Shrink Wrapped Shinobi...

Chapter 27 - Shrink Wrapped Shinobi...

A knock came at the front door of Naruto's apartment before keys unlocked it from the outside, "Come on Naruto, it's time for school." Sakura said as she walked in and shut the door behind her, "Oh. That's actually kind of surprising."

As she kicked off her shoes to venture further in and looked inside of the living room of the apartment, much to her surprise she saw Naruto sitting on his couch in front of a turned off TV, fully dressed in his uniform and ready to go with a notepad in his hand that he seemed to writing in while thinking deeply about something.

What was surprising was that Naruto was actually awake and ready to roll for once. Normally one had to kick him out of bed to get him going. Even though Sakura had recruited Cammy to make sure Naruto was awake by the time she got there in the mornings, even that had proven to not work in the past after some initial success in the beginning.

He had been doing so for the past three weeks since school started up again, a few days after his return from his trip to India. Was Naruto finally growing out of his sleeping-in phase? That was absolutely wonderful. Showing responsibility in more than just work, what a shift.

"Good morning Naruto." Sakura greeted, plopping down next to him on his couch. A frown came over her face when she saw that he still wasn't paying attention to her presence, "Hello?" Goodness, when Naruto spaced out he spaced out hard, "…Cammy's doing warm-up stretches in her leotard behind the couch."

"What now?" Naruto immediately turned his head almost a full 180 as if he were an owl, but saw nothing behind him. He had been had, "…Not cool Sakura-chan. She actually does that, I've just never seen it happen." But Batsu somehow had… the bastard.

That got him a small knock on the shoulder from Sakura who had more than gotten used to him by now, "That would be the thing that would get you to snap out of it wouldn't it?" In a bit of a huff at being busted out, Naruto sat back normally with his arms crossed over his chest, "What's the matter grumpy?"

Sakura had set aside a bit of extra time in coming over to Naruto's house to get him for school just in case it took some creativity to wake him up on some days, so while they needed to get going, a few minutes could be spared to hear out some problems from the interdimensional ninja.

It took a moment to get a response because Naruto was staring at the notepad in his hands. Apparently instead of words as she thought he had been writing, he had been doodling pictures of what appeared to be Ryu and Ken firing twin Hadokens at him and looking depressed when Naruto somehow harmlessly negated them.

Good to see where his priorities lay.

Once he realized that Sakura was giving him a dry look at his drawing, Naruto cursed as that was not the original reason he had pulled out the notepad that morning. But he still couldn't think of the actual reason that he needed it for to fill. He thought it would be easy to figure out what Dhalsim had requested of him, because it was his own head. How would he not know about what his own inner thoughts were?

But he had been drawing nothing but a blank. Between work (which was mostly accompanying Karin to meetings as security in big cities these days), between training to stay sharp, and between staying in school Naruto didn't really have a ton of time to waste on spacing out.

He thought he was on to something when he thought about the Kyuubi within him, but he honestly didn't fear it. It was an intelligent and reasonable creature he had found, not just an entity of destruction. It seemed to be partial to those things, but not single-minded on them. So what the hell?

"Sakura-chan what am I afraid of?" Talk about a surprising question that came straight out of left field. Naruto was a surprising guy, but even so there wasn't any indication that this was what was coming along, "I'm trying to think of the thing that I fear the most, but I'm not afraid of anything like that."

"Ghosts, zombie apocalypse scenarios, the concept of Freddy Krueger, losing to Hibiki Dan, airplanes-." Sakura said jokingly as she listed things on her fingers. Her smile dropped when she realized that he wasn't smiling with her or whining about what she marked as his fears, "Oh, you're serious."

A stiff nod from Naruto was her answer. He was dead serious, "I'm not talking about stupid crap like that. That's not the kind of fear I'm talking about."

No. He was sure that the kind of fear he was looking at was the kind of thing that could alter a man's entire method of normal operation. The kind of thing that could stop someone like him from acting, even at the cost of right from wrong. Fear in the way that he implied was the kind of fear that would make someone compromise their entire set of morals and values.

Naruto had fears like that? Sakura couldn't see it.

He wasn't afraid to get hurt or die, as much as those that loved him utterly despised that aspect of his personality. He didn't care about his status or being seen as a nobody by the world. His goals in life didn't seem to be so complete that they encompassed every aspect of his being. Naruto always had direction even if he didn't seem like it at times.

So now it was amateur psychiatrist hour or something? Well okay. He was letting her help, so the least she could do was give it a try, "Well think about the things that scared you in the past. Maybe there's something there?"

That was the problem though. The things that used to scare Naruto so much that he wouldn't act, he didn't fear those things anymore. He didn't fear dying in battle or dying in general; dealing with Zabuza as a boy fixed that, and then bearing witness to the Sandaime Hokage's own mortality solidified that. He wasn't afraid of the kind of person his childhood and lifestyle could turn him into; because dealing with Gaara had fixed that as well.

"I got over the things that I used to be afraid of like that." By shock therapy if one had to give any kind of label to the method used to do so, "I haven't been so scared of something that I couldn't act in a long, long time."

