Life's Instruction Manual...

Chapter 26 - Life's Instruction Manual...

"You ready?" Naruto asked, shaking his arms out as he stood on the rooftop of his apartment home. This was the place he used whenever he wished to train and didn't feel like going far from home, "Just hit me with a good one whenever you are. Go ahead." He couldn't get into anything too destructive up there, but light sparring and training that required a lot of repetition was just fine to do.

Standing across from him also on the roof was Batsu, and he had a look on his face that was more skeptical than anything else, "I'll tell you again that this doesn't seem that smart to me. I'm sure there's a better way to work on a technique like this."

"If you have any other ideas I'd love to hear it."

"…I've got nothing."

"Okay, so fire up the Guts Bullet and shut up, because you don't have to deal with it."

Shrugging to himself, Batsu charged up ki in one hand before punching it with his other, "Kiaidan (Guts Bullet)!"

The energy projectile flew through the air at Naruto who bravely stood strong in front of it. He waited until the exact final moment to do anything before punching it dead-on, forcing it to explode on him and throw him back across the roof.

Eventually coming to a stop lying flat on his back, Naruto just stared up at the sky while his right arm sat smoking right next to him, "Ow." He said dryly as he lifted his arm in front of his face and found his fingers twitching and fidgeting, "That'll fix itself soon enough won't it?"

"It did the last seventeen times we tried this." Batsu said as he grabbed Naruto and picked him back up onto his feet and dusted him off, "Did you hit your head too hard yesterday or are you really just that hardheaded? What are you trying to do here? I don't get it."

Naruto looked at his right hand and got the nerves in it back under control to end the quivering of the limb before he chose to answer, "Some people you and I fought in the past; Zangief, Balrog, and then Bison. They were able to do something to neutralize ki projectiles. And I was like, 'I've got to get me some of that.' Which leads us to now, which is what we're doing."

"Now: where I've been knocking you on your ass for the last hour and a half with fireballs." Batsu said, deciding to climb down and put an end to that session, "I'm done. I'm wasting too much energy, and this stopped being funny after the tenth time. I'm going home."

"Fine, go ahead and ditch me! I don't need you." Naruto said, shaking his right arm out to get full feeling back into it once more, "I'm sure Sakura-chan would love to shoot fireballs at me all afternoon. I wouldn't even have to tell her that I'm training for something in particular, she'd just do it anyway no questions asked."

Back on the ground, Batsu's shouting voice made it back up to Naruto on the room, "She's out with Kei and Hinata-chan genius. That's why you asked me to hang out this morning to begin with. Even Cammy's with them. And how is this ditching you? I've been here since nine. We played video games for three hours, we did two of your stupid missions, and then we did this for two hours. I've been with you all day."

Crowding the edge of the roof, Naruto looked down as he watched Batsu jump into his confiscated hummer and fire it up to go. All Naruto did was give a deadpan wave to Batsu who returned it before pulling off.

Admittedly, Batsu had killed more than enough of his day trying to help Naruto fight the still life. So it was no problem to let him leave since it was five in the afternoon by that point. Naruto had more tweaking to do when it came to the new jutsu he was trying to develop anyway.

And by tweaking he meant forming the theory behind it from scratch to begin with, because all he had been doing was punching Batsu's Guts Bullet at different angles to make sure that the process wasn't as simple as merely hitting it in the right spot in the exactly correct way. It wasn't.

But hey, trial and error was how facts were learned. Developing ninjutsu for combat was a science. A science he couldn't use clones as stand-ins for this time because they weren't durable enough to take the failures of his attempts.

A counter for a projectile ki attack. How hard could it be to work out by himself? He'd have it down just like he worked out a way to finish the Rasengan, just like he worked out his own other techniques. He was the man, and chakra was his plaything.

As he stood on his rooftop looking over the street below, Naruto's cell phone went off and got a huge sigh of relief from him, "Thank Kami. I didn't want to be left alone thinking about this by myself." He flipped his phone right open and placed it by his ear, "Best ninja in the world at your service. What can I do for you?" He said with a grin on his face as he waited for the reply, a reply that got him to palm his face, "Oh… how did you even get this number? Wait, you want me to what?"

XxX

(Two Hours Later – Aohura City Waterfront)

"Okay, you've got me." Naruto said, rather displeased by the current turn of events. As requested in the phone call he turned up prepared for combat, which meant he was dressed in his normal gear, "Are you really going to hire me just to fight me?" The people gathering around to watch was kind of annoying too, but he was used to that by now. Everyone in town was used to street fights and treated it like spectator occurrences.

Standing across from him on the casual walkway path right next to the river, stretching out in preparation for the coming conflict was Makoto. Much like Naruto she had shown up dressed to fight in her karate gi, and seemed to think that her move of hiring him was ingenious, "Of course I am. Any other time you would either run or hide instead of fight me. So I figured, why not make an offer you couldn't refuse; 35000 yen for a real match."

She was going to pay him money for a fight. Win or lose. How in the world would he have turned that down on his worst day?

"Yeah, well you interrupted some really productive training for this." Naruto drawled lazily, giving out a straight lie to the younger martial artist as his training, while potentially groundbreaking for himself had barely been any kind of productive, "What's your big deal about fighting me anyway?"

Makoto just let out a huff as if Naruto were ignorant as she continued to make sure she was thoroughly prepared, "You're one of the best fighters based out of Japan. Don't you keep track of your own fame?" Naruto just gave her a vacant look in response, "Don't you care about your reputation as a fighter?"

Naruto took the time that Makoto used to stretch to dig into his ear idly, "Well kind of, but I don't lose any sleep over it. Actually, other people seem to care about me being the best more than I do." Case in point: Karin's sponsoring of him as one example, and Guy's previous problem with him as another, "The only reason I'd care about being the best is if being the best kept the people I love safe. Heh, but being strong seems to do the opposite actually."

"It's better than being weak though." Makoto said as she stood up from stretching her hamstrings on the ground and settled into a karate stance, "The way I see it; the stronger you are the less overall problems you have. It's just way more serious when problems do come your way, that's all."

And Naruto had to agree. His troubles with combat were fewer and far between than they used to be, but when he did have trouble the situations seemed bigger and bigger. And even though he had taken down Shadaloo and later Mad Gear, who knew what could be next? He already knew of one psychopath that tried to take his life, and once Akuma figured out that he failed to kill him there was always a chance that he would be back.

Makoto continued speaking with an excited smirk on her face as she stood and faced off with Naruto, "And that's why you've always got to keep getting better, and why you've got to keep testing yourself to make sure you're ready for those big problems. You know what I'm saying don't you? Fighting someone like you, that's my big test and a test for my dojo's style."

