Anti-hero's Welcome...

Chapter 9 - Anti-hero's Welcome...

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-!

"Die!"

CRUNCH!

And that was the end of Naruto's alarm clock as after smashing it off of the headboard of his bed he tossed it out of his bedroom door into the living room. Didn't that stupid piece of plastic crap know that he was choosing to skip school today? Even though it was a decision made the second he heard the first strains of his alarm the thing still should have known. Didn't it have any danger instincts? Machines were supposed to be superior weren't they?

It was Tuesday morning, three days after the end of the C9 Grand Ace Tournament, and Naruto hadn't been to school ever since the conclusion of the event. Instead of doing that, he had been going over his savings that he had compounded, savings that had taken another positive jump upwards with the dual benefit of Karin's payment for finishing the tournament and the prize money he split with Sakura.

Sakura must have really been still feeling the effects of her injuries because she hadn't been over to get him to go to school since their return. Maybe she was lucky enough to have her mother keep her home due to her poor condition?

Either way, Naruto simply lay back in his bed and covered his eyes with his forearm to keep from staring up at his boring white ceiling.

Shikamaru would be proud of how lazy he was being if the genius boy were there with him.

But being an indolent sack of useless blonde mass never paid his bills, put food on his table, or really benefitted him in any way. With that focus evident in his mind, Naruto rolled out of bed and begrudgingly made his way to his bathroom to get prepared for the day, taking a detour to the living room to punch on his stereo for background noise in his apartment.

Thirty minutes later and Naruto was dressed and tying his shoes that went with his school uniform, a piece of toast hanging out of his mouth. He had skipped Friday for the tournament, Saturday the day after the tournament, and Monday. There were probably a lot of pissed off friends that hadn't heard from him in those days and it was time to face that music.

It didn't take him long to face it either as the second he stepped outside of the door he found himself strung up in a spider web style trap with paints of several different colors dumped all over him after he was caught and stuck.

With his body suspended in the air in front of his doorway awkwardly, Naruto let out a sigh as paint dripped off of his entire body, "Oh. I forgot we were still playing that game." He commented to himself as he ejected a kunai into his hand from the sleeve of his uniform jacket to cut himself down, remembering his ongoing ninja war (a never ending series of pranks and traps) with the lovely teenage kunoichi Ibuki.

Once he cut himself free and his feet hit the ground, bombs burst around him covering his body in glitter.

Oh, that was just arbitrarily cruel.

"Okay… now I've got to go to school just to get her back."

After a shower and a change of clothes of course.

XxX

(One Hour Later – Tamagawa Minami High School)

"So glad you could join us this morning Uzumaki-san." The female teacher said as newly clothed Naruto sheepishly walked into class with faded blotches of paint still visible on his face and hands.

All Naruto did was shrug haplessly towards the teacher before beginning to walk back towards his normal seat. Next to it he could see Ibuki with a rather satisfied look of triumph on her face, letting him know that she was well aware that her prank/trap worked. Once he sat down her smile almost split her face it was so wide at that point, "Good morning Naruto. You look colorful today."

A few fake laughs came from Naruto as he looked her way with a twitching eye and a strained grin, "You know what? I'm actually glad you did that. I needed something to kick my butt back in gear after the tournament anyway."

"Oh stop fussing." Ibuki rolled her eyes at Naruto's 'intimidating' crazy eyes that he was trying to give her, "I was nice and used paint that you can wash out with a shower or two." She said, reaching over to rub Naruto's hair since she could see the glitter still caught in it. Ah, yes she got him so good. He was never going to get her back any better than that, "I set that trap days ago. Are you telling me you just walked into it this morning? I thought you'd disarmed it by now or something."

Naruto grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, turning his body away from Ibuki's in his seat as the teacher kept up the homeroom activities with the remaining time, "I can't believe this is how you treat champions around here."

Running a hand through her long brown hair, Kei chose to chime in from her seat in front of Ibuki and merely pointed to Sakura's chair in front of Naruto where the girl was sleeping with her head on the desk, "No, that's how we treat champions. So don't fall asleep in school, okay Naruto?"

Naruto leaned forward to get a peek and blocked a snicker when he saw the serenely slumbering female fighter with marker drawings on her face courtesy of either Ibuki or Kei, he couldn't tell. He shook his head and poked at the doodles on Sakura's upright cheek, getting her to shift a bit in her sleep without waking up.

"Aw, that's messed up…" Naruto said before an evil grin came over his face and he planted a very solid kiss on Sakura's cheek to test how deep her sleep was before holding out his hand towards Kei, "Give me a marker. It's my turn."

XxX

(Later That Day)

"You jackasses." Sakura muttered from behind a cloth that she was using to wipe the black markings off of her face, "Whoever wrote 'Sakura-chan loves Naruto' on my face, I'm getting you back the first chance I get." She lowered the cloth from her cleared off face and leveled a bit of a glare at Naruto, "Gee, I wonder who did that." She said sarcastically.

A grin was firmly planted on Naruto's face as he walked with Sakura, Kei, and Ibuki after school was let out. It took until gym when Sakura was able to see a mirror for her to realize she had been drawn on. The scream echoed from the girl's locker room into the boy's and Naruto burst out in immediate laughter, "It must have been someone that knows how much you love me deep down Sakura-chan."

"I swear I'll beat the whiskers off of your face."

"You mean like the last time?" Naruto replied before feigning surprise, "Oh wait, you didn't win last time either! That makes your lifetime average against me a big fat goose egg!" He threw his hands up as he walked down the street and got a high-five from a random passerby for his trouble, "I'm the greatest ninja walking the face of the planet and the Ace of Aohura City, dattebayo!"

Sakura was pondering the pros and cons of trying to grab Naruto in a headlock and noogie him into obedience or at least docility. She eventually decided against it as her body was still tired from the amount of energy she had to exert to keep pace with Naruto going all out and she was still sore.

Kei palmed her face, trying to make herself invisible in regards to the attention that Naruto was attracting. It was quite obvious that he was in pristine condition after the very violent events of last Friday night so there was no need to ever worry about him the way she had about both he and Sakura's health after what was shown on TV and from what Sakura told her happened later.

Ibuki on the other hand just felt like pointing something out, "Wait, you gave yourself a new title since the last time you yelled something like that out loud in public didn't you?" She asked Naruto curiously as she trotted up to his side and pulled one of his arms around her shoulders as he continued to be shown love from random folks on the street, not noticing how close she had gotten.

"Yeah, I added the 'Ace of Aohura City' since the last time." Naruto admitted shamelessly, chatting away with the kunoichi under his arm, "How's it testing? I might leave it in my normal introduction or take it out when I come up with something else." Ibuki nodded in understanding and Naruto finally realized the position the two were in, "Uh… why are you this close to me?"