A truthful statement from Sakura's own observation. Naruto acted skittish sometimes when faced with things that he didn't like or didn't want to do, but the fact of the matter was that if he really had to go out and get something done there wasn't anything that would keep him from getting it done. A paralyzing fear? That was tough.

She only had one thing that could help, "Okay Naruto… I want you to think about your ultimate worst-case nightmare scenario." She saw him open his mouth to speak but held it shut, "Think hard, be serious. What's the worst thing that you think could ever happen? It has to be something that you actually think can happen too, because it's something you're legit afraid of."

"Then why am I asking you about it now if I could come up with something like that on my own?"

"Because you don't know that you don't want or need my help, you know?"

"…Yes?"

Sakura let out a sigh and grabbed Naruto's arm to get him off of the couch, "Let's just go to school already Naruto. You can have your big internal freak out in class today instead of sleeping. At least it'll be productive that way."

The deceptively strong teenage girl got him to the door where he started putting his shoes on to leave, "Ah, okay. Just let me make some clones to stay with Cam and we'll leave." He really didn't feel like going to school, but he'd do it today, "I'll figure this thing out myself."

XxX

(Later that Week – Tokyo, Japan – Nippon Budokan)

Maybe coming to the scene of his most crushing defeat would drudge up some fear?

That was what Naruto figured when he stepped onto the train that morning and decided to skip school entirely so that he could make the long ride to and from Tokyo. The site of the arena was gated off, but it wasn't like Naruto cared a bit about something like that. He just hopped the fence and headed on in.

Most of the arena's wreckage had been cleared aside, but it still hadn't been moved out yet, and Naruto sat amongst the lot of it in the pit that used to be the arena seating. The chairs were scrap at that point so he sat on the tattered concrete ledges that the stairs had been built into.

"Still nothing." Naruto said to himself aloud as he rolled a coin along the backs of his fingers idly until he started growling at his lack of progress. It had been a week since Dhalsim had told him what he needed to do and as far as he figured he had made no progress. Even Sakura's advice didn't help.

A nightmare situation implied something that he wouldn't take part in no matter what. Well it always came back to the fact that if his friends needed him, everything else became irrelevant. Nothing else mattered.

"Got what you needed yet kid?"

A huge shadow loomed behind Naruto before a huge hand settled on his shoulder. Next to Naruto in a large blue tracksuit was the powerful face-painted sumo wrestler Edmond Honda.

He hadn't had anything else going for him that day and when Naruto called that morning with plans to go to Tokyo, he took it upon himself to ferry the young man around. He hadn't seen him since the tournament at the start of that year, so it was overdue.

"Nope." Naruto said in reply as E. Honda took a seat next to him, "Hey, what do you fear more than anything else E?"

Naruto almost fell forward when E. Honda gave him a friendly pat on the back that was harder than the man thought, "The strongest of the sumo fear nothing Uzumaki! A true sumo can face down any challenge no matter how imposing!"

He should have expected that answer, "Well I'm not really talking about scary fear. I'm talking about… I don't think it's tangible fear that I'm talking about." Naruto then gestured to the arena around him, "You see this? I was in this? I did a lot of the damage to the inside of this place with a friend of mine, but we weren't the ones that brought the place down. One man did that by himself."

"One man?" E. Honda repeated under his breath, "I can see why that man is what you fear, but you shouldn't falter." He then noticed the smirk on Naruto's face, "I don't understand why that's funny."

"I'm not scared of Akuma at all. If it can bleed, feel pain, die, feel fear, whatever. If it has some kind of a weakness I'm not afraid of it." Naruto said, punching into his palm. Akuma was extremely powerful, but he was still just a man, "If I can fight it, it won't stop me from being me you know. But I have to find out what could stop me in my tracks. There's something I'm not seeing."

Ah, now he understood. Conceptual, intangible fear. That was a really intrinsic question.

E. Honda crossed his arms over his massive chest in thought as he tried to bestow even the tiniest bit of wisdom onto his younger and much smaller little friend, "Well if you're really asking me that question I guess I would say that the thing I fear the most is dishonoring my family." He grit his teeth just considering it, "I can't even stand the thought of it. Either that or being caught in a situation where I'm forced into indecisiveness… that to me is the ultimate show of weakness as a man."

"I can't think of anything like that E." Naruto said heaving a deep sigh, "How you even come up with that anyway? You don't seem like the type that would be caught in either of those situations."

"Of course." E. Honda grinned down at Naruto. He had unknowingly complimented him and it was much appreciated, "But it doesn't necessarily have to be a consequence of your actions. Some fears like that are illogical and completely unfounded. The way we grow and develop as people can cause these things to form in our minds. It's inevitable. I've just had the time to think about such things. You're still extremely young, so it's probably never had to cross your mind before now. Just give it time. It'll come to you."

Time. Sure. So by the time he was 27 like E. Honda he'd have an answer. That wasn't really what he needed at the moment. The longer the Kyuubi stayed injured the more worried he grew. He still couldn't get the beast to respond when he spoke to it, either mentally or inside of his mindscape. It was still asleep. Nothing seemed to be changing either.

