Sunset On Day One...

Chapter 33 - Sunset On Day One...

"You're going to splint it and go?" Chun-Li asked Naruto with a raised eyebrow as he sat on the ground while said temporary medical appendage was added on to Naruto's injured wrist, "That thing swelled up like a balloon right on the joint and you're still going to fight me?"

"Uh huh." Naruto said, cringing as the bandages were wrapped tightly around his wrist and hand. As thick as they were wound he wouldn't be moving that thing even if Cammy hadn't snapped it like a twig fifteen minutes ago, "I don't need this hand to fight."

Yes… because it wasn't like seventy percent of his most effective offense required him to have both hands to work or anything.

If Naruto were to be completely honest with himself, which inside of his head he was screaming at himself that he was screwed, he would openly admit that his ability to fight had been significantly hampered a matter of twenty or so minutes ago by an semi-unconscious Doll.

Admitting this to himself was one thing. Letting his next opponent see him sweat too much about his current circumstance was something different altogether.

It wasn't too much longer when the doctor on hand finished applying the temporary splint to Naruto's wrist. He stood up from where he had been kneeling and let Naruto stand as well as the young man tried moving around his left arm to make sure it was set properly, "I'm sure you know that this isn't any kind of substitute for surgery and a cast, so if you're going to fight all I can do is advise you not to. You can't bend your wrist, and you can't even make a fist with that hand."

And indeed he could not. Naruto just deadpanned at his useless left hand, but nodded to the doctor anyway, "I've got it. Thanks a lot for the help." The physician on the scene acknowledged Naruto's thanks and started making his way out of the courtyard to let the fighters have their run of the place.

Now he had to face the chiding glance of Chun-Li who was probably going to tell him something about not fighting for his own safety, and about how he wasn't going to get her to take it easy on him because of his injury. Something like that, "If you fight me you're probably going to get way more hurt than you are now. I really think you should consider retiring from the tournament."

See? Right on cue.

"Look, you're probably right." Naruto said, still staring at his hand as if he could will it to heal within the next thirty seconds, "You're going to kick my ass all over the place. But remember what I said before, about how I couldn't ask Cam to do something that I wouldn't do myself? Yeah, I don't run away from things like this."

Stubborn idiot. Well Chun-Li figured that she would just have to get used to the idea of kicking a crippled teenager around, because that was what was presented for her at the moment. If she couldn't convince him to back down, especially after the effort that Cammy gave, she would just have to beat him here to keep him from getting hurt worse in a showdown with Sagat, "Are you only this dead-set on taking me on so that you can fight Sagat next round to get him back?"

"Nope." Naruto said, and while his voice confirmed his statement his eyes didn't. That was the only reason that he was a bad liar. Looking into his eyes someone could find the answer to any question that they wanted to ask him, "Now let's get this started."

Whatever he wanted. He was a big boy and he could make his own decisions.

Instead of a Tai Chi stance, Chun-Li stood in a more physical and direct kind of stance. One that Naruto hadn't seen her take before when watching her fight, "After the last time we had it out I realized that I needed to hit people like you that were fast and tough with more volume of strikes to hurt you. So I started working on training my Chinese Kempo. Enjoy." She said with a smirk.

Oh boy. Resigning himself to his combat fate, Naruto stood in his fighting stance until he realized that he was leading with the wrong side. His left was the side facing Chun-Li which meant that his broken hand would be the probing punch and first line of defense against anything she did. Not really the best idea. With a sheepish look on his face he switched to southpaw, leading with his right. Kami he hated leading with his right. That was his haymaker hand damn it.

"After a bit of a delay for some medical issues it's time to begin the second match of the quarterfinal round. Naruto Uzumaki vs. Chun-Li: fight!"

"You ready for this? Eyes on me Naruto!" Chun-Li's first move was to storm toward Naruto in a frontal attack. After he grounded himself down to prepare to defend or dodge whatever she tried he found himself unprepared for her first actual move.

Just outside of striking range, Chun-Li flipped over Naruto's head as quick as a whip, staying so low in her motion that when she was fully upside down her bangs actually brushed against the top spikes of Naruto's hair. All meant to provide no wasted space when she leveled Naruto with a flying kick before he could even turn to react.

Naruto fell to the ground and twisted to protect himself from landing on his injured hand and quickly rolled himself out of the way of Chun-Li's follow up move, "Hazanshu (Supreme Mountain Kick)!" With a single sudden somersault through the air, Chun-Li dropped an axe kick meant to tear Naruto into two, but it missed and busted a groove the shape of her leg into the ground through the brick, "Heh heh… that close little brother. You'd better watch yourself."

Spending no more time on the ground than he needed to, Naruto got back up and dusted his clothes off before standing at the ready. Alright, it was his turn now, "Little brother huh? Well what'll you call me when 'little brother' kicks your ass?"

"The same thing." Chun-Li stated, noting how differently the fight was going from the first time that they had engaged one another. He wasn't attacking her outright they way he had then. He seemed to be waiting, not fighting as riskily as he seemed to want to.

It was because of his hand.

The way he fought was really with his hands and legs, with his special abilities as supplements to fluster and throw off his opponents while he waited for an opening to bash an enemy into oblivion. But without his hands he couldn't do that.

As a matter of fact she'd never seen him launch any spitfires or make any clones without using his hands to make those funny little signs first.

The smile of the powerful woman was absolutely predatory at that point. Her original strategy that she had developed to use when battling Naruto was to keep her distance because she was wary of being surrounded on all sides, but now that she had seemed to break down how Naruto's powers worked she didn't have to worry about that if she was correct in her assumption.

From the look on her face, Naruto was assured that nothing good was coming his way. That was not a smile that promised good things for him. And indeed it didn't, "Kikoken (Spirit Energy Strike)!" Chun-Li fired her small yellow shot at him that was surrounded in a wispy blue shell.

Naruto jumped back away from it and watched it run out of steam, but it was only meant to keep him from completely checking her advance. Chun-Li had run at him and after the Kikoken had vanished she slid low at him. Naruto tried to time her and stomp down on her when she got close enough, but she stopped short and switched to posting up on one hand to swing her legs at him in a kick at his body.

Naruto was able to block with his good arm and had to curse his lack of a second to retaliate with. Maybe he should have gotten the doctor to tie his fingers together with the index and middle fingers extended so that he could at least bust out the clones? Health and safety be damned. It wasn't his fingers that were broken, it was his wrist. Unfortunately the latter meant that he couldn't work the former.

With a twist of her body, Chun-Li spun her body directly upside down and rotated like a helicopter with her legs outstretched, "Kaiten-teki Kaku Kyakushuu (Spinning Bird Kick)!" The kicks were high enough on the crouched Naruto that she could have scalped him if those lovely legs were blades. Were Naruto just a touch taller they might have been catching his head out of the air like a fly ball.

A rather rudimentary way to respond still worked nonetheless, and Naruto just basically shoved her and knocked her to the ground. Sometimes simple was the best, because landed almost directly on her head and was now the person on her back. After her cringe of pain, both of them actually locked eyes for a split second and somehow synched up.

Naruto quickly dove for a roll to the side out of his crouching position when Chun-Li's body seemingly respawned from the dead and tried a complete circular sweep upon waking up. After reaching his feet from the roll, Naruto launched himself right back at her as she jumped back to her feet.

It launched into a speedy mix of punches and kicks from Naruto that Chun-Li found easy to block and parry. The reason being that he was down one entire limb to attack her with, and since she could punch and kick faster than him. She found a moment and placed her foot through Naruto's instep to end his advance before shooting a palm at his face that he barely leaned out of the way of.

Her own balance was knocked off when due to the close proximity, Naruto pummeled his shoulder against her chest and face to stun her and give him an opening. With his one good arm he grabbed her collar and turned before slamming her over his shoulder hard into the ground.

"How impressive was that? Even with just one good hand available to him, young Naruto powers his opponent down with authority!"

A 'thank you' needed to go to Karin for forcing him to learn the slightest bit of formal grappling that she had incorporated into her own personal style. He still thought it was just an excuse for her to use three hours in order to teach him on how to touch her body, but it worked like gangbusters here.

