A Mad World...

Chapter 23 - A Mad World...

Sandaled feet touched an urban rooftop for the first time in more than a day as Naruto got back to the town of his residence; Aohura City. Of course he still had to get all the way downtown to the arena as quickly as those sandaled feet would carry him. It was already twenty minutes past seven.

While he was certain that with as much intelligence as his group of friends had… and Batsu too he guessed… but with all of that he was sure that they had something in mind to help him if Sakura saw the evening's event as important enough to blow up Ibuki's phone with messages for. Still, he wanted to get there himself just in case he had to beat someone's ass to save face.

When it rained it poured though, and as Naruto moved through town he had to come to a stop at the sight of something very unnerving as he arrived in one of his favorite parts of the city; the arcade district.

The streets were filled with well over one hundred hooligans and they were making a mess of the entire area. Storefronts to shops that he frequented, storefronts to shops that Sakura frequented, even the store that sold Naruto his metal ninja tools was being torn up. That wasn't cool! It was the only place he found in the whole region that would actually order the stuff he asked them for!

And then he saw them tearing up his beloved arcade! No! That was where he went to blow off steam in regards to his ridiculous life by playing slightly more ridiculous video games that made him feel a bit better about how absurd things got every now and then.

But then he saw actual fighting going on down there.

Saikyou-ryuu students were trying to fight back. Wow. Dan's training must have really instilled some confidence in the lot of them. And in fact they weren't doing that bad against the Mad Gear members. Like Naruto said before and would defend to the end; Dan knew his basics well. And if he indeed taught his students the right way they would have a good fighting foundation.

On the other hand though, when they started trying to use Dan's go-to ki technique the Gadoken after it was established how outnumbered they were it turned into an outright one-sided slaughter, because they all failed. Dan barely understood the concept of channeling his ki for his own move, so how could he teach others how to do it?

So a choice was then presented to Naruto on how to proceed. It was either go to the arena and save his rep, or drop down and save the students of a 'rival' that had tried to be heroes and defend their town.

…

Damn it why did he have to have the conscience that was telling him his choice wasn't much of a choice at all?

"Coming in hot!" Naruto shouted as he dropped down from a rooftop and made his several hand-seals while falling, "Isseishageki Chakura Tanki-sha (Chakra Spitfire Volley)!" Naruto spat a mass of smaller, less powerful stinging bomblets of his Chakra Spitfire technique from his mouth. The sheer amounts of them pounded away at the Mad Gear gangsters, driving them back off from the overmatched Saikyou-ryuu students that had been steadily losing and had gotten overrun.

Landing in the streets between most of the Saikyou-ryuu students, Naruto noted one Mad Gear man trying to rush him and kicked a nearby trashcan at his head, knocking him down and out to be dragged off by some of his comrades.

Remembering how Naruto had beaten up their entire dojo at one time in the past, they were clearly skeptical and wary of his presence even when he turned around and his eyes panned over them to insure that no one was dead or dying. None were, but there were a few that were beaten up badly to be taken out of the fight, "Well, twenty-five of us vs. one hundred and twenty of them. Why were you guys fighting them?"

"There's no way we're letting these guys trash our town! We trained under Dan-sensei to get strong enough to beat people like you that wreck everything!" Naruto palmed his face, but accepted that kind of an answer nonetheless, "It's time to show off what we can do!"

The Mad Gear side of the line started laughing in a belittling manner as one thug holding a stun baton stepped forward to shoot his mouth off, "A bunch of punks like you think you can stop an organized militia? You didn't realize by now that you can't beat us? Those retarded Saikyou-ryuu moves are pathetic! There's a reason we didn't target Hibiki Dan or ask him to join up with Mad Gear. Because he's just-!"

"He's just way too fucking awesome for your leaders to control! Hibiki Dan would have made them sweat and think he was coming to take their spots!"

The loud, boisterous, and arrogant voice got everyone's attention toward the end of the street where Dan stood in all of his brown ponytailed, pink gi sporting glory. A cheer went up amongst the Saikyou-ryuu students at seeing Dan… not so much from Naruto though. But he respected the man's sentiment.

"That's right." Dan said as he slowly walked toward his ecstatic students as if he were conquering hero of some sort, "Get ready to feel the pain! You'd better be an actual army, because that's what it takes to put down someone like me!"

"You haven't been in town since we've shown up you coward, and we've been kicking the shit out of your students for an hour! What makes you think you can confront us now?"

Dan snickered at the question, "I've got a new assistant at my gym that I met in my travels while I was gone. I just had to run on home to get him." He cupped his hands by his mouth and shouted loudly, "Hey Jimmy! Come on out!"

Who the hell was Jimmy? Naruto knew without a doubt he hadn't beaten up anyone named Jimmy that knew Dan, so he couldn't have been a student of Saikyou-ryuu. He hadn't fought anyone named Jimmy period as a matter of fact.

At first nothing happened, but then from an alley streaked out a green blur that began absolutely bulldozing the Mad Gear forces savagely. Before most of them knew what hit them they had been knocked around and brutalized by raw physical aggression.

A dozen militia members managed to surround the attacker and the few that had them began hitting him and prodding him with their electric stun batons. Dan's student's rushed in to assist the creature that had come to their defense, but Dan merely smirked, completely unconcerned.