Perhaps after expending so much energy to heal Naruto for good, which didn't occur until after the duel with Mad Gear had ended, it needed a good long rest to recharge chakra before starting in on fixing itself. Kami knew how complex that probably was.

But what Dhalsim told him sprang to mind. Whatever Akuma did to finish him off in their battle, it left some kind of 'taint' inside of his body in his system.

With a perturbed growl, Naruto got up and kicked a metal strut three times, hard enough to bend it in half. E. Honda raised an eyebrow at Naruto's strangely aggressive behavior, but it left just as quickly as it came when he sat back down. He apparently didn't seem to have hurt himself, so that was okay.

Weird though. Naruto got riled up very easily, but he never lashed out physically at anything. He'd yell up a storm, but he would usually wait until his cursing vocabulary was exhausted before throwing a punch at anything. This was really bending him out of shape. Maybe if they sparred the kid could blow off some steam? He'd suggest it later.

"I hope you're right." Naruto said as he calmed back down again, "I really do."

XxX

(Aohura City – Aohura City Town Plaza)

Batsu hadn't realized how much he counted on Naruto for routine shots of testosterone when he hung out with his friends until he actually had to do so without Naruto for once. School had let out, and Sakura had called his girlfriend Hinata to meet up. He came along because he had a car (jeep actually), and he wasn't doing anything else.

Between Sakura, Hinata, Ibuki, and Karin, he definitely felt like the odd man out. He didn't say this of course, but it was obvious if anyone cared to pay attention, not that they did.

Thus he was left holding onto his girl with one arm as the entire group sat on the edge of the fountain at the center of the park, "Is this really that strange?" Hinata asked aloud. She knew Naruto but she didn't know him on a personal level, "He skipped school. So what?"

"He was long gone by the time I got to his house this morning." Sakura responded. He had woken up even before Cammy and had slipped out to go somewhere, and his phones were off, both business and personal, "Yeah, he's skipped before, but he usually does something to try and cover his tracks. I let it go yesterday when he did it, but two days in a row?"

Naruto didn't even leave clones to train or keep Cammy company today the way he did yesterday either. It was hard to tell, but she was pretty worried about it. He only came back to go to sleep and then the next morning he'd do the very same thing.

Admittedly, Batsu had also noticed that his buddy had been acting weird, and it was all because of that question about what he feared, "Dude, we're in high school. Who has time for all of the weird soul-searching questions? Smell a rose, get a girlfriend, be a damn kid." Despite the fact that Naruto's definition of childhood ended way before theirs did in that world, "…But in his own mind he's probably doing what he thinks people his age have to do by now."

"That's stupid." Ibuki stated firmly, "I mean I get that he's not from this world or anything, but he's been here for four years right? I understand that some things die hard, but come on." She took her life as a ninja deadly serious even though she wanted to spend time living like a regular girl. Well it seemed like Naruto lived like a regular kid that took the ninja elements of his life deadly serious in return.

"There must be something that can be done for him." Karin said, her brow furrowed in thought, "I do not believe I have ever truly helped him the way that he has helped me. It is vexing to allow such a thing to continue when he has assisted me in similar personal matters."

As the girls continued to chatter amongst themselves, Batsu's eye started twitching. He was just about done with it. He knew what to do, and it was quite simple opposed to all of the complex and unnecessary scenarios and ideas that the girls were trying to stitch together, "Alright, shut the hell up about it already!" He shouted loud enough to stop them from conversing, "Damn! Stop thinking so hard about this!"

He was actually loud enough to get people walking through the park to stop walking and stare at them momentarily until they could feel the imposing presence of the powerful seventeen year old and got back to their business.

Unfortunately now he had to explain himself to four angry combat-capable girls, including his girlfriend, because he had told them to all shut the hell up.

In an attempt at his defense, Batsu stood up and made sure he had enough distance to turn and run if it came to that. Still, he had to speak his mind and he did just that, "Did you ever think that for once the guy needs to be left alone with his thoughts?" He said as he kept backing away just in case, "It's not like Naruto doesn't know where you, or should I say we, all are. If he wants help he can come and find us anytime."

The guy knew how to help himself. But if the chicks got to talking and came up with some intervention scenario where Naruto ended up cornered, that would make things worse. As his long-standing friend, Batsu knew that cornering Naruto was the absolute worst thing that anyone could do and honestly Sakura did too. If pressured he'd run if he had the opening to do so, or if he actually did end up cornered he'd clam up until he freaked out.

Nobody needed that drama.

"So we simply wait?" From the tone of Karin's voice she apparently didn't like that idea whatsoever, "We merely go about our business as if Naruto-san is not acting like a phantom of himself?"

"Just give it some time." Batsu said with an annoyed expression on his face. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was the only one out of them that was a guy, "I'm a dude… Naruto's a dude. If anyone would have some perspective on what would make things better or worse who do you think would know?"

That seemed to sate them for the time being, and disengaged Batsu's fight-or-flight instinct. With nothing more to really say he slowly walked back over to his girlfriend and retook his previous position next to her. Thank goodness, because he was expecting to have to run. As strong as he was, there were some battles that he just didn't feel like fighting.

