Picking up the Trail...

Chapter 12 - Picking up the Trail...

In a room down in the Queen of Victory's supply hold, Karin stood proudly in front of Birdie who was tied to a chair in the rather dim room. Normally she was never one to be seen down in that portion of the ship, but what else was she going to do? She certainly wasn't going to keep a thug like Birdie in the good portion of her ship, and her yacht didn't have a jail area, so she had to improvise one.

This was what Naruto, Sakura, and Batsu looked at when they entered that area at her behest, "Uh…" Naruto started to say, "What exactly did you do while I was running around Aberdeen all evening? And what are you going to do with him? Do I even want to know?"

"It isn't what I'm going to do Naruto-san, it's what I've already done. And no… no you do not." Karin replied, patting Birdie on the cheek of his busted up face, a face that was even more damaged than when she had dragged him aboard, "Our friend..." Birdie whined and tried to wriggle his way out of Karin's hand on his face in vain. The crazy little bitch was meaner than she looked, "…Has been very helpful to me in regards to our enemy tonight."

"I don't get paid enough-." Birdie said, stopping for a moment to whine for a bit when Karin's hand turned to a fist pressed against his face, "I don't get paid enough to deal with this shit! I told you what you wanted, let me go!"

With a dry look on his face, Naruto walked over to Birdie and crouched down in front of his face, "Yeah, we're not going to do that." Birdie started to whine again, getting progressively louder as Sakura covered her ears and Batsu rolled his eyes, "Birdie stop-. Birdie… Birdie stop cry-. Shut the hell up Birdie!" Naruto eventually shouted right at him to get him to stop, "We're not going to let you go because you're either going to run to Bison and tell him what you told us because you're stupid, or you're just going to run. Either way he's going to kill you."

Naruto was a bleeding heart when it came to forcing people into no-win situations. He couldn't help but wish to give people into situations where they couldn't somehow make heads-or-tails of themselves a fighting chance. But some people just didn't see that sometimes, "I don't care just let me go! Where's your honor you brats?" People like Birdie. Probably because whatever Karin did to him in that supply room to yank information from him scarred him for life.

"Fine." With a sigh, Naruto figured that he wasn't going to keep Birdie around. He didn't want to be 'protected' and it wasn't like they were paramilitary and could keep a prisoner. They were foreigners, and while Birdie was too he was already considered a criminal. A grinning Naruto then pointed his finger at Birdie's head, scaring the man as if he were going to execute him before Birdie realized that he didn't use a weapon, "Caught you flinching!" Naruto said with a grin, getting a headbutt to the face for his trouble.

Sakura gasped as Naruto stumbled back before catching his footing and Batsu started laughing his ass off at Naruto getting his for trying to pick on a prisoner and getting his nose broken for it, "Naruto are you okay?" Sakura asked him as she noticed him bleeding.

At this point his nose had been broken so many times it was more annoying than anything else anymore, thus he popped it back into place with a grunt and sniffed to try and clear his nasal passages, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm calling Chun-Li. Maybe she can take this guy?" He then walked out of the hold, cursing and muttering to himself about how he just changed clothes and got blood all over them.

Birdie watched with a bit of a smirk for managing to get the cheeky little bastard for trying to get him to lose control of his bladder out of fear, "Think you were gonna take the piss outta ol' Birdie did you mate?" He said with a chuckle as Batsu and Sakura cleared out of the room to follow Naruto back up to the regular part of the yacht.

"I wish you hadn't done that to him. He and I are rather dear friends you know." Karin said in a regretful voice, getting Birdie to lose his humor after realizing that he was all alone with the heiress again, "Now I've got to make your face feel like his or I just will not be able to sleep tonight."

She tugged on her fighting gloves and got Birdie to shake in place before she threw a punch right at him, eliciting a high-pitched shriek from him before it stopped right in front of his face and Karin flicked him lightly right in the nose.

"Caught you flinching." Karin said in something of a taunting voice before walking out of the room to leave the British thug there. Naruto's form of teasing people was indeed fun even if it did have the chance of the recipient reacting violently.

XxX

(The Next Day – Victoria Harbour)

"A kid?" A busy loading dock played host to a conversation between Chun-Li and another person; a lanky Caucasian man with green cargo pants and boots, an open light yellow flak jacket to show a rather impressive build beneath it, and glasses on his face. His blonde hair was interesting in the way that it had a very long single forelock hanging out and down in front of his face, "You're bringing a kid in on this? You've got to be out of your mind. He's just going to get himself hurt."

Chun-Li rolled her eyes as she leaned against a few crates for support, "Oh get over it Charlie. I was all by myself here. Maybe if you were better about telling someone when you'd be showing up with all of your hush-hush-."

"I'm technically AWOL so I couldn't really just hop on the closest line and call you like a relative to say I was coming. Do you know how much of a pain it was to get here?" The man, Charlie, interrupted as he crossed his arms over his chest, "These people have guys in my own Air Force. My own backup helicopter shot me down in South America when I had that bastard cornered."

"Exactly." Chun-Li said as if he hit the nail on the head as to her point, "Naruto's not a part of any government system or group so he isn't some double-agent spy or anything. He has a friend that Shadaloo is trying to hurt so he hates them too. And if you knew how strong he was you wouldn't be saying that he could get himself hurt. He's a good kid."

Charlie found it a bit funny that Chun-Li was referring to someone four years younger than her as a kid when she was barely out of her teens herself. It was only her birthday around a month ago from what he knew, "I still don't like it. This isn't some hero thing."