Naruto cracked his knuckles and bounced loosely on his toes before getting down and ready for action himself, "I know what you're saying." He said with a huge grin. Maybe the younger girl wasn't so scary-aggressive after all, "And this one's free of charge, so bring it on."

A fight with her wouldn't be so bad. He'd grant her what she wanted for free because it didn't seem right to make Makoto pay for something that he himself was admittedly getting excited for. For some reason he liked that persistence she showed. This was probably going to be fun.

"Hayate!" Before Naruto could even try and break down what kind of fighter Makoto was, she darted across the space between them in a blur and her fist impacted off of his face like a whip had hit him.

"Ow! My eye!"

XxX

(Early Evening – Karin's Personal Manor)

Sitting outside in the massive garden in the back of the rich girl's property, Naruto wondered to himself just what the hell she needed with all of that land. Seriously, did she really need all of that? She didn't even do anything with it but put stuff on it. Admittedly it was a pretty garden with all kinds of plants, streams and the like, and the maze of hedges was awesome and all, but still.

A clearing of someone's throat got Naruto to turn around to find Karin's skinny, bespectacled steward Shibazaki holding an ice pack out to him.

With a grateful look on his face, Naruto took it and placed it over his right eye. He knew he'd been avoiding a scrap with Makoto for a reason. One match and she blackened his damn eye good. How could someone that small generate that kind of force?

He still won with very little damage dealt to him after he chucked her into the river, but he was going to be walking around with that shiner for a few days because of his still under the weather inner biju. By then he had changed into regular street clothes instead of fighting gear because his battle had been long over.

"Hey Shibazaki." Naruto said, getting the attendant's attention before he could leave him once more, "Where is Karin? I mean I know she's busy with her whole inheritance thing with her dad so she's got work to do every so often, but she was the one that said it was okay for me to come over."

Shibazaki adjusted his glasses on his face as he addressed Naruto, "I wouldn't know. I would simply beseech you to be patient. She will come outside when she finds it prudent to do so."

A frown grew on Naruto's face as Shibazaki took that moment as the time to leave Naruto to his own devices in the garden by himself.

Sighing, Naruto just continued to sit down and rest the ice pack on his eye. He could have just replaced himself with a clone and snuck inside to find wherever it was that Karin kept herself, but snooping through her home was one-hundred percent off-limits. He'd hate someone doing that in his own place, so why would he do something like that to someone close to him?

She would come out and talk to him when she was ready he guessed. It had been a week since her little dream-state faux pas, and he hadn't spoken to the girl face-to-face in that entire time. Had it been strange? Of course it had been strange. And more than a little surprising as well, but Naruto got past the weirdness pretty quickly. Stranger things happened to him than being kissed on a regular basis.

Even on the phone she seemed a bit anxious to be simply speaking to him. But she was home and he knew she was home. She might have been friends with Sakura and Cammy and to a far lesser extent Sakura's friend Kei, but she still had to keep that aura about her. It seemed to be more trouble to act like she didn't enjoy spending time with her friends than simply doing so.

That made her predictable enough to know where she was going to be a good chunk of the time though, so there was always that.

XxX

Inside of the mansion though, just inside of the sun room that allowed those within a place indoors to view the entirety of the back property present at the manor, Karin paced around as he was able to see Naruto just laying down and hanging out on the grass of a small hill overlooking most of the garden.

'He is waiting on you, it would be rude to merely leave him out there. You were the one that allowed him permission to visit in the first place.' Karin thought to herself, her brow furrowed as she tried to will herself to go outside, 'You must keep your composure. If he is able to then you must have the fortitude to do the same.'

So what that she had given her first actual kiss to a punk, a ruffian, a hoodlum/hooligan, or whatever one wished to call Naruto? While her father possibly would have had a heart attack over it if he ever found out (because Shibazaki sure enough almost did), it didn't matter a bit to her. Aside from the questionable method of obtaining a living, the rough and abrasive ungentlemanly conduct, the litany of secrets just now beginning to come to light that rested with him, and many other detrimental things Naruto was a stand-up young man.

And after listing all of those things off in her head, Karin grit her teeth and felt the need to hit something. Why the hell did she find that bastard desirable? It didn't make any sense! It was supposed to be a business arrangement! Just business!

'What did you do to me?' A fitful Karin fretted mentally before resigning herself to the hole she had dug herself into in a moment of haziness.

Well it was time to deal with whatever was to come. She figured that she had better get out there before the sun went down and she left him out there in the dark. Knowing him he would possibly wait out there for half of the night if someone didn't come to get him.

Despite her own misgivings about going outside, Karin did just that and walked over to the observation hill where Naruto had decided to rest and wait. The sound of evening insects and her own footsteps in the grass accompanied her path to where she eventually reached Naruto who had his eyes closed, only cracking them upon having her shadow cast on him from where she was standing.

"It took you a while to get out here." Naruto said with a smile, "I thought you'd forgotten about me."

That was something that was impossible to do. But Karin didn't voice as much. She tried to draw the path of the conversation toward the most obvious thing that she could see, "…What has happened to your right eye?"

"I got punched in it earlier during a match." He replied showing her the complementary icepack that he had been given by Shibazaki when the man had asked if he wanted anything. His idea of a refreshment on that day was something to relieve his swollen eye.

"I see."

"Do you want to punch me too?"

Karin just stared at him strangely, "What in the world makes you believe that I would desire to punch you?" She asked with her hands on her hips and a pensive look on her face. She hadn't wanted to punch him since they had fought and he had defeated her.

Naruto just shrugged in return, "I don't know. I need to come up with something to get you to chill out. You've been all jittery when you talk to me, and you haven't even bothered trying to do anything with any of us since we beat Mad Gear. That was supposed to be time to do something cool to celebrate. Come on and tell me what's wrong."

Damn it. He wasn't dense enough to not pick up on the fact that she had been rather tentative in regards to him. And her discomfort must have shown as clear as day in the setting sun in her body language, because Naruto just let out a sigh and gave a pat to the ground, indicating that he wished for her to have a seat next to him, "…In the grass?" Karin said distastefully, "You must be joking."

"You pay how much money for landscapers to treat this grass better than any other rich person has their maids treat their bedspread." Naruto deadpanned, "Sit your ass down." He more or less ordered as he grumbled to himself, "…The grass ain't even from Japan to begin with… I know what the grass is supposed to look like in this region."

Smirking despite herself, Karin did as she was asked and sat down next to Naruto who was still lying flat on his back. Pulling her knees to her chest and forgoing a more dignified way of sitting, her smirk fell when she turned her head and looked over next to herself at Naruto who was just relaxing with his arms behind his head and an icepack covering his right eye while he looked up into the sky.