"So you don't have enough space away from me to plot any ideas to get me back for the trap this morning."

"Oh, okay. But that isn't going to save you just so you know."

While the two ninja of different backgrounds continued to chatter to one another, Kei slipped by Sakura and pointed forward, "Okay, I know something's up here. Ibuki-chan's been acting totally different since those two went on that date a while back."

Sakura could see it, and had to admit that the excuse Naruto had just accepted as to why she had chosen to attach herself to him was utter bullcrap. Her eyes were still stuck on Ibuki clinging to Naruto's arm, "What are you telling me for? It's Naruto that needs to pick up on it already."

"What do you mean what am I telling you for?" Kei responded, keeping her voice down so that neither Naruto nor Ibuki felt their ears burning at the context of the conversation, "You know damn well why I'm telling you this." A raise of an eyebrow from Sakura indicated that she did not know what Kei was alluding to, "Ibuki-chan could take Naruto from you if you don't watch out."

Sakura's eyes widened and she tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, regaining her balance before Naruto or Ibuki could turn around to catch sight of her, "Naruto's not mine to lose." She said in return, shaking her head with a frown on her face, "If that was how things were going to end up we would have gotten together a long time ago. You should know that."

'What? You two were twelve when you met. You're both just a pair of stubborn asses.' Both Naruto and Sakura were closer than friends should have been. Still, for whatever reason they were stuck in this facet of their bond after four years. The romantic in Kei was going insane because of it, but it was what it was. Both of them were old enough to know what they wanted and that was all that mattered apparently, 'Hah… it's not my problem though.'

XxX

"Naruto-san you've been-."

"No."

"…No?

"No."

"What do you mean no? I am simply trying to inform you of your latest ranking."

That afternoon after school had let out and everyone had returned home, Naruto started getting to work cleaning the paint from Ibuki's trap off of the floor, door, and wall outside of his apartment. He was then located by Karin who had come all the way from her Aohura City property on the outskirts of town to say hello.

And to inform him of his progress when it came to the endeavor she had set him upon months ago.

Naruto looked up from where he was scrubbing the floor with a deadpan look on his face, "I know what you're trying to tell me, and I don't really care. You couldn't come over for anything but to tell me where I am on some internet ranking list?"

"It is very important." Karin insisted, standing over the hard-at-work Naruto with her hands on her hips, "How else will you know how well you are doing your job for me and when your assignment is complete?"

A grin crossed Naruto's face as he looked up, eyes twinkling with glee, "That's easy boss lady. Because you'll tell me when you challenge me to a fight." Karin puffed her cheeks out at being outfoxed in such a manner, "And I can check my own progress with my client list." He pulled out his business cell phone and scrolled through the numbers saved in it over the past few days, "I've got so many requests for jobs from towns all over I don't know what to do with it all. I've got clones handling the easier stuff all over Aohura City right now for pocket change."

What a rudimentary way of checking one's progress. The amount of business his actions generate for him reflects the amount of prestige he is held in. That was very simple business sense, and Karin wondered how someone like Naruto figured that out. Little did she know that this was what Naruto knew as the backbone of the hidden ninja village system in his own world. It worked just as well in this one.

Still, the website would have been easier. But Naruto would have still flipped out at some of the comments he would have read about himself, so admittedly this was a wiser method that also generated himself some revenue.

But if clones were handling his other jobs that still lent a question for Karin to ask, "But Naruto-san, why are you not using clones to clean up this mess instead of doing it yourself?" He had free labor at his beck and call and here he was on his knees working on his own.

A sigh came from Naruto as he continued working, "Because my clones get bored and then they start throwing buckets of water at each other and they make a bigger mess... and then they dispel so they don't get yelled at." Clone labor… you get what you pay for, "It's better if I do it myself."

A set of footsteps swiftly flew up the flight of stairs leading to Naruto's level of the apartment complex, revealing Sakura holding a bundle of clothes in her arms with a smile on her face, "Here you go Naruto; a paint-free uniform, all fluffy and fresh-smelling, straight out of the wash. Mom says hi by the wa-." She then noticed that Naruto wasn't alone, "Oh, hello Kanzuki-san."

"Sakura-san." Karin returned with a nod before the two locked eyes and Naruto stopped cleaning once he felt the lightning shooting between the gazes of the two.

'This is so stupid…' Naruto thought to himself when it came to Sakura and Karin's relationship. They fought, and now they apparently see each other every day or so. So why not just get over it already? Seriously, who holds a grudge for more than a year over something like a tournament fight? It was ridiculous, "I'm going to have to give you two some Kage Bunshin therapy aren't I?"

That was enough to get both girls to stop glaring at each other and turn their attention to him where Sakura chose to be the one of them to speak up, "I don't know what that means, but it sounds like something that a boy would get slapped over suggesting." Her face was red and once Karin caught on to what she was implying hers was as well.

"Oh whatever…" Naruto grumbled, a blush running over his face as well as he returned to work, "That's what I get for trying to help some friends out I guess…" He gestured his head towards the door for Sakura's benefit, "The door's open so you can drop my stuff there and you can head back home."

Sakura nodded and walked on through the front door to Naruto's apartment only to pause momentarily when she saw several of Naruto's clones splayed all over the living room working on homework while the TV was playing for their benefit.

"I thought you usually didn't do homework." Sakura commented as she went to drop his cleaned school uniform onto Naruto's bed.

"I don't. My clones do it." That response from the door got Sakura to roll her eyes as she headed towards the back of the apartment.

If there wasn't real work to be done that would require active movement and some excitement of some sort, give Naruto's clones a TV to watch and they were easier to deal with when given monotonous busywork to do. This was Kage Bunshin 101. When bored it didn't matter if it was an order or not, much like the original Naruto their attention spans were very limited and they would try to procrastinate and do other things that would usually end up with them dispelling, the job halfway done or not at all.

Sakura placed his clothing on Naruto's place of slumber and proceeded to head back outside to where Naruto was finishing up his work cleaning paint and Karin was still standing around watching him, "You have the weirdest abilities, I swear…"

Speaking of weird abilities, Karin raised an eyebrow and figured that she had her employee sufficiently cornered for one of the many questions she wished to find an answer to when it came to him. The most pressing of which was also the most recent that had surfaced in the Rubik's cube that was Uzumaki Naruto during the tournament, "True, you have many strange abilities. The one I'm most interested in is the one that produced that horrid energy of yours."

"Are you still on about that?"

"Of course."

Naruto stopped scrubbing the floor and looked up at the two girls with a frown on his face. What was he going to do, run away like a chicken? Yeah, you can't do that to people that you see every day/know where you live.

