find a way to do it regardless! He wasn't going to die there until he found a way home! Until he proved to Naruto that he had always been better than that dead last! Until he killed Gen and pulled that old tormenting bastard's stupid wispy beard and mustache off as a trophy! Until he heard Akira ask him if he wanted to-!

Grr… all of that other stuff still stood!

He wasn't going to die in some pit underground!

XxX

(Outside of the Base)

In the helicopter, the terrible sound of the ground splitting sounded out as if an earthquake were hitting. Chun-Li bit her lip at the thought of something horrible occurring underground again. They hadn't seen or heard a peep since the massive rainbow-colored Hadoken went up and blew through the ground in another place, but this felt like a release of nothing but blank energy.

Guile was then forced to maneuver the helicopter frantically as a large black tornado tore through the ground and up into the sky. This wasn't like the Hadoken. It caused the edges of the hole to collapse inward as if it were a sinkhole, revealing more and more of the base down below.

What?

Did something down there just create a tornado powerful enough to rip a hole up to the surface of the desert? That was all different kinds of wrong.

"Okay, I don't care about this crap saying we can't get directly involved anymore." Guile said, bringing the helicopter down in the nearest safe place he could, "I'm not about to let a bunch of kids fight whatever the hell just did that. I don't care how good they are, that's not the principle here."

Chun-Li agreed. They were probably going to catch hell if this wound up coming back around on them, but at some point you had to take your orders and shove them. Making sure that the people you cared about were alive and could walk home was more important than any damn command of discretion.

"Come on, come on, come on." The Chinese Kenpo specialist chanted impatiently, fidgeting in her cockpit seat to get down, out, and over there to find out just what the hell was going on.

If Seth or Juri hurt one of her damn loved ones… it wouldn't matter how strong they were. There would be hell to pay one way or another even if it was the last thing she did. Those teenagers down in that deathtrap were like little cousins to her, maybe even brothers and sisters if she thought about it hard enough.

They were tough enough, but how strong were they really? Some were stronger than her, but how much more?

XxX

(S.I.N. Base – Main Laboratory)

Seth was extremely pleased with his renovations to his stronghold, mostly because he had been the one to cause it. It was a monument that would stand as a testament to his power. People would look upon this even after this place was abandoned without a trace and would wonder who had the ungodly might to cause this.

And they would know it was Seth. The most powerful being ever created.

"Katon: Gouryuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu)!"

Flying from a towering pile of rubble, a massive dragon's head comprised of pure fire flew at Seth, giving him no room to dodge or teleport to on short notice. He covered up and let out a yell of pain at the heat of the flames as the crashed apart upon contact and all began sweltering up.

Sasuke freed himself from the rubble having regressed back to his normal state after escaping the destruction of Seth's Tanden Typhoon. He could fry for all Sasuke cared.

'Come on.' The wounded Uchiha thought to himself as he warily eyed the towering inferno, 'Just a bit longer. Stay down for a few seconds. Give me a little time here.' It wasn't over yet and he hadn't expected it to be. His eyes panned up to the open ceiling that Seth had caused and he had to hide his smirk.

Chilling, echoing laughter emanated from the flames as Seth came walking out of them. His skin had been burnt off, but seemed to just peel the blackened, burnt epidermis off to reveal pristine chrome skin beneath. He'd already healed it. Who the hell would create something like this? Seth was a monster.

"Do you see how futile this is?" The S.I.N. overlord asked Sasuke, smirking infuriatingly as ever despite everything he'd done and endured, "No matter what you try, I have an ability that will overcome you. No matter how you try to strike me down, you will never destroy me. There is nothing a mere human can do that can ever kill me. As I've said, I am eternal."

As he said this, a faint clap of thunder sounded out above. Ah, even nature itself was bowing down to the will of the most dominating life form in existence. It was an appropriate heralding to the awe-inspiring majesty of Seth.

So why was Sasuke smiling? There wasn't anything worth feeling positive about, unless he had finally accepted that the most notable parts of his person would live on through Seth via assimilation.

…Not particularly.

All he did was lift his right hand high into the air as the thunder started to sound out louder and louder from the black clouds in the sky. He opened his mouth, and spoke only one word in regards to everything that was happening.

"Kirin."

An earth-shaking flash of lightning struck down from above and filled the entire interior of the lab, leaving no portion of it untouched.

In the blink of an eye, just as quickly as it had come down from the heavens, it had vanished with nothing left behind in its wake. Literally. Anything that the Kirin jutsu had hit simply stopped existing as any material other than rubble. It had extinguished all of the fires, had removed all of the wreckage blocking off the formerly open floor of the laboratory, had cleared everything out. There was nothing left.

That was the power of nature's lightning. The power of nature's lightning when it was manipulated by someone with the capability of doing so.

