Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Street Fighter. I challenge Yoshinori Ono to a match of VS. in any incarnation of the Street Fighter IV games. If I win, I get the rights to Street Fighter for life. He wins, Capcom gets an unpaid intern until the day Ono retires.

I can definitely beat someone's ass in the game that they produced themselves. No sweat.

Chapter 57: The Folly of Man

From above the battlefield, all anyone watching from the helicopter could see was a bright, gigantic blue ball guided by six red arms, crashing into the ground. It was at that point the island decided that staying together in one general piece was too much of a chore with all of the abuse it was taking. The ground around the mountain in the center of Rishiri Island started to break apart and sink into the water.

"Oh God, did he really try that here?" Sakura asked, pressing against the door and window as if it would get her that much closer to the fight transpiring below, "Naruto, why?"

"What?"

"The Rasengan has been Naruto's finishing move for as long as I've known him," Sakura began to explain, "And he's always been trying to make it bigger and bigger, especially after I started working on the Shinkuu Hadoken."

Because bigger things were cool, and Sakura having a Hadoken bigger than Naruto's Rasengan just was not permitted. He had Rasengan, she had the Hadoken, so he learned Odama Rasengan, but she learned how to make her Hadoken bigger and then learned Shinkuu Hadoken. It was like a race between them to see who could bloat their signature attack the fastest into a gigantic 'look-at-me-I'm-better-than-you' ball.

"I guess that just jumped the shark, huh?" Ibuki said with a nervous laugh as they watched the destruction.

As the reality of what they were seeing settled in, the most astute amongst them took it upon herself to point out something that everyone else either didn't know, or didn't want to voice aloud, "You do all realize..." Karin began deliberately, "...That there are people living on that island, do you not? Rishiri Island is not a deserted locale."

Sakura's hands curled into fists, her fingernails scraping against the glass, "...What?"

"People live there," Batsu repeated in the heiress' stead, the stark actuality of the situation dropping into the pit of his stomach like a stone, "On the other side of that mountain. If this goes anywhere near there, and they haven't evacuated yet, people are gonna die."

There wasn't any question about it. The mostly uninhabited part of the island was now sitting underneath the waves in millions of pieces. Add a settled location and thousands of panicking people and the results would be obvious, and grim.

In an intelligent world, people would have started evacuating after Akuma carved the kanji into the mountain face that summoned Naruto to begin with, but this was the real world, where people didn't leave even when there were natural disasters coming that they knew about days in advance. If they hadn't started getting off of the island and were just now getting around to it, things were going to get worse before they got better.

"No way," Ibuki reasoned, more to herself than to anyone else in the helicopter, "Naruto won't let that happen. He wouldn't."

With a grim sneer on his face, Batsu looked down at where he could see Naruto moving along the side of the mountain, seeking Akuma to destroy, "I train with the guy, a lot, so I should know. The more of that red chakra Naruto uses, the less of a fuck he gives about the stuff around him," And he was using more than Batsu had ever seen. He'd been warned by Naruto before that anything past three tails was playing fast and loose with his control, "If they start getting into it while there are people in range, I really don't think he or Akuma would care. Not right now."

Sakura's eyes went wide, but she had seen what Naruto could do. The fight with Seth in the desert hadn't been a dream, and she had been there for it, "But… Ryu-san wouldn't let either of them hurt anyone."

"Are you watching the same fight the rest of us are watching?" Karin asked, "Ryu-san cannot stop them, or turn them away from anything. He is barely able to keep up in his own right!" Which was something many people would have found unimaginable if they had heard it.

Ibuki didn't want to say it to Sakura either on top of everything else, but it didn't seem like Ryu would have stopped to protect anyone in the way either. It was in the man's character to try and keep innocents out of the line of fire normally, but as the fight carried on he seemed to be losing more and more of his discernible traits to the desperate nature of the battle.

There weren't any heroes in this conflict. The only thing that mattered between those fighting it was who wound up walking away when the dust settled.

No adult was going to pop out of the blue with the answers and the actions for them to follow that would save the day. It was up to them, a bunch of kids hovering above an island battlefield in a helicopter, none of whom were any older than eighteen at the eldest.

Growing up was more than just winning fights without turning to someone older and usually wiser. Growing up was also coming up with the solution to problems that didn't involve direct, brute force without being told what to do and how to do it.

Apparently it was time to grow up.

"So are we going to go try and save people now?" Cammy asked, unable to accurately gauge the mood of the passengers in the helicopter. The danger and the importance of what their next actions would be mattered none to her. She had been prepared to do something proactive from the outset, having never felt like a child in the first place.

She was quite the example to follow… for all the wrong reasons. After all, none of them had been programmed to be perfect, emotionless killing machines. But still, it wasn't wrong in this case. Nothing ever seemed too big for her to try and handle. That sort of bravery and willingness to take action was what they needed.

It was something Karin picked up for herself immediately after hearing the blonde little soldier. Being wealthy didn't mean the same thing to her that it meant to many others. She was not entitled as many people would think. Having her family's wealth didn't mean to her that the world owed her anything because of who she was. It meant that because she was born to such a position in life it was up to her to excel and prove that she deserved everything she had.

If it meant she had to risk her neck to try and save as many people on an island as she could before it wound up being turned to rubble, so be it. The most beautiful diamonds were formed under the greatest pressure after all.