Still, the Kyuubi and the chakra it provided out of duress to Naruto during the final fight against Sakura was the elephant in the room that wasn't going to be forgotten by anyone who bore witness to it. He just needed to come up with an eloquent way to tell his friends that he had a monster in his belly made of walking energy and hatred, "Can you give me time to come up with a decent way to explain it first?" He asked, "If I just came out and said what it was you'd both freak out."

While not pleased by this request from Naruto, Karin still nodded, finding it an agreeable enough demand as long as he didn't use the time to come up with some half-assed lie.

But Sakura looked past the mere desire to get an explanation of some sort and flinched a bit at what she felt his request was suggesting as far as she went, "Naruto… do you really think that anything you could tell us would freak us out badly enough that you're scared to talk about it? I thought you knew me better than that."

'Sakura-chan you don't know…' Naruto thought to himself, understanding why she seemed to feel the way she did, but in the end this was something that she wouldn't be able to easily perceive or accept, "Come on, please. I wouldn't even ask if I wasn't sure that there was a reason for it. I promise I'll tell you."

Why did Naruto have to keep everything to himself? It was just maddening. What exactly did he think she would do if he told her anything? Nothing he would tell her in the end would really change anything between them since if there was anything like that it would have taken effect already.

And in the end it was probably the major reason that they had never gotten as close as Kei figured they should have been. It seemed like things about Naruto were open until a certain point and then an impenetrable wall went up that he wouldn't let anyone past. This orange power was just the latest thing in a string of other mysteries about him.

But at least he was trying to come up with a way to explain that much if nothing else.

Sakura just stared at Naruto with a blank expression on her face before choosing to turn and descend the apartment complex stairs to return home. She was frustrated enough that staying there any longer would have just exacerbated the whole situation altogether and that wouldn't have been good for anyone.

Some things just never seemed to change between them. It was like trying to file one's way through the steel bars of a jail cell.

All Naruto could do was let her go with a sigh, walking to the railing of his floor and watching his friend walk away on a sour note. He exhaled with a grunt and banged his head one time on the iron rail with a clang ringing out from the impact.

This was going to be hard. He never told anyone in Konoha about the Kyuubi before after he himself had found out about it. Either all of the adults already knew or with the kids his age he never had to say anything at all since it had never really come up. The only time he had really used any of the Kyuubi's chakra in front of others more important things took precedence which attracted attention away from how weird it was.

No such luck this time.

With his head still set on the railing and obscuring his vision, Karin clumsily rested a hand on his back in an attempt at a comforting manner. She was simply unused to trying to make others feel better, "Naruto-san… just do not worry about it. Simply get your story together and when you do I am certain that things between you and Sakura-san will be fine."

Man he sure hoped so.

But then again maybe this was better. If Sakura was mad at him and this wound up causing some kind of rift between them… well, maybe that would make it easier to leave when the time came. It might have been years upon years, but he couldn't just accept his fate to never see Konoha again. He promised himself he would find a way home, and if he couldn't keep a promise to himself every other promise he ever made was to anyone was useless.

"Thanks…" Naruto said in response to Karin trying to make him feel better. He knew she was a far nicer girl than she seemed to be on the surface. It just took some getting used to her, and he was at that point it seemed, "And I am going to tell you all just what the orange chakra was. I just need a bit of time first. It's not really easy to just come out and say."

"I know you will." Karin said, sparing him one last pat on the back before she decided it was time for her to go home as well. A smile crossed her face as she started descending the steps, not that Naruto could see it, "After all… you promised. And you are a man of your word if nothing else at all. This is an admirable trait that I respect about you."

Naruto spared a chuckle as Karin walked towards her vehicle where Shibazaki climbed out and opened the door for her before retaking his own place behind the wheel of the car, "You actually respect something about me?" He remarked quietly to himself, waving goodbye to the departing girl's ride before choosing to head to the roof. Maybe he could train and work some of this melancholy out of his system? It was completely out of his character, he hated being that way.

XxX

(The Next Day)

School was kind of tense as even though Naruto tried to put the discomfort from the day before with Sakura behind them, she couldn't let it drop. He could see why. He was keeping a secret from her like she was some kind of potential enemy and something like that would hurt him, he could imagine how she felt about it.

Either way, it led to a very uncomfortable atmosphere all the way through the day.

At least she bid him farewell for the day when he said goodbye to the group of girls that usually hung around him at school. There was that much to hang his hat on at least. And he couldn't dwell on something so personal when he had work to do.

For making such a grave mistake could equal death for a shinobi while on a life or death mission.

"Okay, let me get this straight." Naruto said, standing in the playground of an elementary school next to the rather attractive young woman that contacted him to be hired by the school, probably a teacher in a class, "You want me to get rid of all of them?"

The woman nodded before brushing her long dark hair behind her ear, "Yes. Every hornet's nest you can see out here."

Naruto audibly sucked his teeth as he counted them all out. There was one on a slide, one on the jungle gym, one underneath the rim of a basketball goal, one in the corner of a soccer goal… and in other places as well, "Now… when you hired me, you didn't say anything about there being like eight nests to take out." That was a lot of hornets, "Why didn't you hire an exterminator or something?"

"Because your rates are lower for this kind of work than an exterminator's Uzumaki-san."

Damn. He needed to start charging more since he was starting to get a reputation. But he was there now, he accepted the contract, and he couldn't just leave the hornets hanging around all of the kids. Him and his stupid hero complex.

"Alright." Naruto said in a dejected manner. This was not going to be fun, and clones couldn't handle hornet stings. Not as many as these hornets would be dealing out. He might be able to use this as some kind of training though if he were smart about it, "Just go on inside. I'll be back in your classroom when the job is done." If he didn't die from an exorbitant amount of stings beforehand of course.

The teacher gave him a smile and proceeded to do as Naruto requested while he looked around the playground and tried to figure out what he was going to do to get rid of all of these hornets. He crouched down in a relaxed position and ran his hands through his hair as he was at a loss. No matter what he did it was going to hurt. He wasn't fast enough to dodge hundreds of swarming hornets when he would be running towards them after destroying the first nest.

"You look like someone that could use some help."

Who in the world was insane enough to try and talk to him about helping with this? If it wasn't a licensed exterminator with the suits and the whole nine yards he could honestly say that he was about to send this person away.

And then he turned around and his eyes widened in pure shock, "Oh no way…"

XxX

(A Few Hours Later – Naruto and Sakura's Neighborhood)

"Thank you for paying for the food after your job was completed."

A grin crossed Naruto's face as he held his arms behind his neck and led the man walking with him through the quiet residential neighborhood where he resided, "Ah, that's not a big deal at all. You really saved my ass today. If you hadn't showed up I was about to just do something really painful. And hey, since you're here you can meet my friend really quick." Maybe that would get Sakura to not be so upset with him?