"Elétrico Trovão (Electric Thunder)!"

The mobbing militia members were all instantly electrocuted and blown away from the volts of the attack. With his form now clear, Naruto was able to get a look at Dan's friend 'Jimmy'.

He had green colored skin, sharp fingernails, and long spiky orange hair on his head going down his back. He was barefoot, shirtless, wore a pair of frayed brown shorts and a pair of metal anklets, was very muscular and rather big, and had quite a bit of orange chest hair and orange hair on his forearms and shins.

'Jimmy' looked more like a subhuman if one were to observe him closely, "None of you would ever be able to survive in a jungle." He stated gruffly from his low, hunched position of standing as he stared out at his quite rattled enemies.

"I'm impressed, excited, and kind of scared." Naruto said to no one in particular as Dan looked on smugly, "You said his name was Jimmy?"

Dan nodded and watched Mad Gear back off warily from his bestial friend who was still coursing with a bit of electricity, "He's an old friend of mine from Brazil. His name is James Blanka, but I just call him Jimmy."

He didn't look like a Jimmy. He was definitely going to be called a Blanka instead... whatever that was supposed to be.

Well at least he was on Naruto's side.

Blanka then turned towards Naruto and got Naruto to tilt his head quizzically as the two stared at each other, both in curiousity for differing reasons. Eventually Blanka pointed up a clawed finger at Naruto and abruptly stood up to full height, alarming Naruto, "You're that man from the television! That Naruto person!"

Dan palmed his face hard as Blanka seemed legitimately excited to meet someone he'd known about from TV. Well that killed the whole feral human vibe that he'd had going for him beforehand.

"I'm on TV? Again?" Naruto asked aloud, not understanding the reference due to having not seen a television set in well over a month at least, "That is awesome. I wasn't even trying this time."

"Yeah." Blanka continued excitedly, "You were supposed to fight someone tonight at the arena, but you didn't show up. What Dan told me about you is true I guess."

Killing intent radiated off of Naruto's body as Dan took a few steps away from the glaring blue-eyed blonde boy, "Jsut what were you telling him about me again Dan? Go ahead. I love to hear what other people that I've beaten up have to say about me. And how does he speak good Japanese if he's from Brazil?"

"We met years ago, long story." Dan quickly said before pointing out at Mad Gear because he desperately needed to change the subject, "Look! Enemies! Angry, angry enemies!" He breathed a sigh of relief when Naruto started ignoring him so that he could begin tearing into the enemies himself. Blanka got fired up from watching Naruto kick their asses and quickly jumped in himself to get a piece of the action, "Whew..."

XxX

(Elsewhere in Aohura City)

Several attacking gang members stood surrounding one person in particular; a person wearing a complete black and red leather motorcycle outfit. With the spikes on the outfit and the skull design on the helmet, it was a rather intimidating sight. At least it would have been had the person wearing it not have been so diminutive in size and stature.

That apparently meant nothing though, mostly because throughout the streets and sidewalks of the area there were dozens of Mad Gear members strewn about with varying degrees of injuries adorning their persons.

"Who the hell is this? How'd we miss recruiting this guy?"

Hearing that they seemed to wish to recruit the biker only made the leather-clad figure angry, "Senshuubu (Cyclone Dance)!" A blinding quick series of wide spinning kicks knocked the surrounding militia members off of the solo biker who once again settled in and prepared for even more to come in to attack at once, "You think you could actually get me to join you after what you did to my brother and my friends?" The biker asked in a clearly disguised voice trying to sound like a male, "Who put Kazama Daigo in the hospital?"

This time, shoring up their forces in a wall of twenty to charge the vengeful biker down, every weapon-wielding Mad Gear militia member rushed at once, "You can ask him yourself when we put you there!"

"Kazama Daigo only has one sibling; a sister named Akira! It's just a girl so finish her off!"

"Chidori Senbon (One Thousand Birds Senbon)."

From behind, the attacking gang members were electrocuted and fell like waves of wheat being cut down to reveal Sasuke standing behind them holding up his one hand surging with blue electricity, "You small fries busted the windows to my shop." He said, sounding a bit perturbed that he'd have to have more work done on Gen's restaurant. He then lowered his hand when he saw that the biker was the last person standing, "Are you alright?"

"I didn't need any help to beat them."

"Whatever. Don't look like such a vulnerable lady next time then." Sasuke said as he turned away. He hadn't planned on doing anything else to Mad Gear tonight, but they messed with his shop and that pissed him off. The ungrateful chick dressing in biker gear like a dude wasn't helping his mood either, "You should take that helmet off when you fight. You'd be able to see better."

"Who are you?" Akira asked him, still trying to sound tough behind her helmet as she treated Sasuke as potentially hostile, "Do you know what happened to my brother? You should answer wisely."

"Or you'll do what exactly?" In response to him, Akira took off the chain around her waist and prepared to use it to fight, "Tch... why does everyone in this town try to act like a badass?" He could see why Naruto liked living there if that were the case. It always gave him something to do it seemed, but right now he had to do his part and keep the Mad Gear fools from tearing up the heart of town, "I don't have time for this. If you're so dead set on fighting these people then keep up because I'm not slowing down."