'What?' Chun-Li thought to herself as she rolled away from the site where Naruto drove her into the dirt before he could try to subdue her the way that he did Fei Long in round one, 'Since when does Naruto use actual martial arts techniques?' First in round one he used a move that was decidedly a Muay Thai maneuver against Fei Long, and here he pulled out a random Judo technique, 'He usually fights like an agile brawler.'

It was how she had kicked his butt all over half of Victoria Harbor when they first met and she thought he was a criminal. In the beginning until he changed the site o their battle he didn't have the space for decent use of clones and he wasn't fast enough by himself for his style of combat to throw her off-guard.

A small smile found its way to her face at a sudden revelation. Naruto never fought the same way against a single enemy twice. It wasn't that he was a textbook of moves from styles all over the world. Quite the opposite really. He barely knew any actual formal technique, but he was dexterous enough to use his body in any way that he saw fit for the situation, and he was very impressionable when it came to ways of fighting and using certain methods of attack.

In other words if he saw something cool that he thought he could do he wanted to learn about it. He'd never present you with the most technical and polished assault. He'd never show himself to be a textbook of fighting ability, but the sheer versatility of what he could do was potentially staggering. He was a jack of many trades and a master of none in particular.

"Not bad." Chun-Li said, dusting herself off as she stood back on her feet. She was glad that she had another similar dress to wear tomorrow because after two fights in one day this one was thoroughly ruined, "But that was just round one."

This time Naruto took the initiative and became the aggressor, as he felt that he had adjusted well enough to fighting with the use of only one hand. Sitting back and waiting for openings wasn't his style. He'd much rather create them.

The crowd roared in approval of more rapid-fire hand-to-hand combat, but once again, Chun-Li found his moves easier to keep track of with one of his weapons on hand missing. Timing him perfectly she weaved her hands around his punching arm and struck him several times in the chest with heart stunting separate palm strikes, "Hard to change your instincts in the middle of a fight right?"

Trash talking him while kicking his tail? Oh, that was so unnecessary.

Rushing down an enemy was Naruto's hallmark of attack and had been for every single battle he had ever waged. Of course in all of those battles he had always had both hands available to him as well.

While she had been caught off-guard by the ever evolving unorthodox attack that Naruto boasted, after taking the time to mull over just what made him so effective and the fact that he didn't have access to the best things that made him special took away most of the healthy respect (see: fear) for what he could do if given the opportunity.

Without respecting what he could do to hurt her, there wasn't anything holding her back from turning him into a heavy bag with legs.

An attempt to begin defending himself from Naruto resulted in Chun-Li slapping his good arm away and battering him with heavy Kenpo-style punches that rattled his frame with every one that landed, "Quit or I'll just keep hitting you!" Chun-Li demanded, avoiding any attempts from Naruto to retaliate before making him pay once more with even more punches, "I already know how to handle you, and that was even before you messed your hand up!"

'You know how to handle me?' Naruto thought to himself. He didn't voice it aloud because his focus was on trying to avoid or at least lessen the impact of Chun-Li's swift Kenpo punches. He had to admit that he could tell that she had been training hard to learn a way to fight without dominant use of her legs to take her out of position, 'There isn't some damn blueprint on how to beat me!'

As she kept landing her blows more often than not, Naruto was able to spot a telegraphed punch from Chun-Li, but blocking with his good arm would only keep him from responding quickly, thus making him miss his chance. He had to use his head.

Literally.

Chun-Li's fist smacked off of the metal plate of Naruto's headband harmlessly as he had intentionally moved his forehead into the path of her punch. It was a gambit that worked as it gave Naruto's body a full range of motion to work with to confuse her, and counter he did, lifting his leg straight upward in a high snap kick that rocked her chin directly up and had her looking at the sky.

Lowering her head from the kick, she saw that in Naruto's good hand while his leg had been up he had been focusing on creating a Rasengan and thrust forward with it while dropping his leg from the previous kick. She stepped back to avoid it and counter, but it was merely a feint. Naruto let the blue orb of chakra fade and overextended himself on purpose.

In real time after screwing up in the heat of the moment there's a certain sort of feeling that washes over a person in the split-second between the time where they immediately realize that they had made a mistake and the time where they suffer the consequences for their mistake. Time seems to slow and a thousand thoughts go through your head. For the sake of Chun-Li we will only be paying attention to five stages of acceptance that came to her during this time span.

Denial: 'No way. I didn't misread him. He overstepped, get ready to tag that brat. He's close enough for the Kikoshou so begin building your ki and show him a real attack.'

Anger: 'I can't believe I let that kick land! I got too overzealous with my combinations! Damn it! Stupid tricky little bastard! I bet he thinks he's so cool!'

Bargaining: 'Okay, with one arm he doesn't have the juice to really knock me out. He can't even use any of his ninjutsu attacks other than the one he just outright whiffed. I'll take his hit, get back up, and keep kicking his ass.'

Depression: 'Man… I blew it. Am I really at a kid's mercy depending on his next move?'

Acceptance: 'Fine. Show me what you've got Naruto. But you'd better make it count. Don't let me stop your next move or you're through.'

Naruto's overstepped Rasengan wasn't a miss. It was entirely intended. While it was a waste of chakra, he couldn't think of anything dangerous enough to make Chun-Li panic into stepping out of her own punching range. His Rasengan hand reached far enough forward that he was touching the ground, at which time he stepped through with a wheel kick that drilled her right in the shoulder/neck area.

She let out a gasp and quickly realized that gratefully her right arm was not dislocated and useless, nor had Naruto crushed her collarbone. Luck had spared her that much at least.

XxX

"Man I can't believe he's lasting and doing this well." Ken said, eyes locked firmly on the battle below, "But then again, when we fought him I remember his hands staying busy a lot for those sign language things that he does to use his special moves." Naruto used his hands mostly to block unless he was certain that the punch he threw would land.

With a nod, Ryu had to concur, "He's protected his left side as if his life depended on it." No hit that Chun-Li landed throughout the fight made contact with his left arm, even when he had to hold it behind his back to do so, "She can't seem to land anything to take advantage of his injury, and it isn't for lack of trying. Naruto just isn't letting her do it."

So he was letting himself get beaten up earlier because his right side could take it as opposed to where she was really aiming. Ryu had fought Naruto and had rushed him before. There was no way that his defense was as shoddy as he had shown it to be when Chun-Li had been on the assault. He knew how to protect himself better than that.

That was a shift in style that Ken didn't really like, "So because he's hurt he's allowing himself to be hurt all over… just so that he isn't injured anymore on his injured side from trying to defend properly?"

"More or less." Ryu said, narrowing his eyes on the scene, "She's going to try and finish him now. He can't trick her into missing and she'll be sharper from here on out. She knows that the last sequence should have put an end to the fight. Only sheer luck kept her in it."

XxX

In his head, Naruto mentally cursed at the sight of Chun-Li shaking out her right arm and showing it to be mostly fine, 'It's got to be those puffy sleeves of hers. No way that the kick I landed doesn't bust a stack of bricks. No way.' He looked down at his own right hand and formed another Rasengan in it, but when he looked up he saw Chun-Li throw her arms forward in double palm strike, only from a distance.

"Kikoken (Spirit Energy Strike)!"

Her quick little shot of ki flew Naruto's way and he had to circumvent the damage by slamming his Rasengan into it. A blast followed that covered his body, but it wasn't half as strong as a Hadoken, even from Sakura. Thus when the smoke cleared, the only thing that had happened were the burns that littered his arm. And he charged.

Chun-Li hadn't expected the projectile to really hurt Naruto and hadn't put much effort into it other than to make it fast enough to reach him. Instead she tried a roundabout way of getting close, choosing to jump at a nearby large statue that they had been fighting near. Naruto had been going after her with his Rasengan and smashed it into the statue to utterly destroy it.

In a fleet-footed show of agility, Chun-Li merely kicked off of the statue lightly just before Naruto managed to turn it to rubble and wound up landing directly behind him with a glint in her eye, "Kikoshou (Spirit Energy Blast)!" Before she had ever even landed, she had been forming a crackling ball of blue ki in between her palms. Like the center of her usual Kikoken only blue in color and seemingly more stable.