Why wasn't he saying anything?

"I was just thinking." Naruto said aloud after what seemed like an eternity, "I want to know why you're losing it over a stupid kiss. Was it your first one?" He asked, looking over at Karin who nodded stiffly, "Is that why? Or is it because it was me? I mean I know it was 'unprofessional' or whatever, and I'm not some blueblood, but it's not that big of a deal. Things happen."

"It has nothing to do with professionalism Naruto-san. Nor does it have anything to do with what you are supposed to represent." Karin assured him, keeping her voice level as she pressed forward, "I am admittedly not very good at conveying feelings like attraction without being too forward, and I am afraid that in my previously dazed state I got too far ahead of myself. I apologize."

Naruto just grinned over at her in turn, "Oh it's okay, nothing to apologize for." His brain then caught up with his mouth and he gave his employer a deer-in-the-headlights look, "Wait, you're attracted to me? Like, for real?"

"I thought it went without saying." Why would she have kissed someone that she didn't find attractive? She wanted to believe that she were not perceived as being somewhat shallow, but that would have been a blatant lie to herself.

"Uh… why?"

"What do you mean why? Are you asking me why I find myself attracted to you?"

"Duh." Naruto pointed at himself as if to accentuate a point, "I don't get what you see that nobody else has seen in four years." It had been said before, but it needed to be repeated for context; Naruto did not look like everyone else. His appearance was strange compared to really anyone else.

Karin turned away from him haughtily as if he had compared her to every other blue-collar person that he had run across, "Have I ever come across as the slightest bit xenophobic to your exotic looks?" Very exotic since he apparently wasn't even from that dimension or wherever the hell he came from, "You may not look normal, but if you believe that you are not handsome I would have to say that you are sorely mistaken. There are far worse people in the world to look at than you."

Not knowing quite how to respond to that, Naruto just said the only thing that seemed appropriate, "Thanks. I appreciate it." He didn't really know where to go from there, "So you wanted to kiss me because you thought I was hot. Okay, mystery solved."

"No!" Karin disputed heatedly. She was definitely not that shallow, "That is not the only reason. You have many other admirable traits that I find appealing. You are a kind person with a strong set of morals that you do not compromise for anyone's dollar. You are a rather rough individual, but you are still easier to approach than many others. I find you charming. And you are exceedingly loyal to your friends, including me. I see you as someone I can speak to about vital matters and trifling personal issues alike. I have told you before that you are my closest confidant. I meant that."

She could talk to him about things that she couldn't to anyone else in her employ, because they all worked for her father. Thus the wrong thing that she said or did could get back to him and she could kiss her inheritance goodbye, as her father already was against having to hand it down to a girl. Any excuse to keep from doing so and he would take it.

Naruto made her feel safe, and it had nothing to do with fighting ability or physical protection whatsoever. She could emotionally vent with Naruto, and sound ideas off of him for honest feedback. Anything she said to him stayed with him, and sometimes he would give real-world advice that didn't suck.

And he was always helpful, even at personal cost sometimes. That was what it meant to be his friend.

"Well if we're pointing out everybody's 'diamond in the rough' good points, I guess I'll name some of yours too." Naruto interjected, much to Karin's surprise, "I don't care that you're rich. Yeah it's cool and helpful when we need stuff done, but even if you weren't I think we'd still be good friends if we met under the same circumstances."

So he didn't tolerate her because of her connections and resources? It wasn't even a factor in why he considered her a friend? Why not?

Seeing the skeptical look on Karin's face, Naruto decided to elaborate further, "You're a really driven person. I've seen you train, I've seen you work, I've seen you search for information on things. It's impressive. If there's something you want you get it. If money isn't enough to get it you just find another way to take it. You don't underachieve because you're wealthy, I love that about you. Sure, you might have a snooty little princess attitude, but I just think that's your defense."

"A defense you say?" Karin echoed with a raised eyebrow of interest and a smirk, "Excuse me but I do not think I understand. What defense would you be referring to?"

Naruto just rolled his eyes and reached out to give Karin's arm a pinch that she let out a yelp at, "You act all tough and superior, but then there are times when you talk to me like this; like in the back of your limo or in your study. We do this all of the time since I'm your confidant or whatever you called me; I actually listen to you when we talk by ourselves you know. I'm not watching the paint on the walls dry."

Rubbing her arm where Naruto pinched her, Karin gave him a smile. Not a smirk conveying that she was in a superior situation at the time, it was an actual heartfelt smile, and she didn't give too many of those.

"…Then again there are other times when I think you're a walking, talking, pretty little she-devil in human form minus the horns and the tail." And there went that warm feeling like someone had opened a window in the dead of winter. Way to kill a mood Naruto, "But I like that about you too. If I didn't like bad girls with mischievous sides I wouldn't like Ibuki either would I?" Oh, well what do you know, the feeling was back again.

Karin scooted a bit closer to Naruto and looked over at him complacently as he seemed a bit alarmed at the action, "Ara, don't be so shy Naruto-san. Praise me some more. By all means, continue. You apparently find me beautiful so tell me what you think of me."

"I like your eyes. They're pretty, but that's not all. The way you look at people you can cut down weaklings and wannabes. Just the way you look at people makes you hard for just anybody to approach. It's like you can see who's real and who's not."

"Continue."

"You're bossy. Kami help me, I don't mind that. We all know that if I really don't want to do anything, no one in the world can make me, so that's why I guess. And when people say no to you you're cute when you're mad, so that's fun."

"Go on."

As Naruto continued to think of ways to say what he liked about Karin, she got close enough to reach out and grab a hold of his hand. This got him to stop thinking long enough to look over at her and the glowing sun setting on her soft features. She looked vulnerable. Waiting for what he had to say as if it were some kind of lifeline.

He brushed his thumb back and forth lightly across the back of her hand as she squeezed it tighter, paying rapt attention to him, "I know you Karin, better than most people do. Behind all of that fuss and pride of yours it's not like you're a hard person to care about. You're really a good girl."

If the feeling in Karin's chest had actually been indicative of what it felt like, she would have believed that her heart was close to bursting. Any other gentlemanly suitor from around the world that she had been presented with since she was old enough for the process had always been so boring and false, statuesque and cold. This boy was not.

He would not say what he thought she wanted to hear to keep on her good side. He was passionate when he found the reasoning to be so. He did not fall into line of her fortune like some lemming, nor did he fear reprisal for any actions against it. He had even offered to beat up her father once while in Oiroke no Jutsu form to make him get over his chauvinistic view of his daughter that was holding her back.