Damn that jutsu was hard to set up. But it had such a payoff to go along with it. Nothing got up from that after getting hit with it.

"So STUPID!" Sasuke crowed victoriously and uncharacteristically, smiling despite his heavy wounds and using pretty much all of the chakra he had left to complete his plan. Even if it had been difficult and almost killed him more than once, it paid off. The entire top half of Seth's body had been blown off along with one of his legs.

And that was what he got for being an invincible, insufferable prick. He got his head blown off. It wasn't very assassin-like, but to hell with that. It wouldn't have worked on anyone even halfway aware of how dangerous a real battle could be. Seth had never had to deal with the consequences of combat since he hadn't fought in very many, and by the time he'd been subjected to this one he'd gained Naruto's ability to heal but on steroids.

"There's no kill quite like overkill." Sasuke said to himself as he sat down against a wall and rubbed at his shoulder blades. Growing those wings that came with the second stage of the Cursed Seal hurt like hell, "There. Beat that dobe. I'd love to see you try."

There had been no other option but to hit Seth with his absolute best shot, and now that he had there wasn't really anything left in the tank to hit another homerun with.

Which was why his blood ran cold when he heard the heavy footsteps of the ascended being known as Seth walking on solid ground again.

Through the smoke and the haze of the lab, Sasuke made out the winged form of his enemy coming toward him again. Growling to himself, he found enough in him to form one last Chidori in his right hand, chirping audibly with electricity, "You can't stop what you can't see. Chidori Zetsuei (One Thousand Birds Absolute Shadow)!"

Putting everything he had left into one last Shunshin, Sasuke's blinding speed allowed him to tag Seth in thirteen vital spots back and forth with a Chidori-enhanced version of Gen's ultimate quick-assassination technique.

Coming to a stop, arm extended from his last strike behind Seth, Sasuke turned his eyes to see that he'd taken thirteen massive chunks out of Seth's body, including parts of his head.

"Are you done?"

Yeah… yeah he was done. Sasuke couldn't muster enough chakra to light a candle, let alone enough to allow him to keep battling. He threw every useful piece of junk attack at him that he could think of. Everything he had that was heavy enough to kill anything that moved. Nothing worked.

But even so, he had an image to maintain.

Turning around with a haughty sniff, Sasuke kept his head high and didn't let the fatigue show on his face, "I don't know if I'm done." He said in response to Seth's question, "Do you think you could take my best shot?"

Seth's eyes lit up in interest, "So you have more? Show me."

Hell no he didn't have more. Nothing that would work. He couldn't even keep his Sharingan on any longer.

As a bluff he started to move his hands together but it turned out to be unnecessary, as Seth's body was crushed into the ground by a double-stomp from above before a figure jumped out of the newly made crater and landed next to Sasuke.

A quirk of movement came to Sasuke's lips upon seeing that the fight had been rejoined by Naruto who still didn't look any better than he did to keep on going. Still though, he knew that at least Naruto would have the chakra to keep fighting.

"What took you so long loser?" Sasuke asked before his body gave out and he collapsed, "…Don't say anything."

"Thanks." Naruto said with an honest inflection as he made a clone to get Sasuke out of the way in a hurry before Seth got back up. His last attack should have broken his back, but if it hadn't ended yet and the place looked the way that it did that probably wouldn't end it.

"I told you not to say anything." Sasuke muttered right before he was hauled off to somewhere safe.

Whether he wanted it or not, Sasuke had Naruto's full gratitude, and it would be repaid in kind one way or another after this was all said and done. Sure, first everyone would have to survive, but after seeing Karin and seeing that Sasuke had thrown everything he could muster at Seth in order to win a fight he shouldn't have had any motivation to fight, how could Naruto justify letting himself lose.

Everyone else had come along and fought so hard. All he wanted was for them all to be gone and out of the way. They'd done everything he could have possibly asked of them, and he didn't want them to risk anymore. He got Karin out. They got Karin out.

Now they would all go home together.

They all needed to go home together.

As Seth climbed out of the crater that Naruto had created using his body as a landing cushion/doormat, he seemed grossly unamused that Naruto had taken over the reins of the fight from Sasuke who simply seemed to keep surprising him in their conflict, "Why have you returned?" Seth asked, "You have nothing else I want to see from you. To fight you again, I would learn nothing. You should have taken the good fortune of your friend's intervention and fled from me."

"I can't do that." Naruto commented, "Someone like you, there's just too many things that you don't understand and don't even want to try and understand about the value of life. I can't let you survive. I just can't."

"There is no value to life." Seth insisted smugly, "Do you really think you're special or significant? Do you honestly believe that any of the humans you brought to fight against me are unique? Maybe they are, but human life can be duplicated so easily it's laughable. Killer Bee and her older male counterpart are proof of that. The girl you came here for, Karin? She isn't special. Her position as the head of the Kanzuki Zaibatsu could be placed on any run-of-the-mill life form. Even your friend who displayed such splendid power, his skills can be given to others. I could create a human and develop them any way I choose, and in the end I can create a new version of any person on Earth."

