Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Street Fighter. When Street Fighter V comes out, it's gonna be on, rest assured of that. I can't wait. I'm not sure how much I'll get done that week as I'll be stuck in front of my PS4 in my spare time, killing it, as I am wont to do from time to time.

Chapter 58: This Too Shall Pass

"The Japan Self-Defense Force is still investigating the circumstances around the disaster that caused Rishiri Island to sink. Nearly 5000 people are displaced and over 200 are still missing. The events of that day began with the mysterious carving of a broad symbol in the south-facing Mount Rishiri cliff face…"

From his bed, Naruto stared up at the ceiling as the news droned on from his television set. It had been two weeks since the battle with Akuma, and it was still the most talked about event in all of Japan. In all of the world, even. And why not? An entire island had been destroyed and very few people on the planet could even comprehend what had caused it.

It hadn't been an act of war from another nation. It hadn't been terrorism by some extremist group. It hadn't been a weapons test by Japan's own military gone wrong.

It had been partially caused by a man that had been a hero to the martial arts population of the world. Callous destruction that made him no better than the monster in human form that he had given his own morals over to defeat.

'Was there something I could have done to stop him?' Naruto thought to himself as his vision lost its focus on the blank surface above him.

There were things about the fight he could remember, and things that he couldn't. What he couldn't remember, the Kyuubi was able to fill him in on after the fact. All the while, the powerful being inside of Naruto asserted the same fact over and over again whenever the topic came up.

"There was nothing you could have done to keep him from giving in to that power, short of killing him beforehand. It was a choice."

Hearing something like that didn't exactly help, but Naruto realized that he had to suck it up and move on. Akuma was dead now. Very dead. He had to be. Ryu punched him in the head with enough force to obliterate an entire island. If there was any creature on the face of the planet or beyond that could get up from something like that, Naruto certainly didn't want to face down whatever it was after the fact.

It was a moot point now, because it was all over. What had happened, happened. There was no going back and acting as though none of it existed. All anyone could do was get up and move along.

And speaking of getting up…

Naruto slowly tried to sit up, only to be nudged back down by Cammy. A nudge was literally all it took. The little soldier had hardly left his bedside, having very little to do with her free time when not given directives by Naruto. In this instance, she had been told by everyone else to make sure he stayed in bed until he actually had the strength to try and fight her off.

She listened because again, she had little else better to do, and she knew full well that Naruto would likely do something to hurt himself before he recovered well enough to deal with it.

For some reason, prolonged exposure to the Satsui no Hadou gummed up his recovery abilities significantly. This time wasn't anywhere near as bad as it had been when he had taken the Shun Goku Satsu, but it was still annoying to be for the most part… mortal. It was the best way that Naruto had to describe his predicament.

"Cam, let me get up."

"I can't do that."

"Seriously, I'm really bored."

"No."

She wasn't going to budge. She hadn't whenever it had been up to her to hover over him. He knew this already.

Naruto didn't want to pull this card. As a matter of fact, he'd been working for quite some time to break Cammy of this sort of thinking, but desperate times called for desperate measures. There was only so much daytime TV he could stomach in one lifetime, "Aren't I like, your master or something?" He said, squinting his eyes at her, "Doesn't that mean you're supposed to follow my orders?"

Cammy moved some of her undone blonde hair away from her face while she thought. Naruto did have a point, but for some reason she was ingrained with some sort of operational procedure for situations like this. She had no idea where it had come from, probably that nasty Bison person, but she had stopped caring about the hows and whys long ago, "You are. But in situations where I'm stronger than you-," Such as right then, "-Anything you tell me to do is less important than keeping you healthy."

Fine, bribery it was then. Naruto wasn't above such a thing, "...What do I have give you, for you to let me get up?"

Cammy blinked her large blue eyes for a moment, showing that she had actually stopped to think about it for a moment, "I don't really want anything."

Naruto muttered to himself, temporarily resigning himself to his fate. Why were all of the girls in his life so hard to bribe? Cammy was too diligent to do anything to go against his better health, even if he was the one that wanted it. Sakura was stubborn and absolutely would not let him up until he was medically cleared. Ibuki liked him immobilized in bed so that she could tease him more easily. Karin was just utterly impossible to bribe, because there was literally no material possession in the world that she couldn't manage to procure for herself if she so desired it.

Batsu wasn't a solution either, because Batsu wasn't allowed to watch him at all. That was probably for the best, all things considered. He wasn't exactly health-conscious, and Naruto would have easily talked his way into getting out of the house simply because Batsu would have been almost as bored as Naruto was.

"What do you think's gonna happen if I get up?"

Other than the fact that he wasn't strong enough to get up in the first place? Cammy was willing to humor him, "I remember what happened the last time you were badly hurt and you tried walking around. The last time you'd had a month of lying around beforehand that you don't have now."

Naruto pouted in his bed. Oh, sure. She could remember that, but couldn't remember anything important, like anything she did before waking up in Thailand after they had destroyed the Psycho Drive, "Damn you, Cam! You're sexy as hell, but you can't keep me here forever."