"But of course," Karin said, trying to will all of the confidence her tone of speaking conveyed to the rest of her body, "Shibazaki, if you would," She requested as the helicopter began to bank in a direction to find somewhere safe to land.

"As you wish ojou-sama."

XxX

As Ryu ascended Mount Rishiri via the foot trails while he did his part to try and keep up with the booming fight between Naruto and Akuma, he turned back around to the lower level of the island where they had been fighting before.

Much of the island now rested under the sea, and he had almost been amongst the pieces that now were.

He was now taking Dan's comments about Naruto moving a mountain with his strength much more seriously. Rishiri Island wasn't going to stand up to much more of this if it dragged on too long. The last time Ryu had fought Akuma, the man had destroyed that island with a single punch once he had gotten what he wanted out of it.

He didn't think that Naruto would do the same, but he was fighting a much more violent style than he had been previously.

As he moved along, he was stopped at the sight of Naruto's red chakra-covered body slamming into the side of the mountain, sending boulders, dust, and other debris flying everywhere.

Looking up into the air, he saw an incoming Akuma, his arm extended, set to fire a ki blast, "Zankuu Hadoken (Air Slashing Surge Fist)!"

With Naruto buried in the wall with nowhere to go he was a sitting duck for the purple balls of energy, prompting Ryu to fire a smaller Hadoken of his own, not strong enough to overpower them, but enough to knock a few off-course.

Naruto exploded out of the tunnel, screaming past the disrupted Zankuu Hadoken balls and back into Akuma's face, slamming into him and sending them both crashing into the trail right by Ryu.

The white-clad martial artist jumped into the fray, dodging an errant chakra claw from Naruto to land a punch on Akuma's body while he was sidetracked.

He folded sideways over Ryu's punch and swatted at him with a backhand that knocked Ryu several paces away, turning that same hand into a bludgeoning punch for Naruto that was caught by one of his chakra tails, "Those cursed things!" Akuma snapped, readjusting the position of his arm in Naruto's grip so he could grab onto the tail himself.

Before Naruto could retract it to safety he was caught and slammed time and time again off of the ground and against the surrounding rock face.

Ryu jumped in and landed on Naruto's chakra tail, pinning it to the ground underneath him to stop Akuma and causing the half-man half-monster to hunch over enough for Ryu to blast him in the head with a kick that sent him careening away.

Naruto picked himself back up off of the ground, and regarded Ryu after his kick that saved him from taking more of a beating than he already had, "Nice shot," He said in a moment of clarity.

In return, Ryu just smirked at the distorted version of Naruto that stood before him, "Thank you."

"I don't think it did anything though."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because he's coming right back!"

Naruto punctuated that by sweeping Ryu's legs with his tail, just before Akuma could reappear in a heartbeat via Ashura Senkuu and cut Ryu's head off with his version of the Senpukyaku kick.

Akuma's red eyes glared pure murder at Naruto for saving what he saw as an unworthy interloper in his grand battle, "Boy, you-!"

"Shut up!" Naruto wanted to hear nothing of what he had to say and instead retaliated with twin Rasengans, one in each hand. Akuma stopped him by catching him by the wrists, the amount of strength it took creating a shockwave in the air that made the earth rumble.

Naruto anchored himself with his tails before realizing that he had dug them into the mountain for support.

It was a risky idea, but if it paid off he could bury Akuma and freely vaporize what was left afterwards just to be safe. If nothing else it would make him realize that fighting both Naruto and Ryu would require his absolute full power.

"Rasenshinsen (Spiraling Tremor)!"

Akuma felt the ground fall out beneath him as Naruto's earth-rending jutsu caused an entire side of the mountain to collapse and crumble away. Ryu had to get up to run and launch himself as far as his body could take him before he found himself caught in the landslide as well, but he underestimated just how much of the mountain would suffer from the technique.

Falling, Ryu began to save himself by hopping from falling stone to falling stone as if they were platforms. Jumping faster than they could fall, he managed to salvage his health, at least until he caught sight of Akuma doing the same. The dark-skinned demon's eyes were locked solely on Ryu as he navigated the midair maze of debris, coming right at him.

Ryu hadn't the slightest idea how to react, leaving him a sitting duck in midair until a red chakra claw grabbed him and pulled him up before Akuma could drive a punch clear through him.

Missing, Akuma spun his body around to see the chakra claw slam Ryu right into him, fist-first, straight into Akuma's jaw.

Quick to react and realize his situation, Ryu improvised, building as much to fuel his body as he could, throwing in a slight twist that turned Naruto's chakra claw along with him. If this was going to happen, it was going to happen his way, "Tsuirakuryuuken (Crashing Dragon Fist)!"

It was the exact same process and motion of the original Shoryuuken, only with the added force of gravity's natural pull and Naruto's strength willing it forward along with Ryu's. The traditional martial artist couldn't remember ever hitting another living being as hard in his entire life.

Ryu felt bone burst. Not just Akuma's, but his own. Both the radius and the ulna in his forearm shattered from the added force that Naruto added to his already formidable punch. Akuma didn't so much as fall the rest of the way to the ground as he was fired there off of the end of the cannon that was Ryu's fist.

