Skeleton In My Closet...

Chapter 7 — Skeleton In My Closet...

A little nap. That was all Naruto wanted after getting kicked around by the walking, talking Russian bear that was Zangief and pulling out a victory at the cost of great bodily harm and a large amount of chakra in the form of his high-powered ninjutsu. That was an understandable desire, to sleep. As long as someone kicked him awake in time for the final round after the second intermission he'd be fine.

The way he woke up was a little bit more pleasant than that though.

Naruto's eyes panned open with him laying flat on his back. Though he expected his eyes to be greeted with the harsh glare of the arena lights digging right into his corneas he was shielded from being blinded by the lights by way of Karin seeming to lean slightly over him, a somewhat concerned frown on her face that was somewhat shaded from his view due to the backlight from above shadowing her features.

"K-Karin?" Naruto managed to get out, wincing to the extent that she couldn't tell that his eyes had been open for a while. After a moment he noticed that he wasn't lying flat on the ground. His head was in her lap as she sat in seiza on the combat floor, using a damp rag to wipe the blood and grime off of his face, "What's up?"

Now when Karin had volunteered to clean Naruto's wounds while Shibazaki went off to get supplies to assist in his speedy recovery for the next round and Ishizaki did what he could on the spot to fix him up as he was, she did so under the pretense that he was unconscious and would not be roused from his cataleptic state without significant prompting first. However Naruto's own durability was severely underestimated in this regard.

And now he was awake and looking up at Karin with curious blue eyes, blinking confusedly as to why exactly he was in her lap. It was certainly way softer than the floor though.

Well this was awkward… at least as far as the absurdly rich girl herself was concerned. Naruto's dense nature aside, she knew exactly what it looked like with her cradling his head in her lap even if he didn't and she was under the assumption that he did. She did not need him jumping to conclusions, she was merely protecting her investment. Nothing more.

She could have done a better job of it though as when she realized that he was awake she dropped his head from its place on her thighs, letting it hit the concrete with a smack and a rag draped over his face. Whoops.

"Ow…" Naruto muttered under the wet rag, not moving from his place on the ground even though by then Karin had darted to her feet, smoothing her skirt out and playing off both what she had been doing and the fact that she might have rung his bell all over again by accident. With a grunt, Naruto sat up and pulled the rag off of his face as he turned to face his benefactor, sitting cross-legged on the ground as he did so, "Thanks though." He said with a toothy grin as his face didn't feel so sticky and gross anymore, "I appreciate it."

"Ah, it was nothing." Karin said, getting some of her bravado back upon receiving Naruto's appreciation. Apparently he didn't see anything strange about how he had been positioned and she certainly wasn't going to point it out to him if that were the case, "As long as you just so happen to be in fighting shape for the final round. You are able to fight are you not?" It sounded more callous than it actually was intended to be, but she stood by it, "Your injuries are rather debilitating."

Much to her surprise however, the male blond stood right up and stretched his stiff joints out with quite a bit of effort given. Yeah, it hurt. Everything hurt. But he could stand, he could walk, and if he could do those things he was fighting. No one could ever say that Uzumaki Naruto was a quitter and they wouldn't today either.

Ishizaki held out a small glass for Naruto to take, something that Naruto did so after staring at the clear liquid for a second. At the large good-natured man's silent urging, Naruto simply shrugged and tossed the substance back, growling and holding his chest a bit as it went down, "Ugh. That was nasty. It burns too. What was that for?"

"You have just taken something of a painkiller." Karin explained, "Only instead of making you numb to everything, which would be dangerous for going into a fight, it replaces the pain with a burning feeling akin to muscle rub. How do you feel?"

Smacking his lips at the bitter taste of the medicine, Naruto randomly touched places on his injured frame, "Huh. Whatever this stuff was, that burning feeling is coating my entire body. I must have been messed up last round." He looked around noticing that the floor was one member of the current Aohura City student entourage short, "Where'd Sakura-chan go?"

Finding a moment to poke at her declared rival, Karin jumped all over that opportunity, "Sakura-san went to the back for a moment before her set fight against you. She said if she stayed out here looking at you while you were blacked out she would be unable to muster the resolve to fight you. She said that would make you quite angry if she did so." A stout nod from Naruto confirmed this much.

"Damn right." Naruto said, crossing his arms over his chest and turning away from Karin with an upturn of his nose, "If Sakura-chan doesn't bring it I'm never letting her forget it. Dattebayo." Sakura was way stronger than she thought she was and had shown openly, he had seen it. He was going to pull it out of her that night, injuries be damned.

XxX

(With Sakura – Arena Lobby)

Pacing the halls as the time ticked down before the final round match against Naruto, Sakura was steadily punching her gloved hand into her adjacent palm trying to stay in a fighting mood as she knew that Naruto would be much like Batsu was; he wouldn't accept anything less than her very best, and if she didn't give him that he would go out of his way to humiliate her for underestimating him.