Akira nodded from beneath her helmet as Sasuke took to a low lying rooftop. She stowed her chain belt back around her waist before running into a nearby alley and a moment later an engine revved as she raced out on a black racing bike to begin following Sasuke's path on the street. At least he was considerate enough to stay in sight for her on the edge of the rooftops.

The antisocial ninja hoped that this Akira girl was at least a decent fighter. He didn't need anyone getting in his way and slowing him down.

That bike was fast enough that the slowing down thing probably wasn't going to be a problem at least.

XxX

(Aohura Super Arena – Batsu vs. Hugo)

The crowd roared in interested approval as Batsu remained perched on the top turnbuckle just staring Hugo down. While he wasn't as intimidated to fight any longer he still wasn't going to be fool enough to leap right at an eight foot human being.

"Suiseikero (Comet Kick)!"

Maybe he was.

Springing off of the ropes to get higher in the air, Batsu flipped and shot a hard diving kick right at Hugo that bounced off of his upper chest, not driving him back a step. Taking advantage of his speed, Batsu dodged a giant punch that smashed off of the ring canvas and ran off of the ropes before shooting off of them at Hugo for another kick that hit Hugo in the belly. His muscular stomach shook from the impact, but other than that there was nothing.

"You can hit me all you want to." Hugo said with a grin on his face as he looked down at the diminutive Batsu, "There's no way someone like you is knocking me down. So come on. Keep trying." The massive wrestler had no issues with taking as many of Batsu's attacks as he could land if they all felt like that. Eventually he'd screw up and Hugo would be able to squash him. There wasn't anything he could do that would actually hurt him.

Bristling at first at the comment, Batsu managed to calm himself down. If he was going to get some free shots in he was going to make them count at least, "Alright then. Kiaidan (Guts Bullet)!" Forming a tangible amount of ki in one hand, Batsu projected it forward by punching it with his other. The attack flew forth and exploded off of Hugo's head with enough of a boom to make the crowd 'oh' at the sight of it.

Hugo actually stumbled back several steps into the ropes but remained upright as smoke continued to conceal his facial features. Poison meanwhile jumped up on the apron and started smacking Hugo's arm with her riding whip as if she were chiding a small child, "Hugo you don't let ki users launch their attacks at your head! That's just stupid okay?"

The smoke cleared from around his face to show nothing more than few singes and bruises from the blast, "Okay Poison." Hugo agreed before turning his attention back to Batsu, now with a more sadistic look on his face, "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to kill you now."

Batsu was ready to dodge another crushing lunge from Hugo, but the man lifted his leg and stomped on the ring canvas several times, causing the ring to shake violently as if it were in the midst of an earthquake. His balance was horrendously disrupted by the bouncing surface he stood on and that left him wide open even for his slow-moving adversary.

"Ultra Throw!" Hugo grabbed Batsu by his neck and spun around in a 360 before hurling him away towards the ropes. Batsu hit them and bounced off before flying back towards Hugo who was ready and waiting with his arms drawn back and wide open, "Giant Palm Bomber!" He then clapped his hands together and smashed the incoming Batsu in between them.

The young delinquent student hit the ground on his stomach and let out a groan of pain as he landed near the ropes by his own group of present friends; Sakura, Cammy, and Karin, "Oh..." He continued to moan in pain, "That sucked just as much as I thought it would."

"Are you alright?" Sakura asked, holding onto the bottom rope tightly out of concern for what was going on, "How are you feeling?"

Batsu slowly started moving up to his hands and knees to try and get back up despite the pain plaguing his extremities, "Do you know how when you were a kid you'd grab a fistful of playdoh and just squeeze it in your hand? That's kind of how I feel right now, and I-. Oh crap!" He was grabbed by his leg before he could stand back up and was whipped through the air only to be slammed on the other side of the ring in Hugo's corner, "...Ow."

"How ya feeling there kid?" Poison, standing just outside of the ring, asked him with a grin at seeing the pain in Hugo's opponent for the evening.

Batsu raised his head just enough to look right at the pink-haired menace and give her a once over from up close, "A nurse's outfit on you would be appropriate right now. That answers your question doesn't it?"

Far from being offended, Poison just laughed a bit at his expense, "Yeah it does, thanks. Hugo?"

This time Batsu held on to the edge of the ring when Hugo tried to pull him up, reaching and clawing for whatever he could get a hold of. His hands grabbed the ring apron itself and Hugo's strenght tore the tough fabric apart as if it were tissue paper as he hoisted Batsu into the air again.

Before Hugo could move around to slam him, Batsu dropped the ring apron fabric over the giant's head and robbed him of his ability to see. In his sudden panic at losing his vision, Hugo let Batsu go. A bad move, as Batsu maneuvered his body around Hugo's and got into a position to tuck the apron ends tightly into Hugo's pink leopard-skin singlet and the belt of his pink pants.

As the man stumbled around the ring trying to find a place to claw the apron out of his clothes, Batsu quickly turned towards his 'corner' with a request, "Give me a chair!" He asked the girls.

"A chair?" Karin asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion, "Of all of the objects that you could ask to use you chose to ask for a folding chair?"