'But then again, you're all going to ignore me so I don't even know why I said anything in the first place.' He thought to himself as they started talking amongst themselves again. What was so wrong with just letting a man brood?

It made enough sense to Sakura though, "Well… I did tell him that he probably didn't need my help." How roundabout would it be to say that and then get all worried? And Naruto was clutch insightful. That was the best compounded term to describe it. If he needed to figure this thing out on his own he'd get it done.

XxX

(Later that Night – Train Ride Back to Aohura City)

E. Honda and his stable of sumo wrestlers liked to drink. Seeing the largest men in the entire country getting sloshed and then taking turns trying to sing karaoke did Naruto's soul a mountain of good and helped him chill out in a much needed way. Hell, he even got loose enough to join them.

Those were some cool people. He needed to come back and hang out with them again with some more of his friends next time. That was just a good time all around. E. Honda was just awesome people, that was all there was to it.

But it came to an end and he had to climb back onto the long bullet train ride back home. At least the seats were comfortable, and at least this time on both occurrences when he got on the train there wasn't a gang travelling on it trying to assert control over the country. Luckily it was nigh impossible for something like that to happen twice, even for someone like him.

"Well it looks like I finally found you."

Naruto wondered just what that meant until someone plopped down in the plush seat across from him, someone he had seen before, though not since his impromptu trip around Asia in the spring, "Chun-Li?" It couldn't have been anyone else. With that ox-horn hairstyle of hers it was pretty unmistakable to find someone else like that in Japan. Even if she was now wearing a blue dress with a white belt around her waist and brown pantyhose as opposed to the outfit she had worn during their time fighting Shadaloo. Those legs were totally unmistakable, "What are you doing here?"

Chun-Li set her hands on her knees as she crossed one leg over the other, "Interpol dispatched me. Apparently there's been quite a bit of trouble in Japan lately, and a lot of it has occurred around your neck of the woods. Destroyed world-famous arenas, a militia rising up to try and take over the country, things like that and they seem to get settled without anyone having any clue who did it. It falls into line with a list of events that seemed to occur around the Chigoku region. Some of Interpol's theorists think it's the same person or people. Almost like a vigilante."

A satisfied smirk came over Naruto's face, "Man… whoever handled all of that stuff has to be some kind of badass or something."

"Or something…" Chun-Li muttered, grinning at the dry look Naruto gave her in return. She assumed it was him and/or his friends, and she didn't really care that he was pulling off what law enforcement couldn't, "What's with the gloomy aura though, and the disappearing act?"

"Were you looking for me or something?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find you when you don't go to your school?" Chun-Li replied rhetorically with an amused look, "Yeah I had agents shadow your haunts for two days but you never went anywhere, and I doubt you'd appreciate someone knocking on your door at two in the morning when you made it back to your apartment." Or maybe before then, whenever he got back. She didn't know. The watch ended after midnight anyway, they weren't staking him out.

Naruto gestured around to their current surroundings on the train and plopped his hands on his lap, "Well I'm here now. What do you need? Am I getting arrested or something? Because whatever international law I broke I did it to keep myself from getting killed."

"What are you-? No… ugh." Chun-Li said before placing a hand against her head, "Look, I came to talk for a reason. I've got something that you should know. I couldn't gather enough evidence to bring Shadaloo's crimes to light."

"What?" Naruto hissed lowly to keep from yelling out loud, "What do you mean? What else did you have to do? We did everything. We proved that the Psycho Drive existed. We even had Birdie as a witness to flip just in case. That didn't get anything?"

"Birdie was just dumb muscle." Chun-Li knew what Naruto was currently feeling above anything else, "My report is on the record for everything that happened, and Guile is a character witness, but he's still feeling remorse for Charlie so he wasn't reliable to my bosses. We destroyed everything else, and the Dolls aren't much use to prove Shadaloo's crimes as they are. We brought them down, but we can't prove that there was anything that needed to be brought down to begin with."

It took Naruto a second to register that, "So you're just saying that there aren't going to be any shiny metals getting pinned on our chests or any crap like that?" A nod was his answer, "Well that's okay. It sucks that you can't prove that all the work you did was for something important, but we know and that's what counts right?"

Yeah, that was what mattered. And even now without Bison's leadership of Shadaloo they were sloppy and she was still taking down their drug trade in China like an exterminator, finding them and taking them out.

"Enough about that, let's talk about something different." Chun-Li said with a calming smile, "I haven't seen you all in months. I spoke with Cammy and checked in on her when I stopped by your home yesterday, but I haven't seen your other friends since I've been here. How are things?" They might have been a bunch of kids a few years younger than her, but she liked them just fine.

Naruto's countenance dropped into a frown and he rubbed the back of his neck, "Ah… could be better, could be worse." That didn't work, because now Chun-Li was giving him the expectant big sister look as if he were holding out on her, "What's with that face?"

"I was expecting you to say something like, 'Things are always awesome when you're Uzumaki Naruto.'" Chun-Li said, mimicking Naruto's voice for kicks, "Something like that. So that means that it's more 'worse' than anything else." She had to laugh a bit at the look on his face after she attempted to do his voice.