"…Naruto-san, if you would like your kiss back I would say that now would be the time for you to take it." Karin said quietly with a face as red as a cherry. Understandable once she knew that she had Naruto's attention, "It is merely a suggestion. Nothing more."

Well the one thing that Naruto had come to find after years of being put in quick-thinking situations was that when he tried to stop and think about things that needed instant responses outside of combat where his adrenaline was pushing him along to act fast bad things happened. So he had to go with his gut. And go with his gut he did.

Sitting up from the ground, Naruto realized just how much closer to him Karin had gotten since he had first lain down on his back. He lifted up a hand and put it on her cheek which was quite hot from the blood that had been rushing to it, but she calmed down significantly and smiled at him eyes closed when he leaned her in and met her in the desired kiss.

Naruto had been deadly nervous to initiate contact, but he had learned to let his nerves drive him instead of repel him from doing things and this had been no different.

Karin hadn't been bold enough to kiss him as passionately as she had done when she thought it had been a dream, but at least now she could take the time to enjoy what she had. She wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck and felt him wrap his own around her waist in return.

He was surprisingly gentle. She didn't know why, but she for some reason expected him to be incredibly aggressive and gropy.

As the two eventually broke off, Karin took a few breaths, face still a bit flushed when she realized that she was now sitting in Naruto's lap with his hand very far up her leg and her skirt; directly on her backside as a matter of fact.

Naruto froze in place at Karin's very direct stare sent right at him. He had also realized where he had put his hand, and he was prepared to suffer for it if it came to that.

"4021."

"Whu-?"

Making a point to shift around in his lap and tease his clearly present erection, Karin merely traced Naruto's whisker-marks with her fingers, "Do not lie to me and say that you are not significantly enamored with me by now. Thus that makes you number 4021."

Returning the stare of the girl in his lap deftly, Naruto just shrugged his shoulders, "Fine, I'm number 4021, I don't care. Something cooler is going on here right now, so let's get back to it before I have to start dodging bullets."

Dodging bullets?

And then Karin saw what Naruto had already been well aware of for some time; several infrared lasers trained on Naruto's torso and even his head from many different angles. Great. She forgot that the mercenaries that guarded her property also took Shibazaki's direct orders too.

"I'm guessing no one's taken the safety off and shot at me yet because you're still right here." Naruto said, seemingly not caring about the guns-for-hire were it not for the fact that they were interfering with his making out with a rich girl. Either way, he had a Kawarimi prepared with a loose tree branch from a nearby tree just in case.

The flustered girl muttered something in French of all languages that Naruto did not understand as red dots danced over Naruto's frame. It was probably a curse of some sort, and he felt similarly.

Karin looked around and was able to spot several mercenaries in the setting sunlight at various ranges taking aim, "I feel as if this should stay between us… and I need to have a talk with the stewards sent to me by my father about overstepping their bounds, as I would hate for assassins to be sent after you to protect my family's reputation."

With a shrug, Naruto indicated that he didn't really care one way or the other and pulled another smile out of Karin. Maneuvering her body so that the beams were on her as well instead of just Naruto, she pulled him back into another kiss while they had the chance.

XxX

(Three Days Later – Naruto's Apartment)

Naruto's eyes cracked open from where he had been slumped over asleep on his couch only for him to look at his stomach where his seal was worriedly, "Kyuubi still isn't awake yet." It had been well over two weeks since Naruto free from his coma had last heard a peep from the biju, "There's got to be something I can do."

How did you fix something inside of you that was basically a living battery?

"No good news?"

Looking over at the kitchen table where his western assassin roommate Cammy was sitting patiently with her chin resting in the palms of her hands, dressed in civilian clothes instead of her fighting gear of her leotard. Naruto peered up over his couch and shook his head no for her benefit.

The exasperated Konoha ninja sprawled himself out on the couch while the kitten walking around the apartment started pawing and swatting at his dangling arm, "No news at all." Kyuubi had said that it couldn't die from what Akuma had done, but the silence and darkness from within the cage didn't convince him, "This sucks. Can't someone that actually knows about things like this check this out and tell me what's up?"

Cammy frowned and folded her arms on the table before sinking her chin down on top of them, "I don't understand how you don't know more about something that important that resides within you. You said you were told everything that you knew about it, well why don't you know more?"

"Cam…" Naruto started to say, peeking up over the back of the couch in her direction, "No one told me anything useful. I know what Kyuubi is because we all got told about it so many times in school and it was my favorite story that involved my hero so I knew as much as people could say about that. Other than that, only one person ever tried to show me what to do to get any power out of my situation."

Jiraiya trying to get Naruto to draw upon the Kyuubi's chakra in their training when he was younger was like a master mechanic trying to apprentice someone else that was completely green on how to fix a transmission.

To be fair though, there had only been three months to really get into that process after Konoha's invasion, and there were important domestic concerns to be attended to right up until the mission to go get Sasuke which led to Naruto's trip to a new world.

But seriously, with all of the weird crap that existed, there wasn't anyone that knew what could be done to repair a great inhuman creature of vast power sitting inside of his body? Like a shaman or an awesome Shinto priest of some sort. He needed some freaky spirit crap going his way right about now. Damn it, he needed more contacts! Or at least one that knew how to find one of those kinds of people.

A sneeze from Cammy got Naruto's attention towards her as she rubbed her nose lightly, "Bless you…" He said absentmindedly before thinking back to who he might have known that could help him. This led to Naruto more or less playing six degrees of separation with everyone he knew and looking at Cammy put her in that slot.

The guy she was sent out to kill that originally made her self-aware and broke Bison's brainwashing of her. That was something relevant. What was his name again? Dahli, Dalman? Something like that.

Whatever, it didn't matter. He was supposed to be some important Yoga master in his village in India, so he would have to be well-known enough that someone could point him in the right direction. Either that, or Naruto could just Google Indian Yoga masters until he got a picture of one that triggered Cammy's memory.

With a new proactive plan of action ready to be set into motion, Naruto flopped back on the couch and threw his hands into the air victoriously, "Cam come here really quick-." Naruto said before the air was driven out of his lungs by Cammy landing right on stomach from jumping over the backside of the chair, "Why?"

"You told me to come to you quickly, so I jumped." Cammy argued, getting off of Naruto as he glared slightly at her, "What do you need?"

"I'm going to India to find the guy that messed with the wiring in your head and took Bison's brainwashing off of you because I need his help. Do you know his name?" Naruto asked, lazily splaying himself out on the sofa, "If you don't that's okay. We'll think of-."