"Of course, but after this we can talk correct? I have something really important to speak with you about."

"Yeah." Naruto replied with a shrug. He didn't really care, "If you want we can talk about if after I have you meet Sakura-chan." And speaking of which, "Oh, we're here. Can you do me a favor and stay out of sight until I call you? This is going to be funny." A stiff nod was the answer as Naruto held up a finger and jumped up onto the wooden fence that isolated Sakura's backyard from the rest of the world.

And as he expected by now she was busy training herself, but not in the fun way that Naruto usually resorted to in order to improve. She was sitting in her mother's garden just meditating until she seemed to notice his presence crouching up in the tree by her fence when she cracked an eye open to confirm it was him.

A frown came over her face, but she still got up off of the ground to walk over to him with a sigh, "Naruto. What's up? You didn't say that you were going to stop by on your way home after your mission."

"Well that was before I found something cool that you might like." For some reason Naruto seemed very pleased with himself, and not in the 'I-am-about-to-screw-you-over-so-bad-right-now' kind of way. But that was weird. He knew how tense things were between the two of them since yesterday, but a mere twenty-four hours later and he seemed to be happy to see her again.

No, they hadn't gotten into any kind of fight over the whole thing. Nor was she being petty by giving him the silent treatment, something that Naruto would find torture on his emotions and she wasn't going to do that just for some secret he was playing close to the vest. Still though, didn't he know how things were supposed to work when a relationship of any sort was going over the rocks? You keep a safe distance until it starts feeling more natural to come back together again. It was day-one stuff.

Sakura merely gestured that she was ready to see whatever it was that Naruto was so excited to show her and he merely kept his eyes on her, still grinning as he seemed to gesture to someone behind the fence to come on up and over so that she could see them.

After a second nothing happened and Naruto's grin dropped as he turned around in his tree to find nothing waiting for him on the other side of the fence. He let out a surprised squawk and turned back around to face Sakura who was still waiting on him to show her whatever he was there to show, "I-I… Hold on Sakura-chan." He said before turning around fully and standing up straight, scratching his head in curiosity, "…I told him to wait right there. He wouldn't have just run away. He wanted to talk about something before we got here." Naruto quietly reasoned to himself.

"Sakura!" The matriarch of the Kasugano household yelled out from the backdoor of their home, "I found someone outside that says he's here to see you. I'm sending him out since he looks like one of those fighters you seem to spend so much time around."

A sigh escaped Sakura's lips as she turned towards the backdoor this time and waited, hoping that whatever this was would have a quicker payoff than Naruto's guarantee of something interesting.

And then when the red headband and white gi-clad figure walked out into her backyard her jaw went slack for a few seconds. She let out a very uncharacteristic high-pitched squeal that surprised Naruto enough to get him to fall out of his tree and back over the fence to the sidewalk and the street below.

She pointed at him and fought the urge to just stammer dumbly before taking a moment to recompose herself. This was certainly not a cool way to present herself to someone like this, so she cleared her throat and chose to start over, "Ryu. Hello. I-I don't know if you remember me from a few years ago because I'm sure you get that kind of thing all the time-."

"Kasugano Sakura." Ryu said, identifying her easily much to her surprise and delight. Of course this was mostly because Naruto kept bringing up the girl and the last meeting that the two had when she met Ryu at the age of 14, "You seem like a confident fighter now. You grew stronger just like you said you would didn't you?" He asked, eliciting a blush from the girl. Of course this moment was cut short.

"What the hell Ryu?" Naruto asked as he clawed his way over the fence and landed on the ground, walking up to the pair, "I told you to wait for me to call you over so I could get a look at Sakura-chan's face when she first saw you. I was going to take a picture of it…" He whined, holding up his phone desperately.

At that point Sakura slipped behind Naruto and grabbed a hold of one of his cheeks which was seemingly her favorite way to physically pick with her friend, "You found Ryu and brought him to me? Aw, Naruto that's so sweet. Just so you and I could be okay with each other again?"

Naruto rolled his eyes but he let her keep on tugging at his cheek, "You really think I could find him in one day without any clues at all? I might be good-, hell I'm the best in the world…" He boasted, getting a sharper pull on his cheek for his superciliousness, "Ow, okay. But I'm not that good. He found me at the job and I took him here. You're welcome by the way."

"Thank you." Sakura said, letting go of his cheek with a pat before walking over to Ryu again, "So… since you're here would you like to spar? You know, to see how much better I really am?"

The stoic expression on Ryu's face regarded the girl for a moment as he hated to place something that could easily be done on the backburner. The reason being that his purpose for being there was quite serious to him, "I would, but I'm afraid the reason I've come to Aohura City is your friend here." He said, pointing at Naruto, "I've got something I need to talk to him about. Alone as I believe it will be rather personal."

Sakura visibly deflated at that and this didn't really sit well with Naruto, 'Man… it really is kind of like Sasuke and Sakura again. It's just that Ryu is just nicer about it.' Naruto thought to himself as the situation continued to play itself out in front of him, "Fine, we can talk here then. Sakura-chan is my best friend… and I'm trying to stop keeping secrets from her, so she's in." If he was going to work up the nerve to talk about the Kyuubi he had to start somewhere.

While he didn't seem to like the idea of it, Ryu did chose to nod and walked over to the tree, sitting under it as Naruto and Sakura both sat in front of him against the trunk.

It seemed like he was trying to pick his words carefully, as if he didn't know how to express what he wished to say. Something about this felt a little familiar to Naruto, like it was something he had felt like not too long ago. Sakura on the other hand was simply wondering what the apparent best fighter in the world had to say that was so hard to get out in the first place.

"I only really know how to be direct." Ryu admitted, sitting cross-legged on the ground as he addressed the two young teens, "Trying to dance around what I'm trying to say isn't my strong suit. So I guess I'll just come out and say it." His eyes sharpened on Naruto's, "I've come about the strange energy that emitted from your body during the finals of the tournament you fought in."

Naruto paled and cursed inwardly. So not only did he release the Kyuubi's chakra in a building full of people that would obviously put such a thing on the internet, he also did it on live TV. Fantastic.

Well the truth was coming out one way or another, and from the amount of attention being paid by Sakura it was clear that his answers to his questions would be very important to her, "Well… what do you want to know?"

"What caused you to draw upon the power?" Ryu already knew the answer to this, but Naruto's response would show him something.

Scratching his scalp nervously, Naruto spared Sakura a glance before answering, "Well sometimes when I get really angry or when I'm hurt badly it'll come out on its own. I wasn't mad this time though. Sakura-chan was scrambling my brains and it just kicked in. It's like a defense mechanism or something too. It's hard to explain."