Naruto shook his grimy head with a bitter grit to his teeth, "And that's why you don't get it. You can't just give people certain stuff like titles or powers or anything like that, tell them what you want to tell them, and think you can make copies of others. It takes the experiences they've had, the motivations they have to keep going, the people around them that shaped their lives! Everyone's life has value, because no one's life can ever be recreated!"

Seth just began cackling at the emotion the young man began pouring out into his words. He thought what he said sounded so profound, but he was speaking on deaf ears. As far as Seth was concerned, anything that was special about the human condition could be manufactured or recreated. These intangible things that Naruto had touched on, they didn't matter.

"I want to kick Sasuke's ass. I want to do stupid things with Batsu." Naruto said, holding a single hand-seal trying to will himself onward, "I want to see Cammy smile and let her get to know her brother. I want to make Ibuki happy and live her dreams. I want Karin to be the kind of amazing girl I know she'll grow up to be. I want to stay here with Sakura-chan, with everybody!"

Seth raised a nonexistent eyebrow as he saw a chakra shroud with three tails sprout around Naruto's body, 'This again?' And then he felt the sharpest increase of power in the shortest amount of time that he'd ever felt in his very short life, 'What?'

Instead of three tails, now he had six. The red chakra had turned darker, covering his body entirely in a tighter, more intense shroud that more sleekly took the form of a fox around a human body. The outline of fox bones grew over the back of his torso, arms, legs, and head like some sort of armor.

"More than anything else right now, I really want to break you." Naruto said as his voice seemed to echo double-time. His right eye turned solid white, but his left eye turned pitch black, "Sou Biju Seigyo (Twin Tailed Beast Control)!"

"Wha-?" Seth opened his mouth to say something, but when he did his upper jaw was grabbed by this new version of Naruto as he stood on his right shoulder, "Aahhh?"

Naruto jumped into the air as high as he could, dragging Seth up with him as they flew straight up to the surface through the opening that Seth had carved open earlier with his Tanden Typhoon. After getting high enough into the air, Naruto wheeled the two of them around and hurled Seth's body in the direction of the mountain that the underground base had been in the shadow of.

The synthetic human's body smashed ten feet into the face of the mountain before he pulled himself out and glared hatefully at Naruto. What sort of barbaric attack was that? He grabbed him by the roof of his mouth and threw him a half-mile away.

Firing rapid-fire Sonic Booms with both arms, Seth tried to hit and kill Naruto who moved past them across the hardened dirt of the dry Nevada plains, closing the distance between them until he could jump up and smash Seth back into the mountainside hard enough to cause something of a rockslide from above.

Several impacts from within the mountainside with corresponding rockslides later, and higher up on the mountainside, Seth's body was kicked forcefully out of it where he landed in a heap onto the ground.

Still though, he could heal. He could recover and do it quickly, just as long as he had his Tanden Engine. This boy would run out of energy before he did, no matter how much of a monster he was fighting like.

He could see the glowing red form of Naruto standing in the hole that he'd carved through a portion of a mountain with his body, tails waving behind him. There was something different. Even when he'd been angry at the start of the battle, Naruto hadn't fought with nearly this sort of ferocity.

Swirling his hands around his Tanden Engine, Seth created a black hole in front of it and in his hands as well, the latter of which he threw into the air before firing the other one directly at it, "Tanden Cycle!"

The two black holes collided forcefully in the air and expanded, creating a massive dark void that began pulling everything in except for Seth himself. Hearing yells and screams, Seth grinned Naruto's way as he clawed himself into the side of the mountain to keep from being sucked into the deadly crushing force of physics.

Those voices were Naruto's people. All of them. This black hole wouldn't end until Seth wanted it to, and he didn't care how much matter he drew into it never to be seen again as long as it culminated with Naruto being taken in.

"Do you hear that? Those remarkable lives you spoke of can't escape the pull of this technique!" Seth shouted over the horrible sound of the active Tanden Cycle as it drew in everything and crushed it to nothing, "The only way this might end, is when you die! The more it takes in, the more powerful it becomes! I will destroy this city, this state, this country, this world! All of it! As long as I make them all realize at the end that Seth! Is! ETERNAL!"

Red beams formed on the tips of the rooted in Naruto's six tails before he began rotating them around in a blur, aimed directly at Seth. It wasn't that strong yet, and he wouldn't let it gain any steam. The rest of them had been activated and deactivated by way of Seth's Tanden Engine.

"Jidou Shinkoshoku Hanabi (Automatic Crimson Fireworks)!"