...Lording over him in that damn leotard and nothing else. Why did her first choice for clothing leave nothing to the imagination? And it was worse because Naruto knew just what it all felt like underneath firsthand.

Cammy gave him a blank stare in return for his compliment/declaration, "I'm not keeping you here forever. I'm keeping you here for right now," Naruto was certain that she had to know somewhere inside how much of a complete smartass she was being. There was no way she didn't, "The moment I can't any longer is the moment when I'll know that you're actually healed, and then you can leave."

Oh, that was all it took? With a roll of his eyes, Naruto began stirring to try and rise, only to find Cammy quickly sitting on him and keeping him down with her full body weight. Normally, she would have been tough to move under normal circumstances, because she wasn't exactly weak despite her size. Now though, it was like trying to wrestle a wet blanket off of him back when he was three years old.

Cammy realized Naruto was only providing her so much fight, and in the most spirit-breaking thing she could do in that situation, simply turned around and faced the other way so that she could watch TV while continuing to calmly straddle his stomach.

Naruto's jaw fell open at the sheer audacity. Okay, she definitely had to realize how much of a smartass she was being. She could keep a blank look on her face all she wanted to. No one did those sorts of things unconsciously.

From the way she was seated, had Naruto not been directly underneath her, Cammy would have been sitting on her heels. And from that positioning, it left her feet right by his upper body. If she was going to stick to him every time he tried to force her off, that was fine. He'd make her get off of her own free will.

He grabbed one of Cammy's bare feet around the ankle and locked it to his chest before she realized he was doing anything. From there he had free reign to relentlessly tickle the mild-mannered young woman, immobilizing her so that she would have to use enough power to remove herself from him to get herself out.

It took all of two seconds for Cammy to be affected by the odd, unfamiliar sensation. She had never been tickled before, and had absolutely no defense or mental resistance built up against it the way she had for pain and most other things due to her Doll programming.

She laughed out loud, which almost caused Naruto to stop. He'd half expected it to not work. Cammy never laughed at anything. Ever. Who knew all it would have taken was something that simple?

Still, ever diligent, Cammy remained in place on top of Naruto amid the laughter and the uncontrollable urge to squirm and writhe away from the feeling. Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around his legs to keep herself attached to him, though her grip was notably weak.

It was a fight for her to keep from kicking Naruto in the head with her free leg on reflex, or from trying to turn and kiss him until both of their lips were red. One of those things would hurt him, and the other would ensure that he got the upper-hand over her and would technically fulfill her parameters for his being allowed to get up.

She was certain that Naruto would make sure that she enjoyed being overpowered, he was always good to her. Still, her master's health had to come before being led into any naughty hi-jinks, not that he was making it easy.

After a while, Naruto didn't even care about getting up anymore. He wanted to before because he had been bored. Well, tormenting Cammy was quickly ridding him of that attitude, "Aw... I love you Cam. So do you wanna get off of me now?" He said, pausing long enough to get a coherent response out of her.

"Noooo…" Cammy whined, very uncharacteristically before breaking into a new chain of laughs once Naruto continued to tickle her, "Master, stoooop!"

"What'd I tell you about calling me that?" Naruto asked, as a means to cruelly chide her further, ignoring the fact that he had basically owned up to it barely five minutes before, "Promise to be good and let me up, and I'll stop."

"Oh, you're such a bad liar, Naruto."

Naruto stopped when he heard Ibuki's voice and turned his head to see the kunoichi in question standing at his doorway with a very pleased and scheming look on her face at the possibly compromising position she found the two of them in. Cammy looked up, grateful for the distraction, red-faced and hair slightly disheveled.

"Ibuki," Cammy said, catching her breath, "W-What did you need?"

"Nothing, It's just my shift to watch Naruto to make sure he stays in bed," Ibuki said with a shrug, the smile never leaving her face, "I came to relieve you, but it looks like if I came a bit later, Naruto would be in the middle of doing that himself."

Naruto denied nothing, instead turning his head away to avoid eye contact. If he'd have made Cammy lose it to the point where she wound up jumping his bones, he would have definitely gone right along with it. It would have without question livened up his hospice service.

Cammy yanked her foot out of Naruto's grasp, but didn't remove herself from on top of him, being right where she wanted to be after getting all worked up. She certainly did need the kind of relief that Ibuki had been referring to. Her guard down, she didn't register Naruto sitting up and wrapping his arms around her tiny waist before pulling her over and down into bed with him, where she was assaulted anew with more tickling.

"Okay, 'Bu. You could do the whole watching me thing-," Naruto said to Ibuki, marveling at the joyous sounds coming from his little bodyguard's mouth as he toyed with her, "-Or, you could pick on the wounded animal and help me mess with Cam 'til she's a puddle on the floor."

Now that was a hard choice, and Ibuki had to step back and take a moment to ponder it, "Sit watching you and try breaking you down into fits all the way from scratch, or pick on Cammy... and then do who knows what later?" On second thought, it wasn't much of a choice. One seemed far more certain to end in sexytimes for her than the other, "…I'm so sorry Cammy, but this is way more fun. Let me in, Naruto!"