A frown marred Chun-Li's pretty face at his indication and she pushed herself off of the crates she had been sitting on to walk towards Charlie, "And you think I don't know that? I know what I'm doing here. Some people just have a look about them that tells you something. Well Naruto's look tells me that this is going to be okay. He even sent me a Shadaloo thug just last night." She took a modicum of satisfaction from the look on her American ally's face, "Yeah, the guy is low-level. An errand runner really, but it's the fighter Birdie. That's a pretty big deal."

With that bit of information, Charlie just stood and thought to himself for a minute as the dock workers barely registered the pair's presence. Chun-Li merely waited patiently, knowing that he didn't have any reason to dissuade Naruto getting involved. Him being a child didn't mean a thing, "Fine. Where is he so I can at least introduce myself?"

"Later. He's doing something else for me right now." From the grin on her face it was something she was quite excited about, "Criminals know who I am, so if we go looking for him now it'll just make things difficult for him. I can call him if you really want to talk to him, otherwise we can wait until he's done." Charlie consented to that with a nod, deciding to wait until Naruto was done with whatever he was doing before choosing to meet him, "Good. Now tell me what we've got to work with against Shadaloo."

XxX

(Central, Hong Kong – Lower Section of D'Aguilar Street)

With his normal taciturn expression and crimson ninja gi, Guy walked through a more obscure, compressed back street with many side sections. This was the portion of cities that he happened to be most accustomed to. The places where he could find trouble without even having to look for it. Looking the way he did, with the clothes he wore and the serious look that was always on his face, it tended to rub a lot of tough guys the wrong way.

Well that was just fine with him. If he kicked his way through enough so-called tough guys there would be one that would point him in Shadaloo's direction.

The trouble with him though, was the woman at his side. A tall woman that was just Guy's height walked along with him. She was a very curvaceous woman with long wavy purple hair, dark eyes, and a fair complexion that was out of place in that part of the world. She wore a loose red evening gown with large gold buttons over a dark-colored body stocking and high heels along with a long golden scarf around her shoulders and arms.

"Rose you should go back home." Guy said in a straightforward manner. He wasn't expecting her to even listen to him though. It had to have been the sixth time he had told her this, "Your endeavor to destroy Shadaloo's leader is self-destructive."

"And what exactly do you define your own endeavor to do so as?" Rose responded, also with a very serious look on her face, "It's my destiny to fight him. I've seen that it is my fate to do battle with him. My Soul Power is the only thing that can stand up to his twisted Psycho Power." She stated as she looked at the tarot cards she had read that had established to her that doomsday was coming and she had to try and prevent it, "I may not be as experienced a combatant as you, but I cannot run away."

"Yes you can…" Guy said, sighing in exasperation, a rare break from his usual emotionless façade, "You're not the only one that was told of such an evil that manifested as Bison. You're not the only one that's out to bring him down. You're speaking like you're okay with dying as long as you face him because it's what your fortune telling has foreseen for you." He looked over at the woman who seemed to be tuning his words out stubbornly, "Let those who have dedicated their lives to combat deal with Shadaloo."

Rose merely shook her head and spoke a line in Italian before she remembered that Guy didn't speak that language and changed it back to English for his understanding, "You cannot change the path that you are on. You can only walk forward and do your best to make things right."

That was the best he was going to get out of her apparently. This entire situation was a pain as far as Guy was concerned. His master in his ninja village spoke of a great evil that would threaten the world. He had no idea what to look for until Ibuki returned home with serious injuries at the hands of a group named Shadaloo. A little digging around found that this was a dangerously powerful organization, and he believed that this was the evil he was warned of by his late master.

So it was his self-arranged mission to put an end to it. Those that were ill-equipped to bear the burden of the fight had no place there. More deaths, needless deaths, wouldn't solve anything and they wouldn't change anything. And Rose seemed to be marching towards the gallows when she could simply avoid it altogether. He hated heroics.

Which was why he almost cringed and stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of a wild head of bright yellow hair and blue eyes walking through the crowd a ways away, "Uzumaki…"

It didn't matter what Ibuki had told him during their run-in in Aohura City, as far as he was concerned Naruto was simply playing at ninja and had been fortunate thus far with not only keeping his own life, but not losing the lives of those close to him such as Ibuki herself. And here he was again, this time next to him there was a girl that seemed even more out of place than a sixteen year old kid like him was. She looked like a regular schoolgirl with short brown hair and a white headband wrapped around her forehead.

That was the last straw. He was getting tired of this. Whatever Naruto was doing there he could more than likely confirm pretty easily that he wasn't some tourist sightseeing around. He wasn't in the right place for that, he was way off of the beaten path for any tourism.

He saw Naruto and the girl stop at a crossroad of sorts and converse rather spiritedly for a bit before Naruto threw his hands up and headed off in one direction while the brunette schoolgirl went off in another both of them still apparently cursing each other out as they made sure the people gave them a wide berth.

Grilling Naruto over why he was there wouldn't go well at all. The two weren't the biggest fans of each other and an inferring Guy would only raise Naruto's hackles defensively. He was after all a very hotheaded person, this much was common knowledge in the ninja community when it came to the 'Nukenin of Aohura City' as he was referred to informally, because the lot of them were convinced that he was merely a runaway that hadn't been dealt with by his clan yet.

With that in mind he turned to go down the path that the girl took. Maybe she would be more willing to tell him about what their purpose there was, "I'll be back." He was surprised when he saw Rose staring in the direction that Naruto went, "Rose." He said abruptly to get her attention, startling her a bit, "That boy you're looking after, I'm going to go speak to his companion."