"Why not?" Batsu asked, gesturing to the crowd, "They're everywhere. And if it was Naruto he would have just taken off your shoe by now without you noticing so he could throw it. Now give me a goddamn chair!" He finished in a snapping tone of voice.

Ever on the ball, Cammy had already retrieved one from the front row and threw it in the ring for Batsu to catch. After feeling the steel in his hand he immediately turned around and swung it overhead to hit Hugo on the top of the skull, and it barely got that high at all. Still, the sound of steel on flesh and bone echoed out with a crack, but Hugo sold it as if he had only been punched.

Batsu backed off a few steps and looked at the dent in the seat of the chair the size of Hugo's head before sighing and charging in with a battle cry to begin wailing on the big man again and again.

"Our lives are like hell... every day." Sakura said her face in her crossed arms, set on the edge of the ring. The sounds of Batsu trying to beat the crap out of the blinded Hugo and the crowd's corresponding response to such with each shot that landed could be heard in the background, "Just go down already you big bastard!" She shouted, lifting her head off of the mat.

Now there was an idea. Batsu switched his strategy up from trying to aim at Hugo's hard to hit head and lowered his shot, swinging at Hugo's legs. He hit paydirt so to speak when after the smack of steel rang out, Hugo dropped to one knee. Eyes shining with the advantage presented to him, Batsu hit Hugo in the back of the other leg to bring him down to two knees.

Even on his knees Hugo was still taller than Batsu, and the chair was all bent up and useless, thus Batsu stood right in front of him and began punching away at his canvas-covered face with left and rights, 'When does this fight stop? God, I'm punching myself out here.' But Hugo's face had to be beaten to a fine hash beneath that ring apron on his head.

Speaking of being punched out, Hugo was finally able to pinpoint Batsu's location and lashed out with a punch that actually countered Batsu's own barrage and knocked the young man back and onto the ground once more, almost out of the ring entirely.

Finally able to rip the glorified sheet out of his clothing and off of his head, Hugo's face was sporting several more bruises and cuts, but he didn't seem to be very glassy-eyed in the least, "Hey." Hugo said, rubbing a few bumps on his head from where Batsu had been repeatedly cracking him, "Using a chair is illegal. That's a disqualification, right?" He said as he walked over to the warped chair and bent it into a ball before hurling it away into the crowd.

"There's no DQ Hugo." Poison told him informatively, "This fight doesn't have any rules like that. It goes until he quits or until he just doesn't move anymore. So do as you please." The massive man nodded in understanding as he saw Batsu get up once again, "…Damn it he's tough though."

Once again leaning with his back against the bottom rope on the other side of the ring, Batsu waited to get the coppery taste of his own blood out of his mouth via spitting it to the side before pulling himself to his feet.

Wincing at the blood staining his lip, Batsu started generating more ki in his one hand before preparing to punch it with the other, "Kiaidan (Guts Bullet)!" He began firing shot after shot that blasted Hugo, but he just kept plodding forward, "Hit the mat and stay down motherfucker!" He shouted over the crowd and the blasts as he continued to throw shots, 'This is impossible! What does it take?'

With every shot, Hugo took a step forward and Batsu wasn't looking to dodge. He was effectively cornering himself in the ring, and he didn't even look to bailing out altogether as an option. This was not the time to get into a pissing contest with his opponent and it was driving Karin and Sakura crazy that he could be so hardheaded.

"There are no rules right?"

Both Sakura and Karin looked towards Cammy who had her eyes locked firmly on the fight at hand, "What was that Cammy?" Sakura asked to get the former Doll to repeat herself.

"Other than how the fight can end, by out of the ring count out or by completely debilitating the enemy, there's no chance of this fight being cancelled under any other circumstances, correct?" Cammy queried aloud. And it seemed to be so since they had tossed Batsu a tool to bludgeon Hugo with only moments ago, "He can't be disqualified so why don't we-?"

'I knew eventually someone would think of that.' Poison thought to herself. Cammy was about to tell her friends that they could interfere on Batsu's behalf and help him fight. But instead being worried or angered by the intended treachery, Poison had some of her own planned. Pulling out a small controller with a smirk, she hit the button on it and the sound of metal sliding erupted from the rafters.

From the shadows above, a large cage fell around the ring with a crash, almost crushing the three girls had they not managed to dodge it before it hit the ground. It was comprised of solid steel bars on all sides up to three stories off of the ground, and even on the roof itself. There was no door, nothing. No way in and no way out.

The first to get back up from the ringside floor was Sakura who immediately tried to test the give of the cage. There was none to be had. She wasn't going to be tearing it down, "What's this?"

"You didn't think I'd just let you gang up on Hugo did you?" Poison asked, standing on the top of the cage near the edge as she looked down on the three girls while Batsu continued his battle with Hugo on the inside, "Remember, this fight was originally intended for Uzumaki, and everyone and their grandmother knows that he cheats and makes copies of himself. This was meant to keep him from doing too much of either."

It was also an even greater advantage for Hugo than the ring by itself would have provided, making it far easier for him to trap an enemy. From bad to worse seemed to be the order of the evening.

"Ishizaki!" At her order, Karin was thrown to the top of the cage in one move by her huge butler and landed gracefully on the roof of it along with Poison, "You conveniently left this little stipulation to the contest out of our earlier negotiations."