The moment she touched down she sent her hands out forward and the ball in her hands expanded with a torrent of power exploding from it, causing it to quadruple in size, so much so that a blue outline orb surrounded and resonated from her entire body. Even that part was intense enough to tear segments of brick up from the ground around her body. And Naruto was her target.

The target wasn't too keen on merely being a target for a finishing technique though. And that target was Naruto, who instantly shoved a Rasengan-filled hand right into the ground and let it burst instead of drive, assisting in a jump that shot him into the air like a rocket. Unsafely high as a matter of fact, 'Oh this was a bad idea!' If nothing else, it got him away from blue death at the hands of Chun-Li's ultimate ki technique, but landing was to be the new problem presented to his health.

Two seconds of hang time after his three second rise topped out. That was five seconds before his fall back to the ground began, and enough time for Chun-Li to run clear out of steam with the Kikoshou.

As the last dregs of ki forced its way out of Chun-Li's body, she slumped forward in a momentary show of weakness before quickly trying to recover. It wasn't her fault. The sheer amount of energy that attack took to use drained her miserably, hence why she refrained from using it in the first round against Balrog. It wasn't needed to guarantee a finish the way it was here.

But she had missed, and now she was spent. No, she had one shot left. He was stuck in the air and unlike the last time they fought he couldn't bombard her with distance attacks, 'Time him and end this. He'll drop right into your lap. Unless he learned how to fly he doesn't have a choice.' In the midst of his fall, Naruto positioned himself into a swan dive, 'A safety roll?' That was an extremely high-level acrobatic move.

Used during dangerous falls at a forward trajectory to try and space out the impact area of the landing if not avoid it altogether. With an added wrinkle.

The moment Naruto's head and shoulders touched to begin the roll he was already in a ball. Chun-Li's counter was already ruined by his positioning, but she certainly didn't expect to get double mule kicked in the face before Naruto even finished his first roll.

The worst hits are the ones you never see coming, and after seeing the soles of Naruto's sandals Chun-Li didn't see anything else. Thank you Blanka for the rolling idea. It almost broke his damn neck though.

Knowing that his blow landed flush, Naruto's roll completed with him lying on his back and staring up at the sky until he heard the sound of a limp body hitting the ground in a heap. At that point he blinked tiredly before sitting up and looking at Chun-Li's unmoving body set twenty feet away from him, "Are we done onee-chan?"

He got no response and took that as a yes. With a look at the big screen Naruto frowned and rolled his eyes at the sight of how damnably ragged he looked thanks to the efforts of both Chun-Li and Fei Long. Thank Kami this was his last fight until tomorrow.

"The winner by knockout is Naruto Uzumaki! He'll be moving on to day two and the semifinals to face Sagat next!"

What a day.

XxX

"Idiot." Sasuke said to himself from his seat by himself where he had been watching the match in peace. Despite his words, he had a smirk on his face. Leave it to Naruto to find a way to win a fight against someone like Chun-Li with access to only one jutsu.

"You shouldn't refer to your friend as such."

Sasuke almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of the calm yet powerful voice coming from directly behind him. Sitting on the roof of the competitor's waiting building, higher up near the top was Dhalsim in a meditative position.

How in the world did this person sneak up on him? There had been professionally trained assassins that couldn't do such a thing to him. But as he thought about it Sasuke realized why. He could feel no hitch in Dhalsim's emotions. No excitement, anger, pride, bloodlust for the coming battle they were to have. Nothing that went with those that were about to be enemies.

'Who is this person supposed to be?' Sasuke thought to himself before schooling his features, "Naruto's not my friend. He used to be my classmate and teammate a long time ago. Friends aren't really my thing."

"There's no need to lie boy." Dhalsim said, sounding assured yet not necessarily accusing in his method of speech, "I can feel it. You do not despise people as much as you try to make it seem that you do. You're actually quite fond of more than a few of them."

What was this? The last thing Sasuke needed or wanted was his opponent getting into his head before they ever even fought, "Leave…" Sasuke growled out. And without another moment to waste, Dhalsim vanished right before his eyes via teleportation. And that gave Sasuke thoughts, "Hm, actually… maybe this man can be useful to me." He thought aloud after Dhalsim had left.

He still had to kick his ass first.

With that, Sasuke jumped down from the roof when he saw Naruto entering the same building he was sitting on. He still had time to kill before his quarterfinal match against Dhalsim, and he had already seen Ryu and Ken fight. They were up next so he needed to get ready anyway.

XxX

(Fighter Standby Building – Medic Bay)

After winning his match, Naruto had taken the initiative to carry Chun-Li up to the medical area himself. He was going that way anyway so that he could get his hand checked over for real now that there was time for it.

He proceeded to set the woman down on one of the vacant beds, flinching at having to use his left hand to make sure he had been holding her up safely. Pain aside, he spared her a scrutinizing look before the doctors got there. From what he could tell with his 'limited' medical experience, she was fine. Her breathing was steady, her pulse was strong. Nothing was really wrong, he just knocked her straight unconscious.

No big deal right? Hits to the head weren't that bad. He took them all the time and he turned out just fine.

"Yeah you're gonna be fine…" Naruto said before snickering slightly, "…Onee-chan. I still can't believe you called me 'little brother' to throw me off." Pinching the senior fighter's cheek the way everyone always seemed to do to tease him he pulled back when he saw her scowl and heard her actually growl at him in her unaware state, "Okay, I'll just talk to you later."

The doctors came in at that point to begin assisting the downed Hong Kong native and basically butted Naruto out of the way so that he didn't make things more difficult for their work and he didn't have any problems with that. He knew all of jack shit about actual medical knowledge anyway.

And speaking of current patients, Cammy still looked to be down and out over on her bed. Her face looked to be a bit fitful in her resting state, but she had been battered pretty badly in defeat against Sagat. She was a tough cookie though. She'd be up and back to her normal self in no time.

The sweet little thing might have snapped his wrist like a pair of chopsticks, but she didn't mean it and he knew it. Cammy probably didn't even realize that she did it.

"So broken hand huh?" Naruto already knew that Sasuke had been there. He didn't think that the bastard cared. Meh, he probably still didn't, "You know that if you don't fix that you're going to get torn apart tomorrow. But then again you always did have freaky-fast healing." Except for when they both got their asses handed to them by Akuma, but that was just a full-on rout all around. That was a different situation entirely.

Instead of replying confidently, Naruto just looked at his hand and at the ratty splint that adorned it. He still healed so quickly that medical scientists would have called him a marvel, but the potency of his recovery ability was still stunted.

Damn it, where was Dhalsim? He was ready to fix the problem already!

Ugh, getting all bent out of shape about it wouldn't solve anything, and he was in the middle of a conversation, "I'll be fine. You've still got a match to win yourself, so I don't want to hear that out of you." If he beat Dhalsim, Sasuke would have to fight Ken or Ryu next, so it wasn't like he'd have it easy either if he advanced, "What do you want?"

Sasuke scoffed and almost turned his nose up at the prospect, "What makes you think I want anything from you?" Aside from the fact that he went directly to him, "I'm preparing for my last match today." He noticed that his subtle insult/slight didn't get the usual rise out of Naruto that he had expected it to and noticed the pair of females lain up in bed, "How are they doing?"

He had been the chief reason that one had ended up like that, and he lived with the other one at home so concern was clearly understandable.

"Fine. They just need to rest right now." Naruto gestured with his head for the two of them to leave the room and the girls have some peace and quiet, "Let's take this somewhere else." He momentarily grabbed Cammy's hand and stroked the back of it with his thumb before letting her alone and going on his way.

Sasuke noticed this, but said nothing about it as he went with Naruto further down the hall to request some assistance with his left hand. There was a need to locate some doctors in waiting in order to get someone to help him, "Come on… with your luck if you don't get that thing checked out stuff will start falling off."

XxX

(Elsewhere in the Martial Arts Temple)

Much like the medical services, the monks of the temple provided housing for the competitors of the tournament, and since more than a few of them had departed after their losses in the first round it was much easier to accommodate the remaining fighters.