"Name: Dhalsim. Hometown: Kerala, India. Is anymore information required Master Na-." Cammy interrupted almost robotically before she stopped herself and her eyes lit up again. Where did that come from? That was kind of creepy. Oh well, just roll with the punches, "Um…"

"It's okay. There's something wrong with everybody that we're friends with." Naruto sat up and grabbed Cammy's hands to sit her down before she started to freak out at the sudden regression to her previous mental conditioning, "Sakura-chan's obsessed with some guy that's never around, Batsu's a karate-bum of a street punk, Karin is a pushy scary-rich socialite, Ibuki is a ninja that lives in a village of killers in the mountains, I'm from another dimension or something and have a monster stuck in my belly. Compared to most of that, being a brainwashed clone of a megalomaniac isn't that big of a deal."

Cammy seemed extremely embarrassed at her little episode, "I really have no idea why that just happened. I barely knew what I was even talking about from my dreams." And she almost called Naruto master like he was her commander or something. Totally weird.

If Naruto were to be honest, he was freaked out a bit too. But he was just going to let it slide, because he was not a psychologist and he wouldn't have even known where to start in sifting through Cammy's problems. He had enough of his own upstairs, he was sure of that, "Alright, so I'm going to go get plane tickets to India, and a Hindi-to-English or Hindi-to-Japanese dictionary."

"There's no need for that." Cammy pointed out helpfully for Naruto's benefit, "Many people in India speak English, and I can speak Hindi… I think."

"You think you can speak Hindi?" Naruto asked with a curious look on his face. Who doesn't know if they can speak a language or not? But then again he forgot that he was talking to a girl that didn't remember her training or education, "Are you sure?"

A nod came from Cammy's pretty little blonde noggin, "I think I can speak most of everything."

Naruto just stared at her before grabbing her hand and pulling her to the door to get the ball rolling for his travel plans, "…You are the coolest roommate that doesn't pay rent ever. Alright, let's go get some tickets and see who else wants to go. Road trip!"

"Plane trip actually. I'm just saying."

"Damn it Cam, don't mess up my buzz with facts."

XxX

(Two Days Later – Rural Village in the Kerala, India)

A hastily strung together travel trip at the tail end of summer vacation before the next school term didn't exactly bode well for having people able to tag along. Sakura and Batsu were absolutely not allowed to go by their families due to the fact that there would be one week left before school started back up, and international trips involving them had a tendency to run longer than anticipated.

Karin had business meetings for her father and actual real world work to attend to, thus she was unable to go as well.

Naruto tried to spring Ibuki to go too, but that backfired because she was still stuck in her ninja boot camp and he couldn't pull her out. Summer couldn't end quickly enough for her tastes at all. She wanted to go back to the city.

Thus as the only people that had no concrete responsibilities to adhere to, nor any legal guardians to keep them from going, both Naruto and Cammy set out to find Dhalsim for possible assistance with Naruto's inner troubles.

It took them away from the large southwestern coastal city that they had landed at and had them travel to a smaller village further inland.

And thank goodness that at least for now there would be no more flying, because Naruto absolutely despised it. Cramped metal death traps, that was all they were to him. It pissed him off that Cammy was completely okay with flying, but then again Cammy didn't seem concerned with many things.

"I hate planes." Currently adorning a pair of white cargo shorts and an open white short-sleeved button-up shirt with a grey t-shirt on underneath, Naruto muttered as he drove a rental car through the smaller streets of the diminutive village. There didn't look to be too many cars in the village, not that there seemed to be much need for any due to how small the place was, "How were you so calm when we flew? You just slept for most of the flight."

Wearing civilian clothes consisting of a white t-shirt with a red broken heart on it and a small red pair of summer shorts, Cammy just shrugged as she looked around through the window of their vehicle, "Because I'm not afraid of flying." She hated how restrictive the seats were though. Naruto's shoulder was more comfortable than leaning back in her chair despite the fact that he was a bundle of nerves the entire time.

"It's not the flying part that I'm scared of. And I'm not scared, I'm just wary!" Naruto snapped momentarily before dragging a hand down his face to calm himself, "How can anyone feel safe in those things? I get claustrophobic as hell, and all of the shaking and clattering. Ugh, no thanks. I'd rather be in a helicopter. At least then I could be sure there would be a way out and a parachute for me if it went down."

Once again, Cammy didn't understand Naruto's reasoning, "If you don't like confined spaces then why are you alright with driving a car then?"

"It's different." Naruto replied, reaching over and putting a finger against Cammy's lips before she could ask another follow-up question, "Just let it go Cam and help me find Dhalsim."

"Well we're heading toward the first place that we were told to check for him." Cammy said as Naruto began to slow the car down once a temple near the edge of town began to come into view, "Shall we begin?"

Naruto nodded and both got out of the car, climbing the stairs to reach the actual site of the local temple. There were a multitude of people there as they entered and quietly walked amongst the people praying and reflecting silently. How in the world were they to determine which one of the people there were Dhalsim?

…Maybe the guy meditating while hovering ten feet off of the ground was a good place to start?

Both approached the area that the man was in, a place surrounded by the animals that seemed to be cared for at the temple, including a pair of elephants and even a tiger, Naruto stopped just out of range of the tiger that was growling at him, "Excuse me." Naruto said, keeping a careful eye on that tiger, "We don't mean to bother you, but could you tell us where we could find Yoga Master Dhalsim?"

The levitating man was bald with brown skin and three vertical red stripes on the top of his cranium. He was shirtless with a necklace of three skulls around his neck and wore a pair of tattered yellow shorts. While he was barefoot, he had metal rings around his ankles and his wrists. The man's figure was built and muscular especially paying attention to his long arms, but he was very lean and thin almost to the point of emaciation as his rib bones could be seen underneath his skin.

"You are speaking to him." Dhalsim said as he slowly lowered himself to the ground where he unfolded his long legs and stood on the ground before turning to face Naruto with his white, pupil-less eyes. He looked a bit intimidating, but his demeanor wasn't antagonizing in the least. This was a man of peace, "I see you've returned little assassin girl." He said to Naruto's fellow blonde companion.

…How did a guy like this beat Cammy back when she was in blank soul killer mode? Naruto didn't want to be the kind of guy that judged a book by its cover, but without having the intent to cause harm to someone fighting Doll-Cammy seemed to be far from the most advised activity one could choose to engage in.

Cammy walked forward looked up at the lanky Indian man before lowering her head slightly, "I'm sorry for anything I did to you or your village when I was an assassin. I don't remember much of it, but I remember some of my battle with you."