Rose nodded before turning back towards the path that Naruto went down, "In that case I will follow the boy." She didn't explain why, nor did she give Guy the platform to ask her why she chose to do so as she moved seamlessly through the crowd and separated from her ninja friend.

XxX

(Moments Earlier – With Naruto and Sakura)

Despite the fact that she was the one to elicit the information from Birdie, and Naruto still did not want to know how she managed to do that in a span of two hours the previous night, Karin did not want to sully herself by walking amongst the most unwashed of the masses by following up on where they were told to go.

So Batsu stayed back with her because someone had to, and Sakura came with Naruto… because someone had to. They had all agreed on this except for Naruto, but his opinion mattered little to two women that had already made up their minds and Batsu who didn't care because it didn't really affect him one way or the other.

And there they were in the middle of a crowded street about to venture into the rat's nest of illicit activity. What a pair; the ninja and the Japanese schoolgirl, "Sakura-chan I really hope there isn't a kidnapping ring based around here because-."

"Please don't finish that statement." Sakura responded with a blank look aimed Naruto's way as the pair walked together, "It'll be fine. It's better than leaving you alone to get into another fight with a cop or who knows who." She ignored the sticking out of Naruto's tongue in reaction, "Mature."

Naruto grunted incoherently, bumping Sakura with his hip only to get one from her as well, "Alright fine. Follow me, eyes open, knock out anyone ogling you too closely, and stop looking like a cute, naive schoolgirl because this ain't the place for it."

"Naruto, I'm the one that's actually been around the world before if you remember correctly. You're the one that's out of their element here."

"You didn't do anything like this little lady. All you did was get into back alley street fights with nobodies and chase Ryu halfway around the globe like a bloodhound."

"Says the guy that fought an Interpol agent yesterday! You're a menace to society…"

"You're a menace to Ryu's virginity you friggin' stalker… wait. Holy crap do you think he's actually a-?"

"Shut up! Geez, sometimes you're such a delinquent brat!"

"It is what it is stalker woman!"

"Delinquent brat!"

"Stalker woman!"

The denizens of the back street were treated to the sight of two Japanese teenagers going nose-to-nose and shouting at each other in their native tongue. From the way their faces got progressively redder and redder and they started poking each other in their chests they were more than likely using blue language. Something to note; Sakura wasn't particularly a fan of the whole Naruto poking her in the chest thing.

"You think you're so cool with your underground mercenary-for-hire crap." Sakura stated, swatting Naruto's finger away from her chest because she swore he was enjoying letting it linger too long on her breast for it to be a poke of aggression, "I can look as non-threatening as I want to be. I still bet that if I go off on my own you're gonna be the one that gets in trouble again like you always do."

Naruto snorted and looked away from his best friend, "Whatever jailbait. I don't always get into trouble."

"You always get into trouble." Sakura disputed with a smirk because, not even rising to the 'jail-bait' crack because she knew that she had him now. There was no feasible way he could deny this. There was simply too much evidence backing her up, "Everywhere you go, it's always the same thing. You're gonna do some stupid ninja thing that you think is smart that'll make the wrong person mad, then you're gonna run and call for help, then you're gonna stop and fight, then I'm gonna show up after you've already caused tons of money in property damage."

All Naruto could really do was stare at her as she gave the basic rundown of what happened in every new city he had ever gone to. He still had ammo though, "Yeah… but I'll live. I know how to get away. You don't. You're gonna get kidnapped by Triads and sold, you know that right? You've got no gut survival instinct Sakura-chan. No one's ever almost killed you before." He teased as if it was a badge of honor, "And I'll still get the job done either way. Bet I'll find something good even if I get into trouble."

"You're on." Sakura accepted the unspoken challenge between them, "If you call me and you're in trouble you lose, if I call you and I need help I lose. Winner is the one that comes back with the best info on the you-know-who. I win, you buy me whatever I want later and you do my homework and help me cheat in class for a whole semester next year."

A wager? Well there couldn't have been a more awkward time for a bet. Still, Naruto never turned down a challenge, "Fine. If I win I get to use your bedroom window to get into your house until your mom makes me stop and I get to spank you whenever you and Karin get into your stupid arguments, in public or private… forever."

'Pervert.' Sakura thought to herself with a twitching eyebrow. But she hated school so much, and Naruto was going to cheat anyway and never get caught. Why not make it work for her? She didn't mind the window thing and Naruto found it important because he travelled alone by roof-hopping so windows were easier for him, and she didn't think she argued with Karin aloud enough for the last stipulation to concern her too much, "Fine."

"Fine." And with that the two shook hands and separated, choosing to walk down two different paths leading away through the crowded back street.

Was that really the wisest course of action? No it wasn't. But then again, Sakura was very strong so she would be fine. She wouldn't find any information on Shadaloo though, not any info as good as he would find. She wasn't really a girl that could go get shady information unless she found a pervert that she could beat it out of once she got their attention.

Ha. She'd call him in two hours saying that she wanted to go back to the yacht. She didn't even know where they had been going before they had split up. Where'd she think she'd have to get to in order to get any use out of their trip today? He on the other hand knew where he was going.

Hence Naruto began to traverse back past the point where more normal people would not tread. An alleyway marked with a dark tarp hung in front of it, Naruto ducked through it and on the other side the place seemed to get darker.

'Here we go.' Naruto thought to himself as he noticed the very few people past that point giving him a wary and warning stare that he returned to show that he knew where he was going and what he was doing. Moving by the men standing there, Naruto kept going a short ways until he reached a door and opened it to descend a set of steps that led to a dingy little bar, 'What a dive.'