"Why'd you take off your pants, 'Bu?"

"Look at you and look at Cammy. I feel overdressed."

"...Alright. I wasn't complaining though."

XxX

(Sea of Japan – Formerly Rishiri Island)

As morbid as it was, in the two weeks after the fight with Akuma that had destroyed it, Rishiri Island had become something of a tourist attraction. It was almost a modern day Pompeii. In a matter of hours, a bustling place where thousands of people lived was more or less wiped from the face of the planet. Gone with nary a trace, save for those who managed to make it out beforehand.

There were still search boats scouring the waters around the island for any of the people announced as missing, but for the most part, private citizens could still sail in those waters. Many of them even took to helping out with the search. Only a handful had been found though, and not alive.

Ryu was included in that total. But to be honest, some people weren't certain if it was even for the best to find him.

"I can't believe it," Ken said, his voice laced in disbelief, both that his friend was gone and that he had gone in such a manner that was unlike him, "Ryu... after all of that. He gave in."

He had been fighting against the allure of the Satsui no Hadou for years. He had fought against it when it tried to influence him during their fight at the World Warrior Tournament. To think that it had become too much for him now. Could it just have been Akuma's presence this time, or was it something more?

Dan leaned against the railing looking into the water where Rishiri Island once sat, looking in with a listless expression on his face, "Believe it," The entrepreneurial martial artist said, "That Uzumaki kid might be a dirty, cheating, trickster, but if he says something's true, it's true. I'm sure you know that."

Ken could admit to that, as much as it pained him to do so when it came to what had become of Ryu. The Aohura City group were a bunch of good kids. Their word might as well have been bond. Speaking of whom, "How's Sakura taking it?"

"Not well," Dan admitted remorsefully.

Sakura was the one of that group that he liked the most. Not only because she was cute, but because she was basically the only one of them that even tried to show him respect as an elder. Naruto and Batsu went out of their way to disrespect him at times, Karin believed she was above everyone all of the time, and Ibuki just didn't care altogether.

Recently, Sakura had been popping into Dan's dojo to see if there was a chance that Gouken had possibly returned. She wanted to speak to the old master about something, but he'd never returned after leaving for his mountain hideaway once more.

That was how Dan knew what she was up to lately, "She's been occupied by looking after that dumbass kid while he's healing, but when she's not, she's training a lot," He told Ken, "More than before. Harder than before."

"That's probably her way of dealing with it," The blond fighter nodded with a deep frown. He had expected as much. Sakura had looked up to Ryu more than anyone else. His ability was everything she had aspired to achieve for herself. She had done her best for years to learn techniques by his example, to emulate him as best as she could.

Ryu had been her role model. Her idol. For a long time, she had even had a crush on him as the older, handsome pinnacle of what a martial artist should have been.

The poor thing was probably a jumbled up mess on the inside. Fortunately, she had a world-class system of support behind her.

"They shouldn't have had to deal with that," Ken said, knocking his fist against the metal railing around his boat, "I should have been here myself. A bunch of kids shouldn't have had to handle anything like this by themselves."

"Whoa-whoa-whoa," Dan said, brazenly cutting Ken off. He knew that the guy meant well, but that was just an asinine thing to say in this case, "What could you have possibly done here that they didn't do? All you would have done was put your neck on the line instead of theirs. Don't you have a kid on the way?"

"Well, yeah, but-."

Dan didn't want to hear any heroic excuses. Those were just a waste of everyone's time, "I know you're pissed about Ryu, but there is no 'but' here. What happened, happened," The purple-clad fighter asserted, lying down on the deck on his side, lazily, "There's no use complaining about what you could have done, especially when there's nothing you could have done that someone else didn't already do."

That froze Ken in his tracks. There really wasn't anything he could have done himself. If he'd have been in the shoes of the other kids he would have done what they had to get people off of the island. If he had been in Naruto's shoes, fighting the battle as he wished he could have… he probably would have been killed.

Getting killed in a battle he had no business stepping foot in, just because, would have been an all-time selfish thing to do for a man about to become a father, "I guess you have a point," Ken admitted with a chuckle, "Is it weird that you're the one giving me advice?"

Dan scoffed and picked his nose rudely, "Don't insult me," He declared, "I'm a self-made man. A martial artist of the highest acclaim with a successful business acumen that reflects my skill in the ring. Handing out crummy advice to wishy-washy guys like you is part of my job as an accredited teacher."

"…How'd you like to swim back to the mainland?"

XxX

(Aohura City – Naruto's Apartment)

Sakura trudged up the stairs to her former best friend, now lover's domicile, holding together what was left of her school uniform skirt and shirt with her hands. She had gone vastly overboard during her training today in an effort to shut out any thoughts of the life-altering event she had experienced two weeks prior.

She didn't want to drag anyone else into her problems, least of all Naruto while he was healing, so she kept them to herself and worked through them the way everyone with the similar means to do so should have; by destroying inanimate objects with her bare hands and hard-earned superpowers.

"I'm ho-!" Sakura started to announce to the quiet apartment before stopping and quietly laughing to herself, "Ha. It's not my house."