"First of all I don't say lame stuff like that, dattebayo." Naruto said, pleasantly surprised that when she imitated him she didn't throw that part in, "Second of all it's not bad. I'm not in any trouble. Some mystic just gave me a riddle that I need to solve before he can fix my spirit… and stuff."

"Your spirit you say. Sure, why not?" Ugh, riddles. Chun-Li hated riddles. As the self-professed 'Strongest Woman in the World' she found things much more acceptable to her when they were straightforward. It was kind of why she hated being an Interpol detective, but she loved that job and her father did it before his death so there was that, "Well what is it?"

"I need to figure out what I fear more than anything else."

"But you can't think of anything tangible, right?"

"Yup."

"Called it." For a kid like him though, that was pretty tough. Naruto didn't seem like he was afraid of anything, 'Come on. Use that investigatory mind of yours and help him out.' She had successfully profiled dozens of suspects in her career without ever even meeting them. A kid that she already knew should have been easier to work with, "Okay Naruto, what was the last thing that made you afraid more than anything? And remember that fear is different than just being scared, they're not the same thing. Fear is far more serious."

Naruto just shrugged his shoulders. He'd already been through this repeatedly and nothing ever changed when he went back to it, "Nothing. I haven't been afraid of anything since I was twelve." Chun-Li just made a hand gesture, motioning for him to elaborate. They had to start somewhere damn it.

When he had just wound up in this world they ferried him off to Japan to get him out of the way, and he was just short of losing it. But he got lucky. Government workers put him in school for one year so that there was time to find some family or a guardian to look after him, however that was barking up a completely nonexistent tree. He didn't have a chance by himself.

But his luck manifested itself in the form of a very energetic twelve year old girl named Kasugano Sakura that was enamored with watching him fight one day in school after a few weeks. She didn't find him too strange, and she quickly befriended him with no fear. What a save that turned out to be.

"If it wasn't for Sakura-chan I don't know what would have happened to me." Naruto recalled with a shake of his head at the thought of it. He probably would have done something foolish and wound up in trouble or dead. With her intervention and patience with his lack of general knowledge she helped him learn enough to survive until he was able to work as a ninja. At first it was just D-rank missions, but it did what he needed, "I was never really afraid of anything again because I'd already felt the most frightening thing I could ever think of."

Being all alone in the dark again. Like when he was a child only far worse, because he not only wouldn't have had the even the Hokage or Iruka-sensei, he would have been somewhere that he didn't understand with absolutely nothing.

"That's all you've got huh?" Chun-Li asked, getting a nod from Naruto, "Okay, that's something good. Alright, if that's the case then when was the last time you were so upset that you couldn't let it go? It stuck with you for days, maybe longer."

That was an easy one, "When the Dolls attacked our school and almost killed Ibuki and kidnapped Karin." Oh yeah, he was definitely picking that one for sure. He was so mad he didn't have any problems with outright trashing Hibiki Dan's dojo for no good reason. He felt terrible about that nowadays, but it had blown over and back then he'd had a smoldering rage, "I was so mad when I first saw Cammy again I probably would have tried to kill her if Batsu hadn't held me back… and she was asking for help."

Chun-Li's leg suddenly snapped out and kicked across the aisle against Naruto's seat, right between his legs. Thank goodness she hit nothing but the chair, because that scared him to death. He almost had an out of body experience, "That's it then." She said victoriously. Good lord, she celebrated by kicking stuff? That was so wrong, "You're scared of losing your loved ones."

That was a stupid fear as far as Naruto was concerned. His friends were all tougher than nails. They'd been through every single thing that he'd been through right along with him. If he was afraid for them that would be an insult to them as respective warriors.

"My friends can handle themselves." Naruto assured Chun-Li with his arms crossed over his chest, "They don't need me. If it weren't for the situations that I get them into there wouldn't be anything that could hurt them badly enough to be concerned."

A sly look came over the twenty year old woman's face at that admission, "Then that's a good answer in of itself. You're afraid that you'll be the ones to get your friends killed. That somehow they'll get hurt because of you. Yeah, because the Kanzuki heiress, you left her behind in Thailand before we attacked Shadaloo's base. She wasn't coming with us if you had anything to say about it. You were fine with Cammy coming because you two weren't friends yet."

He didn't trust Cammy at the time, possibly far less so than anyone else in the party. He kept that mindset until she gave him a reason to care about her well-being.

He didn't wait for his friends Batsu and Sakura to catch up because he didn't want them in the middle of that mess that he had set them out to get involved in. Sakura wound up showing up with Ryu and Ken later, but he hadn't intended for her to be there at all. Did he even know that he had meant to do that? Even though it was Charlie, Guile, and Chun-Li who had the real problem with the kids getting involved, Naruto went along and he didn't fight hard at all to argue for his friends to take part.