"Oh I did didn't I?" Poison replied sarcastically, "Well those negotiations were for a fight with Uzumaki. He never showed up and we got a completely different headlining matchup, so that left things with a clean slate." She then started laughing, "Oh, I'm so full of shit… the fact of the matter is that I changed the rules because I can. And the question is, what exactly are any of you going to do about it?"

With a sigh, Karin reached for her brown fighting gloves and pulled them onto her hands as if it were a chore to do so, "Well I cannot in all good conscience allow such a slight against me to be left unchecked. A blatant manipulation of the fighting venue the way you have done with this cage, it is an insult to me as a manager/promoter… even if I care next to nothing about the man currently in the cage. He is not in my employ."

"Fuck you too princess!" Batsu shouted, gathering more ki for a Guts Bullet to keep on holding Hugo back. He had to dodge a quick dive from Hugo to tackle and grab him lest he find his night ended, "Oi! Screw off!"

Poison started laughing at Karin, pointing at the heiress haughtily as she began to stretch, "Really? You want to fight me? Aww, that's so cute, but I think someone's a little out of their element tonight."

"We shall see." Karin said with a smirk before standing up and getting into her self-developed fighting stance, "But the worst I will ever be in comparison to anyone else is the best. The day a harlot such as you defeats me… ah, I cannot even fathom."

So the little girl really did want to fight? Well that was just fine with Poison too. Even though she fancied herself Hugo's manager she had been known for kicking quite a bit of ass before she took the role. Below she noticed Sakura and Cammy trying to make their way to Ishizaki to try and get him to throw them up there too, "Ah, ah, ah… not tonight ladies. Could someone out there please help me from being ganged up on?" She asked with a feigned pitiful lisp.

Upon doling out the command, men ran from the back and even some of the men that had been on the crew for the television broadcasting process took off their headsets and stormed the ringside area to stop Cammy and Sakura. In order to protect Ishizaki the two girls had to begin fighting the Mad Gear lackeys instead, leaving Karin alone on the top of the cage with Poison and Batsu alone inside of the cage with Hugo.

"You think I need their help to fight you?" Karin asked with a curious smirk on her face. It didn't matter to her whether or not she had the assistance from her friends or not. She trained herself from a young age to be able to defeat any enemy on her own, "Ha, I can see why Naruto-san resents being underestimated so much." Her eyes then hardened treacherously on Poison's frame, "It is incredibly annoying."

Poison rolled her eyes but with barely indication as to her intentions she hurled a pair of metal handcuffs at Karin from a place on her hip. Karin leaned out of the way of the projectile cuffs but when she turned back to Poison, the woman was right in front of her and struck her right across the face with her riding whip, knocking her to the surface of the cage room.

Blood trickled down through the bars and dripped down onto the ring canvas as Karin lay face down and Poison bounced her whip in her hand as she walked paces around the top of the steel cage, playing to the crowd, "What happened to all of that tough talk? You're not so haughty anymore are you? All the money in the world isn't going to stop me from kicking your ass sweetie!" She taunted.

Still, Karin didn't move to stand. Her hands balled up into fists by her head and began to shake, "My face." She muttered quietly.

"What was that sweetheart?" Poison asked, placing a hand by her ear to continue punking Karin out further, "I didn't hear that from where your nose was in the steel."

"My face!" Jumping up quicker than Poison was prepared for, she was caught mostly unaware when Karin angrily assaulted her with three lightning quick power punches using only one arm to land them, "Guren Ken (Crimson Lotus Fist)!" The third one sent Poison rolling all along the roof of the cage until she reached the other side and had to hold on to keep from falling off.

Grunting in effort as she pulled herself back up, Poison stood back up, ready to continue fighting, but surprised at the sudden devastating offense from her aristocratic adversary, 'Where in the hell did that come from?' She had no time to wonder as killing intent warned her to duck a swinging overhead kick that probably would have taken her head off. That didn't let her avoid three back elbow strikes to the same point in her ribs that took her breath away and knocked her away again.

"Ressen Chou!" After finishing her attack that probably shattered a rib or two, Karin sneered at Poison and touched at the thin wound on her face from Poison's whip strike, "You wounded my face you tawdry courtesan! If this scars I will make your life a living hell!"

Yes she had been in many, many street fights, but even when she lost to people like Naruto or Sakura they never used weapons on her face… just their fists and feet. Bumps and bruises faded, but open wounds were a little more unpredictable.

Poison had taken more than enough of being beaten on by some snooty little noble girl and got up with a growl, ignoring the throbbing pain of her busted ribs, "Grr… Poison Kiss!" She blew a kiss Karin's way and a heart-shaped ki attack flew her way in an unpredictable wave path.

'She's that kind of ki user?' Karin was officially out of blind rage mode and was back in the analytic pugilist mode. She couldn't use ki, so if Poison could, even for such a gaudy attack, it was a marked advantage that she had.

The difficulty in gauging the path of the attack's travel resulted in it actually hitting Karin, but instead of hurting her the way a Hadoken would have it threw off of her balance and dizzied her significantly.