"That's it?" Ryu asked with a hint of confusion in his tone, "You didn't have any overwhelming desire to win? You weren't angry with her that you were close to being defeated?" He seemed to have some kind of idea what he was talking about, "But then again you did fight the power off in the end… so you held yourself back."

"I would never use that power against Sakura-chan!" Naruto asserted with a narrowing of his eyes and something of a snarl, "That's not something I'll ever use on purpose unless it's to protect my precious people or if I don't have any other options before I die."

"It's not something you can control that easily. You have to give yourself to the power, to the dark desire to kill any foe strong enough to pull it out of you or else it will drive you insane."

"What do you even know about it? Why are we talking about this?"

That got Ryu to stop for a moment before he shut his eyes tightly and formed a fist that he pressed against his heart intently, "I know because… I suffer from a curse akin to your own." He admitted, getting a gasp out of Sakura and a wild-eyed look from Naruto.

There was absolutely no way that was possible, 'There's no way he's got a demon inside of him too.' Naruto thought to himself, 'What's he playing at? There's no one in this world that knows the first thing about sealing away a demon anywhere.' He clinched his fists tightly as he believed that Ryu was playing at some kind of scheme or game of some sort.

Sakura pointed at Ryu with her other hand covering her mouth, "You can do what Naruto does? You have the orange power inside of you too?"

Ryu nodded gravely as he continued, "My power isn't orange though. It's a sick, dark red." That got Naruto to lose his growing anger at Ryu's attempt to make a fool of him. When he started tapping into more than his normal amount of the Kyuubi's chakra it also turned dark red, "In case you were unaware of what it was Naruto, it is called the Satsui no Hadou (Surge of Murderous Intent)."

"No it isn't."

Naruto's dry and unexpectedly calm and understanding reaction got Ryu to stare at the young man strangely as he blinked his blue eyes with a somewhat puzzled look on his own whisker-marked visage, "What do you mean? Unless you've named it yourself, this is the name of the dark power inside of you that is born of your own intensity and desire to win."

Once again, Naruto shook his head and denied this vehemently, "No. You had me until just right now. The weird energy doesn't really come from me, it comes from something that's trapped inside of my body. It's called the Kyuubi, not the Satsui-whatever. I can control myself when I use some of it, but the more I use the harder it gets… and I can kill people without even meaning to. That's why I fought it back down when I was fighting against Sakura-chan in the tournament; because I could have killed her by accident."

Until Vega, Naruto hadn't consciously drawn from dark pools of the Kyuubi's chakra since he had arrived in Japan. It was just a testament to how bad he wanted that bastard to pay for trying to kidnap Sakura to use against him in their duel.

"You mean you intentionally use a power like that?" Ryu stated with a guarded tone, 'He isn't like Akuma at all though. How could he possibly use it and keep his humanity?' After his run-in two years ago with Akuma he most certainly did not see anything positive about such dark abilities.

Naruto just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't use that much." He then chose to lift his shirt and channel chakra, revealing a distinct marking right around his navel, "You see this? The Kyuubi is a powerful beast that could only be stopped by cooping it up inside of a person. I was the lucky baby that they chose to stick it into." He turned towards Sakura with a sorrowful look on his face, "That's why I didn't tell you anything before. Would you really believe that I have a demon sealed inside of me?"

To be honest she didn't really believe him now. But then Sakura realized that Naruto had indeed never lied to her, even when the truth meant he'd get into trouble… like the time she caught him hiding in the women's locker room taking pictures for a 'client'.

"I don't really have a choice but to believe you." Sakura said, somewhat bewildered at the idea of what she had just been told, "But it's not like there's anything different right? You're still Naruto, nothing's changed. You just have a freaky-strong living power source inside of you." Ugh, that sounded wrong and weird.

But Ryu was still dwelling on what Naruto had said before. It thoroughly shocked him, "You can use that power without losing yourself? How is that even possible?" He almost killed Sagat the one time he drew upon the power of the Satsui no Hadou, and here this boy that, no offense intended, had far less discipline than himself and could control such force to hold himself back?

"Like I said; I don't use that much of it. The Kyuubi doesn't like giving me much chakra unless I'm about to die from my injuries." Naruto said, patting his stomach down, "It's hard to take anymore than what I use to cover my body like what everyone's seen. The only time I've ever really taken more… well someone shoved their hand right through my chest before I could even get to it." He could still remember the bite of pain before he went numb from Sasuke's Chidori all those years ago, "I needed it to stay alive."

He 'needed' it? There was no one in the world that ever needed dark powers. It was a slippery slope. If Ryu had this mindset and embraced the Satsui no Hadou in a similar manner he would become no better than the man that killed his master, 'I can't let myself become like Akuma. And I can't let this boy Naruto go down that path either.'

As far as Sakura was concerned, that was all she needed to hear. If it was something that let Naruto survive someone punching a hole through his chest (And why in the world had she never heard of this from him before then either?) it was a good thing. And she could also see why he had been hiding it. Some things were just too strange to freely share with others.

Before she could apologize for how she acted the other day about him not telling her or Karin about the Kyuubi, Ryu spoke up though, "Naruto…you shouldn't just accept such a curse that sits within your body." He knew that he himself wished every day that he could simply expel his own from within him, but all he could try to do was keep himself composed and never allow himself to become obsessed while in battle, "If you embrace it there will come a time where you will hurt someone you care about. Power like this is never something that comes casually."

A serious look came over Naruto's face as he stared down the world-class fighter without fear, "I used to see the Kyuubi as a curse. Having it inside of my body, just having it exist period made my life more difficult by a hundred times than it would have been without it. But that's not fair. It's a part of me, it always has been, and I accept it entirely."

'He accepts it?' The concept was foreign to Ryu who had seen what a person that embraced the pure malevolence inside himself would become in Akuma. To accept something that had the potential to turn one into a being that was more beast than human? It was implausible.

Naruto stood up from where he had been sitting and leaned against the tree with his arm out as he continued speaking, "Ryu, you might want to just ignore the Satsui no Hadou inside of you, but that's not the way I am. Ignoring something like that doesn't make you a stronger person than if you tried using it just because it's bad." He made a fist and struck the tree solidly, "Even if I don't choose to take the Kyuubi's chakra, it's still there inside me. It's still a living thing like me, and denying its existence as the only person that can acknowledge it… would be worse than ending its existence altogether. My power is an actual creature, and I can't and won't just refuse to accept it."

That was merely a cruelty that he wouldn't give even a being like the Kyuubi. To pretend as if it didn't exist; as a living, thinking individual. It would be the same as what the villagers did to him as a child. It would actually be worse since there would be no one else at all.