Taking off her shoes at the space by the door, Sakura walked inside heading straight for the bathroom. Her school clothes were an absolute mess, and she knew her mother would absolutely let her have it when she got home for ruining them. Fortunately she had one or two spare outfits at Naruto's place that she'd left in the past. One school outfit wouldn't be missed.

It was quiet, so she decided that it was a good time to take a quick shower to wipe away the signs of her heavy training and change clothes before anyone could come around to take a look at her. She was overworking herself to keep her mind off of things, and she didn't feel like talking to others about it at the moment. Not that she was trying to avoid her friends, but she didn't want to talk about the things weighing heavily on her until she'd had time to go over them herself first.

Sakura didn't remove her delicate school uniform so much as she tore it the rest of the way off. She would have to trash it on the way home later. As she started the shower and stepped inside, the sound of the door opening prompted her to turn around where she found Naruto, barely any better clothed than she was.

"..."

"..."

"...Hey Sakura-chan."

"Hi," Sakura's eyes roamed Naruto's form for several seconds before she valiantly tried to be responsible, "...Isn't Ibuki-chan supposed to be watching you to make sure you don't get up?"

At that, Naruto wore a victorious smirk that made Sakura roll her eyes. She could only imagine how he'd gotten himself out of that situation, "Heh, she was supposed to be," His expression faded though when he noticed Sakura's body covered with scrapes and marks, as well as dirt and grime that was steadily washing off from the water running over her, "Hey, what happened to you?"

"Just a little training, Naruto," She told him with what she hoped was a reassuring smile, "It's not a big deal."

Naruto looked her full, bare body over, then eyed her ruined clothes in the corner of the room. It was a wonder that they had held up for the walk to his place, or however she had gotten there from the usual junkyard training spot. He could see blood on the white shirt as well. Her blood.

He said nothing to her, instead just looking at her sorrowfully. He knew there was more to it. She knew that he knew. Whenever it was her, he always did without needing to be told.

Ever since the fight with Akuma, she felt awful about what had become of Ryu. He knew this. She never let it show around him, for the few hours that she would stay with him, spending time with him and watching over him. But when she was gone, away from Naruto, the only person who was there to see Ryu's descent in person and someone she knew would feel responsible for allowing it to happen, she could let it out.

She was terrified of something like that happening to her. Even if she had come to accept that the Satsui no Hadou was a part of her, and only wanted what she herself wanted most, it was a part of her that would go to extremes to ensure that those utmost desires were met. It was the most selfish part of her given tangible power.

Sakura didn't want to be controlled by her desires. She wanted to control them herself. Her passion was her power, but letting it overtake her would make it no better than the thing that Akuma became in the end.

"I'm going to learn both, you know?" Sakura said, "The Satsui no Hadou and the Kyomu no Chikara."

Both the Surge of Murderous Intent and the Power of Nothingness. She wanted to master them both. She had to. Balancing one half of her style's extreme with the other end was probably more difficult than she could ever imagine, but it needed to be done.

The kind of strength that Ryu and Akuma displayed on Rishiri Island was a terrifying display of just what she herself could possibly do if she ever lost her mindset. It wasn't the destruction itself that scared her. Thta was just the kind of power she had grown accustomed to certain people displaying, what with even Naruto himself possessing it. No, it was how careless the use of it all was. People were dead and homes were lost for thousands of people before of it.

Naruto nodded as though that were that, as he stepped into the shower with her and stood under the water as well, "Okay," He didn't doubt for a moment that she could and would do it. This was Sakura, the girl that by sheer force of will, diligent study, and God-gifted natural talent managed to reach the level that she had since the age of 13, "You know I've got you, right?"

"I know," Sakura mumbled, bridging the small space between them, wrapping her arms around Naruto's torso. She leaned her cheek against his chest and shut her eyes when she felt his arms engulf her, "Power isn't a gift or a right, it's a responsibility. There's no getting rid of the Satsui no Hadou. I don't want to anyway. But if I have it, it's my responsibility to make sure that it doesn't hurt anyone it's not meant to."

"Mmhmm," Naruto hummed in agreement as he rocked with her underneath the showerhead, "You won't. I know you won't," He said, burying his face in Sakura's short, wet hair, "Do you hate me, because I couldn't stop him?"

It wasn't a funny subject, but Sakura still found the thought laughable, "Even if you hadn't already fought Akuma, I don't think hitting Ryu in the face and telling him to knock it off would have stopped him," No, the Satsui no Hadou was a little too influential for even a little Naruto concussion-talk therapy to work on, "The only one who could make it stop was him. There wasn't anything you could have done."

"So how are you feeling about, well, everything," Naruto asked, "We haven't talked about it."

A frown marred Sakura's pretty face, "…Still don't wanna talk about it yet," Eventually she would, when she'd come to terms with it all and what it meant for her. But for now she wanted to keep it to herself.

If there was anyone that understood keeping things to yourself, it was Naruto. Even if he wanted Sakura to get it off of her chest, there wasn't any rush, "Okay, we don't have to," He said, reaching past Sakura to grab for the soap.