Underestimating him outright after watching him defeat Zangief would have been the definition of foolish regardless of his wounds.

"You're going to ground a rut into that floor if you keep going back and forth like that."

Sakura began paying attention to the man that had said as much and smiled slightly at the good-natured sumo wrestler that had been sitting with them since the tournament's start, "Hello Honda-san." She greeted kindly, "Uh, is there something you need? Naruto's still down in the ring."

"I know, but I came to talk to you." E. Honda said, surprising the young girl, "The techniques you use when you fight. They remind me of someone I met not too long ago. Does the name Ryu strike a bell with you?" The question need not have even been asked as her face lit up when the name was brought up, "I see you do."

"You saw him?" Sakura wondered before closing the distance between them with enough speed to make the large man take a step back for some personal space, "When? Where? He's in Japan?"

"He was around a week ago." E. Honda said, feeling like he was being shaken down by a high school girl one-third his size, "He came to see if any powerful fighters were competing in this tournament. One in particular, but it wasn't anyone I had heard of. I couldn't fight due to my arms and with that he didn't think there was a reason to fight in this competition."

Well that was unfortunate from Sakura's point of view, "So he's probably gone off wandering the world again and whatnot…"

"I might know where he is." Once E. Honda let that slip, a grin crosses his face at the saucer-eyed look Sakura gave him, "But I'm not just going to tell you." The glare she gave him could have frozen hell over, but he just shrugged it off. She wasn't going to beat up a handicapped man, "No, you have to earn the things you want. I'll give you some incentive to do your best against someone that I know is very skilled. If you can defeat your young friend I'll tell you everything I know."

That was so unfair.

Sakura pointed at the wall in the direction she knew the main arena was as she continued to eye E. Honda down, "If he's standing and ready to go come fight time, what in the world am I going to do to put him down? You saw that last fight. The Zangief guy looked like he snapped Naruto's spine like a twig and he still got back up."

"I'll tell you what you do." E. Honda said, setting a very large hand on her much smaller shoulder, "Fight him to win." Sakura gave him a confused look, but he proceeded to explain his point for her benefit, "Before you even say it, you haven't been fighting to win. You've been fighting to fight. Taking Uzumaki Naruto-san on for fun is not any way to approach a fight with him."

"I've been fighting him for years." Sakura muttered, "No matter how good I get I can't beat him. He gets up from everything." Back at the start, his overall hand-to-hand technique was sloppy and raw. Sakura could fend him off even if he tried using clones as long as she kept herself from being surrounded. As they both improved it became easier for her to formulate ways to stop the clones, but she could still never fell Naruto himself for good. No matter how long their spars dragged on for she could never drop him hard enough to keep him down.

The answer to that was simple as far as the sumo was concerned. E. Honda had come to this realization of how to overwhelm Naruto directly after losing his last battle against him, "Then just don't give him the chance to get up. I made the same mistake." He gave Sakura a long, hard gaze and tried to generalize the way she had fought Naruto in the past, "I'll bet that the times when you actually did get him down with a good shot you backed away and let him try to get up again. I did the same thing. You probably never used your strongest attack against him either."

"H-How could you know that?" It wasn't like she'd broken out her strongest move for all to see. She hadn't been desperate enough to reveal her ace attack to anyone. Naruto had never even seen it during times when they trained together.

"Someone like you, you have techniques. Powerful techniques. And you use them readily in every fight you've had in this tournament. That means you have something else that you're holding back in case you need it. Well you need it for this one. Don't hold back. If you do he'll just beat you again." A sage-like nod came from the experienced mammoth of a man, "And do not let up. Every second of recovery time is like gold to Uzumaki-san. Don't stop until he stops."

"I can't beat on Naruto like that!" Sakura exclaimed crossly, "That's terrible! This is just a stupid tournament, he's my best friend! I'm not going to do that to him! Just kicking him and hitting him when I know he's hurt?" Even in a fight with no rules, she was reluctant to follow up on grounded opponents that weren't that close to her personally, "It's one thing to attack a weak spot when he can still defend himself, I can do that, but you're talking about wailing on him when he's down!"

"It's the only way you'll keep him down." This was the extent of the advice that E. Honda could give her. If she didn't want to listen and take it under consideration, it was her own ethics, but he wished he had taken his own advice when he had fought Naruto, because then he might not have gotten his arms broken at the end of that encounter, "That's all I have to say." Nothing left to really add to the point, he went to return to his seat.

As he did so Sakura watched him leave. E. Honda honestly made a lot of tactical sense. Put him down, keep him down, and don't let him up until you know… without a shadow of a doubt that Naruto is out cold. And the thought of just how much damage that would take sort of made her sick to think about, because it had to be constant.