Try as she might, she was unable to target and land any punches against the incoming Poison who jumped up and wrapped her legs around the front of Karin's head before bending back and using force to drive the top of the blonde girl's head into the top of the cage with a clang, "Poison-Rana!" Poison cackled aloud and got up before cartwheeling away from her downed foe, "Sorry honey. Why don't you have your chauffer drive you to the hospital now?" She said as she moved to walk away.

"Because I am not that injured."

The pink haired baddie turned around again and saw Karin, standing and primping her hair back into place. She had a few bruises on her and the slash mark still on her cheek, but otherwise looked perfectly fine for someone that had been dropped right on the top of her head.

"You shouldn't still be conscious." Poison insisted, wondering why these pests of runts were so tough. Batsu was still down in the cage avoiding Hugo like a champ, Cammy and Sakura were absolutely destroying the hordes of dozens of Mad Gear fighters on the floor, and Karin had just shrugged off a Frankensteiner that would have broken nearly anyone else's neck.

Karin continued to dust herself off idly, "Do you know why I am Naruto-san's manager? It is because I aspire to defeat the strongest fighter in the world and prove my own skill as the best one day. I saw him, I saw all of his potential, and I will make him realize it so that I can prove myself as his better." Karin's brown eyes panned up towards Poison for just a moment at that point, "I need to prove this to myself and to him. And you aren't on the level of fighter that it would require to defeat me."

Angry at yet another verbal slight from this pretentious little entitled rich girl, Poison launched herself into the air and nearly got herself caught into the lights before diving down with a flipping axe kick. It looked as though it would land, but Karin seemingly blurred from sight and Poison had to cancel her move.

She was already open to a counter attack though from her back. Poison almost bent backwards due to the fist buried right at her lower back. Karin wanted her to know just what kind of trouble she had gotten herself into. With both of her hands glowing with lavender ki, Karin started hammering away with blurrily fast punches that drove Poison steadily toward the edge of the cage.

An uppercut to the back lifted Poison off of the ground just enough for Karin to high-kick her away as if she were a can-can dancer, sending Poison flying into the cheap seats of the audience, "Kanzuki-ryuu Shinpikaibyaku! You are not in my league!"

Even with his own fight going on, Hugo couldn't help but bear witness to watching his friend and advisor being sent hurling through the air, defeated by the blonde in the red school uniform standing above the structure that contained him, "Poison!" An angered Hugo grabbed the bars of the cage and began shaking it. What seemed like an impossible task actually seemed to be occurring as he was able to shake it and knock an off-balance Karin onto her backside, "RAAAGHHH!"

"Shut up!" Batsu shouted at Hugo, landing a diving Comet Kick to the back of his head that smashed him face first right into the metal of the cage, "Don't pick fights if you don't like the results!"

As Batsu landed an angry Hugo turned around with blood streaming from his forehead and charged, quickly grabbing his enemy by the face with one hand, "Meat Squasher!" He ran with Batsu towards the opposite cage wall as hard and as fast as he could, and let him go only so that he could use his entire bulky mass to splash him against the solid iron bars like a pancake.

At the sound of the deafening clang Sakura and Cammy stopped finishing off the remainder of Mad Gear miltia members outside, and Karin could only peer down into the cage from her place above.

The tan, spiky-haired high school delinquent went limp and fell onto his face down onto the mat, not moving an inch. Not even his fingers twitched.

Hugo stood over him until it was clear that he wasn't getting up again, and turned to the crowd with a grand roar of victory. The people of course roared in approval of the decisive finish, but amongst the three girls that had undertaken to handle the crisis that evening there was nothing to cheer about.

One of their good friends happened to be lying in that ring, within that cage. And the worst was feared. There wasn't even any way to get inside to check on him and see if he was even still breathing. Hugo had to have obliterated the entire core of his body.

Looking over to the imposing bearded, white-haired figure that was struck by Batsu's father Raizo, Sakura ran over to him as he stood with his arms crossed, "Principle Imawano, do something! Batsu's your son! I know you haven't been in his family since he was born but you've got to make sure he doesn't-!"

"Don't be such a damn fool girl." Raizo snapped, cutting Sakura's plea to help Batsu off before it could conclude, "I made sure he felt far worse than that when he trained with me. I had to in order to teach him what he needed to know. Look at him."

Adhering to the elder's words, Cammy scrutinized Batsu's form and widened her eyes at what she saw, 'How could I not have noticed such a thing before?' Batsu had large scars that looked like they had come from debilitating wounds on his shoulders and arms. Not only that, but underneath the sleeveless mesh shirt he wore into the fight she could see more similar injuries on his torso. She had never seen him without his school uniform top on, but she was certain that those were new.

"I tormented that boy so that something like this wouldn't keep him down." Raizo said, his lips turning to a grim smile as he saw Batsu begin to pull himself up, "Don't you get it? You had better ensure that his heart stops beating completely if you wish to kill him like that. So burn on brat…"

Batsu's body began radiating fiery orange ki as he got back up and glared at a disbelieving Hugo, "What's the matter big guy?" Batsu asked with an angry sneer, "You look like you've seen a ghost or something."

Though he was unable to voice it, Hugo was completely beside himself. No one he had ever hit as consistently as he had hit Batsu had ever gotten up. But here this young seventeen year old man stood and he just kept coming back for more.