With his station as a national hero they had of course given Sagat the finest room that they could provide with their humble amenities, but even so it was still a rather nice place to stay. It was much more than Sagat needed, which was just a place to rest and quietly meditate to prepare himself for tomorrow.

He just wanted to be left alone in isolation until the time came for him to clear his last hurdle tomorrow before taking on Ryu in the final round. That didn't seem to be an option though as he could feel an intentionally powerful presence outside of his door.

For someone that didn't want to be found by seemingly every other participant in the competition, he was certainly coming to bother Sagat quite often.

"What do you want Bison?" Sagat said in an unamused tone of voice. He had endured his fill of the man for one day, that was for certain, "I'm taking this time to myself until my matches tomorrow."

"Just wanted to let you know that Ryu is about to have his bout." He could see the slimy smile on the dictator's face even from behind the door to his room, as if he always had an ace up his sleeve to keep the upper hand, "I figured that would be something you wanted to see."

"No need." Sagat said, dismissive of the entire thing, "The only time I need to see him is when we finally meet in the final fight. Until then everything else is a precursor." Not that Bison could see it, but he then snarled angrily, "Bison… if you do anything to keep him from coming into our destined battle at any less than his absolute best-."

"I would never interfere with the integrity of my tournament."

Of course he wouldn't. Because once he did, people would know that he was truly there and all bets would be off. There wouldn't be any more song and dance waiting on him. Anyone that was able enough to do so would go for his jugular without delay. Several people in the tournament wanted his head on a pike, and more than a few of them were of the kill-at-the-nearest-opening variety.

"Good." Sagat said regardless of how much he distrusted his 'boss', "Because the moment things stray from our agreed upon terms I don't care what you have over me or will try to hold against me. You'll have to try and kill me, because this fight with Ryu is something I would stake my life on regardless."

"Have it your way then." Bison said as he departed from behind the door, back to wherever he was taking refuge until he felt it necessary to insert himself into the affair, "Good luck."

Sagat merely returned to his inner pondering, trying to get his mind right for the trials of tomorrow, "Luck is for losers…"

XxX

(Temple Courtyard – Ken vs. Ryu)

Standing in front of each other in their similar gi attire, Ken and Ryu both stared at each other with differing looks on their faces. The confident, stoic, well-prepared expression of Ryu as he seemed to be sizing his best friend up, and Ken's look of boisterous assurance and excitement at getting to compete against one another.

They had some tough acts to follow, but right now wasn't about how good the fight would be. No, they just wanted to defeat the other. It was as simple as that.

"Ready?" Ken asked, flicking his blonde hair over his shoulder casually, smirking at his childhood training partner, "Don't think all of that 'defending champion' crap means anything to me. You'd better come at me to win bro."

"Don't worry about me, I'll hold up my end of things." Ryu replied, slipping into their shared fighting stance that Ken mirrored, "You'll get nothing less than one-hundred percent in this match." There was no need for him to bow to Ken as equals. That much went unsaid as far as they were concerned. They had done things like this hundreds of times before.

Just not in front of an audience and to a definite finish.

"The third match of the quarterfinals features the U.S. Champion Ken Masters against the defending tournament champion in Ryu! Fight!"

The first to make a move was Ken, who dashed forward in a blur before stopping just out of striking range. Ryu didn't bite on the fake though, and Ken used a switch-leg front kick to probe at Ryu's defenses.

Other than being knocked back a couple of steps, Ryu was well off and ready to bring the fight right back to his friend. He started striking with his left and right hands, but Ken was able to get inside and block the punches before they could swing around and gain any power to them. Dropping low he aimed to kick out one of Ryu's legs and succeeded in doing so, dropping him to one knee before sticking him with an uppercut that sent him stumbling back, chin raised in the air with a darkening bruise on it.

A very pleased looking Ken didn't try to over-pursue as he knew that Ryu wasn't stunned enough to warrant an all-out follow up attack. Still he was very pleased with his current handiwork, landing the first clean blow of the battle, "No steak for you after today I'd wager."

Ryu lowered his chin with a challenging look on his face as he tried to downplay just how solidly Ken had hit him. It was really a great shot. Had Ken been in the position to use the Shoryuuken it probably would have ended the fight, but the blond bomber clearly took what he could get on that occasion, "You get one of those." Everybody gets one.

"I'll get as many as I damn well want!" Ken stated aloud as he headed back in to do battle with his opponent once again.

"Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" Ryu fired a quick blast of blue ki at Ken who dodged to the side, but that was according to plan. Ryu followed the path of his own Hadoken in his approach and got Ken's side in an outmaneuvering attempt. Ken spotted him and turned to face him properly, but suffered a hard fist sunken deep in his belly that lifted him off of the ground.

Transferring and chaining out of the energy of that punch, Ryu grabbed the front of Ken's gi and the back of it with his other hand before tightening his thick muscles and shifting into a hard slam onto the ground that smashed the brick.

"What high impact! And the fight is still in its early stages! This is going to get wild ladies and gentlemen!"

The moment Ken's body hit the ground, blood that had originally started welling up from how Ryu had punched him sprayed from his mouth. What a forceful move. He thought that Ryu would be too straightforward in his fighting approach to pull a wily feint with his bread and butter attack; his Hadoken.

But when Ryu's hand left his gi, Ken spun around on his back and swept at Ryu's legs to keep him from following up. Ryu was no fool though and flipped in the air over the attempt at his standing base.

Ken kipped back up to his feet nimbly and met Ryu's falling kick with a forceful punch that sent out a shockwave upon impact. No one was close enough to feel it, but the statues of the courtyard were, and some that weren't already destroyed by the day of battles had some pieces chip off of them as a result.

Both men were pushed away, Ken back along the ground and Ryu into a backflip that he landed safely from. Since he already had his legs underneath him the next move belonged to Ken as he tracked Ryu's trajectory and leapt at him, spinning like a top with one leg extended, "Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (Tornado Whirlwind Leg)!"

Ryu landed and immediately got his arms up to block, but it was far too much force for him to hold up against and the spinning kicks knocked him off of his feet and back through the air until he landed and rolled through back on his feet to meet an advancing Ken.

As they broke into vicious hand-to-hand fighting that looked almost choreographed in how smooth each parry and dodge was, the crowd roared in approval and chanted the name of their favorite fighter in the current matchup.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Fighter Standby Building – Medic Bay)

No surgery was really needed as Cammy had just dislocated his wrist badly, but they still needed to protect that joint from further damage while it healed. Sasuke stood by and took a sort of morbid satisfaction in seeing and hearing the doctor pop Naruto's wrist back into place. The look on his face of him trying not to yell out was admittedly hilarious as well.

While a protective shell was being placed around Naruto's hand and lower forearm, Sasuke decided to appease his earlier curiosity, "You're into that girl. That Cammy girl." It wasn't so much a question as it was a statement.

"I don't know." Naruto said, annoyed at having to keep his entire left arm still so that the cast could be put on him, "It's weird. Don't ask. I can't tell, but even if I am I don't need it. There are already girls that want something to do with me, and I care about them all too." He really hoped that they would just outgrow him at some point, because he didn't know what he wanted.

While he could appreciate the cautious approach to a delicate situation, the rebuttal was decidedly blunt, "Pick one and be done with it." Sasuke insisted with a roll of his eyes, "It's not rocket science dobe. Just do what you want. There's nothing more to it than that."

In return the Uchiha teen took a glare from Naruto, "Listen, this isn't your kind of thing where I'm gonna ignore them for four years and hope they go away. And it's not like you where you're only into one girl for sure that you want anything to do with." He said, giving Sasuke a flat stare when he looked away from him, "You treat Kazama Daigo's little sister Akira ten times better than you've ever treated any other girl I've ever-."

"Shut up or I'll break your other hand." In response to the threat, Naruto just lifted said unbroken free hand in a defensively dismissive manner as things cooled down again. This brought Sasuke to his next point, "I think I've got a lead on how to get us home. Dhalsim. His teleportation ability has to be some kind of space-time thing."

Naruto hesitated a bit at hearing Sasuke speak about going back to their dimension. He didn't know if it was the ringing in his head or not, but he figured it was time to be honest with himself and by proxy Sasuke as well, "…Sasuke, I don't want to go back. I love it here."