Despite the sounds of an entire mountainside worth of rock crashing and tumbling down, the sick crack of Akuma's body hitting the ground before tons of rock piled up on top of his fallen frame echoed louder than anything else.

Naruto pulled Ryu back up to a level surface and set him down before his chakra could burn him too badly. Naruto would have said he was sorry if he had been in an apologetic state of mind, but at the moment, with his sense of aggression only halfway dulled by the focus of his more docile side, all he could really worry about was keeping Ryu alive so that Akuma didn't have a better chance at winning.

But that didn't seem to matter anymore. Naruto had literally dropped a quarter of a mountain on top of his damn head. There wasn't a being alive that could survive something like that, the fall and the aftermath.

…But just to be safe...

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" Naruto formed thirty clones. Knowing that they wouldn't last long due to the chakra that borne them simultaneously destroying them, they all plunged off of the cliff, massive Rasengans formed by their tails, all screaming at the top of their lungs as they collided with the rubble Akuma was buried underneath, creating bombastic explosions one after another.

Ryu held onto the edge and looked over the edge in disbelief. He had to clutch to the rock face hard enough to cut his palms open to keep from being shaken or blown off. Turning to his side, where Naruto stood observing, seething in his six-tailed form as he waited for a sign that it was all over or that he needed to do even more. Either way, he was anticipating the other shoe dropping at any moment.

He really could move a mountain if he had to. A fight involving Naruto could require the maps to be redrawn. If it were in the cards, Naruto could sink the entire island, just like Akuma had right in front of Ryu's eyes years before.

'That level of strength...' Ryu thought to himself, ignoring the cuts and bruises, the chakra burns, the grime, and the blood covering his body, 'It's inhuman. I can't match that like this. On my own. It's not enough.'

The southern side of Rishiri Island had been utterly leveled. It looked as though half of the place had been the subject of high-grade weapon testing. But at least the island still stood. At least there was something left. If there was anything positive it was that there was land left for things to even be rebuilt on.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Worst-case scenario in this instance didn't happen, and in the end he had managed to make a difference with his own two arms, one of which happened to be broken at this point, "You needed to defeat my Shoryuuken to have a chance, Akuma."

Naruto spared him an odd glance, but in his current state, banter wasn't exactly the first thing on his mind. Ryu realized this partway through the battle where Naruto would have normally been running his mouth to boost his own adrenaline and tear at his opponent's will, and thought nothing of it.

Except for when he wondered why he was still like that. It had been two full minutes and nothing had moved underneath what some would have dubbed 'ground zero'.

Naruto knew, or was still anticipating something that Ryu hadn't been. As the chakra-clad teenager stood like a statue save for the tails waving around him, that prophecy fulfilled itself when the island began to quiver and quake anew.

It seemed like an honest-to-goodness earthquake, but Naruto knew better.

The rock surrounding Akuma's body didn't crumble so much as it ceased to exist underneath against the pillar of ki that fired into the sky underneath what should have been his grave.

That was when he emerged, and the seemed to go dark from the Satsui no Hadou energy spread out in the air above the island.

With white hair, rippling veins all over his body, and bolts of unstable red ki snapping off of him like lightning, there was no question. This was everything that Akuma had within him.

"I'm… pleased. Maybe this world is not as weak as I thought," Akuma mused aloud to himself before looking up nearly one-thousand feet at Ryu and Naruto, more specifically at the latter, "I have lived in this mortal place, perfecting my killing power for decades. Now, you can see it firsthand. Now, you fight the True Demon."

Ryu rested on his knees, slackjawed at just what he was seeing and sensing, "There was... more?" Dear God, there was more. Akuma could pull out more. He could have always pulled out more, the entire time. He simply never had to.

Naruto showed no fear, or any apprehension whatsoever. This was what he had been waiting on. It needed to happen if he had any chance of winning this battle, to force Akuma to his absolute depths of strength. He couldn't back away from it now, even if it was far more than he'd anticipated it ever would have been.

Raising all six of his chakra tails, they all formed claws on their ends that flipped Akuma off in unison. That was how much he cared. It was all he needed to say. Caring nothing for his own well-being, Naruto dropped himself off of the edge and hurtled at Akuma with intent to inflict grievous harm.

Akuma didn't move, watching the entire time as Naruto went right at him.

The punch that Naruto landed with all of his force behind him was truly catastrophic.

The ground underneath Akuma thirty feet down in a circumference of fifty collapsed into pebbles, but at the bottom of it, the enhanced monster stood, Naruto's fist sunken into his cheek, unmoving. A single drop of blood trickled from his mouth, drawing a smirk from him before he grabbed tightly onto Naruto's arm, caring nothing for the poisonous miasma that was Naruto's chakra. His fingertips themselves tore through the natural armor the chakra created, digging into Naruto's flesh itself.

Naruto didn't see the overpowered Akuma punch him. He didn't remember being hit the first time, but he began to feel it around the twelfth time that Akuma struck him. He could not think clearly enough to intelligently retaliate before falling to the ground and going dark.

What he did remember however, was waking up upon hearing a guttural scream from Ryu. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Akuma's fist punching a gaping hole into Ryu's chest and out through his back.

Naruto couldn't see Ryu's face as his body crumpled to the ground.

He fell and Akuma turned back to Naruto, his angry red eyes boring a hole into him, thinking nothing of the life of the man he had just snuffed out.