Naruto looked down at his open hands when he realized that she had a point, "I didn't fear anything like that in Konoha because it always seemed like there was someone more important than me and stronger than me that was around to handle the things that we couldn't." There was always someone like Kakashi or Jiraiya to save the day when things got too big. A veteran, a real legend that would make sure that everyone got home in one piece every single time, "It was never really because of me that my friends were being targeted either…"

It was just circumstance back then. Bad things happened at that time only because of the situation at hand and it rarely had anything to do with him. But the sole reason that Shadaloo felt the need to bring his friends into the little game was due to him turning down their invitation when they showed interest in him. Vega tried to take Sakura and use her as leverage, and then there was the aforementioned attack staged by the Dolls.

That was also why he was so obsessed with finding what was wrong with the Kyuubi and fixing it. For better or worse it had always been with him, and during a time when he had no one after being transported to this world he had the Kyuubi to keep him mentally grounded even if it had a one-track mindset at the time. It still existed and at a time when he didn't know that Sasuke was there as well and he didn't know anyone else yet he took some kind of sick solace out of its presence.

Without knowing that it was around, always aware of what he was doing, always at the ready to act for him even if it was only for its own interests he felt naked. And it was because of his own lack of control over himself that it happened to begin with; Akuma wounded him badly and he let it happen. The Kyuubi took control of him at a weak moment, and he really couldn't blame it for trying to make an escape from its prison. That was on him for losing his edge and allowing himself to become mentally weak enough that it had the opportunity to do so.

"You have things that you don't want to lose because you screwed something up." Chun-Li stated, tapping the side of her head with her index finger, "I can see why it wasn't easy for you to figure that much. You can't run around doing what you do, doing what I do, and thinking that you're ever going to fail. Thinking about how things are going to go wrong is the best way to get people killed. So you block it out. I totally get it."

And with someone like Naruto, who took this operational kind of mindset to a level where he never went into anything dangerous with the perception that he could lose or that he would fail or let anyone down, thinking about others dying because of him never presented itself as a possibility.

"I already had to deal with something like that with Charlie." Naruto said, recalling the incident months ago. Even if everyone still said that it wasn't his fault that did nothing to change his mind, "So why would I still be afraid of that?"

Because even though he liked Charlie they weren't friends. Charlie was a good man, but Naruto only knew him for a handful of days before the battle with Bison's forces that resulted in his death. Now Naruto replaced the thought of Charlie staying behind to keep Bison from stopping their escape with Sakura, or Batsu, or anyone that he saw every single day. That was all it took to get that creeping feeling in his heart. His hands grew so weak that he couldn't form a strong fist.

He had to bend over in his seat and hold his stomach to keep from being physically ill at the prospect. Chun-Li just leaned forward and rubbed Naruto's back gently while he groaned in discomfort, "Did you ever think of being a shrink instead of a cop?" He muttered between groans.

Chun-Li just shushed him quietly like a guardian with a small smile on her face, "No, but it would definitely pay better wouldn't it?" A train attendant came past them with a cart, but Chun-Li waved her off, "Sorry, but he's not very hungry right now."

XxX

(The Next Morning – Aohura City – Naruto's Apartment)

Another day, and every day for the past week by the time Cammy woke up at her usual bright and early time wearing a large white t-shirt as sleepwear for modesty purposes.

In the past Naruto and her other friends that knew how early she got up would question her on how she could routinely get up at such a God-forsaken hour for absolutely no reason. In the end she and the others just shrugged it off and chalked it up to whatever had been done to train her during her brainwashing and conditioning process.

She was used to it, but Naruto wasn't. However by the time she awoke every morning and got up to get herself ready for the day she would find that her proprietor was already up and usually gone.

Today though, she stood at the door with a smile on her face as she checked the spot meant to be set aside for shoes and found that Naruto's sandals were still there. That hadn't been the case for quite some time. From there she crept to his room and opened the door to find Naruto asleep in his bed in a sprawled out heap with Agent Jack Bauer somehow finding a place to curl up and sleep on his stomach.

Truth be told she wanted to punch him in the stomach for being a ghost for the last week but the kitten was there, so she just shut his door back and decided to slip next to him on his bed to see what was the big deal about sleeping in.

"What are you doing Cam?" Oh, so he wasn't asleep. He must have just returned home. Either way he sounded groggy even if he was really awake or not.

"Sleeping." Cammy remarked matter-of-factly in her British accent, "Or trying to anyway. Be quiet so that I can."

"Go to your room then… and take the cat." He was back to whining again about things that he wasn't going to do anything about. That was a normal Naruto thing so he had to be back to normal it seemed, "I've got to get up at 6:30. I've got another hour and a half left to sleep."

"Tomorrow is Sunday and Agent Jack is comfortable where he is and so am I, so unless you plan on getting up just to remove us we won't be going anywhere." Cammy heard Naruto mutter something about 'freaking cat' and turned to glare at his slumbering frame only to barely make him out in the dark, more specifically one of his physical features that sat on one of his cheeks, "Whiskers like a cat…" She said in a bit of whimsy as she got closer to observe them better.

"Say wha-?" She was about to poke his face when his eye cracked open and almost caught her in the act had she not dipped her head down on his shoulder to feign as if that were her purpose the entire time, "If you're gonna stay in here stop moving…"

"Whatever you say Naruto." Freaking early birds.