Even in the middle of the afternoon there were still dozens of people inside. Yeah, that made sense. Criminals and whatnot didn't really work 9-to-5 schedules. And him being the guy dressed in the orange clothing he was pretty sure he had burned a few corneas used to the low light of the bar so he definitely had some attention.

It didn't matter yet. His gut wasn't telling him to get ready for a fight, so he simply sat down at the bar that was rather crowded. His seat was between two other men that would have scared the crap out of normal people. He spared both of them a glance as they did to him before they all ignored each other and Naruto looked forward at the barkeep who was eying him strangely.

Naruto gave the man a grin and leaned forward. It was time to test his Mandarin, "Hey. How's it going?"

The barkeep seemed almost amused at the bright expression this kid had, and the fact that he was speaking good enough Mandarin to keep people from riding his case, "You do know that I can't legally serve alcohol to anyone under 18 years old don't you?"

Naruto just kept his eyes firmly on the man in a seemingly semi-serious standoff of sorts until both of them started laughing. Not just them, but the men beside Naruto and half of the bar got their chuckles off of that, "Yeah, because this place looks super-licensed. I don't want to drink anyway, I just want to talk really."

"Eh…" The barkeep said with a shrug, "I don't know kid. Talking is usually something that the customers do. You know what I'm saying?"

Rolling his blue eyes at the inflection in the man's voice, Naruto was glad that Karin made him convert some of his money into international currencies before they left Japan. Pulling out a roll that he had previously counted to be 12,000 Hong Kong dollars that he set in front of the barkeep, "Uh… could you set all of my friends up with a round?" He flinched a bit when instead of a smattering of noise this time he got a rather loud cheer, "Keep the change."

Another chuckle came from the barkeep as he went to go place that rather large bit of 'tip money' in the backroom safe.

Naruto got a series of pats on his back from the people sitting at the bar with him along with one rather delicate tap. He ignored it mostly until it kept happening and he turned around to see a woman that he knew wasn't a local for certain. She was very pretty and had an almost pouting expression on her face as she looked at him, "Uh hi?" Naruto ventured to say at first in English because she didn't seem to be from around there, "Did you want to see the bartender for a drink?"

The woman found a bit of humor in that. She didn't believe that this bar served her drink of choice, but it was nice of him to offer. It was then that she chose to speak, "I'm sorry, but I came here to talk to you. I know who you are Naruto Uzumaki." She saw that he was surprised that she knew his name, "Do you have the time to converse for a bit?"

Taking the arrival of the very pretty foreign lady to mean something else for the blonde kid sitting with them, the two men showed a measure of gratitude to the boy by getting up from their seats at the bar with him, choosing to depart to a table, patting him on the shoulders. Though the woman couldn't understand enough Mandarin to know what was uttered to Naruto it was clear that he did and that it must have been something embarrassing from how his face turned red and from how the men were smirking and chuckling as they left.

Naruto eventually coughed his embarrassment down and turned around on his stool, pointing to a seat next to him, "Yeah! Yeah… come on and have a seat. I'm waiting anyway." The woman gave him a warm smile and sat down next to him in a very elegant way. Goodness she was pretty, with something of an ephemeral feel to her really, as if he needed to listen to every word she was about to say.

"I would like to thank you for being so calm. It must have been difficult when I suddenly spoke your name." She said first of all, settling into her seat as comfortably as possible, "My cold approach probably leaves a lot to be desired. But my name is Rose."

"Nice to meet you." Naruto said, subconsciously scratching at the Konoha leaf tattoo that sat on his bare right arm. Why'd he feel nervous? It wasn't a life-threatening kind of nervous, just an uncomfortable kind of nervous, "So, what do you want with me?"

Rose sighed before lifting her hand and poking Naruto right in the forehead where his headband lay, "I can feel the abnormally powerful energy inside of you." From how Naruto gave her a startled look she could tell that if he hadn't been paying attention before she had his full attention now, "And I believe that you have a very turbulent aura about you."

XxX

(With Sakura)

Maybe this wasn't the best idea.

It was one thing to walk with Naruto through a crowded street in a city and country she had never been in before; for some reason he always seemed to know exactly where he was going no matter what, and the fact that the both of them could handle any situation that came their way was reassuring.

It was another thing altogether to be looking for any inkling of information on a crime syndicate, intentionally looking for a bad part of town all on her own. Naruto was right to a certain extent; the way she looked was like a lost schoolgirl on a field trip abroad.

Damn it, if someone was stupid enough to try and abduct her she'd never hear the end of it from the blonde loudmouth… but she liked wearing her school uniform. It was comfortable for her to fight in.

"Let's see…" Sakura said to herself quietly as she looked around, "If I was a creep that knew something good about Shadaloo where would I hang out?"

Well from what she knew about the past run-ins with the organization, they didn't have a general nationality about them. They were from all over the place. Birdie was from England, Vega was noted Spanish nobility, and who knew where those girls that attacked her high school came from?

Maybe she could start by visiting some stores and businesses that weren't domestic to Hong Kong? It was better than walking around talking to herself.

Sakura made it back out to a main road and stopped to take out her phone and check to see if anyone had called or messaged her, hoping that Naruto had already screwed up and had lost the bet after only forty-five minutes.

No such luck.

With a sigh, Sakura put her phone back and massaged her temple, "Why does Naruto do stuff like this for a job? How does he do stuff like this for a job?" This was why she would stick to school… because at least there was a set path towards a conventional career that way.