And with that mindset Naruto made a conscientious decision, '…I'm sorry.' He thought loudly so that the Kyuubi wouldn't be able to miss what he had just done. He had just chosen to apologize, 'I'm sorry. Ever since day one when I found out about you I've been treating you like some burden. Even if you're stuck inside of me, and even if you may have changed the entire way my life has gone so far… we're in this together. You can keep on hating me, I can't make you stop doing that, but I just want you to know that in the end we're all alone in this world together.'

'You are my comrade from Konoha. The only one I have.'

Aside from a gruff snort that echoed inside of his head, Naruto got no response from the great chakra beast. He never really expected one, but he got what he needed to say off of his chest and he intended to do right by those words no matter what it took in the end.

"No matter what humans say it always belies what they really mean. You won't be any different Naruto. You have too much hate in your heart that you refuse to accept to ever begin to earn my trust. And you say that you 'accept' me? There are several laughable examples to put up against this."

'I said I accepted you, I never said I liked you. You hate me and want me out of the way? Well I still don't trust you either. I can try though, and I'm going to. So you can be all snarky and huffy, but I'm telling you what's going to happen here.'

Naruto had to snap out of his conversation that couldn't have lasted any longer than a second in the real world when Sakura shook his shoulder after noticing his glazed look from where she had been sitting, "Naruto are you alright?"

"Yeah." He replied with a small smile, "It's just the Kyuubi. I can talk to it from time to time when it wants to. It's been doing that a lot more over the last few months."

From where Ryu was sitting it seemed like he had made a mistake when it came to labeling Naruto's power. Unlike himself he didn't seem alarmed by what lay within him. Naruto even seemed familiar with it to an extent. It was cognizant and could converse with him from within which meant that it had some kind of control. The Satsui no Hadou within himself… he had no semblance of control over it. If he let it take over he would change right down to the fundamental qualities that made him who he was.

But the most incredible thing about it was that Naruto seemed to recognize the right of this aspect of himself to exist, no matter its derivation or true intent within him. Instead of fearing it or what it could represent for himself in the future he was merely content with it resting within him. As far as the boy knew there was nothing he could do about it other than live, and Naruto seemed oddly content with this.

"I want to fight you Naruto."

That got both Naruto and Sakura to recoil in surprise at the sudden request from Ryu and the very stern expression on his face as he said this, "W-What? Why do you want to fight me? Sakura-chan is the one that wants to spar with you to see if you think she's gotten stronger. Why don't you fight her?"

Ryu stood up from the ground and tightened his black belt around his waist as well as his red headband on his head, "Naruto you and I both have very dark and powerful energies within us, energies that have the potential to hurt many, many people… maybe even kill them if we are to let our control and focus slip during duress. However our philosophies on how to deal with these things are markedly different. I simply want to see which of the two of us are correct in our approach."

"Hey, just because we do things differently doesn't mean one of us is right or wrong." Naruto insisted in return as he didn't even pretend to know what Ryu's own problems with his power happened to be. All he could do was speak from his own experiences with the Kyuubi, "A fight wouldn't prove that anyway. I don't even have a reason to fight you, I won't get anything out of it."

A hand was then placed on his shoulder by Sakura, "Naruto… you should just fight Ryu. For some reason I think this is important to him. More important than some silly spar with me. I… I think you're the only person he's met since the last time I saw him that could give him some clarity with the problem he was having." She turned to Ryu and spoke to him, "This Satsui no Hadou that you were talking about… this is what you were so stressed out about two years ago isn't it?"

It wasn't something he wished to admit, as the less people affected in any way by his power the better, but still Sakura hit the nail on the head. Ryu was forced to nod in confirmation, "To see someone else that isn't letting such a thing consume them in darkness like another I've met, but someone like Naruto who seems to be at peace… I want to understand how he can feel that way and the answer lies in the heart of battle."

'When two powerful people cross fists… they don't need words to understand one another.' This thought was in Naruto's mind from his final battle against Sasuke prior to his deposition into this world. And here he could see where Ryu was coming from. Nothing either of them could say would work in this instance. They needed to express themselves through actions, and the most straightforward way to do that was to engage in battle.

"Alright…" Naruto eventually conceded, taking off the top to his school uniform to keep it from getting ruined as he also rolled up his pant legs for a similar purpose, "I'll show you why I'm the way I am about this Ryu. So pay attention because you're only gonna see it once!"

Ryu slid into his trademark fighting stance, letting a ghost of a smile pass over his face before a stoic look of focus took its place in preparation for the forthcoming fight against Naruto, "Of course."

Sakura let herself push down the feelings of being set aside when she came to a realization, 'Even if I have gotten stronger, Naruto is infinitely more confident than I am.' Here she had been asking for a mere spar when Naruto saw nothing wrong with taking on the most powerful fighting champion in Japan. He somehow saw himself as something of an equal when Sakura still saw herself as beneath Ryu, 'A fight against him the way I am now… it still wouldn't have proven anything at all.'

The thought of a fight between herself and Ryu made her heart pump faster, faster than it usually would have for a street fight against anyone she could have possibly faced. She would not have been even-tempered and level-headed. But Naruto looked just as relaxed as he would have looked preparing to go against anyone else. It was as if he wasn't even fighting someone incredible like Ryu, it looked the same as if he were about to face off with local thug Kazama Daigo, as if he never felt out of his element at all.

'No screwing around here!' Naruto thought to himself as three clones popped into existence at his side and immediately engaged Ryu directly to test his capabilities. All Naruto really knew about him was that Sakura had based her own fighting style on his, and while that gave him some insight into what he could expect, it still never hurt to send in the decoys first.

He was kind of right when it came to Ryu's skills. He fought a style that was cleaner than Sakura's but with similar habits, only he had the size and strength to impose his will quicker. His kicks came with more of a snap than Sakura's did as evident from a spin kick that would have broken his jaw had it not been a clone to take the hit. Right out of the kick he immediately was able to jump away from a second clone's dive at his legs.

Not a bit of wasted motion to capitalize on if one was in Naruto's corner to win the fight.

Ryu landed on the diving clone with one knee that dispelled it and looked up to see the last one preparing a Rasengan to attack with, but Ryu stood right up from his kneeling position and lashed out in kind with his signature attack, "Hadoken (Surge Fist)!"

Unlike Sakura's Hadoken, Ryu's was controlled and compact to the size of his head, where Sakura's would usually be larger due to her habit of charging it. Where Sakura would charge her Hadoken before firing it, Ryu's release time was almost instant. And where even Sakura's least charged Hadoken would only go so far before dissipating, Ryu's would not.

There was also the fact that he could also aim it and no speed was sacrificed whatsoever.

And Naruto's clone felt the pain.