Naruto said a short prayer in his head and stood back up. He could not stop and mourn. He would only be wasting breath asking why it was that Ryu had to be disposed of in such a heartless way. This was what he had been waiting on, and it hadn't exactly failed yet. He couldn't call for a mulligan on the gameplan now.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Elsewhere on Rishiri Island – Rishirifuji)

Karin had made arrangements to evacuate the population. She could mobilize such a thing before the JSDF could get around to doing it, as they were probably just now getting the call that things were going crazy out there.

Now the most difficult thing they could do was convince as many people as they could to stop rushing around and panicking. They needed to get everyone together near the northern shore, away from the fighting that was taking place on the opposite side of the island.

There were only two towns there, spread out along the coastline across over 30 miles. They had to split up and corral as many people as they could, as quickly as they could. Karin's helicopter dropped Batsu and Cammy in one location, while she and Sakra sought to tackle the other.

Four teenagers to try and save over 5000 people.

Sakura and Karin went about their task on foot, leaving the latter's attendant Shibazaki in the helicopter with the task of keeping as much of an eye on the battle as he could while looking out for Karin's evacuation transports. There wasn't much that one recreational helicopter could do for that many people anyway.

The ground shook, window panes clattered, and people screamed as an accident blocked the main thoroughfare of Rishirifuji. The two towns on the island weren't huge. One badly jammed road could plug up traffic for a while, especially when everyone with an automobile was trying to make a run for it at once.

Karin was elsewhere, funneling people away from the jam before they could get stuck in it as well, but for those that were still there caught, they didn't have any other way but forward, and Sakura was the one that had to move it aside.

It was three-thousand pounds in an awkward, jumbled form, sans tires due to being on its roof. Every muscle in Sakura's body screamed in protest as she tried her best to move the twisted metal wreckage, the ground scraping every time she so much as even caused it to budge. She couldn't clear it out of the way though.

Naruto without tapping into the Kyuubi's chakra could move a jeep that was still half a ton heavier, but even then, that had wheels.

Giving it another try, Sakura put her entire body into the action, her feet digging partially into the pavement as she tried to get her footing. Even when she did, it hardly mattered.

'I can move this!' Sakura thought to herself doggedly, gritting her teeth as she strained every inch of her being, 'People are counting on me, I can't just give up!'

As she continued to push, a yellow-skinned hand pressed itself right above hers and gave it a hearty push, sending Sakura barreling forward without warning, shoving the car ahead and out of the way.

Sakura caught her footing and stumbled to a stop, turning around to see who had done that. Had Karin swung around to try and help?

Standing there, in his bound-armed, tattered clothing glory, Oro gave Sakura a grin, complete with his missing teeth, "What? That was all you," He said, "All I did was give you enough of a shove to get you started."

That wasn't what she had been staring at him for, "O-Oro-san? What are you doing here?"

The old man moved out of the way as cars sped past now that the way was open again, speaking casually as if he hadn't been close to being run over, "Oh, well I was around when your friend was training so hard, and I was interested. Now at least I know what it was for-," A loud booming noise reached them from a distance, "-And how well it's paying off."

Sakura had been able to keep her mind off of it by focusing on what she needed to do, but once it was brought back to her attention what was happening, a shiver went down her spine. Her ability to sense energy was strong, not that it needed to be with the output that she was feeling.

"Oh God, he's even stronger," She said, thinking aloud about Akuma's power. It didn't seem possible. His power had been as deep and wide as the ocean before, but now it seemed as vast as the sky, "Oh no."

Even Sakura's dark side momentarily balked at what she was feeling, before stirring a feeling of panic inside of the girl.

Oro closed his eyes and took in what he could feel of the fight from a distance. Seeing it within his mind's eye, he could perceive nothing positive happening on Naruto and Ryu's front.

This man was strong. Too strong. Ibuki's very best attack, something absolutely none of the members of their group of friends would have tried to stand up against, could only make Oro consider using his other arm to fight her.

Someone like that could at least help stand up against Akuma, if not take him.

"I know you don't have any stake in this," Sakura began to say before bowing to Oro, "…But I know you can feel what's happening here. I think you're strong enough to do something about it. Maybe even stop it."

A weathered sigh came from the timeworn warrior, "I cannot," Oro said solemnly, causing Sakura's heart to drop. How he hated to see such a worried expression on a pretty girl. But this was how it was, "One way or another, it will be over before I can get there. This island won't last through it if what I'm feeling is correct."

Even then as they spoke, Rishiri Island shook as if someone were trying to tear it from the Earth. It wasn't a random occurrence. Ever since the shaking had started, it had never stopped.

If Oro wouldn't or couldn't get to Naruto in time, Sakura would take what she could get, "Then… then could you help us get these people away from here?" She requested of him, clasping her hands together pleadingly, "Please! Everyone here is in danger! We can't just leave them!"

"Hmm," Oro made a show, as though he were thinking things whilst people fled and panicked all around him, "...Okay. I don't see why I couldn't," He said lightly, with a ragged old man's laugh behind it, "Come along child! There's work to be done if you want to save these folks!"

XxX

(With Naruto – Elsewhere on Rishiri Island)

Naruto had been hit so hard he thought he'd had a second of clarity in the constant joust for mental control that was maintaining his six-tailed state. It wasn't until he stood up and looked at his own hands that he realized with no small amount of alarm he'd actually fallen out of that form.