She didn't even notice the fact that a taller man in a red ninja gi and sneakers managed to make his way next to her, arms crossed in a nonchalant manner, "What does he think he's doing here now?" He asked suddenly, startling Sakura into a defensive stance as she turned to face him, "Sorry." He said at frightening her.

Sakura gave her heart a few minutes to cease leaping into her throat from shock before she stood normally again, still keeping a wary eye on this man, "Who are you talking about?"

"Your friend Naruto."

Now choosing to narrow her eyes suspiciously on this person, Sakura clammed up, remembering that she wasn't exactly in a nice place, "Yeah? Well who's asking about him?"

At this point, it was obvious that he didn't exactly approach her as amicably as he could have for meeting a new person. The price he paid for being as serious as he always was, "I'm not Shadaloo. I'm a friend of a friend; Ibuki."

Suspicion turned to skepticism on Sakura's part, "You know Ibuki-chan?"

"I stay in her village quite often, so yes I know her. My name's Guy." He turned towards Sakura and then got serious enough to put her on her guard again from the way he was looking at her, "What exactly are you doing here? This is a long way from Japan."

"If you know Ibuki-chan then you know what happened to her and the group that did it." Sakura said in explanation, "Well they've done more than that to more people that we know and Naruto wants to deal with them before someone gets hurt."

That was what Guy figured; Naruto was there doing something again, something that was way over his head, "The only person that's going to be hurt is going to be him… and you because if you're here that means you're helping. Go home before you get killed, before he gets you killed. Following a play-ninja… you should have learned from Ibuki that it'll only get you hurt."

A play-ninja? If Naruto were there he probably would have broken Guy's jaw for that remark. If there was one thing that Naruto took seriously about himself it was that he was a true ninja, the real deal. He took pride in it. It was really the only thing about himself that he took unmistakable pride in, hence why he vocally proclaimed regularly that he was the greatest ninja in the world.

And Sakura knew for certain that while Naruto goofed around a lot, when it came time to be that person there was no one else she'd consider better. Even Ibuki deferred to Naruto when it came to the ninja arts. She was honestly taking a bit of offense at how dismissive Guy was towards Naruto, "Naruto's serious about this. What does it matter to you anyway? If you don't like him why are you talking to me?"

"Because I'm not going to sit back and let some part-time ninja lead a kid like you to her death!" Guy growled out, clenching his fists, "Even if he just so happened to be a real ninja, he doesn't take the lifestyle seriously. He should know that a ninja walks with death… and they shouldn't let normal people do the same. The lifestyles don't mix. Ibuki had to learn that the hard way. She was gravely injured trying to live like a normal person and suffered the fate of a warrior… trying to follow that boy."

As far as he was concerned, until Ibuki met a ninja that got to try and live like a normal teenager she was just fine. But after meeting Naruto and finding out how different he was from what was expected of a ninja she wanted that for herself as well, something different that could be perceived as the grass being greener on the other side. Were it not for that and were it not for him she wouldn't have been injured.

"So you blame Naruto because Ibuki-chan got hurt? That's not fair!" Sakura shouted at him much to Guy's surprise.

Guy wouldn't budge on his views though, "The way he lives makes him a target, and that makes you and everyone around him targets as well. He has no village or clan as a means of support so it's just him. The way he carries himself as a ninja is not acceptable."

"You don't like him because he's not like you and everybody else…" While normally even-tempered, badmouthing Naruto pushed her buttons. He didn't have anyone to defend himself to others but his friends, and they owed him that much, "So what if he's a ninja that lives in town? Where do you expect Naruto to live; some secret hidden safehouse in the mountains somewhere? What do you expect him to do with himself; sharpen weapons all day and brood? Go out only at night and sneak around assassinating people?"

He had to deal with people not liking him because he was different ever since he first showed up in Aohura City or Japan in general; even from her own best friend Kei at first. It seemed that the ninja societal values were just as exclusionary as the majority of the country was to those that seemed out of place.

"I expect him to act and live up to the responsibilities that come with the title of ninja." Guy declared firmly, "There's a reason that the way we live has maintained firm tradition for all of these years."

"If you were there you wouldn't have stopped anything either." Sakura hissed lowly out of spite, "Ibuki wasn't weak, and neither am I. If you're not going to help us find Shadaloo then just stay away from us you jerk. Or maybe you'd like to find out that I'm not as helpless as I look?" She offered as she set herself into her fighting stance of choice.

Guy wasn't about to get into a fight with nothing to prove and nothing to fight for against this schoolgirl, but he did notice the root of where her style of stance came from, "The way you stand… you've trained with the fighter Ryu haven't you? You fight using his discipline." Either that or the discipline of Dan Hibiki… in which case he really would have been concerned for her safety, but he was trusting that it was closer to Ryu's.

"Yes, I do. And?" Sakura queried in return. Shutting his eyes in a disengaging manner, Guy turned around and proceeded to leave her where she stood on the sidewalk, "Wait! Where are you going? You're just going to insult my best friend and leave?"

"If you're actually confident enough to fight me when you know I'm Ibuki's senior, and you use something similar to that style there's nothing I can tell you that will make you turn around. I don't get into fights without reason." Guy said as he walked away, "Ibuki really likes you all. She never blamed any of you or him at all for her wounds. That never stopped any of us from blaming the boy's influence on her. She's fine however, healing just fine."

A wave of relief ran through Sakura momentarily before she remembered that she didn't like this guy, "Good. We'll have to make it home so we can see her then."