Cammy waited until he was asleep and then proceeded to mess around with his whisker-marks as originally intended. He was a really deep sleeper when he was secure with his surroundings. Yes he was definitely back to normal for the most part. So what was next?

XxX

(The Next Morning)

Naruto's training on the rooftop of his apartment building had an audience. And not his usual audience of his inner circle so to speak. It was too early for any one of them to drop by, "What do you think you're doing up here idiot?" But it wasn't too early for Sasuke apparently, dressed in his dark Chinese shirt and pants.

"What do you think you're doing back in Japan jackass?" Naruto responded in kind, standing in a ready defensive stance while wearing his combat gear and facing away from Sasuke, "You left two months ago. I thought you were going home."

"Having Gen calling me out for being a freeloader is more annoying than you used to be." Sasuke responded. The assassin always wanted him to work since he was in-demand. To shut the old man up he went back to Aohura City to run his restaurant for a bit longer until a real manager could be set in, "I've got Interpol on my ass too. They never try to bust me, they just send someone after me to make sure I'm not killing people that aren't high-ranking criminals. Gen's assassins have governmental immunity in China because we take government contracts."

Interpol… that was intriguing. Chun-Li didn't say anything about that on the train or try to get any intel from him. Then again she didn't know that he had run into Sasuke either, or even that they knew each other.

Keep those cards close to the vest for now, because something awesome might happen later and he wanted to be there to see it. She hadn't left Japan yet and he needed his funny bone tickled at Sasuke's expense.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow as he watched Naruto do weird breathing exercises and make random hand-seals. Even when he activated his Sharingan to look at them they didn't go together to do anything useful. He was just forming them for the sake of doing so, "Answer my question. Is this supposed to be accomplishing something or is it just some weird holistic breathing exercise?"

"I'm trying to figure out how to neutralize or reverse ki or chakra attacks." Naruto explained tersely, "I don't know how many you've been hit by, but I've been hit by a lot and they fucking suck."

Yes they did. And that wasn't a bad idea if there was actually some way to do it. Was it ingenuity or just lack of common sense that spawned ideas like that? Probably a healthy dose of both.

Well training was always good. He needed to train on some new techniques too to keep sharp if Naruto was experimenting with new moves, especially if they were still going to have it out and finish their battle from the Valley of the End the way they had originally agreed upon. It didn't seem like the kind of thing that you could plan or just spring on someone casually. They needed an appropriate platform for it, otherwise it would never come off as intense as it did when they did battle in their world.

The steel door from the stairwell that led to the roof of Naruto's small apartment complex was kicked open with a slam and up walked Sakura in her normal school uniform, and her gloves were on as she scrutinized who was up there, "Well you're looking refreshed. Want to fight?"

Sasuke's eyebrows rose up in surprise. Just like that? Really? "Huh. Well it looks like you're going to get a lot of practice on stopping ki attacks here. Good luck with that." He then frowned when Naruto waved him off dismissively, "What?"

"You're not stealing my hand-seals teme, now beat it. I'm not stupid." Naruto said as he stretched out and prepared for a spar, "I'll call you later and we'll get Batsu and go hang out and do some dude stuff."

Damn. Was it that easy to see through? Oh well, it was worth a try to attempt and get a tactical edge for later. A ninja didn't fight fair. In expected Sasuke fashion he scoffed at the idea and turned toward the edge of the roof before bending his knees to jump off, "Tch, the day I hang out with you-."

"-Will be whatever day I call you and we both know it." Naruto finished in Sasuke's stead, "Keep acting like you don't want to go, but Sakura-chan doesn't think you're cool anyway so I don't know who you're posturing for. Go try that crap with Akira. She wants you to call her by the way."

"Fuck you…"

"Get off my property already."

"It's not your property dumbass." Sasuke said, jumping off and leaving after getting flipped off by his former teammate.

By now Sasuke's abrasive attitude didn't bother him the way it used to since he knew better what was behind the prickly bastard's attitude, thus he turned back to Sakura and pointed to where Sasuke left, "I know what you're thinking, and yes; every ninja in Konoha knows how to do that."

Sakura had a bemused expression on her face as she listened to the banter until it concluded. It did her heart good to see Naruto back to his old antagonistic self once more. As much as it rubbed more than a few the wrong way, he wouldn't be himself if he didn't do so, "Interruption aside, ready to roll?" She asked.

"Spending my Sunday morning kicking my best friend's cute little ass all over my rooftop." Naruto asked as he set down in a fighting stance with a smirk on his face, "Sometimes the best things in life really are free."

"How about two-for-one then?" Sakura asked with a grin, and Naruto dodged a swift slide that came at him across the ground like a streak much to Sakura's chagrin, "Ibuki-chan you missed him. After all that time setting it up?"

Ibuki in her ninja garb pulled her facemask down momentarily to pout at Sakura and throw a mini-tantrum as her tanuki sat on her shoulder, "You tipped him off before I could catch him in the move! I hope that B action flick line was worth it because now we've really got to fight."

"…Three way dance?" Naruto offered weakly after hearing that Ibuki wanted to get in on the spar as well, "Free-for-all, elimination style, every man for himself… err, woman?"