When Hugo hit something it broke. When he threw something it sailed through the air out of sight. When he squashed something he crushed it. It was that simple, and it always had been, "What are you made of?"

"It's not what I'm made of that's important man… it's more than that." Batsu said softly as he began forming hard orange ki in both of his hands that looked far more unstable than his normal amount that he created, "Don't you get it by now? You can shoot me, you can stab me, you can throw me off of a cliff, you can burn me, you can run me over with a goddamn dump truck… but you can't KILL ME! Nekketsu Zenkai Kiaidan (Burning Super Guts Bullet)!"

A massive blast erupted from Batsu's hands and Hugo could only cover up as it hit him and exploded, blowing away everything inside of the cage and causing the walls of the cage itself to fall down, causing a huge panic amongst the front rows of people that quickly fled lest they be crushed and injured.

Smoke engulfed the entire ring due to how the cage contained most of the damaging effects done by the explosive ki attack. When it cleared, the roof of the cage had landed on the ring that had been beneath it. An injured looking Karin lay on top of the cage but quickly crawled to the edge and got up onto her own two feet, disoriented though she was.

Holding her head, she realized she was the closest person to ground zero of Batsu's finishing attack and turned around to find that the cage ceiling that she had just been sitting on was now pinning Hugo to the mat, making it so that he couldn't move an inch… not that he was conscious to do so anyway. From the blood coming from his head, and the droning moan coming from his mouth he had been knocked senseless.

There were also small flames adorning his person and lasting burn marks from Batsu's final Guts Bullet. Good on him for that one.

"Oh man…" Batsu stood up from where he had been blown away into the fifth row of the crowd, a dozen steel chairs having 'cushioned' his fall, "Ugh… damn it old man… you and your stupid Seiki o Nenshou (Burning Vigor) technique."

The arena had cleared out as if someone had turned on the lights in an apartment full of cockroaches. The only remaining people were the last few dregs of Mad Gear cronies tugging their defeated friends away, as well as Cammy, Sakura, and Raizo. The two girls that hadn't been directly involved in the major fighting had actually ducked behind Raizo when the cage had come down, "Burning Vigor?"

"The men of my family have a lot of anger." Raizo explained. And he had a point. Batsu was rude, hotheaded, confrontational, all of that, "It makes us stronger and more physically able than others. Most of us are unable to really channel it intelligently and a lot of us have ended up in jail or dead because of it. If the boy was anything like me he'd have been the same, and I was correct. So I simply taught him how to use it without fighting like a berserker."

"It was that simple?" Cammy asked, interested in studying a new fighting technique like that, especially since it belonged to a friend.

A dark chuckle left Raizo and both girls took a few steps back from the scary man in turn, "Simple… you could say that. Inflicting enough brutality on him to drive him past the brink the first time was rather simple. It took forever though." With nothing more to say to the young ladies, he jumped into the air and landed behind his quite startled son before picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder, "Now let's get you back to your mother's place. She's probably worried sick after watching all of that."

"Wha-?" Batsu sputtered as Raizo started carrying him away, his arms pinned in such a way that he couldn't use them to force himself free from his large and muscular father, "Old man come on! I just won! Let me bask in the afterglow of the victory at least! Gah, I'll throw up blood on you if you don't let me go! Hey!"

XxX

(Downtown Aohura City - Penthouse Suite)

Rolento stared out as far as he could see into the nighttime cityscape from the window available to him. Sodom had already reported back that his forces had met with resistance in two particular areas. Both against the assassin from China and from Uzumaki Naruto who had revealed himself while his friends defeated Hugo and Poison in the arena.

Things were too far along for them to stop now though. The jackals were nipping at his heels, but the finish line was right there within reach, 'By tomorrow night at midnight this country will be on the path to change. It will set an example for the rest of the world to follow and the dominoes will begin to fall one by one.'

Let Uzumaki Naruto, let the dark-haired assassin, let Kanzuki Karin, Kasugano Sakura, Hibiki Dan…. Let them and anyone else that felt the need to involve themselves all run around in the dark if they chose to play stand up against Mad Gear. In just over twenty-four hours he'd gladly welcome them to try and stop him and his organizational ambitions.

It was already written on the wall, plans were in motion, and tomorrow night it would all begin again.

The scar-faced man smirked at his own partial reflection in the mirror as he could see the smoke rising from some points of anarchy within the city. Just as he expected, this inferior government was all but useless to help. So easy to bribe and sideline. Not his utopia.

Mad Gear's utopia would influence the common folk who would join en masse once they saw how effective his military rule of order and discipline would be.

Whoever said that people with ambitions never acted on them?

XxX

(Streets of Aohura City – With Naruto)

"WAAAAAGHHH!" A Mad Gear gang member screamed at the top of his lungs as he took a long fall from the roof of a fifty foot building only to be stopped short of hitting the ground via a cable around his leg holding him upside down. He was still whimpering even as he was pulled back up by what turned out to be a pair of Naruto clones.

The real Naruto stood off to the side, leaning against the stairwell back down the building. While Dan, Blanka, and the Saikyou-ryuu students (mostly Blanka though) cleared the streets, Naruto had managed to snatch one of the gang members from the 'battlefield' for interrogation purposes.