Batsu was right. Even if it had been a promise, if it made him miserable and broke his life and the lives of many other up there was no reason to keep seeking such a thing.

"I already know, remember? You think I do?" That wasn't the response from Sasuke that Naruto had expected, "I don't want to go back. There's nothing for me there except a jail cell or the gallows. I defected from the village, attacked two of its shinobi on the way out, put four more in mortal danger, and joined the sworn enemy of Konoha." When you were an Uchiha Clan member you did everything big, especially when it came to fucking things up, in one sense or another.

And it was true enough if one were to be realistic. It wasn't like very much good will would be instilled by his body of actions, especially once it was noted that Sasuke had heightened his Cursed Seal to the state that it was really meant to be used at.

"If that's the case, why are you looking for a way back?"

"Because while I might not want to go home, I need to go back home Naruto. I'm the only one that can kill my brother."

"What if he's already dead?"

"…Then I don't need to go back at all. But there's no way I can find out stuck here."

"…Somebody told me that I should just do what I want; what makes me happy. If you go back to kill your brother but you're stuck as a missing-nin, is that really going to make you happy?"

Sasuke hadn't been happy since he was seven years old. The thought of actually doing something for himself instead of what he felt he needed to do felt foreign to him. He almost committed to such a thing back when they had been on Team 7, but things changed again and put him right back on the determined path of revenge.

"Revenge is not always sweet. Once it is consummated we feel inferior to our victim."

"Living well in the face of your perpetrator is the best revenge."

Gen's words. He seemed to have a million little proverbs in his head. How the old killer knew that Sasuke's motivations for strength had been revenge he'd never know, but he'd been going on about it for years. Even now to this day still.

In the end, Sasuke just shoved his hands in his pockets and turned to leave Naruto alone in the room where his cast was being placed on his arm. Naruto couldn't follow due to the diligent work meant to cover his arm in a protective shell, "Naruto I've forgotten what being happy feels like." He said when Naruto was far out of earshot.

XxX

(Temple Courtyard – Ryu vs. Ken)

A punch lands to Ryu's temple that snaps his head around.

A retaliatory punch connects that smashes Ken's nose on his face.

A kick slams a shin into Ryu's side, nearly folding him in half.

The kick is caught and in return an uppercut hits Ken under the chin while his legs is caught.

Already off-balance, Ken was knocked up slightly by the uppercut before back handspringing through it and landing on his feet. But the moment he got his eyes back on Ryu he saw the man preparing a Hadoken. Another one? Come on bud, he had to come a bit more original than that. They had been taught the same way, "Shakunetsu Hadoken (Scorching Surge Fist)!"

And Ryu shot off a Hadoken that glowing orange and looked none too friendly to the touch. Well that was a new wrinkle.

Thinking that it was just cosmetic in difference though, Ken managed to find a way to dodge it, but felt the sheer heat coming off of it when it passed by him. No, that wasn't even close to the same Hadoken that they had both known.

Just how different it was happened to be put on display when it flew the length of the arena and collided with the protective wall, exploding hard on contact and shocking the fans nearby into fear.

Ken was amazed that Ryu had created a Hadoken stronger than the original that exploded in contact. Dangerous to use as it was, it created explosions, and explosions were cool. Both men were taking visible breaths and were wearing the bruises and wounds of war, "If you think that a new Hadoken is all it'll take to beat me, you're dead wrong."

"It couldn't hurt to try and win with it though." Ryu said with a rare smirk on his face before getting into position to fire another one. Ken seemed prepared to dodge as he saw the ki build in Ryu's hands, but Ryu instead of shooting the projectile vanished in a blur of speed and caught Ken unaware with a series of punches from the backside at his kidneys on both sides.

Swinging around in an about face to keep the pressure away from his blindspot, Ken only served to turn himself around as Ryu moved with him and continued his onslaught on Ken's torso. Did Ryu really know how Ken moved that well to the extent that he could so effectively shadow him? It seemed so, because that was what was happening.

Eventually his legs gave out and Ken stumbled forward a few steps before he fell face forward on the ground due to the beating that his body had taken. A few coughs and droplets of blood dripped onto the ground as a result and Ken had to take into account that Ryu had been using his guts as a heavy bag for an extended period of time.

Wary of the possibility of a sudden resilient wakeup counter from Ken, Ryu stayed back and shifted into a cooldown stance while he waited for Ken to either be deemed unable to continue or get off of the ground.

'Okay… none of that was cool.' Ken thought to himself as he picked himself back up, 'Fine then. I asked for it didn't I?" That he did. And he was about to give it right back to Ryu in kind.

Speaking of whom, Ryu was not surprised in the least when Ken got up again. He knew that the man would be a tougher out than that. He was actually pleased that living in his comfortable life with his wife didn't dull Ken's fighting spirit any. After getting back up, Ken beckoned him forth again and Ryu wasn't shy to do just that.

Streaking ahead, Ryu smashed his fist off of Ken's head, but he didn't stumble back. Instead he grabbed Ryu by the inside of his glove to ensure he had a grip and pulled him into a backwards roll. Ken had them rolling in reverse like a wheel before finally kicking Ryu off and hurling him into the stone stairs, breaking into them with his body.

"Hadoken (Surge Fist)!"

The ball of ki slammed into Ryu and mashed him farther into the stairs on impact, also burning away part of the front of his gi and the skin on his chest. Ken's Hadoken attacks weren't as fast or as strong as his own, but they were still destructive.

"You give up?" Ken shouted across the courtyard at Ryu who was slowly starting to get up from the rubble that had been formed out of the steps. No one would be using the first five of those again. Still though, Ryu gave no answer when he got to his feet again, and Ken fired another Hadoken across the field, striking him right in the chest, "How about now?"

Being blown into a reclining position in the hole on the stairs wasn't really as comfortable as it sounded. Ryu felt like his entire rib structure could have been blown out of his back by Ken's second Hadoken and he found it hard to even move from his place. Still though, he was not about to surrender. If Ken wanted to win he had to stop him for real.

"So hardheaded…" Ken said as he charged another Hadoken and let it fly, "I can do this until you black out you know!" And to prove his point he kept firing away. Each blast that landed shoving Ryu further into the hole that was carved from the ancient stairs. The crowd cringed and felt the ground shake from every single one that landed.

'Is this really what's going to beat me?' Ryu thought to himself frantically as he felt his body begin to shut down. His arms became heavier and harder to move and the bump count of the battle was beginning to catch up to him with the damage accumulated.

He could hear each shot that he felt slamming off of him, he could hear the stone and dirt crumbling around him, he could hear the crowd noise pounding in his ears, and then it all began to fade out. The sounds stopped, the pain stopped even though Ken's attack had yet to cease.

And Ryu began to mentally panic. Was he out of it? Would they stop the fight? Was it all over? No, he couldn't lose like that. He owed not only Ken, but the people watching him his very best. He had to prove to himself that he was as powerful as everyone thought he was from the first tournament, that his win over Sagat wasn't a fluke and that he could do it without the evil Satsui no Hadou.

He couldn't lose yet. Not there. Not when he had so much to prove.

"You're stronger than him! Why are you letting that weakling get the better of you? Fighting is who we are! Now stand up!"

The urging of the dark drive to win inside of his head prompted to Ryu to basically rise from the dead, even as another Hadoken impacted off of him. He merely snarled and shrugged it off. His now tattered white gi hung off of his waist where his belt had been holding it closed until then. Before he could take one more shot he seemingly vanished from sight without even moving his legs, as if he were sliding across the ground.

Ken caught sight of his movements and his jaw dropped, "That speed technique… I've seen that before!" From Akuma. The Ashura Senku (Asura Flashing Sky). It was what the more-demon-than-man used to dodge his surprise attack and knock him out cold from his blind spot in one fluid movement, "How did he learn to do that?"

"I'll show you a real Hadoken." Ryu said in a grim and vile tone of voice before moving his arms into position and charging an intense concentration of purple energy, larger than the normal Hadoken that he normally created, "Die in flames!"