"No. More like two-on-one. But you have clones, so you can handle that can't you?" Sakura remarked with a beaming smile on her face, ignoring Naruto's bewildered look at having to take them both on at once.

It was a conspiracy, "Wait. It's Sunday, there's no school today. Why is Ibuki even here? Shouldn't she be back in her village until Monday morning?"

"I was allowed to stay over at Sakura-chan's house overnight." Ibuki reported with a happy expression on her face, "I think Master Enjo likes how much better I seem to be getting by spending so much time around you all. And I'm gonna thank you right now by kicking your ass and running home to tell him about it."

Before things could start, a horn honked from the front of the complex and Naruto looked over the side of the roof to see Batsu in the front seat looking up at him, "Yo! Come on man, let's go sneak into a baseball game! I think we can get into the away dugout before we get caught this time! Let's go get some autographs and awesome pictures!"

Naruto looked back at the girls and then down to his friend, "I've got to fight Sakura-chan and Ibuki first."

"Oh, okay. Good luck with that. I'll just go inside your place until you're done."

"Batsu get up here and help me!"

"No! I didn't dodge that bullet yesterday just to walk onto a firing range today!"

Naruto just stared at him with a deadpan look on his face for several seconds, "What does that even mean?" He eventually shouted down to Batsu, 'I love my friends, but seriously…'

"Heads up!"

The yellow-headed shinobi then had to turn and block a falling kick from Ibuki that led to them trading several strikes in a stalemate prior to breaking away. Naruto patted himself down and checked himself over only to find nothing wrong with him after the surprise attack, "Safe! Sneak much?"

Ibuki turned back to Sakura and stomped on the ground in a disgruntled manner, "Sakura-chan stop tipping him off! Don't you want to win?" Sakura just grinned sheepishly. It was simply in her nature to fight fair, "Honestly, I'm trying to fight like a ninja here and you're tying my hands." She then threw a kunai that stuck to the shut door of the roof stairwell to stop Naruto from sneaking back down to his apartment, "We're not done here mister."

"Yes we are." Naruto said before pointing over to the end of the roof, "Because I'm a clone. Boss jumped off the roof into Batsu's jeep when you two were arguing." It then dispelled in a puff of smoke to prove its point. If that didn't do it then hearing Naruto yell from the ground certainly did.

"Go man go!"

On the road, Batsu's jeep peeled out and sped into the street while Naruto rapidly changed in the back into his civilian clothes with no shame whatsoever to anyone that may see him in his skivvies. With a sigh, Sakura shook her head and placed her hands on her hips, "Great… lost him again."

Ibuki pulled her kunai out of the door and grinned over at Sakura cheekily, "Heh, that sounds like a good enough metaphor for your relationship." Even Sakura's glare didn't pull the look off of her face, "Problem?"

"Don't say stuff like that." Sakura grumbled as she passed the kunoichi and headed downstairs to go get Cammy, "It sounds weird. I don't even want to know what you meant."

With a laugh that echoed through the stairwell, Ibuki followed behind her quickly, "It's only weird if you interpreted it that way dear…" She sing-songed after Sakura, "And you know exactly what I meant."

XxX

(North America – Undisclosed Location)

"Good to have you back Boss." Balrog's hulking frame walked down the hallway holding a videophone in his massive hands. Since Vega had been killed and Sagat had taken time after the destruction of the base in Thailand to train himself in peace until contacted again, Balrog had been the go-to man for everything that the recovering leader of Shadaloo needed, "So what can I do for you today?"

On the screen, Bison was visible, no longer using Rose's body as a shell, but seemingly with a new replacement, "My scientists might have forged a new body for me, but the mental wounds of my defeat are fresh." He said with an angry snarl to his voice.

"You want me to put together a few hit squads?" Balrog asked with a grin. He liked travelling using Bison's money. It was always a ride in style, the best planes, the finest women to wait on him hand and foot, the best liquor. Shadaloo was the best.

From the phone, Bison cackled at the thought. Balrog wasn't one to trust with matters more intimate and complex than A-to-B orders. He'd screw it up, no doubt, but he was perfect dumb muscle, "No, instead of using our own resources and risking attracting attention to our criminal activities again I have a better idea. I'll force my enemies to destroy each other for my amusement, and whoever survives will be mine to finish off."

Shadaloo's operations were brought down in Southeast Asia… but they had workings going on everywhere else in the world, and money was still coming in. It was time to use some of that to get some sweet revenge on the fools that thought they cleared the world of him.

"Money is no object here Balrog. Begin getting word out for qualifiers over the next few months and start promoting everywhere you can reach, you should be good at that with your experience as a professional boxer. Contact Sagat and tell him if he truly wants to prove he is the strongest, and if he truly wants another opportunity to prove his superiority against Ryu he should prepare himself… because the Second World Warrior Tournament will be sponsored by me!"

He would lure them all into his trap by revealing that he was alive. A select few might have known just who he was, but to the world at large nothing was proven. His enemies would come out of the woodwork and he would watch them obliterate each other just to find and reach him to finish what they started.

When it was all said and done he would massacre them all.