Like a gatling gun, Naruto's tails fired the pure destructive red chakra of the Kyuubi, all honing in on Seth who found himself wholly unprepared for this sort of development. He figured Naruto might attack, but not with an attack he couldn't even time a teleport for.

The power of this attack forced all of Naruto's previous spitfire-related jutsu to pale in comparison in return. A machine gun of a Vulcan wouldn't have caused so much damage, and Naruto didn't stop until he'd created a brand new canyon in the ground with Seth's body at the bottom of it.

He only had a minute or two at best to stop that black hole that he was willing to use indefinitely until he got Naruto.

You didn't get to just break the game when you lost. That was another thing that Seth had to learn.

Still on his back after getting his body brutalized by Automatic Crimson Fireworks, Seth felt Naruto land on his head and reach down at his torso. No, he was grabbing the Tanden Engine. That should have been impossible! It should have been burning the skin off of his hands! But then with all of the chakra around his body, if he could even feel anything through it, it was probably just like holding a hot bowl at that point.

"What are you doing?" Seth cried out as he could feel the supports holding the engine in place giving to the physical force that Naruto was putting behind his pull, "You have no idea what you're doing!"

"Yeah I do!" Naruto's double-echoing voice said as he started yelling and ripped upwards, tearing the Tanden Engine right out of Seth's body and effectively bisecting him. Seth's wails of pain didn't mean anything to Naruto who looked up at the black hole and hurled the Tanden Engine straight into it, destroying it and deactivating the black hole as well.

It was as if there had never been an empty void in the sky. Everything that had been drifting toward it dropped in place immediately, bringing the threat to a close.

That left Seth, arms and legs twitching on the ground. His eyes violently jerked all about following the loss of his only internal organ. As long as the Tanden Engine existed, Seth would have always been able to get back up, always able to regenerate, and from how it was made nothing Naruto could have done would have destroyed it. Fortunately, Seth had a technique in his arsenal that could have ended everything in existence if it had been given enough time.

It would have taken days, weeks, maybe months, but it was a black hole. You couldn't stop something like that. And Naruto doubted that once it got too large Seth could control it in the slightest. Power like that had a funny way of going wild.

Dropping down onto his knees, Naruto held Seth's head in his hand, clutching it hard enough to crack the skull, "You were gonna kill everything because you couldn't beat me?" All he got in response was a choking noise from the synthetic human. Narrowing his eyes, Naruto slapped Seth hard enough to dislocate his jaw. He knew he had. He'd felt it.

And he didn't regenerate it.

Well wasn't that just peachy?

"Die." Naruto said before headbutting the defenseless being, "…Die." A second headbutt that cracked his palette, and they didn't stop, "Die-die-die-die-die-die-die!"

This was the sight that his entire party bore witness to when they reached the cavity in the ground that Naruto had fired Seth into; the formerly sunny blonde pulverizing what was left of Seth with his bare hands and his forehead.

He had annihilated Seth. Whatever he had done to take that form it made him into a complete destroyer, generating more power with his last chakra attack than they had ever seen or felt from him in the entire time they'd known him. He looked more like a monster than a human at this point, and he didn't look like he was going to stop as long as there was a part of Seth's body that wasn't scrap or pulp.

"Naruto stop!" Guile yelled down at him, "He's dead!" He was thoroughly ignored however and didn't really feel like going down there to make himself known.

Seth didn't bleed, but he had still been a living thing even if he had been created artificially. It wasn't hard to imagine an actual human being in place of the body that was being pummeled into nothing.

Sakura dropped down into the cavity in the ground and got as close to Naruto as she could before the intensity of his chakra made her wary of getting any closer to him. When she'd gotten down there he'd turned on her and stared her down with more intensity than she'd ever seen in anyone's eyes before.

She hadn't been that scared before, even when she'd been looked at in that manner by Ryu when he'd been brainwashed by Bison and under the influence of the Satsui no Hadou. She'd been faced with horribly imposing power before, but this was different.

This was Naruto.

And that was why she decided that in the end there wasn't any reason to be afraid.

"Hey." Sakura greeted in an admittedly lame manner as she slowly walked closer, "…Naruto you can stop now. Kanzuki-san is safe. She's sleeping in the helicopter. You beat Seth. He's gone. The black hole thing is gone. You don't have to do this anymore."

"After all of this…" Naruto said, his bitter dark voice mixing with his softer lighter side's, spitting down on the ground at Seth's body, "It's too good for him."

"Naruto, you know I like your eyes more when they're blue. Now come on back to me."

"Sakura-chan." Naruto's dual voices said before he looked down at his hands/claws and making fists out of them. He hadn't gotten a look at himself since taking on six tails of power. He'd never seen what it had made him look like before, '…Turn it off.'

Inside of Naruto's body there was a silence before he heard his darker half speak up, "I wasn't done yet. I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for Sakura-chan. The next time we do this, it won't end until I say so." His left eye changed from pitch black to solid white, just like his right.