Looking at the rocky ground and his hands, slick with crimson ichor Naruto realized just how much of it was clouding his vision, 'Oh, that's my blood. Oh... that's all my blood,' He thought woozily.

There was a considerable amount of it, to be sure.

Getting up and looking around at the craggy mountainside battlefield, Naruto made out the sight of a grimy bare foot visible within a pile of crushed rock, "Ryu!" Naruto called out to him, his voice echoing into the air over the sound of the ground shaking. He hoped with all of his might that he had only been seeing things before, a symptom of blunt force trauma to the head.

There was no response. Everything he had seen had happened. Ryu was a bit thoughtless and other things, but he wasn't a bad person. Dying in such a way, to such a horrible being wasn't how he deserved to go out. But very few people in the world got the exact sort of ending that they desired.

If Naruto didn't make something happen, he wouldn't get the sort of ending he desired either.

He dug as deep as he could, reached for as much power as he could muster, but his body betrayed him. As Naruto pulled out more of the Kyuubi's chakra, accepting his dark side's tendencies as his own and making them his to bond and synchronize control of red energy, he managed to form the sleek, full-body chakra cloak, but just as soon lost it.

Yelling at the top of his lungs to pull it all out, he barely reached past four before the stabilized form tapered out, leaving him with the bare-bones version he had been using for years.

All Naruto could do was laugh. But there was no humor in it. It was the sort of laughter that came from a man as if to say that whatever was happening was just their luck. This had never happened before. He had blown his wad, and the battle wasn't over yet.

Over the course of four hours, Akuma had dealt him the worst physical beating he'd ever endured, and that had been before he'd even broken into his real power. The last time Naruto had utilized the limits of his own power that he could reach, it had been against Seth, and it didn't turn out to be that much of a fight from that point forward.

But this...

"Is that all you have?" Akuma demanded to know, sounding put out at the possibility that Naruto could no longer continue to test him at his full strength, "I've waited for decades to do battle against an enemy that can stand up against my full might. Do not rouse my ire by giving me what I've wanted and taking it away so unceremoniously!" He snapped, rock tearing up from the ground around them as his temper rose.

Naruto stared him down, no fear in his eyes. The time for that had long since passed. He wasn't some boy who ran into an act of God out of the blue inside of an arena in Tokyo anymore. He was someone who had prepared for a fight to the death with someone he had only one or two chances of winning against, "What if I said I was done?" Naruto replied, "What if I said I didn't have anything else? What exactly are you gonna do, kill me?"

Akuma's red eyes narrowed at the mocking tone of Naruto's last words, "Boy..."

"Shut. Up," Naruto bit out, silencing Akuma, if nothing else because of the sheer novelty of being told such by anyone. It gave Naruto the opportunity to expound on his thoughts, "I don't care how much of a monster you are. I'm not scared of you anymore. You know why? Because at the end of the day you're only good for one thing. One thing that you never get to do because no one's good enough for you to fight. And I wish this was a situation that I didn't have to give you the satisfaction, because if it wasn't for you gunning for Sakura-chan, you wouldn't mean a damn thing to me."

Instead of angering the raging warrior, Naruto's words only served to calm him. What 'would have been' and 'might have been' didn't matter, especially since 'what was' happened to be exactly what Akuma wanted as an outcome.

"But I did, and you have," Akuma pointed out, his power rippling around him as the island began to rock once more, "So finish it, or I'll finish you. But I wonder... what kind of fight the girl willl give me when I drop your corpse at her feet. It won't be anything like this was, but it it should be a good appetizer for when I finish molding her into my ideal opponent."

Naruto bit his tongue to keep from flying into a rage. That would do him no good at this point if he couldn't even harness it to balance out his use of the six-tails form. Now it was all or nothing. He had to get what he was after or lose everything, "This is your chance tough guy. Hit me with your best shot, because I'm the only one that can take it"

That seemed to be the key phrase it needed to turn the situation even further on its head.

Naruto and Akuma's attention snapped to where Ryu had fallen. Naruto thought he had been done. He had been done, they had both felt it. There had been nothing left of his life energy after Akuma drove his fist right through him.

His appearance was startling, to say the least.

Ryu's appearance was much more menacing and powerful. He bore his teeth with visible fangs as he seethed angrily. What was left of his outfit was better described as red and black tatters rather than clothing, stained with his own blood and the deep soil that had been torn into from the intensity of the battle. His skin was darkened to a color Naruto likened to Akuma's. Ryu's short hair spiked wildly, tinted red with a combination of blood and his ki, which whipped around him uncontrollably.

The most notable new trait he possessed was the single gigantic, ugly scar that sat in the middle of his chest, glowing like a dying star.

This was his Satsui no Hadou.

"No way," Naruto whispered to himself. It was just like Sakura's. No, not quite, "...It's stronger than Sakura-chan's..."

Far stronger. Because Ryu had been officially trained in the ki-fortifying techniques of his fighting style, his power had already been formidable enough for him to last throughout the fight and keep up. Not only was Ryu now using the Satsui no Hadou, he wasn't fighting it off. It was just there, and he was letting it, because he had to.

He had to win.

He had to win.