There was something seriously wrong and Ken knew it. Ryu's eyes had turned red in color and there was an aura of darkness around him, visibly red in color. No, this was too much like that man… like Akuma. A tentatively defensive Ken kept a wary eye on Ryu as his power seemed to grow stronger and stronger. The chipped pieces of stone from the battlefield began to levitate somewhat off of the ground due to his mere presence, "Oh hell, I can't beat that straight up. Not a chance."

"Metsu Hadoken (Destroying Surge Fist)!"

A gargantuan rippling purple ball of ki was fired from Ryu's hands like a bullet and even before it flew Ken could feel the sheer killing intent flying off of it. There wasn't a chance that he could survive if it hit him, "You've got to be kidding me!" Channeling ki to his legs to the extent that the bottoms of his pants caught ablaze, Ken focused every bit of power he had with only one intent behind it, "Man I really hope Eliza isn't watching this! Guren Senpukyaku (Crimson Lotus Whirlwind Kick)!"

It was an absolutely awe-inspiring sight.

Spinning like a flaming saw blade, Ken cut Ryu's massive Hadoken clean in half with his legs. The two split halves of the horrible attack continued to fly until they reached the large arches at the end of the arena that had seen fighters like Fei Long make their exit from the venue altogether. Well it was turned into a towering heap of falling rubble when the two segmented Hadoken halves hit them and obliterated them.

As things had just gotten real and threatening, people started panicking and clearing the way in the opposite direction from where the destruction had been wrought. They knew that the people in the tournament were strong, but to completely annihilate a beautiful, well-built, and durable piece of key temple architecture like that was terrifying. And Ken had just survived such a thing by cutting it in half with his kicks?

Ken landed in a spinning, sliding stop from his kicks, but despite going straight through the Hadoken right at Ryu, the man himself wasn't on the other side of his own ultimate projectile.

But without warning, Ryu appeared behind him in a speedy burst with his arm raised to deliver a finishing rabbit punch of death to the back of Ken's neck. He stopped short however and seemed to be fighting with himself to bring it all to an end, 'No! I'm not that kind of person! I won't kill, especially not my closest friend!'

"Finish him off! Begin the Shun Goku Satsu (Instant Hell Murder)! He's ripe for the killing! Prove our strength by taking his life! Only the strong should be allowed to live and no one is stronger than we are!"

The gasp of the crowd alerted Ken that Ryu had taken his back, and without hesitating due to his buddy's seeming intent to end his life he moved to take advantage. It was still a fight, and he could still see the murder in Ryu's eyes, "Shinryuuken (Divine Dragon Fist)!" Ken put everything he had into a flaming Shoryuuken that sucked Ryu's body into a vertical spiraling vacuum of fire that carried him up past Ken's fist and into the air.

A flaming Ryu fell from the air and dropped to the ground in a heap, staring at the sky with his normal brown eyes instead of the warped red eyes that he possessed under the influence of his dark side.

He was still conscious, but his body wouldn't respond to anything any longer, 'I… lost.' He thought to himself as he shut his eyes in serene contemplation, "…Good."

This merely proved that the evil inside of him wasn't suppressed the way he wanted it to be yet. To prove himself as the true fighter he knew he could be he simply could not rely on that twisted surge of power from within him. It influenced him to do terrible things. He was about to kill Ken for God's sake. If he hadn't stopped himself and had actually gone through with it he didn't know what he would have done afterwards.

A thoroughly exhausted Ken stood over him, looking down in a scrutinizing manner as he tried to locate any sign of an unstable Ryu, "Is that you back in there bro? Did I punch all of the crazy out of you?"

"For now anyway." Ryu replied in a mumble with a straining sigh, "You win today."

Having dealt with a killer Ryu in the past, Ken had to admit that the brainwashed Ryu under the influence of Bison's Psycho Power was nothing compared to Satsui no Hadou Ryu. There was simply no comparison. One was just more brutal and callous than regular Ryu, and the other was supercharged in addition to being infinitely more violent and uncaring in the devastation that he inflicted.

He never came face-to-face with this power when Ryu was having his identity crisis years back, but now he could see why his best friend had been so alarmed at the time. On two separate occasions he could have ended Ken's life in back-to-back situations, "Man, if you learned how to harness that power-."

"-I can't! I don't need it!" Ryu snapped from his place on the ground, "Don't you see by now? If I give in to that power I'll become like him! Like Akuma! You were right here! You saw exactly what it did to me!"

If there was one thing that Ken didn't like hearing out of Ryu it was the sound of him being a quitter. It just didn't fit with who the man was. Being afraid of himself was just not in the question. With an abject turn he walked away from Ryu as the medics ran onto the field to assist the downed former champion, "Okay. Well until you learn how to either use it and win with it or suppress it and keep from freaking out you can just keep losing like this when the fights get too tough." He said dismissively.

He wasn't about to help Ryu throw a pity party for himself. They were meant to push and drive each other to new heights, not stay muddled with each other down in the dumps. No one grew any stronger or better as a man that way. He won today. Ryu lost today. He was meant to focus on how to fix what went wrong and learn from it for next time, not dwell on it and lose his nerve. The last time Ryu did that his slump lasted for longer than a year.

"In what I have to say is something of an upset, Ken Masters has defeated and eliminated the last champion of the World Warrior Tournament! Ryu is out, and Ken advances to the semifinal round to face the winner of the last match of the day. In just a moment it'll be Sasuke vs. Dhalsim, but I don't see how they can top the incredible display we've just seen!"

XxX

(Fighter Standby Building – Medic Bay)

"No way. He's out?" It was hard for Naruto to believe as the last touches to his hard cast on his left arm were put on. He had managed to view the battle between friends and fighters of the same discipline on the TV provided in the room and he was surprised by what he had seen, "Wow. Ryu actually lost after all of that."

Was that the strange Hadou power that Ryu had told him about once upon a time? It was definitely reminiscent of the strength that Akuma used to utterly batter them into pulp back in the summer, but not as refined, as if he were inexperienced with what to do to make the use of so much dark ki.

It was clear that he held back from the finish though. It was a good thing that he did too, because from the looks of the first strike of what he was going to do to put an end to the fight with Ken it would have crippled or killed him.

"And we're done." The doctor affixing the solid cast to Naruto's arm said, patting it a few times to make sure that it was as dense and as hard as he had figured it would be, "That should keep that hand safe until the joint and the tendons in your wrist repair themselves… at least until you fight again." He then got up muttering to himself about how his hard work was just going to get destroyed within twenty-four hours of him completing it.

"Thanks." Naruto said to the departing doctor, only getting a grunt and a half-hearted wave over the shoulder from the medical worker. But with the rush of injuries that the day had brought his work it was understandable that he'd be grouchy. This tournament was tearing the formerly beautiful and elaborate courtyard of the martial arts monastery apart and had already reduced one very grand structure outside of it to chunks of rock.

With no more reason to sit in the lone room by himself he walked back into the place set aside for the injured competitors that needed the rest, such as Chun-Li and Cammy. The other fighters were still on the premises doing their own thing elsewhere, and Naruto wasn't about to go around searching for them before the last match of the day. He needed to get to Dhalsim and the only time he'd know where the man was for sure was during his fight with Sasuke. He needed to be able to get down there quickly after their match had concluded so he needed to stay close to the courtyard.

Upon entering the room he found Chun-Li awake and sitting up in her bed with her boots off, her ox-tails undone letting her hair down naturally, a bandage wrapped around her forehead, and one stuck to her cheek covering a deep bruise that he had inflicted on her. The doctors had clearly made sure that she could be as comfortable as possible for the duration of her downtime.

Her eyes flickered to him and gifted him with a warm smile, not angry about her defeat, "What's up little brother? Came to check up on me?"

"I just watched Ryu get beaten by Ken in high-definition." Naruto remarked, sitting down on her bed next to her once she pulled her legs in to give him room, "So that leaves me against Sagat tomorrow and Ken against either Dhalsim or Sasuke." But he didn't care too much about that as his gaze moved over to Cammy again, "Did she wake up yet?"

"No." Chun-Li said with a frown, "But she did take a pretty bad beating at the end there. Worse than anyone else that lost in this whole thing. She's aware though. You can see her respond to things when you touch her so she's fine. Probably just exhausted." She then shoved Naruto up off of the bed with one of her feet, "Now go watch the last match. I'll be right here in case anything changes."