But as Ryu was quick to discover, taking one's attention off of Naruto to deal with his clones could be a costly mistake of its own. The man's eyes widened when he realized that Naruto was no longer anywhere in sight. Not under the tree where he was standing when the fight began, or anywhere that he could see. The only other person in the backyard with him was Sakura who was still looking intently at the battle, though she also seemed confused about Naruto's whereabouts.

Remembering what the rumors and reports on Naruto said when it came to his own fancying as a ninja, Ryu was inclined to believe that information as his eyes darted about and he moved himself closer to the fence of Sakura's yard to take away an avenue of attack from Naruto, forcing him to come at him from the front.

Although as he moved by Sakura he didn't notice the very un-Sakura like smirk that adorned her features when he moved past her and gave her his back.

'Sakura' quickly leapt at Ryu's back intending to render him unconscious with a single strike to the head or neck, but Ryu's reaction time was well honed from his entire life being trained in his fighting style by his deceased master.

The strike was slipped and Ryu threw his attacker over his shoulder in a judo toss that hurled his adversary at the wooden wall. As the body made contact it disappeared in a puff of smoke just like Naruto's clones from before.

Unknown to Ryu though, Naruto was hiding with the real Sakura held close to him, a hand over her mouth to keep her from crying out when he suddenly snatched her up from her original place where his Henged clone had stood in at. Both of them were hiding over the side of the roof of Sakura's home that was unable to be seen from Ryu's angle in the backyard as Naruto inwardly cursed at his clone's failed sneak attack, 'Damn! I was really hoping he wouldn't have good instincts like that.'

Naruto then had to choke back a cry of pain as by now Sakura had gotten more than tired of Naruto holding his hand over her mouth and had opted to bite his finger to get him to let go, "Gah!" He hissed in a whisper as he shook out his bitten hand, "Why?"

"Because licking the palm of your hand didn't work." Sakura defended before pointing to where Ryu was, "Now go fight him already. He's going to think you ran away."

"I don't retreat, I just withdraw from combat tactically, dattebayo." Naruto stated proudly before sticking his thumb into his own chest, "This is my house-."

"No, this is my house."

"Whatever. Like I was saying, -This is my house and I don't run from anybody." Naruto boasted, seeming to gain more confidence the longer he was allowed to talk, "Hell, I'll be David, and Ryu can be my Goliath… and my slingshot is the almighty power of Uzumaki Naruto's pure, concentrated awesome!"

"There you are!"

Naruto cringed when he realized that he had stood up dramatically to pose with his arm and a finger towards the sky during his monologue to Sakura that had gotten progressively louder. Without missing a beat, Ryu sprang onto Sakura's rooftop as well and began engaging Naruto with hand-to-hand.

Both male fighters traded punches, blocks, and parries until Ryu chose to go low and sweep at Naruto's legs. It was a pattern that Naruto was too used to by way of Sakura's own usage of the move. Thus he had already established a counter for it. Naruto hopped slightly over the kick, just enough for his feet to leave the ground as he quickly pumped his legs directly up and down to attack Ryu with a propelled ax kick that he barely got his arms over his head to block.

The force of the kick elicited a thump on the roof that got Sakura to cringe, remembering that these two were very physically strong and random bouts of property destruction were commonplace in fights involving Naruto anyway when he didn't have a skilled opponent to deal with, "Okay, please get off my roof now before you two cave it in!"

Naruto didn't need to be told twice, because if the roof broke he would obviously be the one fixing it for free, and as the more nimble of the two currently fighting competitors he leapt off of Sakura's roof and landed on the tall wooden wall that fenced off her family's backyard property which was the unofficial border for the fight to take place within. He would not fall back any further than that point.

The two stared each other down before both of them slowly started crouching down in their prospective positions, planning on jumping at each other directly in order to attack, and they would have had they not been interrupted by a pan being thrown and connecting off of Naruto's head, knocking him off of the wooden wall like a yowling stray cat in the dead of night.

"No fighting in my yard!" Sakura's mother demanded, glaring at where she had seen Naruto fall from before walking outside and turning her heated gaze to Ryu, brandishing another piece of cookware to throw his was should he refuse to comply, "Naruto's supposed to know that much since he and Sakura keep tearing this place apart, but I expected better from an adult Ryu-san."

A sheepish-looking Ryu held his hands up defensively and along with Sakura they both jumped down from the roof while Naruto clawed his way back over the fence. The fight was over… for now at least.

"This is the second time someone made me fall over this thing in the last thirty minutes…" Naruto grumbled, holding on to Sakura's mother's pan as well as he looked at her and blinked, "How'd you even hit me with this thing? I was all hyper aware from the fight and you hit me with a pan? Ow…"

He was a trained killer and some housewife hit him with a pan. That was a career killer if anyone else ever found out about that one, and he didn't even know how she did it. If he had a mother he'd probably know why, but for now it was a mystery.

"My pan hones in on misbehaving children Naruto." Sakura's mother warned him, giving him an evil glance that got him to duck back down behind the wall before she spared Ryu and Sakura an equally chilling look, "Do not do any of your little street fighting matches around my home." She warned as she went back inside, "…The chances of property damage are too high."

XxX

(Later That Evening – Naruto's Apartment)

"Hah…" Sakura sighed in disappointment, "Not only did I not get to show Ryu how much stronger I am now, you two didn't even get to finish your match." And it was just getting started too. What a letdown, "And he's already on his way to the airport to leave the country again."

Both Naruto and Sakura returned to his home after Ryu bid them farewell, telling Naruto that he would meet up with him again sometime soon so that they could finish their previous engagement against one another. From there the two just sat on his couch and watched some TV while the day's events rolled through their minds.

"You know…" Naruto started to say, at this point thoroughly bored by the crappy game show they were watching, "I was planning a trip, to search for something important. You want to come with?"

"What about school?" Sakura returned, because it was quite obvious he was not going to wait until the summer to go on said trip.

Instead of blurting out what he wished to say, which would have been a loud and vehement 'who cares?', Naruto quickly pasted together a sensible enough idea, "Well… I have clones. So I was just going to ask the teacher for the entire workload to do and all of the exams they had planned in front of her. You can cheat off of the homework my clones do Sakura-chan."

To be quite honest it was tempting. Very tempting, "Are you sure?" Sakura asked. Even though she admittedly wanted to be more involved with her best friend and his personal affairs, she was balancing the positives and negatives of choosing to get involved in one of Naruto's misadventures. Even the domestic ones involved lots of violence and trouble. This one was going to be international.

It was kind of scary to think about Naruto globetrotting.

"Yeah! Definitely!" Naruto exclaimed, jumping up out of his seat to stand in front of the TV to ensure he kept her attention, "Sakura-chan, this is why I've been saving so much money for all of these years. I've been waiting until I had enough to go and do something like this. I've got enough to fund a trip twenty times over now! Karin's money and the tournament winnings we split put me over the top, so put some of your tournament money to use and come with me! You know you want to."