With that, the red chakra simply vanished and the fox skeleton draped over his body fell away and onto the ground with a heavy thud, leaving an exhausted normal Naruto behind. Looking down at what he'd done to a veritable corpse, Naruto's eyes slowly drifted up to Sakura's.

She just gave him a gentle smile and moved forward to hug him. Wrapping her arms around his neck she mewled at how tightly her body fit against his once he put his own arms around her. Being in that red state made him warmer than usual to her, and with her recent run-in with the Satsui no Hadou she was more receptive to the force of his chakra that was still stagnant in the air.

"Can we go home now?" Naruto muttered into the top of Sakura's hair, giving her a light kiss on her head, "I really, really want to go home."

XxX

(A Week Later – Aohura City, Japan)

"Alone, alone, alone…" Naruto said to himself, lying flat on his back in his new apartment that he'd paid for after his return to town. Thank goodness Karin had forced him to get a bank account, because if he still hid all of his money in the hidey-hole in his old place he'd have been destitute.

With all of the earnings he'd managed to amass with all of the work he'd done over the years, he was very well off. He probably could have found a house somewhere in town if there were any vacancies, but it was just too weird for him to do something like that. He liked having a smaller place better.

And he still had his adorable little roommate.

Cammy could have chosen to go with Abel and live with him, but she preferred staying with Naruto. The two clones might have had some common ground, but she'd seen and been through more with Naruto and wanted to remain with him above all else. Naruto didn't know what he'd done to get that kind of loyalty from the girl, but he had it and it was precious.

Even so, a lot of her days consisted of spending time with her brother. Being siblings was an important thing according to everyone else, and on this day in particular Abel was being fitted for prosthetic surgery in Tokyo. So that was where she was for the day.

Ibuki was spending more time at home in her village preparing for what was apparently going to be her last test as a ninja student. After she passed it she would have the freedom to do what she liked, and she had thrown herself into preparing for it any way she could. She'd even taken some time off from school to train.

When that girl wasn't willing to come into town to have some fun, things were serious. As long as she knew who to call on when she needed help, because if anyone had earned favors for life from him no matter what, it was her. His playful kunoichi could call on him for anything, and he would answer that summons.

Karin was resting at home outside of town thank goodness. She wasn't going to her parents' home anytime soon after the last time, and it wasn't the best environment for her recovery. She needed to be somewhere with people that would care for her unconditionally. Her mother openly loved her greatly, but she wasn't a care-giver, and being around her father would offset any positives that would have come with the maternal presence. Being watched over by Ishizaki and Shibazaki was fine for her.

The poor thing was still shaken up, at times visibly so. There were times when she would call him in the dead of night to talk or come to her for comfort and security, but she was still hanging tough regardless. With a bit of time and affection she'd be just fine.

It oftentimes looked as if she wanted to say something to him.

He would be with her, either sitting with her while she read or doing some other leisurely task that she enjoyed doing, and he would find her observing something about him. She'd regard him closely and look long and hard at him with an uncomfortable expression, as if there was something just on the tip of her tongue that she wanted to express.

She would always refrain from doing so however. It was okay. He wasn't going anywhere. And whenever she found it in her to say what she wanted to him he would be right there. She was his boss lady, and nothing she had to say would ever change that for the worst.

Sakura… she'd frightened herself during the mission. Her dark side had done something that she never would have done in any other circumstances in how she'd dealt with Juri Han. Cruel brutality for the sake of brutality, to deal it to someone that had gleefully dished it out to others with no regard for the consequences of her actions. Giving her a taste of her own medicine, she maimed her for emphasis, that she wasn't as strong as she thought she was.

Juri wasn't stronger than Sakura even at her best, and her dark side wanted her to know it without a shadow of a doubt, by removing the object that gave her enhanced powers in the Feng Shui Engine. It had felt good until she realized what she'd done.

Back to Gouken she'd gone for intrinsic training as he was the only person that knew enough to help her. She didn't want to be controlled by that power. Even for the boost it gave her, it wasn't who she was. It didn't turn her into the kind of woman she wanted to be.

Either way, the women that Naruto spent the majority of his time with were all busy. And it was fine. They had lives. If they weren't so strong and able to do their own thing, they wouldn't have been the girls that he loved so much.

Still, that left him alone with himself, which even he was willing to admit was annoying.

He hadn't even finished unpacking all of his and Cammy's new things because it was so monotonous. If he'd made clones to do it they'd just knock around anyway, so it wasn't worth it. Consequently, that left him with a bare apartment full of boxes and brand new things.

That was a lot of packaging and trash after he was done.

"…I've got to start putting this stuff away don't I?"