He did not lose.

Even to someone like Akuma, he would not lose to him. Not ever. He didn't fight the dark red pulse of energy that ran off of his body. It was good for him. It was giving him what he wanted, needed. It felt... right. Why had he been trying to hold this back? It wasn't hurting him. It wasn't destroying him. It would only destroy what he wanted it to.

Every step Ryu took from where he had originally fallen caused a crater in the ground as he walked over to Naruto and Akuma.

As intimidating as it was, Naruto didn't know if this was a good or a bad thing yet. His first instinct was to treat Ryu like an enemy. Every warning in his head told him that both of these men would murder him without a second thought. But Akuma was still stronger, and it didn't seem as though they were siding together. They were going to fight no matter what. He just had to make sure they did it before turning to him so he could finish off whatever was left if Akuma survived, or try to bring Ryu back down if he was left standing.

It seemed as if Ryu didn't know quite what to make of himself, experimentally moving his arms and flexing out his hands. He ignored what this must have done to his broken arm, as pain meant nothing in regards to seeing what his new power was capable of.

Akuma stood back, arms crossed and observing as though he were pleased with what he was seeing. He didn't say a word.

Eventually, Ryu shifted his stance and built his ki in his hands by his side, slowly charging up his energy, a flashing purple and red Hadoken building in his hands. Naruto immediately shouted at the top of his lungs to get the preoccupied fighter's attention.

"HEY!" Naruto slammed two of his chakra tails into the ground to make a wall of torn up earth right in front of Ryu, "CUT IT OUT!"

That was the side that people were on. A Hadoken that powerful would carve right through whatever part of Rishiri Mountain it hit before continuing on through, and Ryu hadn't been aiming into the air. He wanted to take out the mountain and whatever was behind it.

If Akuma carved into the mountain to demonstrate his might, Ryu wanted to destroy it to show off his own.

Naruto had to avoid a similar fate to Ryu's, getting a hole punched through his chest from Akuma as reprisal for keeping Ryu from showing him how much stronger he had gotten. Naruto narrowly dodged it and glared at Akuma.

"Do not interrupt, boy," Akuma threatened before turning his gaze to the other man present, what he deemed as far more important, "Ryu. Your power calls out to me, telling me to snuff it out. So tell me, have you finally transcended your humanity?"

Ryu deliberately stood up from his Hadouken-charging stance and turned to face Akuma, his gaze pointed at the ground as though he were coming to grips with what had overcome him.

"The darkness seeks out those who need it the most," Ryu said, shaking his head in disbelief at the power flowing through him. It was crisper, purer than it had ever been before when Bison had yanked it out of him, when Ken had driven him to such a point during the tournament. Both times before he had fought furiously against it, "What was I thinking before now? I was so... confused. But now, this is it. This Hadou, it grants me more power than I'd ever dreamed of, all I've wanted out of martial arts."

The only thing he'd ever wanted was to be the best. Was that really so much to ask when one dedicated every ounce of their being from the time they could walk to that goal? Winning was his life. Why did he fight against the literal manifestation of his desire to win?

Akuma's booming laughter filled the air. It was a horrible sound, like that of a man that had forgotten what it felt like to feel good about something, going through the motions just because, "I had given up on you! But I should have known better; that it takes a brush with death to bring a man the most clarity."

Naruto wasn't nearly as vindicated by hearing Ryu's words as the battle-craving Akuma. It made him sick to his stomach. This was what was in the heart of the champion that every fight fan in the world lauded as the greatest example of martial arts? Someone to try and emulate.

This wasn't some outside thing. The Satsui no Hadou didn't just supplant these feelings into the people that embraced it. It took what was already there in great detail, the double-edged sword of your personality that made part of who you were, and picked at it, focused on it, magnified it until it became a potent enough point about a person to be weaponized.

"That's it? Winning was all that ever mattered? The only thing? You're what, 27? That's the only thing you want?" Naruto never got it to begin with, why so many people he knew: Sakura, Chun-li, Ken, E. Honda, people he actually looked up to for one reason or another, treated Ryu as though he were the greatest person. Akuma was probably just like him before the Satsui no Hadou took over. That was why their words were so similar, "...Why would anybody look up to you?"

Ryu turned his hateful gaze onto Naruto, "Who cares about something so worthless?" He spat harshly, clenching a fist tightly, "I don't seek any adulation! I don't need any pitiful weakling's worthless acceptance the way that you do! There is no place for the weak to exist! Power is all that matters, and it's all I need!" He lifted his fist into the air and struck down at the ground with all of his might.

Naruto stuck to the surface as large slabs of the island heaved, tossed, and turned, splitting up from the rock base that connected it to the earth's crust. Akuma stood and laughed, knowing exactly what Ryu's aim had been, to destroy the entire island the way he himself had done to the one they had first fought on years ago.

"You have the raw power, but you are far too inexperienced with it to ever hope to copy my skills," Akuma boasted cruelly, mocking Ryu for trying one of his techniques, one he himself hadn't even finished yet, "Try again in fifteen years... if you live that long."

Ryu stood up from where he had struck the ground with his fist and turned to Akuma with an undecipherable expression on his face before suddenly speeding behind him with the Ashura Senkuu. Surprise registered on Akuma's face for a split second before he raised his hand to stop a blade hand from hitting his vertebrae.