When Chun-Li pushed him with her leg she nearly kicked him straight out the door whether she knew it or not so she was clearly fine other than the beating that he had to give her to defeat her, "You sure you're up for it?"

"Yeah, sure. It's not like I can leave her alone when she can't defend herself right?" She said with a shrug, "You've got to remember that this tournament is still Shadaloo-sponsored. Bison could try anything anywhere, and a snake like him would go after the softest target he could first. She's the only one of us that stayed down and out after she lost to Sagat, and I doubt that having his right-hand man beat the daylights out of her marks the limit of what he wants with us."

Okay, yeah. Good idea. The medic bay was kind of remote. Even though they were martial arts monks and would definitely try to stop him if he attempted to kidnap Cammy under their watch (sponsor or not), the medics probably couldn't stop Bison from doing so or worse if he tried to leave with her.

"Well if you need help in a hurry just make a mess of something." Naruto said, making the okay sign with his fingers, "Everyone else around here is doing it, right?" He tried to keep spirits up, but the day was turning into a cluster and nothing had even happened yet.

As he walked down the weathered hall to head back outside he threw his hands up behind his neck and squinted his eyes in thought. Everyone that knew what was up with the tournament had been turned into a bundle of nerves and Bison hadn't even shown that he was even alive to them yet.

Guile was losing his sense of self after his bid for revenged tapered out in the very first round and had gone off to do whatever it was he did when he inwardly reflected. He seemed to be a shaken man.

While not directly involved in everything, he was still aware of it all, and Blanka had gotten his arm broken by Cammy. Afterwards he had gone off into the forests around the temple to rest and heal where he felt comfortable.

E. Honda was probably the best off out of all of them since he was probably off chowing down to refuel after his defeat.

Ryu had lost his composure and had let his 'dark side' out in the middle of a fight with his best friend and nearly killed the man before suppressing it at the last moment. It resulted in a rather resounding defeat at the hands of said best friend and now he was clearly all mixed up over what had almost overcome him.

Ken was probably rattled by what he had just had to endure, and was probably also questioning if he really deserved to be that far in the tournament since Ryu had him dead to rights and merely pulled back on ending it. That had to be dominating his thoughts instead of anything about a genocidal megalomaniac that for all intents and purposes seemed to be nothing more than a shadow looming over the entire competition.

Chun-Li was still resting and healing from her defeat to Naruto and she seemed to be a bit antsy and stir-crazy while waiting on the real reason for their presence to pop off. She wanted to get to the bottom of this and take Bison's head off in the worst way. She just needed an excuse and a target.

Cammy was all kinds of beaten up via Sagat's brutal methods in their quarterfinal matchup and she still hadn't shown signs of consciousness since. Aside from that she had seemingly lost control of her own physical actions on two separate occasions when she handicapped both Blanka and Naruto in an absent-minded state.

This place was turning into a powder keg and Naruto had to wonder just how many of them knew it and how much of it was just all in their heads. The anticipation of what was to become of them after walking into the web of the spider seemed to be tearing them all apart inside, and nothing was even happening.

With an irritable growl he kicked the doors to the temple building open and went outside amid the cheering crowd as the last match of the day was set to begin.

XxX

(Temple Courtyard – Dhalsim vs. Sasuke)

The two final fighters of the day stood across from each other as the nearly set sun bathed the entire temple grounds in orange as if everything were on fire. Neither man nor teenager said a word to the other as Dhalsim had his eyes closed completely.

Though his face didn't show it, Sasuke was a bit put off that Dhalsim already seemed to know about the chances of being caught in a genjutsu. He had to be aware of the danger of eye contact somehow. That didn't sit well with him.

"It's the finale of day one! Sasuke Uchiha vs. Dhalsim: fight!"

Sasuke quickly placed his hands together to begin forming hand-seals, but as he did, Dhalsim threw a punch. Not just any punch since any normal melee attack would have never reached that distance. Dhalsim's punch did though, as his entire arm stretched out like rubber and flew at Sasuke's face.

It missed when Sasuke narrowly leaned his head out of the way, but when the arm retracted the hand grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him facedown along the ground until Dhalsim finally let go.

Well someone thought they were a bit of a badass didn't they? An angry Sasuke looked up and lunged forward for a knife-hand strike at the close-up Dhalsim's throat only for him to teleport out of the way. In confusion Sasuke looked around to see where he had gotten to and caught him reappearing out of the corner of his eye in midair and launching both of his arms at him in another stretchy, ranged punch.

This time he wasn't taking the chance of going for the close slipping of strikes in order to set up for counterattacks. He dove clear out of the way and made sure there was nothing coming close to harming him, 'He can keep me from ever getting close and he can still fight me as if he were right next to me!' Sasuke had always hated fighting people that were taller than him, but this was something else altogether.

Dhalsim landed on the ground gracefully with his palms pressed together as he inhaled deeply and spat a small fireball Sasuke's way, "Yoga Fire!" The young man quickly avoided the small fireball, but when his eyes turned back to Dhalsim he caught the last dregs of the man's presence before he teleported again, "Yoga Teleport!"

Once again a stretchy limb flew past Sasuke's head from another area just out of his original field of vision. This time it was a foot and a leg that jutted out with the speed of a javelin trying to take his head off. He let loose a barrage of shuriken to cut that noodle of a leg up nicely, but it shot back to regular length from Dhalsim almost instantly, forcing him to have wasted the weaponry.

Enough of this crap.

Sasuke resolved to get close enough to make that infuriating man hurt one way or another. He wanted answers from him, and he was quite certain he'd have to beat what he wanted out of Dhalsim first. At the moment he seemed a long way away from that. A straightforward rushdown was dangerous, but he had the medicine for that.

Lightning formed in his right hand before he swung it out in an arcing pattern, "Chidori Senbon (One Thousand Birds Senbon)!" Countless needles of electricity danced from Sasuke's fingertips and streaked across the battlefield like horizontal raindrops.

Not that Sasuke was surprised by what occurred, but Dhalsim merely teleported out of the way once again. Alright, that was expected. Annoying, but expected. Sasuke immediately turned and ran in the direction that he would have tried to land at had he been presented with the same ability. He turned toward his own blindspot on his weak arm side.

And there Dhalsim was, firing a low fist out at him again like an elastic battering ram. Sasuke saw it and dashed right past it, Chidori still in hand, 'Beat the retraction, beat the retraction, beat the retraction!' He was fast. Faster than anyone he had ever gone up against actually, but he still wasn't that fast. And before he could make it to Dhalsim himself and jab right through him with it, Dhalsim's arm returned. Still, the chance to punch right through him was present.

Until at the very last second, Dhalsim balanced on one leg and stretched just out of Sasuke's range of reach. He couldn't believe it, but the shin he received across his face immediately after sobered him up to his missed attack very quickly. Rolling through his knockdown, Sasuke hopped back up to his feet and was right back on the attack, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!"

Several small and speedy fireballs flew from Sasuke's mouth at Dhalsim. Faster and more numerous than the Indian spiritual leader's, but did that give Sasuke any satisfaction to show the man how a fire attack was supposed to be done? No, not as long as none of them were hitting him.

But as a matter of fact, two grazed him. Dhalsim intentionally leapt into the air and flew at Sasuke like a missile, spinning and leading with his head, "Yoga Mummy!" He dove straight through the smaller fireballs and didn't show any burns or any real damage at all.

This man was making light of so many of his techniques. Sasuke could feel the angry mark on his neck flaring up, but he kept it down. No, it wouldn't do to use the Cursed Seal here. Not now. He had everything he needed to win without giving up his trump card. He just needed time to think. Luckily, Dhalsim continued spiraling forward until he landed on his feet. This was more than enough time for Sasuke to even the score so to speak.

"Hyakurenko!" With a burst of speed, Sasuke was right in front of Dhalsim, delivering rapid-fire jabs at Dhalsim's face and body with a Mantis Kung Fu style of delivery. His method of using the technique was different from the place he had learned it, but it was adjusted for his own use.

With one solid kick to the head, Sasuke sent Dhalsim away forcefully. The man proceeded to get back up right after though. Who knew that a Yoga practitioner would be such a tough out in combat?