"Well…" It was a seriously tempting offer. And Sakura did have plenty of money from not only the C9 Grand Ace Tournament, but also from what she had won from Karin's little tournament over a year and a half ago, "I don't know."

Oh Naruto knew she wanted to go, it was all over her face and she was just finding reasons in her head not to go at this point. So all he had to do was push her over the top, and he had two ways of doing that. The most fun version being the one that would probably rile her up, which was the one he chose to go with, "Okay, that's alright. Well I'm pretty sure if I tell Karin what I'm doing she'll want to go with me. And hey, I won't have to pay for anything that way."

"I'm going."

"*laughs* I knew you would. I'm still telling Karin though."

"Please don't."

"Boss lady needs to know what I'm doing. Sorry."

"You don't sound sorry."

"That's because I'm not."

"…I swear I hate you sometimes."

"Aw… but I love you all the time Sakura-chan."

Omake: Naruto's Revenge

(Sometime Later After Meeting Ryu)

After school had let out for the day, Naruto had been called out to one of his usual hangout places; the arcade. His intention was to blow off some steam, either by way of abusing the video game systems or by physically abusing some of the delinquents that would oftentimes pick fights with him in the downtown Aohura City area because of who he was.

The reason he needed to blow off some steam was also right there with him, finding no reason to cut her fun short to go home so quickly. Thus Ibuki was standing behind Naruto as he did his best to ignore her, instead focusing on a giant destructive robot game based on Gundam.

He wished he had a giant robot to step on someone very close to him at the moment, but alas… the technology did not exist.

Damn it, he missed being able to summon Gamabunta. Nothing says stop picking with me like a gigantic toad with a pipe and a tanto.

"Naruto, you still have some glitter in your hair." Ibuki commented, mussing with his spiky locks with a bit of a laugh as he steadily tried to ignore her. She had to say, his patience was better than she had expected it to be because she had been lording his springing of her trap, "Maybe you'll get it all out if you shave your head?"

This continued for a few minutes until Naruto received a cell phone call on his personal phone that wound up with him losing his last life and ending the game. Just as well because whatever the short conversation was about prompted him to immediately leave the arcade with an at ease look on his face.

Ibuki followed him out and walked alongside him, wondering just what happened over the course of a few seconds to change Naruto's mood so well, "What's going on? You're being too quiet." A quiet Naruto was never a good Naruto for those around him. The louder he was, the safer the general populace would be. This was common knowledge.

"I don't have anything to say Ibuki." Naruto replied in a calmly chipper manner. He stopped to pay for a newspaper and skimmed through the pages as he kept walking.

She opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment her cell phone went off to which she quickly answered pleasantly, "Hello?"

"Marry me!"

Ibuki recoiled away from the phone in surprise and Naruto started snickering as they continued to walk. The kunoichi quickly regained her composure and decided to end the conversation there, "Okay crazy guy… whatever you say. Please don't call this number again or I'll find you and hurt you." With that she ended the call, but just like that another call went through to her, "*sigh* Hello?"

"Uh, hey there. Your voice is just as pretty as I thought it would be. So you're single aren't you?"

Without a word and with a twitching eye, Ibuki ended that call as well and noticed that Naruto was still trying as hard as he could to hold back his laughter, "What did you do?" She asked him in a deadpan tone of voice. In response all Naruto did was point directly up at a billboard that they were passing by, something she usually ignored. Not today though, as her eyes widened and her jaw dropped, "Oh, you are just…some kind of evil."

On the billboard was a blown up picture of Ibuki that had been taken during gym in school during the day that they were doing aerobics, with her in a tight white shirt and small tight red shorts. Right there on the billboard was her cell phone number and for further enticement, as if the picture were not enough to ensure that some creepy random people would be calling her, her measurements of 32-22-32 sat there for the world to burn to memory if they so chose.

"Oh stop fussing." Naruto said, chuckling freely at this point at the deep red blush on her face as she continued to walk with him down the street. He went through his own phone to the pictures and showed her another one, "I was nice… I could have used this picture instead." If Ibuki's blush had been deep before, by this point it was atomic-red, "It's my favorite though. No one else is seeing this one." He quipped before cackling and jumping off of surfaces to take to the rooftops in order to beat a hasty retreat in case she was angry with him.

"You're gonna want to change your number now! Later Ibuki!"

As far as Naruto was concerned he had gotten her back in a major way. Part of him dreaded just what would be next from his fellow ninja in retaliation for this stunt, but the other part of him just wanted to bask in the glowing high of his temporary victory and hope that he was not about to catch a well-deserved level-5 angry female beatdown.

Chasing after Naruto to try and administer a righteous beating was not on her mind however.

The first thought that was running through Ibuki's head happened to be her wondering how in the hell he got her measurements in the first place. And her second question was something a bit more personal, "He said the other picture was his favorite… does that mean he thinks I'm attractive?"

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

{Character Profile}

Name: Ryu

Nationality: Japanese

Gender: Male

Age: 25 (July 21)

Height/Weight: 5'10/176 lbs.

Bloodtype: O

Likes: General martial arts, grapes, mizuyokan, meatloaf, pushups, helping people with problems.

Dislikes: Spiders, materialistic people, ridiculous things, becoming evil.

Hobbies: Hitchhiking, sleeping anywhere.

Rivals: Akuma, Sagat, E. Honda (friendly), Sakura Kasugano (friendly), Ken Masters (friendly), Naruto Uzumaki (friendly)

Fighting Style: Martial art rooted in Ansatsuken.

Current Techniques: Hadoken (Surge Fist), Shoryuuken (Rising Dragon Fist), Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (Tornado Whirlwind Leg).

Hyper Techniques: Shinkuu Hadoken (Vacuum Surge Fist), Metsu Hadoken (Destroying Surge Fist), Metsu Shoryuuken (Destroying Rising Dragon Fist).

Background: A humble, silent, serious individual, Ryu was orphaned as a young child with no memory of his parents. He was adopted and raised by a man named Gouken in a secluded dojo where he was also trained in the martial arts. He is a friendly if not aloof young man dedicated to mastering his fighting style, driven by a desire to be the very best no matter the cost. At the age of 23, Ryu began journeying around the world to test and hone his skills against the greatest fighters in the world which led to him entering and winning the World Warrior Tournament hosted by Sagat. This episode, in a near catastrophic episode of defeat, led to Ryu first awakening the dark and powerful Satsui no Hadou when he became enraged by his own desire to win and be the strongest in order to eke out the victory in the end. He continues to travel and train, trying to find some way to understand and eventually rid himself of the influence of the Satsui no Hadou, which has the potential to strip his very humanity away from him for the sake of power and being the strongest.