It was a big deal, but then again it wasn't. They had all the time in the world, and he would be right there whenever she was ready.

"Sorry," Sakura said, much to Naruto's confusion as he started to lather up the both of them.

"For what?" He asked with a tilt of his head.

"For getting all girly on you," She hadn't cried or anything, but there was still a bit of drama that Naruto would admit to not being particularly equipped to handle,

Naruto grinned and tilted Sakura's face up by her chin to look at him, taking advantage of their close proximity to plant a quick kiss on her, "I want my Sakura-chan to be girly. It sure makes stuff like this a lot more fun," He said, gesturing to the shower and their current unclothed state.

"Perv."

"Whatever. I know Sunburned Sakura-chan likes it."

"Regular Sakura-chan never said she didn't either."

XxX

(Karin's Manor)

Karin's sharp brown eyes were weary after scanning through every major recent printed publication from around the world. Earlier that morning she had taken the time to do the same thing on the internet. Other than a few crackpot news sources that no one would take seriously, there wasn't a peep about any involvement in the Rishiri Island incident with Naruto or Ryu.

Her eyes were so terribly sore from all of the reading she had been doing, in so many languages, both on a screen and in print form. If she needed glasses after this, she would be none too pleased.

She rubbed at her tired orbs before turning her attention to her loyal steward Shibazaki, who had been doing all of the leg work in regards to containing the news coverage. He had been jet-setting all over for the past two weeks, carrying out her will in-person.

"That will be all, Shibazaki," Karin bade him with a wave of her hand, "Thank you for all of your hard work. Please, take a few days off," If she herself was tired, he had to be exhausted. But there he stood, hands neatly behind his back, posture as straight as ever, "I insist. It would make me feel much better about all of the running about I've subjected you to."

"You need think nothing of it, Karin-ojousama. But as you wish," Shibazaki bowed to his mistress before leaving the room respectfully, "Call me immediately if there is anything else I can do for you."

Karin smiled at her employee, grateful for his efforts, "I do believe I can manage on my own for a short time."

As he left, Karin massaged her brow and sighed. Keeping the lid on Ryu and Naruto's roles in the destruction on Rishiri Island had been very hard work. Work that she was still in the midst of doing. Cover-ups of that nature didn't just happen. She had to go out of her way to bribe news sources all over the map to refrain from reporting certain things, and hackers to make sure that certain pieces of data that had managed to surface up and disappeared.

So far, she had been able to keep any inklings of the solid truth from being known by every major news source in the world and all of the ones that had swarmed the scene for coverage in Japan itself.

Such tampering left a sour taste in her mouth, as she despised doing business that way, but it was for the best for Naruto.

As long as that were the case, she would do anything.

Aside from that, it was the best for Ryu's legacy as well. Even if the man had lost it at the end by giving in to the Satsui no Hadou, he had still done so much positive before that. He had made prizefighting popular again, as martial arts was seeing an ongoing swell in support worldwide. He had been Sakura's idol, and many of the adults that were important to them such as E. Honda, Guile, Chun-Li, and Ken, looked up to him in a way.

To her, after all of the good he'd done, it wasn't right to have the last thing people remembered him for being what he became. He was more than just one ill decision, titanic though it was.

"I can do that much for Sakura-san, at least," Karin muttered to herself, swirling around the drink in her hand before taking a sip.

This would all blow over eventually. As hollow as things felt now, they would settle back into the kind of routine that they were all accustomed to. Admittedly, their normal routine was crazy enough by anyone else's standards, but that made no difference. It was still theirs.

XxX

(Five Months Later – Tamagawa Minami High School)

School reopened on time at the end of summer after the damage Akuma and Sakura did to the neighborhood was repaired, and though it was just as boring to Naruto as before, it was a bit of normalcy that he and everyone else needed to get themselves back together.

"This is your last year of high school, and many of you may want to think about college," The homeroom teacher said at the front of the class, "I have literature for cram schools if any of you are interested. I know there are many of you that would do very well in a university setting. There's a lot of potential here," She said with a smile as she looked her students over, Naruto included.

Cheating his way through 70% of his courses via clones to improve his grades really helped how the teaching staff saw him. Still, doing anything after high school wasn't really in the cards for him. Naruto didn't know what he would do, but he sure didn't think it would involve a book in his hands.

Naruto looked around at the girls who sat by his desk. Sakura would definitely be going to college. She wanted a degree in something that would help her when she decided to found her own dojo, so something sports and/or teaching related. Karin would unquestionably be going as well. Not just because having a degree was a mark of status, but because she was going to run an entire company one day, so she kind of needed it.

"Psst," A bored Ibuki hissed to Naruto in front of her in a whisper, "Speaking of college, how's Batsu doing in university anyway?"

Naruto grinned at the thought of his friend and how he was handling life in advanced learning, "It's not as bad as he thought it would be," Batsu still thought it was a waste of his time, but he didn't have any better ideas, and it was at least a way to stall until he figured out what he wanted to do with his life, "Hinata has to get on him about studying, but they share a place so they've got that going for 'em."

"And Batsu's parents are okay with that?"