XxX

(Elsewhere in Town – Saikyou-Ryuu Dojo)

When Sakura had come back to Dan's dojo after returning home from America, Gouken had been alarmed at how powerful her ki was. This wasn't the same seventeen year-old girl she'd been when she'd left. Something had occurred to force her to break through to a new plateau of strength on the battlefield.

Upon hearing her story it was no mystery as to the nature of the sudden change.

"The Satsui no Hadou has taken a deeper hold on your heart child." Gouken informed Sakura in the middle of a meditation session in the back while Dan was busy training the rest of his students in the front of the studio, "You're more powerful now, but that comes with a cost."

"I know sensei." Sakura mumbled quietly. She'd heard enough about what could become of her if she didn't get a handle on it, and she'd seen firsthand what she was capable of doing to others if pushed into a passionate frenzy, "I don't want to lose control."

"We know the source of your dark intentions. Your passion is your sticking point." Gouken explained, "The stronger you feel about something, the more of a danger you are to the things that surround it."

Her dark side took an extremist stance on the things that Sakura felt powerfully about.

When it came to martial arts and her view of the positive things that it exemplified and meant to people in the world, she got extremely defensive of how its positives outweighed the negative things it brought the world. Those that went against that and pushed that envelope too far, such as Juri, were expendable to say the least. When it came to the person in the world she loved more than any other, Naruto, anyone or anything that might take him away from her simply could not be permitted to exist.

"Well I don't really know what I can do about that." Sakura admitted, cracking one of her eyes to look over at her stoic teacher, "I love what I love. I can't help how I feel about things."

"And I'm telling you, there is no controlling it." Gouken insisted strongly, "The more often you use it, the more the Satsui no Hadou leeches off of you. It becomes harder and harder to go back, until one day you don't at all. The only thing you can control is yourself. You must abandon attachment."

What kind of Zen crap was that? Abandon attachment? People actually tried to do that? People actually could do that?

"Abandon your attachment on your principles. They can be changed, they don't have to be set in stone. Martial arts is a wondrously wide thing." Gouken continued to say, "Abandon your attachment to your ninja boy. People come and go. As long as you have him in your mind and heart, you don't need him."

"I do need him." Sakura whispered, her hands tightened into fists in her lap, "You don't get it. No one does. If it wasn't for Naruto, I wouldn't be here. If he wasn't in my life I wouldn't be the person I am right now. I'd be just some kid in school." Even then she could remember younger days of sitting in the grass and feeling Naruto's energy as he tried to teach her to bring hers out, "…He was the one that let me know how special I was, even when I wasn't."

A sigh came from the older fighter as he could clearly hear how fondly Sakura spoke of her dearest person. This was not going to be an easy thing to get across to her, and it was going to be even more difficult to make her accept it, if she ever did.

Passion was an extremely dangerous thing. It wasn't as fleeting as anger and hatred, but it was just as explosive in its exhibition. It didn't make a person as inactive as something as sorrow, but it had a tendency to last just as long in a person's heart if not longer. It could be the most intense and lingering thing that one could feel.

This was what made their fighting style so dangerous, and the real reason that it was taught to so few people at a high level. What Dan was doing with his twist on it was safe, if not effectively worthless against real fighters. Those students would probably never learn anything past fortifying their bodies with ki if they even learned that.

When you began to grow powerful, it was inevitable that the Satsui no Hadou would creep into a dark part of your heart and feed off of your most potent desire or personality trait. For Akuma and Ryu it was their desire to become the strongest and win no matter what, even at the cost of completely obliterating one's enemy. For Sakura it was something even harder to shed. Things she was willing to remorselessly assault in order to protect or maintain.

If Akuma didn't lose it, and Ryu still hadn't, what were the chances that Sakura would? Only Ken seemed to be immune from the Satsui no Hadou, possibly because he was so content with his life and had no fears to go with his current station in existence.

Only one man he'd ever known had mastered the dark energy, and Akuma had killed him long ago.

"I guess the only choice I have is to find a way to master it." Sakura declared bluntly, "Because if my only other option is to stop feeling the same way about Naruto that I do today, that's just not going to happen master, I'm sorry. I won't do that to him. I won't do that to myself."

"More to yourself I'd imagine." What Gouken hadn't expected was to be met with a glare from Sakura from that remark. She had never looked at him in such a manner. He wanted to believe that it was a portion of the Satsui no Hadou influence shining through, but he knew that it was more of a case of his putting his foot in his mouth.

Even if you were their master in martial arts, it was a dangerous game to say something like that to a woman. Even without having ever been in a relationship with one, Gouken knew that much.

Sakura's expression cooled and her eyes became sad as she spoke, "Do you know what Naruto is afraid of more than anything else? I'm the only one he's said it to. The thing he's more afraid of than anything else in the world is something happening that would end up with him losing any of us." It was why he reacted so severely to Karin's capture, "And you just want me to… drift away from him, like it's that easy. Like I can pretend that every minute we've spent together for the last five years just… didn't mean anything. Why don't you just tell me to shoot him?"