There was a touch of defiance in her tone that got Guy to chortle slightly, "See that you do. Go to Thailand. For now that's the best advice I can give you. I've heard that your trainer is heading that way. Ryu. You should see if he will assist you, because you children are not strong enough on your own."

"We're plenty strong." Sakura said as a parting shot as Guy just walked away without turning around again to respond, 'But that… is very good to know.' Maybe they could make a side-trip to Thailand…

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto had requested Rose to hold off on talking about his hidden power until they had left the bar. The bartender that Naruto had paid off came back and divulged to him that Shadaloo was interested in obtaining the services of powerful and infamous fighters from around the world. In addition to that, if there was a place with a booming drug trade or an area where human trafficking and abduction was commonplace and the dealing of arms were in demand one could guarantee that Shadaloo had something to do with it. Money was money to those people.

Drug dealers around even as far as Hong Kong found that the best stuff those days were coming out of places in Thailand. And it seemed to be pouring out like a flood. Business was booming, and many of them had the same supply force.

"Well I'm going to Thailand next." Naruto said to Rose as they both stood out at the harbor, looking across at the Kowloon Peninsula across the water, "Not looking forward to that… I can't speak or read Thai."

"You'll be fine." Rose assured him. She couldn't help but listen as she heard Naruto's bit of information from the barkeep about Shadaloo and would be committing it to memory for herself. She would find Bison first and would destroy him without anyone else suffering to him. It was her destiny to do so, "Can we speak about your power now?"

"Yeah sure…" Naruto consented. By now he was so used to talking to others about the Kyuubi it was actually starting to help him accept it as a part of him. No one had shown him any hatred yet when it came to the biju within him, "You said something about my aura too. What does that mean?"

"Let's talk about the more important thing first." Rose offered. She noticed that Naruto was rather uncomfortable and placed a hand on his forearm to try and get him to calm down, "You can relax Naruto. I hold no suspicions of you for what you have inside of you. It's not an evil energy, it's just very intense. One that is not used to intense hatred would be overwhelmed by its very presence."

'Yep, that's the Kyuubi she's sensing alright.' Naruto thought to himself before asking something that was nagging at him, "How can you even tell anyway? I wasn't even drawing upon any of it."

A small laugh came from Rose as she pulled out a deck of tarot cards, "I am very spiritually in-touch one could say. I am a fortune teller normally. I have abnormal powers of my own with no distinguishable origin. But I feel a strong attraction towards a very evil power." She saw Naruto put his hand on his stomach when she said that, "I wasn't talking about you. Your energy isn't that dark, just very destructive."

That was confusing. Destructive but not dark?

"Well even if it was, the Kyuubi is a part of me." Naruto said, getting a confused look from Rose, "…That's what my power is, it's called Kyuubi. It's a living thing inside of me." More confusion from the pretty fortune teller lady, "…It's complicated. I don't even know that much about it. I'd ask Kyuubi, but he doesn't really like me."

"I'd imagine." Rose blinked owlishly at the thought of a living creature with such crushing power that she could feel it just by looking upon Naruto being contained inside of his body, "A being of such raw power unable to exercise its own free will. It must be maddening; restricted by the living prison of a mere teenage boy. Your 'Kyuubi'… is it intelligent?" Naruto nodded to her, "Oh my… he must despise you."

A grunt of confirmation came from Naruto as he sat down on the end of the harbor and looked out at the ships sailing on the water, "Yeah. I don't know what to do. Kyuubi's been inside of me my whole life and I didn't even know until I was twelve. I was taught for my whole life early on that he was something to be scared of and then I found out he was inside of me. How do you deal with that? So… I treated him like a monster. I just ignored him really, acted like his power was the only part of him that existed. He's still a living thing that thinks, and I neglected him."

"Regret is the first step to redemption." Rose said, stooping down and wrapping her arms around her knees as she looked down into the water along with Naruto, "Might I suggest the extension of an olive branch? You may find that in order to get along with an opposing entity you can't simply will things into motion. You must make a concession of some sort."

A snort came from Naruto before he gave Rose an incredulous look, "What kind of peace offering can I give a gigantic immortal creature that wants to eat me?"

"You seem like the type of person that is good at answering unconventional questions like that. I know you can find a way."

"Yeah…" Naruto didn't really believe her, but she seemed to believe in what she was saying wholeheartedly. She was so nice he couldn't just tell her that. It wasn't her problem anyway so there was no need to make it so. This whole Kyuubi thing was getting heavy, but it seemed that she didn't want anything from him, she just wanted to chat, "So… you were saying something about my aura."

"Oh. Yes." Rose pulled out a deck of tarot cards from her cleavage, putting a red tint on Naruto's face at the rather shameless way she had done so. She placed the deck on the ground and held her hand over them, "Would you allow me the pleasure of reading your fortune Naruto?"

Naruto's eyebrows rose up past his headband in surprise before smiling at her, "Yeah… I don't have to pay do I?"

"No, no…" Rose laughed slightly, "This one is free since I'm the one that offered it to you. If you want a love reading, that will actually cost you." She finished with a wink, getting another embarrassed grumble out of Naruto, "Okay, let's begin." She took a deep breath and took three cards, "The Tower, The Hanged Man, and The World." The Tower was upright, The Hanged Man was upside down, and The World was upright.

Having no idea what these things meant, Naruto just observed Rose as she mused over the cards before she held out her hand expectantly. Naruto automatically placed his hand in hers, "What do you want me to do?"