"Oh, Principal Imawano doesn't give a fuck. He's just glad Batsu's going at all," Naruto stated bluntly, remembering Batsu's powerful, extremely surly, estranged father, "I mean, yeah Batsu's mom thinks it's kind of indecent, but she's liked Hinata ever since the whole fighting high schools thing a few years ago."

Ibuki smiled and leaned forward, her cheeks on her hands, "You guys still need to tell me about that, by the way. Long story, or not. You reference it way too much, and I hate being out of the loop."

She was going to continue her education after high school as well. Ibuki was going for a degree in journalism. Not a bad job for someone trained as a ninja to have, honestly.

It made him feel a bit odd. They were all smart girls, and they were going to succeed at whatever they put their minds to, because that was just the kind of high-caliber women that they were. When they all got into whatever school they would wind up attending, they would all leave town. Only Cammy would be left with him in Aohura City.

Hell, if Cammy had ever had any interest in going to school, she could do the exact same thing. But even Cammy was doing things that could be seen as drifting away. She was taking missions on her own due to their constant backlog of assignments, and she was spending more time with her 'brother' Abel.

It sucked to think about, but they were too good to be stuck dwelling in the same-old day-to-day insanity that was their status quo. Exceptional people did exceptional things, and they were all capable of just that, even if they had to leave to make it happen.

For the girls that found something worth cherishing about him. For the girls that loved him, they could do whatever they wanted. Whatever made them happy. The time they had given him was more than he could have asked for back when he'd first been dropped in that world.

'No matter what happens, I'm a better person because I met them.'

He idly realized that Karin had been trying to get his attention, "Is there something troubling you, beloved? You seem preoccupied," She asked, holding onto his hand

"Just… thinking," Naruto said with an unsure smile and a shrug of his shoulders, "I don't know what I'm gonna do next after this. I only started going to high school because Sakura-chan made me-."

"You make it sound like that was a bad thing," Sakura said, taking offense to the way Naruto worded it.

"-But what the heck would I go to college for? And if I didn't go, what would I do then?" Naruto continued to try and reason out, "And either way, we won't end up in the same place."

"Says who?" Both Sakura and Ibuki said at once.

Karin interjected at that point, chest out and nose turned up, "I do. As if any university prestigious enough for me would allow your sort to attend as well."

Sakura just deadpanned a stare at Karin for several seconds until the haughty heiress felt uncomfortable and quit puffing out her chest. She had a point to finish making, thank you, "Naruto, even if we didn't, do you have any idea how many universities are in Tokyo? Even if we all don't get into the same one, our test scores won't be low."

Naruto squinted his eyes, thinking deeply on that. She had a point. Sakura and Karin's test scores were nationally ranked. Ibuki's, to her credit, oftentimes showed up at the very top of the school lists. They could pretty much pick where they wanted, more or less, "Hmm."

"Yeah!" Ibuki exclaimed, throwing an arm around Sakura as she hugged the girl closely to her, "Sakura-chan and I could get an apartment together, or Karin could be a peach and put us all up in some posh penthouse in the city that I know for a fact her family probably has."

Karin crossed her arms and looked away with a blush on her cheeks at being called out, "I do… and I may indeed wish for some company while I see to my education. We can discuss it later," Her eyes then slowly moved to Naruto and her blush intensified, but a small smile did come to her face as well, "Of course, beloved, you are welcome to come as well if you so wish."

"I'd just be tagging along with you guys like a puppy or something."

"With all of the things that are in Tokyo, you could find something that you want to do," Sakura insisted, "…Or you could always just go to college and find a major to get interested in while you're there."

"You're not gonna let that go, are you?"

Sakura just smiled at him as if to say 'of course not', "Never. You could be thirty years old, and I'll still bring it up if you haven't done it yet."

Naruto had a lot of potential, and it went past the ability to fight, even if he didn't think it did. Sakura could and had seen it in flashes every now and then for years. He was creative and passionate about matters that he cared about. It was just a matter of getting him to pay attention to the things going on around him so that he could find just what his 'thing' was.

XxX

(Hong Kong)

After a long day of work, Chun-Li felt the drag of the hours weigh heavily on her. Her footsteps felt languid as she entered the small property of her family that had belonged to her since her father's passing.

It wasn't that she was tired, it was just that she wasn't quite feeling it the way that she used to. In her career, she hadn't spent much time sitting behind a desk. Most of it had been spent heading out, traveling around to find and follow leads, and then undertaking missions to apprehend suspects or do her part to thwart their catastrophic aims.

When she'd become an Interpol detective and gotten to take her first serious case regarding Shadaloo and M. Bison with his aims to terrorize the world into domination, when she'd had to deal with what was supposedly left of it when she took on S.I.N. for its illegal human experimentation, militarization, and planned genocide...

...Those were the times when she felt as though she were contributing. She was doing her job, the part of it that made her know that she was making a difference. It was how she'd eventually come to peace with her father's death, despite not being the one to end Bison. But now, it was just desk work and calls, and it had been that way for months and months.