"I think you might be exaggerating."

"So you're saying it's absolutely impossible? That there's no possible way to control the Satsui no Hadou?" Sakura ignored his skepticism before she could lose her patience in this regard with her teacher, "That's impossible. You said you had a master that used it. Your style is a branch of his. Ryu's style is a branch of yours. My style is a branch of Ryu's."

"I strayed away from it. I discovered and mastered the Power of Nothingness through the Surge of Power path as opposed to the Surge of Murderous Intent. It's the only other option I've seen with our style, and it's the only way you can master it is how I've said."

"How do you know?"

"Excuse me?"

"How do you know I can only do one or the other? Who says I can't do both?"

"Sakura…"

"I mean it! I'd rather try and fail than give up on what I love."

"It's not safe for you or the world."

"…If I can't do it and I end up like your brother Akuma, I know who'll stop me." Sakura said as she got up from her meditative position to depart for the day, "And I'm going to them right now. I hope you'll help me, but if you don't I understand."

Ugh. Children and their tendency to make unflinching decisions. She knew how dangerous it was to use that power. Only Gouken's master Goutetsu could ever use it and keep his grip on himself. Did that not resonate with her? She had to understand.

She had to understand that it wasn't a matter of what she wanted. He didn't want her to have to give anything up. It was simply the fact that he'd never seen anyone overcome that sort of unrefined darkness before.

This cub was different from the two Gouken had already trained in the past, but did different necessarily mean she could do what he'd never seen anyone else accomplish?

XxX

(That Evening – Naruto's Apartment)

"And Abel's arm'll work almost like new? Like a robot arm?"

"I believe so. They say that the process of reattaching his nerves is much easier now with the new technologies available."

"Thank goodness Karin's company's spearheading that research and picked up the check on that surgery right?"

"I must pay her a visit to thank her for the sake of my… brother I guess I should call him?"

"Go ahead, you can call him your brother. It's close enough to what it is actually is. I don't know."

"So… would that make you something of my brothe-?"

"No. No! No-no-no-no-no-no. Not with what we do. Not your brother at all."

"I don't unders-."

"I don't want to explain it Cam."

"Okay."

After returning home to find that Naruto had put up pretty much everything that they'd bought to furnish their new three-bedroom apartment home, Cammy found him just watching TV in the living room/kitchen area.

She comfortably plopped down in Naruto's lap as if it were the chair that he were sitting in, and that was where they remained while she told him about her day. She had clearly been excited about it, because Cammy usually didn't talk that much in one sitting.

It was clear that she was happy though. That was all Naruto wanted in regards to her, to know that she was happy.

"You know you could live with Abel if you wanted to Cam." Naruto said to her, rubbing the girl's thigh as she regarded him curiously, "It's okay. You don't owe me anything."

"I don't want to. I'd rather stay with you." Cammy insisted with a small smile as she wiggled a bit in his lap, "If that's okay of course. It's just that Abel might be a bit like me, but when it comes to you there isn't any other place I would rather be, or anyone I would rather be with."

Abel wasn't high on moving in with them either, willing to rely on the 'hospitality' at Genhanten until he had enough money to afford his own place. He wanted to spend time getting to know his little sister better, but knowing what she and her roommate got up to every now and then was a little more than he ever wanted discover about her and he didn't want to risk running into that.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

As if she hadn't been having something of a moment with Naruto, Cammy got up off of his lap and brightly pointed to the door for him to get it. Without any reservations about leaving things like that, Cammy picked up Agent Jack Bauer from inside of an empty box where he was sleeping.

Mumbling to himself about how he just didn't understand that girl, Naruto watched her head back to her room to begin setting it up and headed to the door to greet whoever was visiting his new home.

Upon opening the door, his face lit up at the sight of his oldest friend in this world, "Sakura-chan! What's up?"

It was still astounding to Sakura that he could be so excited every time he saw her. To be honest, it made her feel good to know that he looked upon her so fondly and still felt that strongly about her, "Hey. Ah, can I come in or is this a bad time?"

Going into his pocket, Naruto looked at the clock on his phone. It wasn't a bad time, but it was a fairly late time. Not that something like that mattered to him, but Sakura had a parent so that probably wasn't going to bode very well for her when she got home.

He still invited her in though, and indulged her looking around his new place for a short while before he decided to say something once she had taken her shoes off, "What's the matter? You seem kind of jittery."

"Do I?" Sakura asked before closing the door. She turned to him and sighed deeply, "Sorry, I'm being weird, I know it. I just have something I want to talk about. It can wait if you want to sleep or eat or something. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

Naruto shook his head and pointed to his ears with a smile to let her know that he was listening. Sakura shook her head instead though and pointed to the hall leading to the back rooms. More privacy perhaps. Letting herself be taken by the hand, she followed Naruto into his room and watched him cut on a lamp by his bed that he then sat down on carefully.