"It is probably for the best that you are unable to remember." Dhalsim said, "I do not hold grudges, especially since you've seemed to find your own sense of purpose since then. That was why I freed you from the mind control set upon you. Now what do you require of me?" He asked, turning his attention to Naruto, "I was able to sense your approach from miles away. Inside of you rests an overwhelming power, although right now it is more akin to a smoldering flame."

That didn't sound good. But on the other hand, if Dhalsim was able to feel the Kyuubi within him from far away, perhaps there was something he could do after all, "I came to ask you for your help. A month and a half ago I was attacked by someone that tried to kill me, but he screwed up and all he did was cut off my connection to the power that you could feel inside of me. I'm worried and I was wondering if you could help."

The question hung in the air for a moment and Naruto wondered if he had done something wrong. Like was he supposed to bring some kind of offering or something? He didn't know how things worked with spiritual people like the man he had come to see.

Dhalsim seemed to be studying Naruto thoroughly, staring the boy down intently as if he could see past his flesh and bones. Naruto didn't balk from the observation though and stood forward, intently waiting for the man's response.

"I cannot distinguish what kind of person you are from your spirit." Dhalsim said, walking past Naruto and Cammy as the two followed him through the temple. They watched as the people there showed him respect and he returned their gestures as they walked toward the entrance, "It is erratic and too jumbled for me to determine if you are truly someone that would abuse such power or a not. A consequence of whatever problem currently ails you I assume."

Seeking to vouch for Naruto, with whatever her word was worth to someone she had tried to kill only a mere matter of months ago, Cammy did her best to defend her roommate, "But Naruto is a good person. He took me in to help me and never asked me for anything in return. I don't know of anyone that would do such a thing and be evil."

The words actually got Dhalsim to consider them though, "Maybe so, but are you certain that there was no ulterior motive to his actions?" He looked over to the scar-cheeked girl to make sure that she was really mulling what he was saying through her head, "How certain are you?"

"I would stake my life on Naruto's integrity." Cammy stated confidently, "From the company he keeps, to how well he treats me; someone he had no reason to save, to simply having observed him every day I have no reason to distrust him. There's no one that I believe in more." With a hesitant smile, she took the surprised look on Naruto's face as a sign that what she said resonated with him.

"Aw Cam…" Naruto said before moving over to the confused girl with his arms open, "Come on. Bring it in. You know you want to." The moment her wrapped his arms around her in a hug she slipped out of his grasp and bent one of his arms behind his back in a joint lock, "Ow, alright, alright! Okay, maybe you don't want to."

Cammy released him and backed away, seemingly mortified at her instinctual reaction to being wrapped up, "Sorry, it was a reflex."

By now Naruto should have known better, as Cammy had unconscious defensive tendencies that he saw on a regular basis. He just hadn't seen that particular one before. All he could really do was shake his arm out and make sure he could still use it, "Some reflex…" He muttered before brushing the whole thing off.

Having watched the entire sequence between the two youngsters, Dhalsim crossed his long arms over his chest as his face remained stoic in thought, "How did you plan on having me assist you?" He said questioningly.

"Does that mean you'll help?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Don't get ahead of yourself young one." Holding up a hand to stop Naruto from getting too fired up, as he didn't seem like the type that was hard to rile up, Dhalsim continued, "I have to approach every situation neutrally. I cannot afford to compromise spiritual discipline with emotional content."

Naruto gave Dhalsim a squinted-eye look and a frown, "I don't know what you just said, but okay I guess." Dhalsim walked toward Naruto with an arm outstretched and the foreign ninja backed away out of reach, "Whoa, whoa, whoa."

"I need to see exactly where the problem with you lies." Dhalsim explained, trying to calm the boy down. Even Cammy had moved to prepare an attack just in case, "I cannot even begin to help you if I can't."

With that being lain on the table, Naruto begrudgingly nodded his consent. Having someone's hand on his head was a very vulnerable position to be in. But Dhalsim said he was a neutral kind of person so what reason would he have to double-cross him? That paranoia that came with being routinely attacked by freaks and criminals was starting to catch up to him.

This time as Dhalsim approached, Naruto let him rest a hand on his head and simply stood perfectly still as he felt the spiritual master's energy flow through him. It felt strange as his chakra/ki/or whatever he wanted to call it had a strange tint to it.

After a few moments, Dhalsim removed his hand from Naruto's head and backed away, "I can feel the disconnect between the energies inside of your body. There is a wretched taint plaguing you, giving strength to something dark inside of you."

That didn't make sense to Naruto. The Kyuubi was hurt. What other dark thing existed inside of him? It didn't make sense.

"I can help you expel it." Dhalsim revealed, "But I need to test you first. If you do not pass I will not help you. I will not be able to responsibly take the risk in doing so."

Risk in what?

Stepping back from Naruto to allow him to stew over what he had just said, Dhalsim merely waited for the boy's response. He was not going to try and sway him one way or the other. That was not why he was there, and it was not his business to make the choice. He was only there to facilitate.

Naruto wasn't in the mood to jump through hoops, but again he wasn't in the position to refuse either, "Okay. What's your test? Whatever it is, I can do it."

Dhalsim closed his eyes and took a second before choosing to inform Naruto of what he needed from him, "I need you to search inside of yourself, and admit to me, to your friend here, and to yourself, of the things that you truly fear."

That was it? Tell him what he was afraid of? What was the point of that? And even if there was a point, nothing sprang to Naruto's mind immediately, "I'm not afraid of anyone." Naruto said confusedly, "I'm afraid of the people I care about being hurt. That's all."

The Indian Yoga master merely shook his head. That was simply not good enough of an answer for his tastes, "I cannot help you until you have the true answer for me."

"How do you know what the answer is?" Naruto responded heatedly. He was being called upon an answer that he had given honestly, "I'm not lying!"

"Then you are not aware of the truth yourself." Dhalsim stated firmly, "I felt through your emotions even as I searched for the source of your true troubles, and I know the answer that you need to find, even if you have no idea it even exists. It is there, you merely have to find it." If Naruto thought that simple anger over his circumstances would convince him, he was sorely mistaken on this day, "You have received the terms for my assistance. Whenever you feel as if you have the correct answer return to me and I will gauge if it is correct or not. Until it is, I cannot run the risk of helping you."

Naruto's fists tightened at his side as he seethed over his given options, "So that's it then? All this way, and that's what I get? A 'go home and try again later' response?"

No nonsense was seen on Dhalsim's face whatsoever as he stared right back at the child, "You have no idea the consequences that will be in store for you, and for anyone else around you should I simply ignore what I've sensed and give in to your childish impatience. Trust in yourself, search yourself, and you will find the truth. And if you are unable to do so, then it is better if you are not put back into contact with your second power."