The distressed schoolgirl ran a hand through her short brown hair and gently massaged her scalp as she slowly started walking back towards the ring. Intermission was almost over and if Naruto was up and ready for action she had to get back there to face him. She entered this tournament to prove her skills as a worthy martial artist, and that focus couldn't be allowed to be broken so easily now.

XxX

(With Naruto – Main Arena)

"Are you sure you're all set to go Uzumaki-san?" Ishizaki asked, packing away the medical supplies used to patch Naruto up well enough to get him to the next point he needed to be at so to speak. He, Karin, and Shibazaki had decided to remain in the aisle right by the guard barricade for the duration of the final round of the tournament for an up-close and personal viewing, "I did the best I could, but I'm not a medical professional."

"Yeah, it's okay." Naruto said, stretching himself out past the comfortable limit for most of his limbs to get them used to working with the pain running through his body at the moment. He'd just have to walk it off, or in this instance fight it off, "It's definitely better than nothing. Thanks a lot." The large man just nodded in acknowledgement of the thanks.

Shibazaki had actually gone to fetch Karin a seat which she was now sitting in to observe the coming battle in comfort, "Naruto-san, I would hope that you plan on fighting Sakura-san all out. In your condition I would not advise you pulling your punches in this situation." She for certain knew that Sakura was not one to be trifled with. She herself did so when she had the upper hand in her fight against her rival and wound up being put out of commission shortly thereafter.

Hearing her advice, he spared Karin a glance and a grin, "I wasn't going to go easy even before I got hurt. I want Sakura-chan to go all out. She's strong. Really strong. She might be the second or third toughest woman I've ever met, but she doesn't show it very much."

He remembered when he first helped Sakura learn how to use her chakra. She had a huge amount of power, and he knew something about having a huge amount of power within him. But she never went full-on guns blazing, desperado-style. She always fought with too much control, keeping from trying to harm an enemy too much. Too sweet for her own good.

Well she was going to fight tonight. He was going to make her do so one way or another. And he'd been building up just how he'd pull that off with over three years of research and attentive watching of his close friend's temperament and mannerisms. She was probably the only person in the world whose buttons he would know how to press by heart as he had made it a habit to learn them in order to avoid doing so.

The sound of the crowd cheering and wolf-whistling let the Aohura City contingent know that Sakura was making her way back through the crowd down the stairs to return to the ring. Naruto stopped trying to stretch out his aching body and instead elected to stare Sakura down as she hopped over the barricade and looked over at him as well.

"It's time everyone! We've seen tremendous effort put forth by an incredible amount of fighters, getting many both domestic and abroad, but we're down to two that have been able to fight their way through the murderer's row of challengers to meet here and now!" The lights cut out and bright spotlights were placed on Sakura as the introductions began, "Introducing first, the adorable schoolgirl from Aohura City! Despite her appearance and demeanor, when the battles have begun she's fought with a ferocity that the vast majority of adult men could only wish to match! This is Kasugano Sakura!"

Sakura raised a hand into the air and waved to the audience that cheered for her, quite a few people asking her to marry them and whatnot. Weirdoes… she wasn't even sixteen at that point in time. Still, fan support was fan support and she'd accept it as it was.

At that point the spotlights began to drench Naruto in full view of the audience as well as mixed cheers and boos began mixing in, dueling chants in the crowd for him drumming up to boot, "Her opponent, also from Aohura City, I can't believe he's actually standing after the sheer amount of abuse dealt to him by Zangief last round, but here he is! Brash, loud, flashy, but more than capable of backing up everything right there in the ring! This is Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto just grinned and nodded his head in response, "Now let's begin! Fight!"

The lights went back up, but both Naruto and Sakura just stared at each other before walking right up to one another. The people started buzzing when they got face to face, but to their surprise angry words weren't exchanged, they weren't even glaring at each other. Instead Sakura extended her hand to shake.

Everyone hoped for fireworks to be set off when Naruto sternly shook his head, declining to shake Sakura's hand a putting a frown on her face, but the only thing that came of this was instead of shaking hands they gave each other a hug, "You big idiot." Sakura said, smiling despite the comment.

"I'm not gonna shake your hand Sakura-chan. We're way past shaking hands at this point." He replied before breaking apart the hug and backing away from her, his friendly smile then being replaced by a serious look, "If you hold back you won't beat me."

Sakura nodded, knowing that Naruto had every reason in the world to switch gears attitude-wise, "I won't hold back… if you can just promise me that you won't hate me when this is over."

The look of severity on Naruto's face faded when he heard the pleading tone of voice Sakura seemed to be using with him. He couldn't stay keeping a stony-expression when she sounded like that, "Sakura-chan… you know there's nothing you can do to make me hate you. I don't think there's anything you can even do during this fight to make me mad. I want you to try your best. Do whatever you think you have to." He shouldn't have had to tell her that.