"Just focus your mind and your energy towards me." She instructed him, shutting her eyes as her other hand remained over the first card she drew, "Most people cannot and it takes me longer to draw an accurate reading, but if I can attune myself to your signature it will help me." At that moment Naruto began the flow of chakra through his body, something Rose could easily feel, "That's perfect. One moment."

Naruto watched as she frowned as she went from card to card at least three times as if to confirm what she was sensing. Her eyes eventually opened and she began to recant what she had found of his fortune.

"The Tower." Rose started to say, "Chaos… turmoil. Your life has been very hard and hectic, even before you settled in your new home. The things that you are privy to that you try to hide from others would have broken you if you chose to tell them and they refused to believe you; so you keep it to yourself. You found yourself very uncomfortable with your surroundings for a very long time but you are getting used to things. You are now mostly content."

Wow, that was actually very close. Did she actually see anything when she said this stuff or was that just… he didn't know. But damn, that was spooky. A wide-eyed Naruto just nodded and gulped the excess liquid in his throat.

With that, the purple-haired fortune teller continued, "The Hanged Man. You are searching for something that you feel you need to find. You're obligated to do your best and locate this thing because you feel it is your duty to do so. You aren't sure if it's what you want though, but you feel as if you would be letting a world of people down if you simply ignored this feeling. It eats at you and it keeps you from enjoying your life the way you should. You are a very conflicted young man on the inside." She said with a frown.

"Keep going." Naruto said, eyes intently locked on Rose's. That last one struck a serious chord with him though he would never say it aloud because it had to do with Konoha, with the Elemental Nations. He could never say these things aloud. He was looking for his way home, but did he want to go? He had to didn't he? There were promises that he had made to too many people to stay away.

"You won't find it you know." Rose told him a bit sadly, "Whatever you're looking for you won't reach it. It's beyond you. It's the last part of your second fortune."

"Why is it beyond me?" Naruto muttered quietly, so much so that Rose barely heard him, "If I know what I'm looking for or how to get it, I can make it happen." His hands were making fists so tight his fingernails were cutting into his palms.

Rose sighed. Things usually went this way back home when someone heard a bad fortune. At least he wasn't flipping out yet. He seemed like a hothead from when she had seen him with the schoolgirl earlier so this was a nice find.

In truth Naruto did want to flip out. He wanted to shout at Rose and say he could find a way home. That there was a way, because if he appeared there that meant that there was a definite way back. It didn't make sense for there to be no way to return. But he wouldn't yell at her just for reading the cards. She was far too nice to him to just shout at her for just doing what her job was. Her job wasn't 'good-fortune teller', it was just 'fortune teller'.

"Okay…" Naruto stood up from where he was sitting looking over the water, "Well thanks Rose. I'll keep that in mind. Everything you said to me." He reached down and helped her stand up from how she was stooped after she collected her cards, "It was nice to meet you." She gave him a bit of a troubled smile at seeing how dejected he seemed at hearing her news, "I hope I get to meet you again."

Without saying another word, Naruto began walking away after pulling his hood over his head and shoving his hands in his pockets.

He didn't stop until he crossed the street and disappeared into an alley. Rose watched him go the entire way. He never even let her finish his fortune; the one for the future, as distant as it may be. She would have spoken up but he seemed quite shaken. Anything else might have made him feel worse.

"Poor thing. He thinks he has to deal with his secrets alone." She looked at the last card out of the three she had drawn and smiled a bit, "The World. Naruto, you won't find what you're searching for even though you'll never quit, but eventually you will find what you really want. You'll come face-to-face with your own personal peace even as things will be coming apart at the seams all around you. You will find the things that will make you whole."

Naruto was a good boy. A warm spirit. His destiny wouldn't lead him to what he was searching for, but it would lead him to what he needed for himself… one day. She just hoped that when the time came and it was upon him he could stop and take a look around and see that for himself. Otherwise he would miss all of the wonderful things that he would earn.

"We can't change our fates in the end." Rose said as she placed her tarot cards back into her cleavage and began walking her own way, "But we can make they what we will with them."

And her fate was to head to Thailand. As long as she knew which general country he was in from there she would easily find Bison once she could feel his presence over the land. As she said before; she was attracted to an extremely dark power, and that power was his.

Hopefully she could make her own fate to face down his Psycho Power with her Soul Power a positive one.

XxX

(Aberdeen Harbor – Onboard the Queen of Victory)

A bored Karin was sitting in a large entertainment room filing her nails. Thank goodness for satellite television… even though there was nothing on. It didn't matter though, she didn't share her employee Naruto's distaste for TV. She had no problems simply letting it run even though she wasn't paying attention to it.

Elsewhere in the room she heard the clack of the balls on a pool table before a sigh echoed over towards her, "This sucks." Batsu said to Karin from where he was playing billiards to amuse himself over in the game area, "I came on this trip because I thought I would get to see some cool stuff. Meet cool people… maybe fight them. Oh, and I'd get to see Naruto do stupid things. There hasn't been enough of any of that stuff yet."

"Your company leaves much to be desired." Karin responded before blowing on her nails and switching to her other hand. She could have had people do this for her, but the whole point of her wishing to file her nails was because she was bored and needed something monotonous to do. Having someone else do it would have been just as boring, "You play a noisy game while I simply wish to relax, and then you complain about it."

'Damn rich little… Grr!' Batsu thought to himself before lining up another shot, "Are you kidding me? I don't want to be here. I'd much rather be out on the street, maybe dealing with some Triads because you know that's where they went." He took his shot and frowned as he missed miserably and scratched, "Me and Naruto would have had a blast. But if we'd left you and Sakura here you two would have torn the yacht apart by the time we got back."