"But-!" Whatever Naruto was going to say was cut off when he saw the worried look that was being given to him by Cammy. He was not going to be some confrontational, violent jackass to someone just because they had a condition for choosing to assist him. Nothing was free, and it could have been worse, "Alright… you win. I'll go home and figure out what it is."

Dhalsim nodded and chose to give Naruto something of a nudge in the right direction to help, "I feel that with a personality such as yours you will have to dig deeply for what you're looking for. It is not something that you would choose to think of, but it is something that is always present. The things that you fear drive your major choices, they're forcing you to hesitate and split yourself between what you feel you must do and what you truly want to do. You are quite conflicted about your current existence in this world. We cannot do what needs to be done to solve your problem if you remain as you are. Come to peace with yourself and return to me then."

"I will." Naruto said solemnly, getting a bow of respect from Dhalsim that he returned before walking away, Cammy following him, "Come on Cam, let's go home."

"Just like that?" Cammy asked as she caught up and moved alongside him, "But we came all this way. And we're just going back to Aohura City? You didn't get what you wanted."

According to Dhalsim, there was nothing that was worth trying until Naruto was able to answer his question. But why? Was it some enlightenment b.s. that he was never going to reach within his lifetime, or was it real? And he was conflicted about his existence in this world? Sure, he was torn between wanting to stay and wanting to find a way home at the same time, but was there really some buried down reason for that other than the obvious?

He had to find out. He had to come up with something if he wanted Dhalsim's help in removing the taint that plagued the connection between himself and the Kyuubi within him.

"It's okay." Naruto told Cammy, turning towards her to see the saddened frown on her face, "Hey, cheer up. It's okay. Really, it is." He said, giving her a grin to try and lighten her mood. If being down in the dumps was going to put her into a similar state of being, he'd paste another brave face on for her, "He never said that he wouldn't help me, he just said that I had to get this answer he wants from me first."

Attentive as ever, Cammy knew that his smile never reached his eyes the way that it normally did, "But who knows just how long that could take? What will happen if you don't find a way to help the Kyuubi monster?"

Naruto just shook his head, "That's not going to happen. I can do it. All I've got to do is soul search a bit." What was it that he feared? Ghosts? No. Once again, he wasn't afraid of ghosts he was just wary of them. There was a difference damn it, "…Maybe more than a bit." He muttered, running a hand through his spiky hair.

What had Akuma done to him in Tokyo?

The man possessed an attack that he could use that was powerful enough to rupture the security of the most powerful seal that the strongest Hokage in his village's history could devise.

Not knowing what could be done to help, Cammy seemed uncomfortable with being so powerless. All she could do was sit back and watch and wait. She couldn't do much of anything to help out someone that had done and continued to do so much for her, and a part of her ached at the thought of it.

A surprised look sprang onto Naruto's face when both of Cammy's arms snaked around one of his and she set her head on his shoulder. He seemed to cherish physical contact with people close to him, so she figured that was just as good as anything she could have done at the moment. She simply remained like that as they both continued to walk away from the premises of the temple.

'I know you can do it.' Cammy didn't know how. She didn't even know how he'd begin getting started. But that didn't matter. When Cammy said she had faith in him that was not a lot of hot air, she meant that. The number of issues he'd managed to solve was huge. Still, even so… 'It seems like you can fix everyone else's problems but your own.'

XxX

Back with Dhalsim, the man found no reason to return to his meditation on this day. He was too uneasy by what he had felt within Naruto. Though he was able to school his expression and keep this from him as it would do no good to worry him over something he needed preparation to fix anyway, it was still something worth worrying about.

It was not about the Kyuubi either. It was something a little more subtle than that.

Whatever sat inside of Naruto, between the connection of his own energy system and the energy of the grand creature that lay within that was disrupting their symbiotic connection, there was something dark. It fed off of Naruto's insecurities.

That did not seem like a major deal because it was so small inside of him that he would never notice it, but the insecurity in Naruto was there. It was there the entire time he was asking Dhalsim to help him. Even if Naruto could hide the way he felt as well, Dhalsim sensed his real thoughts when he sensed for the root of his problem.

There was a smaller voice in Naruto's head, an angrier one. It was quieter, but his message was clear and repetitive; that he would not disappear, and that he would get what he wanted.

Though it was unclear what that was, it could not be anything good. The worst part of it was that the little evil was closer to the power of the creature inside of him than Naruto was which was why Naruto himself couldn't reach it.

'We will see just where your resolve lies Uzumaki Naruto.' Dhalsim thought to himself as he returned home to be greeted by his wife and son, 'When you return I will be prepared to assist you. But you need to be honest to yourself and bring your fears to knowledge before I have to bring them to life for you.'

If Naruto didn't, and he came back to restore his contact to the Kyuubi the way he sought to, there was a good chance he would wind up losing more than just the thing that had been with him since the day he was born. He would lose everything else, and he would only have himself to blame.

Could he solve a problem that didn't involve him using his fists to work it out?

Omake: Master of What?

For some reason, Naruto and Sakura found themselves at the Saikyou-ryuu dojo, and they simply couldn't figure out why.

At first the real purpose for them visiting was because both of them had been worried about the fate of the students of the facility, and yes they were worried about Dan and Blanka too. Even if Dan was an annoying blowhard he helped out the town when it needed people to do so, therefore he was alright with them. And Blanka might have looked strange, but he was really just a big, wide-eyed country guy from the jungle (What?) that had never really been in a large metropolitan area before.

Naruto demanded to be the one to take him to Tokyo itself so that he could see Blanka's reaction to what that place looked like. It was going to be way funnier than his reaction was, he was certain of it.

But the novelty of their intended good intent to pop in and check up on the students wore off after sitting in on the class for a few minutes.

The entire class sat on the hardwood floor, facing the front of the class patiently as Dan addressed them all, "You all did such a wonderful job when you bravely stood against that group of thugs trying to take our town hostage." He praised, "You've done so well that you actually got two fighters that were already famous to check out our gym." He gestured towards both Naruto and Sakura who were sitting against the back wall with deadpan looks on their faces.

"I was actually here before, remember?" Naruto said, raising a hand to get some more attention before pointing to a clearly patched area of the wall, "I did that." They did a good job repairing that place though if that was the only hole he could point out, "But if you really want me to join, I guess I can…"

Remembering that Naruto had indeed technically gone dojo-busting against his place, unprovoked as a matter of fact, Dan quickly sprang into action, "No." He flatly stated before turning his attention to the second visitor of the class, "Well what about her? She seems interested in learning on how to improve herself further as a fighter, and there's no better place to do that than right here!"