Knowing that he was getting a questioning look from Sakura, Naruto explained without being asked, "My bed collapsed three different times after I put it up. Just being careful, that's all." Giggling a bit at his need to explain his quirky actions, Sakura sat down on the bed next to him and drummed her fingertips off of her thighs, "So what's eating you?"

"I was just wondering, what does it feel like when you use the Kyuubi's chakra?"

That was a fair question as far as Naruto was concerned. She'd seen him use it a few times and knew what it was. The entire world had seen him use it during the Second World Warrior Tournament, so it wasn't like he had anything to hide anymore, especially from her.

It was rather easy enough to describe anyway, "Well at first it used to feel like I was just really, really mad the entire time I was using it. The more power I used, the more pissed I felt, like it took everything I had not to just bite into whoever I was fighting's neck. After the tournament it didn't feel so bad anymore, even when I was using three tails, but with the technique I use to get control over more, it gives my dark side influence over what I do, and he's super-violent."

"Oh… and that's why he did what he did after you beat Seth?"

"He wasn't gonna let me turn it off until he felt like he'd made Seth pay." Naruto said with a shrug to try and downplay how violent he'd been at the end of the fight, "Even though he was already dead that wasn't enough. Even though I know it hurt, it wasn't enough. Why? You never told us what exactly Sunburned Sakura-chan did to Juri that was so bad."

"I… I pulled Juri's eye out."

"Ooh."

"Yeah." Sakura said, rubbing her own arm with an uneasy expression, "I just wanted to know, if I ever lost myself and I couldn't get back, would you stop me? You're the only person I could ask that would actually be strong enough. If I wound up like Akuma I mean."

With that, Naruto affixed a serious look onto her that made her feel small. It made her heart thump in her chest, and despite knowing that it was a look of reprimand, it made her feel safe and protected. It was strange that she ever felt the desire to be protected.

A long exhale came from Naruto before he finally shook his head, "If by 'stop you', you mean what I think you mean, I… don't think I could." He admitted after a long pause, "Sakura-chan, even if one day you started devouring people, and from that same mouth that you used to do it you turned to me and said 'I love you', I'd still be able to say 'I love you' the same way I do right now."

Sakura just looked at him in return with wide eyes before setting her head against him and laughing a bit, "…You totally stole that from Bleach, and you mangled that line by the way." She pointed out to his equal amusement, "…Trying to sound cool."

"It doesn't mean I didn't mean it." He replied, "I couldn't ever hurt you. It doesn't matter if it's you or if it's Sunburned Sakura-chan. You're both the same and I love you." Sakura let him kiss her and pulled herself against him closer when he did. Pulling away no farther than their noses touching, Naruto added something else, "You're never gonna let something like that happen though, because my Sakura-chan is tough."

"Do you even pay attention to half of the things you say to people sometimes?" Sakura asked quietly.

"I drift in and out." Naruto said before Sakura kissed him again and they laid on their sides on the bed just staring at each other in the low light of the room.

For God's sake, he made her feel like they were thirteen again or something. What could have been different today if she'd admitted back then that she'd spent so much time with him because she was crushing on him?

They'd lain this close to each other countless times before. It was just as good now as it had been then. Maybe even better, because both of them knew that if one wanted to make a move to get more intimate the other would be quick to reciprocate in kind.

"Can I spend the night here? In here? With you?"

"Yeah… but this might be an awkward conversation with your mom when you go home in the morning to change for school."

"You can just sneak me in or sneak me some clothes out can't you? You're supposed to be the best ninja in the world right?"

"Damn straight."

That's chapter everyone. I hope you enjoyed it as this is going to wrap up the S.I.N. arc, with Seth dying a deadly death and all of that.

Okay all, so check this out. My computer BSODed. Blue Screen of Death. It is effectively dead, and I had to borrow this one to write this at all. I had two completed chapters of a different story and I'd gotten a good distance in everything else that I've got active, and I lost it all because I can't get to it anymore, if I ever can again. All my notes, all my stuff, gone.

Not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but since I'm in the middle of a contest that ends Saturday, that would have been over by now had my computer lasted twenty more minutes for me to post the two chapters of Naruto: Great Clan Days that I'd written. They were good too, and I can totally redo them right now, but it would just be so annoying man.

From now on, EVERYTHING I do gets saved on a flash drive as well. I wasn't doing that before because it's annoying and I'm lazy with my hobbies, but this really hurt man. I want my prize for 8 chapters posted in two weeks and I still have until 8/31 this Saturday to get the job done. This makes 6 of 7. I have two left. Let's do this.

The prize is worth it, and defeat… is not an option.

Kenchi out.