Maybe she needed to take a few days off? Perhaps she could go and bother those kids in Japan for a bit? Maybe go and make sure that Yang and Yun were keeping themselves out of trouble?

So caught up in her thoughts was she, that she hardly noticed that there was someone waiting on her to come home until she saw them out in front of her house. She was set to greet the visitor, until the sight of the person jabbed at her memory.

Thoughts of a tanned redheaded woman in a high-tech suit made to look like business-wear came to mind. Then she opened her mouth to speak-.

"I guess Interpol pays way different than my agency, if this is where you live."

-And the voice only drove things home further.

"It's my family's home," Chun-Li replied smoothly, "Speaking of which, you're trespassing. I don't mind it though, since I don't like leaving loose ends untied anyway."

She remembered her as the woman who was working with Juri Han during the series of incidents with S.I.N.

Her hands clenched into fists as she smoothly stepped into a posture that would let her fend off an attack or wage one of her own with hardly any difficulties, "You've got quite a lot of guts showing your face in front of me. So do you have new job with someone else I've pissed off, or is S.I.N. surviving underground now?"

Crimson Viper stared Chun-Li down before taking off her sunglasses with a sigh, wiping the lenses as she thought to herself how to approach the hostile Interpol agent. There was no way Chun-Li would outright trust her, but there was no way to twist any of the facts without refraining from divulging anything that she needed to know. The best she could do was simply come forward with what she had and hope that her word was accepted.

"I didn't come to fight," Viper said coolly as she put her glasses back on. She slowly reached into her suit, putting Chun-Li further on guard until she pulled out a smart phone, "I came to warn you."

Chun-Li's face registered surprise before skepticism tinted her expression, "You came to warn me? About what exactly?" She asked, stepping out of a fighting stance and crossing her arms sternly, "I think you'd better start at the beginning, as in why you're telling me anything helpful after the last time we had anything to do with each other."

Viper figured it would come to this, but it was alright to talk about now. The case Chun-Li was speaking of had long since been closed, "I was undercover in S.I.N. to steal one of their more promising projects for my government, not because I was invested in S.I.N.'s well-being in any way," She explained, "Now I'm coming to you because of what's about to happen."

"Wait, you were a spy?" Chun-Li asked in bewilderment. Viper had almost killed Ibuki. She'd been there for several of the nastier things S.I.N. had done just before its downfall, including kidnapping and torturing Kanzuki Karin, "Does that mean you're C.I.A.?"

She seemed American, in many, many ways. Some of which were rather infuriating.

A smile tugged at Viper's lips, "I'm not at liberty to say," Just as quickly, the smile was gone without a trace, "There's a secret organization that has a foothold on too many world stages to list. I don't really even want to, as I've probably said more than enough about them already to be killed for."

"So it's a criminal organization like Shadaloo?"

If only it were that straightforward, "Oh no. Much older than Shadaloo, and not quite criminal. At least not, merely," Viper said with a shake of her head, "But what's really bad is that we have no idea what they're after in the grand scheme of things. You've probably heard of the Illuminati at one point in time, correct?"

This was the part that Crimson Viper had been afraid that Chun-Li wouldn't believe. Right on cue, the international officer walked forward, waving her hands as if to stop Viper from continuing, "Now hold on one minute. You've got to be kidding me," She said. Having something like that unloaded on her was not how she figured her Wednesday night would go, "That's not a real thing, is it? It's just a crackpot conspiracy theory, isn't it?"

Viper shrugged her shoulders, sliding through images in her phone as she looked for what she wanted to show Chun-Li, "Afraid not. I'm not sure how much of the things people have said about it are hogwash or not, but if nothing else, it's a real thing and it has been manipulating events," She continued to explain, "For how long and to what extent, I couldn't say. Me, and anyone else that's tried to look into anything that winds up involving them are convinced in one way or another to look away."

"I didn't think you to be the type to be coerced like that."

"Normally no. I'm not particularly afraid when it comes to threats against me. But when they involve my daughter…" Viper trailed off, eliciting a wince of understanding out of Chun-Li. Yes, with Viper professionalism ended when her child was brought into play. She couldn't go any further than she had already, "…That's why I'm coming to you. I think you're the type to see something like this through. Plus, you don't exactly have anyone that they can use against you."

Chun-Li frowned at Viper's rather blunt way of saying that her entire family was dead. Apparently tact wasn't something that one could expect from a C.I.A. agent. Even if her father had been gone for quite some time now, it just wasn't the sort of thing you threw at someone so directly.

Still, she had a point. In the most ass way possible, yes, but it was still a point.

"All we know is that they're putting together some sort of competition." Viper continued, breaking the awkward silence by showing Chun-Li a symbol on her phone; a silver pyramid with an eye at the top. The traditionally believed symbol of Illuminati, "If you receive anything with this on it, be cautious."

A look of distaste crossed Chun-Li's gorgeous face, "It's not a fighting tournament, is it?" After the World Warrior Tournament, she had seen quite enough of those put together by shadowy organizations.