"If you and Uzumaki-san had chosen to make the trip you would both be in jail by sundown." Karin fired back with a smirk, "He has no idea he did it, but he actually made the most balanced groups he could have formed out of the four of us, because I would never have gone. Just thinking of fraternizing with those hoodlums and hooligans to get information from them makes my skin crawl."

"What about Birdie? You beat the shit out of him. And I don't even want to know what you did to him in that supply closet to get him to talk."

"That was different. I had already sullied my hands on him, any more than that wouldn't have made any difference so I merely chose to interrogate him."

"But you were fine with that."

"I most certainly was not. I completely purified myself for two whole hours afterwards."

Two hours? It had to be one hell of a bath then. Weird girl… "Whatever." Batsu dismissed the conversation rudely with a sniff, getting a scoff of disgust out of Karin, "I'm hungry."

"Idiot." Karin muttered under her breath. Why did she let this commoner onto her family's vessel again? Oh yes, because he was Naruto's friend, Naruto wanted him to come with them, and letting Batsu come with them would have made Naruto happy. Wait, why'd that matter? She didn't give a damn if Naruto was happy or not.

Ah… that was right, yes she did. She did because they were 'friends'.

Being a good friend was so troublesome. Why did she have to be nice to a friend of a friend?

Her musings on the merits of friendship and how entertaining a proxy friend (i.e. a mooch) made her angry happened to be interrupted by her large butler Ishizaki, "Yes? Is there something the matter?" She asked the good-natured servant.

"Kanzuki-sama, there is a person outside on the docks that wishes to speak to you." Ishizaki said, not really knowing what to do or how to handle the apparent scenario, "It's been shown that the person is not armed, and it is just one person so I did not immediately turn them away." Karin nodded, as one person that wished to speak to her, no matter how suspicious, didn't frighten her in the least. She was confident in her ability to defend herself.

And if all else failed Batsu was there too. He could serve as a decent distraction in a fight to help her get the upper hand if the person did indeed attack her and she was unable to immediately overcome them, "Very well. Allow them aboard. I will grant them a chance to speak with me." Ishizaki bowed to her and left to get the visitor.

Batsu scoffed and looked to line up another shot on the pool table, "Grant them a chance to speak with you? Sound a little bitchier next time why don't you." Karin just ignored him in exchange for continuing to take care of her nails, "…Man Naruto is friends with the most messed up people."

"And don't you wish you were too?" Karin taunted in a sing-song manner from her seat as the two continued to wait in silence.

"Kanzuki-sama: your guest. I do not believe she speaks Japanese, but she does speak English for certain."

Batsu idly turned his eyes towards the entrance to the room and nearly allowed his tongue to hang out of his mouth at the sight of the person that had walked in, "Whoa… hottie onboard." He said aloud in Japanese so that said hottie didn't understand him. He would have wolf-whistled as well if it wouldn't have made him look totally sleazy in the process.

Karin merely put her file to the side and sat comfortably relaxed in her plush chair as the guest walked in front of her and stood there, "So you wish to speak to me about something." Her eyes panned up and down curiously as she took in the figure of the person ahead of her, "I would like to ask how you know of me and the fact that I was here, but I suppose introductions are in order. You obviously know who I am, Karin Kanzuki, yet I do not know of you."

The girl standing in front of her was a teenager with a light blue military hat, a thin scar on her left cheek, and long blonde hair in two braids down her back. She wore a light-blue long-sleeved turtleneck leotard that showed off her legs that Batsu just couldn't take his eyes off of. On her hands up to her elbows she had two very sturdy looking gauntlets and on her feet she had brown combat boots.

From where she was sitting, Karin could tell that the girl looked somewhat uncomfortable, but with more of what you would see from someone who was expecting to be attacked. As if she were preparing to dodge a kill-shot that she knew was coming her way in a matter of seconds, "Well you can call me Cammy if you'd like. And I know of you because not too long ago I was directed to kill your friend and assist in kidnapping you… as an assassin of Shadaloo."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

{Character Profile}

Name: Rose

Nationality: Italy

Gender: Female

Age: 21 (July 3)

Height/Weight: 5'10/119 lbs.

Bloodtype: N/A

Likes: Cherry wine, bathing.

Dislikes: UV rays, waking up early, evil auras.

Hobbies: Tarot reading

Rivals: M. Bison, Guy (friendly), Dhalsim.

Fighting Style: Soul Power

Current Techniques: Anima Scintilla (Soul Spark), Anima a Spirale (Soul Spiral), Riflettono L'anima (Soul Reflect), Gettare L'anima (Soul Throw).

Hyper Techniques: Anima Aura Scintilla (Aura Soul Spark), Illusione Scintilla (Illusion Spark), Anima Satellitari (Soul Satellite).

Background: A fortune teller from Genoa, Italy, Rose has no knowledge of her parentage but does not concern herself with this fact. Having sensed that the end of days was coming at the hands of a man of great evil, Rose set out to rid the world of it. She narrowed this threat down to be M. Bison and engaged him in battle, defeating him after taking him by surprise with her intense spiritual powers. Despite winning through his underestimation of her she was unable to kill him and later set out to rid the world of him once and for all after discovering that he had survived. Rose has possessed very strange power since childhood that she refers to as Soul Power. In addition to using it to assist with her divination practices she is able to use it in battle by channeling it through her long yellow scarf as an extension of her own person.