"Your fighting style is strange." Dhalsim said as he retook his strange ready stance, "It doesn't seem to be based on anything in particular, but seems to include dozens if not hundreds of forms. You spread yourself too thin. Your focus is skewed."

"I'll show you how skewed my focus is you-!" The hotheaded response from Sasuke was cut off when Dhalsim sat on thin air in his meditative posture, a precursor to something Sasuke had already seen time and time again in this battle. And once again, Dhalsim vanished into thin air.

That damned technique again! But much to Sasuke's luck this time he reappeared right in front of him, swinging his fist downward in a hammer-like motion that Sasuke blocked overhand, simultaneously sinking a powerful fist into his opponent's emaciated looking belly.

For the trouble of actually landing his blow, Sasuke was rewarded with a face full of flames that spewed forth from Dhalsim's mouth. It was a momentary bath of fire for Sasuke before he retreated and dove as far out of the line of the blaze as he could.

With a growl he ripped away his flaming black shirt and winced at the light burns on his face. His hands had gotten the worst of the fire though and it showed in the red and blistered skin of his wounds. Getting burned hurt! Was that what he'd been doing to people for all of these years?

"Please give up."

Sasuke looked up and saw Dhalsim hovering in the air in a seated meditative position, "Give up?" Sasuke parroted with a scoff, "Are you out of your mind? One little fire spray and you think you've got me beaten just like that? I've been playing with fire since I was seven years old. This isn't the first time I've been burned." It was just the first time it had happened this badly.

"I despise fighting and harming others, so I would rather not do so." Dhalsim continued to say as he remained hovering in the air, "But winning this tournament will provide the village I've sworn to protect with the things that it needs, and I will not lose."

"That's unfortunate." Sasuke said as he looked up at his airborne enemy, "Because when it comes to things like this, people that enjoy it at least a little will always do better than the people that hate it. I don't mind fighting at all. It's what the Uchiha bloodline is meant to do!"

With a resigned sigh, Dhalsim just chose to teleport again. Sasuke's eyes could keep up with any regular movement he made and Sasuke's body was quicker than his by a significant margin, thus teleporting was the only reliable way he could get any kind of positional edge over his young adversary.

This time he lucked out incredibly and reappeared at Sasuke's back as the former ninja looked around in every direction he figured Dhalsim would appear from. This was the time for an attack that would end the fight without harming him more than necessary.

"Come with me my friend." He said mostly to himself before stretching his arms out and grabbing onto Sasuke's shoulders, "Yoga Shangri-La!" He pulled himself downward vertically leading with the top of his head like a spike to drop down on top of Sasuke's head had he not looked up at the very last moment with his cheeks puffed out and a victorious look in his eyes.

"Katon: Gouryuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu)!" A large, grand flaming dragon head flew out of Sasuke's mouth and up at Dhalsim, burning the length of his arms that had by then let go of him, and followed shortly thereafter by his entire body being covered in the rising fireball.

The high-temperature jutsu continued to rise into the air, trailing hot black smoke behind it like a bad engine until it burst high in the sky, covering the air above the temple in dark clouds that put an early sundown on the day's festivities.

But Sasuke cared not for this. That jutsu should have incinerated Dhalsim. It had been a direct hit, had scored perfectly. He couldn't have aimed any better if he had been shooting at a stationary dummy. But not only was his body still completely intact, he looked none the worse for wear. The nasty burns that covered his entire visible body should have been seen as gifts from above compared to what should have happened. That was Sasuke's strongest fire technique.

"How?" Dhalsim said, voice fraught with pain as he lay twitching in deep discomfort on the ground, "I had your back. There was no way you knew I was coming. You need to use your hands to prepare your spiritual attacks."

"My eyes see things that no one else can see." Sasuke said, drawing attention to his red Sharingan eyes, "When you teleport you leave a ripple of your energy behind. The same thing happens in the exact area that you plan to reappear in. I saw it before you made it to that spot before your last flanking maneuver and kept my back to you so that I could prepare my hand-seals without you seeing me do it."

He hadn't planned on Dhalsim grabbing him and trying to compress his spine and crush his skull for his next move, but it all worked out in the end and made him look like a genius. All in all it couldn't have worked out much better for the scenario he had been placed into.

Still though. He had obtained the win that he wanted. Now he could get something else that he was seeking out of the mysterious Indian mystic. Namely of his odd assortment of abilities. And one in particular more than the others.

"My turn for the questions." Sasuke said, planting a foot on Dhalsim's chest and forming a Chidori in his right hand just in case it was needed for some persuasion. Hey, they hadn't called the match off yet so it wasn't illegal, "You should be dead. How did you survive?"

Cringing at the touch to his burns despite the fact that it was light, Dhalsim saw no reason to hide his ability, "It is a blessing from the god of fire that I worship, Agni. A gift for my dutiful adherence to my spiritual training. What concern is it to you?" He asked, getting no answer at first and getting him to narrow his eyes at Sasuke, "But that is not the real question you wish to ask me. I am sorry child, but I have no way of returning you to your dimension with my teleportation abilities. It is only meant to pull me through the astral plane to a determined location in this realm."

He probably looked into his mind to figure out what he really desired before Sasuke could say it. Well was that so?

Then he was of no use to Sasuke from that point forward, "Hm. Sorry for wasting your time then. Good match." He said, parting from that point as he needed nothing else from him at that moment. Right then, Sasuke needed to go get some damn ointment for his burns and hope that none of them were too bad.

"The winner of the last match of the quarterfinal round in a blazing duel of fire against fire: Sasuke Uchiha! He advances to the semifinals on day two to face off with another fire-starting competitor in Ken Masters!"

Not long after the announcement was made, Dhalsim's skyward view was filled with the sight of Naruto, looking down at him a bit worriedly at his condition, "Uh, are you alright? Sasuke-teme kind of… char-broiled you." He knew the feeling, but the fireball Sasuke hit Dhalsim with was way worse.

"I can assure you that I will be fine." Dhalsim said to assuage him and his concerns, "Fire is not something that can harm me so easily. That makes it all the more impressive that the Sasuke boy was able to defeat me with it. It probably would have killed another had it hit them." The casual way that he said such a thing, as if it weren't a big deal that his life had just been in jeopardy simply reaffirmed Naruto's belief that Dhalsim was a freaky guy.

If he was sure about that, it was time to get down to the real reason that Naruto had rushed down to him after he had been defeated in his match. Concern for the man's health aside, there was a deep need for Naruto to get to the point, "Okay, well I came to talk to you because… I think I'm ready. I'm ready for whatever you have to do to get me right again."

Any semblance of pain flowing through Dhalsim's system stopped at that and he fixed Naruto with a stern and unyielding stare. His injured body was now secondary in importance, "And you're certain of this? I cannot feel that far into your emotions. It is something that only you can confirm."

And confirm he did, "I'm ready." There wasn't any more time to waste. Naruto hadn't gotten word from the Kyuubi inside of him, hadn't felt a bit of its chakra even when he had been in dire straits since he went down from his injuries at Akuma's hands in early June. It had been six months since then, "I don't want to sound like I'm in a rush or anything, but when's the soonest that we can-?"

"Tonight." Dhalsim said, getting up off of the ground slowly before any of the medical staff could even get to him, "Give me some time to rest and heal. I need to regain my energy before we can begin the process. Is that sufficient for you?"

So later that night? That soon? He expected sometime after the tournament at the soonest, not within a few hours. As overwhelming as the timing was, there wasn't a chance that the offer was going to be turned down.

Not with the current situation at hand. More firepower of the biju variety would certainly be most welcome.

"It's perfect." Naruto said with a smirk as he walked with Dhalsim to get his medical attention. The two of them needed to hash out just where it was going to happen, when it was going to happen, and if Dhalsim needed anything extra out of Naruto.

Things were finally looking up. The dark clouds over the temple didn't seem to be very foreboding at all. After all, Sasuke had been the one to make those, not nature. It wasn't like it was a sign from above that everything was going to go to hell in a handbasket in a matter of hours, right?

After all, what could possibly be the most dangerous thing about Naruto's state of mind if the Kyuubi was down?