Sakura almost looked physically ill at the prospect while Naruto snickered a bit at it, "Uh, that's alright." She didn't want to be as blunt as Naruto and state that she too had already run through Dan in actual combat like a hot knife through butter since he seemed to have forgotten that defeat as well, "Really, I'm sure all of these guys would be self-conscious if they had to train in front of a girl." Especially a girl that could literally sleepwalk through them.

"No we wouldn't." Was the unanimous response from the class. Absolutely they wanted a girl in the class with them. Amongst other things, impressing girls was high on the list of reasons that they wanted to learn martial arts to begin with.

"Go ahead and sign up Sakura-chan." Naruto insisted, trying his best to keep from laughing, "Fighters of similar styles should train together, right? That's why you try going after Ryu so much."

"That is not why I-. Hey, I don't do it that much. It was only twice." Sakura said to a widely grinning Naruto before she turned away with her cheeks puffed out indignantly, 'Naruto I love you with all of my heart, really I do, but sometimes I want to sew your freaking mouth shut.'

Dan chortled aloud and scratched his nose as if he had been given his final hard-sell to get Sakura to study with him, "Ryu? Heh, I've met him in the past and I can say with great certainty that when it comes to the two of us I consider us great rival disciples. See, both of us defeated Sagat. The only thing is that I didn't join the first World Warrior Tournament. If I did it would have been the two of us meeting in the finals for the right to fight Sagat."

'Yeah, except you didn't finish your training under Ryu's master and nobody believes that you actually beat Sagat in a real fight.' Both Naruto and Sakura thought to themselves, sharing a look between each other.

"Come on." Dan continued to press the issue, "If you join now you get the discount price of 3395 yen a month and you get a free t-shirt!"

Sakura just continued to stare at him while she could feel Naruto shaking at her side with silent laughter, "Okay I'll join." A cheer went up from the class as Dan flexed victoriously and Naruto finally gave in to the hilarity, slamming his hand on the ground as he rolled around in mirth, "…But you've got to show me how good your style is before I do. I want you to defeat someone first."

Dan stopped posing and waved off her request before she could even further it, "I'm not fighting Uzumaki, and I'm not fighting you. I have a strict policy to never engage students in combat… and he cheats." In response Naruto just stuck his tongue out at the flamboyant Saikyou-ryuu master.

"That's okay." Sakura said before pointing to the far corner of the room, "You can fight him." Everyone's vision turned toward a snoozing Blanka who was wearing a similarly pink version of Dan's gi and black undershirt, "Blanka's not a student."

The students all nodded in agreement. Blanka just hung out around there while Dan was training students because he lived with the man and didn't know much about cities. Sometimes he'd be an assistant to whatever Dan wanted to teach and all of the students knew him and liked the man, but for all intents and purposes he wasn't a part of the staff or anything.

"I accept your challenge." Dan said before smirking and creeping on his toes toward his native Brazilian friend quietly, "Students pay attention to a technique I learned while studying under the great warriors of stealth and shadows, the ninja."

"What ninja?" Naruto spouted loudly before being shushed by the whole class.

Dan continued to sneak in Blanka's direction until he felt he was close enough to launch his attack, "Saikyou-ryuu Secret Technique: Bear Trap!" He shouted as he jumped through the air and landed right on Blanka and wrapped him up in an attempt to smother him into submission, "Just give it up bud, I'm getting me a cute new student today!"

When Dan grabbed onto Blanka and started to try and bind him, the green-skinned man had a flashback to being in the Brazilian rivers and the many dangers that encompassed his life back then, "Gah! Jibóia (Anaconda)! Elétrico Trovão (Electric Thunder)!"

Everyone in the dojo bore witness to Dan being lit up like a streetlight as a freaked out Blanka continued to shock away at him as if he were a deadly constrictor snake. Sakura even pulled out her cell phone to take a picture while Naruto nodded in painful understanding, knowing full well that being electrocuted sucked.

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{Character Profile}

Name: Makoto

Nationality: Japan

Gender: Female

Age: 15

Height/Weight: 5'3/110 lbs.

Bloodtype: B

Likes: Family, a challenge, fighting.

Dislikes: Crimson ginger, being called a boy, not being taken seriously.

Hobbies: Training, seeking out famous fighters to defeat to increase her dojo's reputation.

Rivals: Naruto Uzumaki, Ibuki.

Fighting Style: Rindoukan-ryuu Karate

Current Techniques: Fukiage, Hayate, Oroshi, Karakusa, Tsurugi.

Hyper Techniques: Tanden Renki, Seichusen Godanzuki, Abare Tosanami.

Background: Makoto is a very straightforward and brash young tomboy, obsessed with training in the martial arts and proving that her family's style of karate is the strongest in the world. She is always seeking out powerful challengers to face in order to prove this, and is very determined with an almost bulldog-like tenacity in her pursuit of an intended matchup. Though she is persistent when she wishes to fight, Makoto is very respectful of masters or people that she deems to be powerful. Her fighting style suits her personality and is rather brutal in its simplicity when it comes to her powerful punches and kicks of choice as well as the routine chokes and groin strikes that her full-contact style utilizes. Being far from a figure of femininity, she still detests being compared to a boy.

Name: Dhalsim

Nationality: India

Gender: Male

Age: 41 (Birthday: November 22)

Height/Weight: 5'10/106 lbs.

Bloodtype: O

Likes: Curry, meditating, elephants, protecting his village and loved ones.

Dislikes: Sweet foods, meat, violence.

Hobbies: Preaching, selflessness, mind reading.

Rivals: None.

Fighting Style: Yoga

Current Techniques: Yoga Fire, Yoga Flame, Yoga Blast, Yoga Teleport, Yoga Spear.

Hyper Techniques: Yoga Inferno, Yoga Catastrophe, Yoga Shangri-La.

Background: A highly respected and wise spiritual leader, Dhalsim's main concerns are with the continued safety and survival of his small and poor village for which he raises money with the use of his fighting skills. Utilizing a very unique combat style based on the principles of Yoga and Kalarippayattu, his physiology is unique in that he can manipulate his body's composition to stretch his limbs far beyond any human limit which he uses to fight. Dhalsim's intense dedicated spiritual training has unlocked several supernatural techniques such as the ability to breathe fire, read minds, sense energy and evil, suspend himself in midair, and teleport amongst other abilities. Though he is an extremely powerful warrior perceived as one of the most powerful people in the world, he detests fighting as it goes against his pacifistic beliefs and chooses to avoid it whenever it is possible, never battling for personal means.