Thankfully, for her sake, Viper shook her head in the negative, "No. I don't think it's going to be that organized," She told her, "But they're getting in contact with the best fighters in the world. The very best. They seem to know who those people would be, so look out in case you're… 'chosen'. They're not the kinds of people who take no for an answer."

Chun-Li didn't have any machinations of backing out of a fighting competition anyway, "And you don't think you'll be 'chosen' for this little competition?"

Viper smiled and shook her head. She assumed the same as Chun-Li at first, but realized why Illuminati wouldn't be interested in taking her in their intended contest, "I'm an alright martial artist, but most of my abilities come from this little suit," She said, gesturing to the outfit she currently had on, "Without it, I'd be smashed by people like you. They're not interested in that."

"Well what exactly are they interested in?"

"The easy answer would be people like you, but the truth as to why is… I have no idea."

XxX

(Undisclosed Location)

"HAIL LORD GILL! HAIL LORD GILL! HAIL LORD GILL!"

Thousands of voices screamed out in unison just beyond the curtain. A thunderous noise of support and anticipation for the one person they all sought to see. The one told of in their prophecy to lead them past the cataclysm that would befall the planet and into the future.

Behind the curtain, a tall, thick man stood, listening to his followers as they shouted their allegiance to him. His appearance was concealed by a light brown and red hooded long cloak with a long blue-green robe underneath and brown sandals.

A woman dressed in a business outfit with long blonde hair swept up partially into something of a topknot walked over and stood behind him, waiting until she was addressed to speak.

"…Yes, Kolin?"

"It's time, Lord Gill."

"Yes," The cloaked man, known as Gill said, reaching out and grabbing the curtain, "Yes it is."

He threw the curtain open and walked out on stage to address his crowd that roared at the sight of him. He stood for a moment, arms wide as he basked in the adulation of the people he had been raised for his entire life to lead.

Gill stood and accepted the excitement of the people at seeing him. As Emperor of the Illuminati, he had to make sure that the people saw him, knew his face. Knew that he was just as driven as the rest of them were when it came to the things that the Illuminati had to do.

He lifted his hand and the crowd quickly silenced for him.

"Much is expected of us all," Gill said to begin his speech, his voice easily heard throughout the vast auditorium he spoke in, "It has to be us. You have all known this from the very beginning. Without us, the entire world will devour itself once the end occurs."

And the end, as the rest of the world knew it, was coming. It was nothing that Illuminati was preparing to do themselves, nor was it something they were capable of stopping. It just was. It was going to happen, and it needed those who were strong in body, mind, and heart to bring things together after the world was torn asunder.

No one else was prepared but the Illuminati, and Gill was the man seen to be worthiest of leading them.

No. To call him a man was laughable. He was closer to a God, for so many reasons.

Gill's face turned stern and harsh, as his speech to the crowd continued, "Power is not a gift, nor is it a right. It is a responsibility," Gill said, so quietly that the auditorium had to go silent just to hear him, "And it is my responsibility as your chosen one-. No... as your God! To lead you all past Ultania, into the future! From the ashes of this withered, tired, weak world, something greater CAN be built! WILL be built! And it is up to us to make it happen!"

Gill's robes suddenly burned away into nothing but a white loincloth he had been wearing underneath it all, revealing himself for the entire crowd to see. His long, flowing blond hair trailed behind him. But his most startling feature was his skin. His muscular body was separated down the middle, perfectly into red and blue.

He stood silently, letting the crowd of Illuminati's followers bask in the view of his God-like form. The red and blue perfect asymmetry was the mark of their prophesy's identifying moment, soon to come to pass.

"Rest now," Gill told his awe-inspired crowd, "For a great task is ahead of us. Once you weather the storm that is to come, I will have need of all of your strengths, your will, your dedication, in the New World Order that is to come!"

XxX

There was a disturbance, but Oro couldn't tell where it was or what it indicated, and that disturbed him deeply.

He normally felt the touch of the very environment around him no matter where he was, thus he could keep a watchful eye on his surroundings even far away from any trouble, but there was something about this. It was too far away. Farther than he should have been able to reach out to.

This was why he couldn't tell where. But something about it felt extremely familiar... just far more corrupted than the last time it had passed through his senses. More corrupted, and stronger than he could have ever dreamed a mortal being could be.

"Oh no," Oro muttered to himself, sitting inside of a maid cafe where he had previously been having a grand time. That had changed in a hurry, "...Something is wrong. Something is very, very wrong."

And for all intents and purposes, he could feel that despite all of his abilities, he was powerless to stop it.

An action-less chapter. But I just had an entire freaking island get destroyed last chapter, so I think a down chapter or two is in order, no? Anyway, I think when I said that this was the last arc, I should have specified better. This is the beginning of the last arc, if you can believe it. So in other words...

It's.

Not.

Over.

...Not yet at least.

Let's see if I can make this an ending worth all of the mayhem I've been trying to throw out there for the past 58 chapters. If what I see in my mind is as effective to me as it will be to you, I think it'll live up to a worthwhile finale.

You have questions and assumptions? I have answers... that will come in the form of word on the written page.

Thanks for investing your time, jerks. I hope you enjoyed and will continue to do so.

Kenchi out.