He turned his head to admonish Ryu's attempt on his life but caught a punch to the face from Naruto. He wasn't going anywhere.

Both Naruto and Ryu traded strikes, blocks, and parries with Akuma. He had to keep an eye on both of them as they attacked from opposite sides, dedicating one half of his body to taking on one and the adjacent half to the other.

Now Naruto found himself hard-pressed to keep up, as more of Akuma's focus was leaning toward Ryu than him, 'Kyuubi... I'm at the end of my rope here. I can't pull up anymore of your chakra,' He was so tired he was seeing triple. He kept himself as a threat simply by aiming for the one in the middle.

"You have to make do with what you have. You'll just burn your body out faster trying to bring up anymore now. "

'Alright,' Naruto thought to himself before almost losing his head to Ryu's foot. The man had tried to kick Akuma, missed, and decided to continue on to try and brain Naruto with it instead, "Now both of you assholes are gonna try and kill me!?" Naruto reached past Akuma, grabbed Ryu's arm and pulled him back into Akuma, disrupting the scrum and knocking them both off-balance while his other hand held a Rasengan that was aimed at the both of them, "Fine!"

Both Akuma and Ryu dodged with the Ashura Senkuu and tried to crush Naruto between both of their fists only to wind up punching one another when Naruto managed to avoid their counter. Ryu was shoved back by Akuma's strength and grit his teeth to ignore the pain in his hand.

The momentary focus on one another made them lose sight of Naruto, almost costing Akuma a stealth Rasengan to the kidney. Sliding out of the way, Akuma dropped an elbow down onto the the low-crouched Naruto's back, smashing him into the dirt.

With a spiteful look down at the floored jinchuuriki, Akuma raised his fist, prepared to try and strike Naruto down for good, only to feel Ryu's power building along with his temper. With a scoff, he looked up at the young fighter, the brand-new and improved Ryu. Apparently he wasn't prepared to accept that taking the Satsui no Hadou into his heart didn't automatically make him Akuma's better, as their clash of fists demonstrated.

If that was the case, and Akuma wanted to play the part of the old lion, unwilling to let the younger, faster, stronger one with more time on his side end his wretched life, Ryu would simply have to show him just how much his opinion mattered on the issue.

Naruto had interrupted him from trying this out the first time, but the heat of battle was as good a time as any to find out the limits of his power.

Holding his hands a basketball's width apart, Ryu's ki began to twist and surge between his palms, barely restricted by the barrier that his energy had created for itself. Once again, just like before, it took an unnatural purple and red color. A stark contrast from the bright and healthy blue look of a regular person's ki.

It was a reflection of the very mind and spirit of the person using it.

All Ryu saw, all he cared to see, was a perfect target. A victim for the full breadth of his might.

"Messatsu Gou Hadou (Annihilating Great Surge)!"

Akuma spared a glance backwards at Naruto who was hardly able to stand back up, and smirked before jumping mightily into the air, over Ryu's city block-sized blast of energy. With that, he could write Naruto out of the equation, 'Good Ryu. Now for you,' Hanging high above, Akuma formed his own similar Hadoken, "You fool. Now perish before the power of MY true Hadoken!"

Ryu would die by the technique that he so brazenly tried to make his own. Even if he pulled back on it now, he wouldn't recover in enough time to do anything about Akuma's own attack.

It had been a marvelous battle while it had lasted, but once again, the undisputed lord of the deathmatch would reign supreme.

"DIE!"

Naruto's yell tore through the air and Akuma saw a purple flash of light beneath him that wasn't from Ryu. Looking down, he saw the impossible sight of Ryu's Messatsu Gou Hadou flying out of Naruto's right hand, aimed right at him.

No. How could he have possibly survived, let alone countered and turned Ryu's move into his own?

The Hitobashira no Kinkou (Balance of Human Sacrifice)."

When the Hadoken had gotten close enough, Naruto opened every tenketsu in his arm and used his chakra as an anchor to absorb it into his body. At that exact moment, a mental trigger to the Kyuubi prompted it to forcefully reverse the flow of Naruto's chakra. Since the Hadoken couldn't go back out the way it went in, it had to go out through Naruto's other arm, which was the reason for such a precise measure. A wrong move or a slight hiccup in their timing would have at best blown off one of Naruto's arms and at worst caused his entire body to explode.

It was a technique dangerous enough for only Naruto to be insane enough to try, and the risk that came with it was there with every ki attack he would try to use it against, from the weakest of the weak to the strongest of the strong. It wasn't worth the danger unless the attack would kill or maim Naruto anyway, which was why it was only to be used in all-or-nothing situations.

Akuma covered up as best as he could when the blast hit him, and screamed as the sick purple energy tore away at his clothing, skin, hair, and muscle indiscriminately. Even with his own mighty supply of power, whatever this was had been more than he could endure. It didn't make sense to him. Even if Ryu's Hadoken had hit him, it shouldn't have done that kind of damage.

He had no idea that it had gotten a bit of a booster from Naruto's chakra when he had used his own powers to reverse the move. The sum was greater than its parts, and that extra kick had been too much for him to take.

Ryu, angered that Naruto's technique and not merely his own had resulted in Akuma being so gravely injured, would not let the unworthy, weak boy have the last say in who got to murder Akuma.