While he had absolutely no experience in working over enemies to get information out of them and he hated making even enemies suffer, Naruto knew for certain that he could scare the information out of his unlucky captive.

His clones threw the man over again and once more caught him closer to the ground before pulling him up halfway and just holding him there, "You know your head's gonna pop off if you stay like that."

"Please God no! Just let me go!"

"Give me a location and I will. Tell me where Rolento is." Naruto reasoned, staring over the edge of the building with a dry look on his face as the man continued to whimper in fear of falling. He stayed silent though. In response, Naruto made sure that the man could see both of his clones from where he was hanging. With a snap of his fingers one clone dispelled in a puff of smoke and he fell part way down until the other clone picked up the slack and caught him, "One more chance or we're going to see how flexible your neck is. I think you'll survive personally."

"No way Boss." Naruto's clone argued in return, "He's not us, he's just some guy that got a stun baton put in his hands. His neck would snap like a toothpick. Personally I'd be more worried about his skull cracking like an egg though."

"Alright, alright!" People that were unaccustomed to facing down death were quite afraid of it. Rolento's grand militia built up to take down Japan's government didn't have a scrap of heart because they were just mostly disgruntled civilians that wanted to be tough guys. The group mentality made them strong, but get them alone and show them that they weren't worth the weapons they put in their hands and they'd crack.

Naruto and his clone looked at each other, both shaking their heads as the clone pulled the man up, "If you think you're safe just because I'm pulling you up before you tell me what I want let me say that it's not like I can't chuck you off the roof again when I find out you lied to me."

After being returned to the roof, the Mad Gear member hugged it as if it were his mother. Upon looking up though, he realized the threat of Uzumaki Naruto was very real. He was crazy just like everyone had been saying. Why did he have to join a group that purposefully made this guy an enemy again?

"Any day now." Naruto said, tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. He held up the cable that was still tied to the man's legs, "I guess we have to ghetto bungee jump again don't we?"

"No, no, no, it's alright!" Backing away from Naruto was redundant when his clone was standing right behind him, "Rolento… Boss Rolento… he's… I don't know." He then found himself picked up by the back of his collar as Naruto's clone started carrying him to the edge of the roof again, "No! I swear I don't know what to tell you! Only an officer in the militia could tell you where he is! I'm just a private!"

Bullshit, because Naruto wasn't idiot enough to not be able to distinguish military emblems, including the one on the sleeve of his captive. That was a higher ranking than private, "And now you're gonna be promoted to 'stain' for lying to me." Naruto's clone quipped, "Geronimo motherfu-."

"Something big is happening tomorrow night, that's all I know!" The Mad Gear officer said, "It's almost time for the revolution! That's what we've been told!"

Naruto scoffed and his clone dropped the man back onto the roof, "Revolution my ass. You can barely gain any ground in Aohura City. What revolution are the lot of you going to pull?"

"You think it's this hard to get a foothold on towns everywhere else?" The soldier said as he continued to squirm for distance from Naruto and Naruto-clone, "No other Mad Gear division anywhere else in Japan has to deal with you super-strong bastards. Everywhere else our people are ready to go. We've been using your town like a training exercise for the members with real potential."

"You don't have any guns."

At that a few chuckles came from Naruto's captive. He didn't like the sound of that at all. That guy should have had nothing to laugh about. Period.

A hand rested on the man's shoulder that got him to stop laughing. Looking up he saw Naruto with a pretty serious look on his face, "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that you're going to be spending the night at my place. I've got a pretty girl as my roommate and there's a cat running around the place now; it's great. The bad news is I need some more information out of you… so it's going to be a long night."

All the man could do was whimper as Naruto dragged him off and started hopping on rooftops on the way back to his apartment.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------9

{Character Profile}

Name: James "Jimmy" Blanka

Nationality: Brazil

Gender: Male

Age: 23 (Birthday: February 12)

Height/Weight: 6'3/217 lbs.

Bloodtype: B

Likes: Arapaima fish, tropical fruit, the color green, Dan Hibiki.

Dislikes: Army ants, people who wear masks.

Hobbies: Hunting, generating electricity.

Fighting Style: Self-taught savage fighting/electricity.

Current Techniques: Ataque de Rolamento (Rolling Attack), Rolo Retroceda (Backstep Roll), Cilindro Vertical (Vertical Roll), Elétrico Trovão (Electric Thunder).

Hyper Techniques: Aterre Barba Rolo (Ground Shave Roll), Relâmpago Bala de Canhão (Lightning Cannonball), Gritar de Terra (Shout of Earth).

Background: As a child, Blanka was separated from his mother in a plane crash that left him stranded inside of the jungles of Brazil where he taught himself how to fight and survive for well over fifteen years. Sometime during his teenage years he saved Dan Hibiki from dying in the middle of the jungles that the man chose to explore during his wandering training years and struck up a friendship with the man. His skin is green due to his overuse of the chlorophyll of plants on his body to camouflage himself and the method that he used to develop his electrical abilities is a mystery. He is a jungle man not used to civilization, but he acquired a taste for street fighting that forced him to venture to cities to curb his desire to fight. He chose to come back to Japan with Dan after the two of them reunited in Brazil during one of the man's trips to South America.