That designation was for him alone.

With one great bound, Ryu launched himself at Akuma fist-first, "Death awaits you!" The curve of his rising punch cut Akuma's torso open in a bloody display from waist to neck, the monster's mouth stuck open in a soundless scream of pain and hatred.

His fist covered in gore, Ryu twisted in the air, gathering his dark energies into it. As gravity won out, he followed Akuma's falling body down to the ground, taking careful aim before smashing a second punch right into Akuma's skull at the exact moment he hit the ground.

"Messatsu Gou Shoryuu (Annihilating Great Rising Dragon)!"

As Akuma's head cracked and sprayed blood and brain matter in Ryu's face, Rishiri Island had taken enough of a beating. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Segments of the island finally began to break away off of its overall landmass and slip into the ocean, water quickly filling in all of the cracks and bringing it all underwater.

Ryu didn't move an inch, merely staring down at Akuma's expression, twisted in a vile, deformed visage of horror mixed with pain. For a moment, it felt gratifying. More gratifying than any victory he had ever taken. The bitter tang of Akuma's blood tasted sweeter than any sip of cool water taken after a job well done in training or battle.

But it was far too fleeting. Just like that, the satisfaction was gone. The adrenaline had faded.

Closing his eyes as the rapid waters of the gathering seas took him under as well, Ryu only had one thought on his warped mind.

"It's not enough!" His cry of rage was drowned out by the ocean crashing all around him.

XxX

It took a team effort and hours of work while Rishiri Island fell apart around them, but Sakura, Karin, Batsu, and Cammy were eventually able to get thousands of people to the extraction point Shibazaki had called in for Karin's evacuation team. It paid for her family to have a private army on speed dial it seemed.

They had brought a seafaring vessel large enough to contain the majority of the island's population, as many as the kids could get to take with them.

All of them knew that there had been some that they didn't know to go after and reach or some that had tried to sit and wait it all out. They didn't want to think about what happened to those people when they saw the island crumble apart like a stale cracker. Regular people couldn't survive something like that. They didn't even think any of them could survive something like that.

Which was why it was so alarming to think about the possible fate of Uzumaki Naruto.

Sakura and Karin had resorted to holding each other for comfort as they waited for any sign, positive or negative. Though the sight and sound of nothing seemed to be the most alarming indicator of all. None of them had the stomach to say it out loud however. They didn't want to think that way.

Even Sakura couldn't sense anything any longer. No Naruto. No Ryu. No Satsui no Hadou. Nothing. It terrified her more than anything else.

"I don't see him," Ibuki whispered, her eyes locked on Rishiri Island sinking beneath the surf. It seemed impossible for an entire island to be obliterated over the course of one battle, but she had borne witness to just that. And one of the perpetrators of such was her primary concern, "Where's Naruto? He didn't... He couldn't be…"

Oro closed his eyes and shook his head, "You young people are so quick to panic," He said, getting the eyes of everyone present that cared to dart to him, "The boy isn't dead. Of course, unless he has gills that might not be the case for much longer, but-."

Damn old man. Couldn't he just say that Naruto was stuck underwater? Was it really that hard.

"Fuck," Batsu cursed, stepping up onto the railing of the ship and leaping into the drink. He would be damned if that idiot drowned on his watch. Not after all of this, "Not a chance. You're at least living long enough to see me graduate!" He said before diving underwater, hoping to spot some sign of Naruto.

It wasn't as impossible as he thought it would be either. Naruto's body still glowed red with the presence of the Kyuubi's chakra, forming a beacon of light to follow underneath the inky blackness. Batsu dodged loose boulders, pieces of boats and homes, and more as he swam his way to the downed shinobi.

The light was fading faster with every moment, so wasting none of it he quickly made it back to the surface where Karin's chopper quickly began to circle overhead.

A ladder was dropped that Batsu snagged with one hand, promptly lifting them out of the water and into the air.

Batsu started to climb, sincerely hoping that he didn't have to perform CPR to get Naruto to start breathing. Fortunately he was spared the fate of giving mouth-to-mouth when Naruto started coughing, spitting up salt water straight from his lungs to clear them out.

A sigh of relief came from Naruto's old running buddy, as the pace of his climb slowed significantly now that the immediate danger was over. Batsu was tired and he hadn't had to throw a single punch all day long. He could only imagine how physically spent Naruto was.

"Did I win?" Naruto's voice asked weakly from where he was precariously dangling over Batsu's back.

The wild-haired teen spared one glance back behind them where an entire island used to be.

A chill went down his spine, wondering just what kind of powerhouses it took to do that sort of thing to an entire landmass. He was carrying one of them away over his shoulder.

"I don't know," Batsu said, "You're gonna have to tell me."

The pressure of not being strong enough, not being the best, and losing in battle finally got to Ryu enough to get him to lose his ever-loving mind. He's turned heel WITH A VENGEANCE. The dark side is strong, people.

Now Ryu is EEEEVIIL! (INDEED!)

Akuma's hubris came back to bite him twofold, and Ryu used his fist to turn his brains into a Jackson Pollock inside of his skull. Yep, he scrambled them like eggs. Just like mom used to make. Or dad. Or… me.

…Who can't make scrambled eggs?

I'm getting off-track.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and there will be more.

Kenchi out.