But now that she had heard it from him directly it seemed to ease her mind considerably. Sakura felt as if she wished to let go of a breath she hadn't even been holding as the two moved apart from each other and began circling carefully.

The sizing up of one another didn't last long. There was simply no need for it. Both of them knew the other's moves by heart by now. It was almost as if they could play the fight through in their heads and come up with identical images. And the images came to life when Sakura was the first to spring to action.

She was not going to let Naruto attack first and dictate the pace. That would have been foolish.

In Naruto's mind he had never seen Sakura so forward when they had fought before. She made the first move. Bravo. And thus the two engaged in their oh-so familiar dance that had been thoroughly refined hardway by virtue of their years of working with each other.

Naruto wasn't one for combinations, instead looking for decent enough openings to launch slick knockout attacks. Until that point in time he'd dodge what he could and he would block what he couldn't, packing away the damage until he could aptly retaliate.

Sakura was extremely flexible and fleet-footed. Frighteningly fast over short distances, she was hard to keep away from as she'd just jump right back into your personal and start the whole process over again before leaping out of an opponent's attack range, forcing them to miss any chance at retaliation.

It was like oil and water swirling around each other. And the fight looked like it.

Sakura's hands were faster than Naruto's and she'd use that accordingly. The first move involved getting too close for Naruto's brand of taijutsu to be readily effective. She then began trying to strike away at Naruto's stomach rapidly, but Naruto had his arms crossed over his torso to dull the impact before suddenly shoving Sakura back enough to break her balance enough to launch a stiff front kick aimed at her face.

Proving her elusive skills though, Sakura went with the flow of Naruto's shove, knowing that his retaliation would be direct and bent herself back into a back handspring that allowed her to cleanly avoid Naruto's kick and lash out with her own. Naruto felt the toe of one of her shoes brush slightly against his nose, which showed how close her kick came to hitting home.

Still, this didn't deter Naruto from trying to turn the tide as he rushed forward. He was not going to fall into his one habitual pattern that he knew without a shadow of a doubt Sakura knew how to deal with better than any of his other techniques that he possessed. Attempting what he instinctually wanted to try would just be a waste of chakra and in a fight with someone that had more than enough ki to spare, stamina would not be a deciding factor tonight.

Naruto struck forward with a straight right hand that he knew Sakura would parry, and she didn't let him down as she pushed it to the side. Having been prepared for this, Naruto spun around with the direction that Sakura had pushed his hand and delivered a hard spinning back kick to her stomach that knocked her back.

Sakura stumbled back after getting knocked up and almost onto her backside, taking note of the footprint Naruto's kick left on her white uniform blouse as he came forward to attack her again, this time though, her eyes widened as she saw the spinning blue orb of energy in his hand and she gasped as he lunged at her with it.

"Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"

"Hadoken (Surge Fist)!"

The two attacks canceled each other out and shoved each fighter back to a standoff with smoke wafting between them where their attacks clashed.

Sakura just stared at where the two had met previously with their conflicting energy maneuvers and noticed that she had stumbled back more considerably than Naruto had. His Rasengan had more lasting power behind it. Were it not for the fact that her Hadoken hadn't had time to fly very far from its source (her), it still had enough power from its initial burst to neutralize Naruto. Any further away and he would have just destroyed the ever weaker Hadoken projectile and kept driving forward. It wouldn't have been able to keep him back.

"You actually used that on me?" Sakura said with a modicum of disbelief, "You've never used that on me, even when I told you to try it." She wasn't angry, she was just surprised really. Naruto had been adamant on never busting out the Rasengan in a spar. He never let it even come close to touching her once in over three years.

This was because Rasengan wasn't a technique you wanted to use on someone you planned on seeing tomorrow. If hit in the wrong place Rasengan could at the very least jumble one's internal organs all around internally. He would have never use that one on her, except for now. This was because he had already agreed that this fight was to be serious. If anything, it was just a sign that Sakura had better bring her A-game or else.

"This is different." Naruto said, still standing in his informal ready stance, "So deal with it or get beat. I told you I wouldn't get mad no matter how you tried to win this fight. Well that better go both ways." Taking advantage of the lull in the action, Naruto dashed at Sakura and jumped into the air, forcing her to prepare to intercept him in her own way.

"Shou'oken (Rising Uppercut)!" Sakura immediately ran and launched at Naruto with her spinning uppercut, tailor-made to take opponents down out of the air, but much to her chagrin, Naruto created a Kage Bunshin in midair that shoved him out of the way and took the hit in his stead.

Naruto landed on the ground just as his clone was defeated and he managed to catch Sakura in the back with a charging punch that knocked her down hard. Of course Sakura knew how to fall and instead of face-planting on the ground she rolled forward and turned to face Naruto again, ignoring the throbbing pain in her back from the sharp attack.

The offending hand of Naruto was still extended from the punch while he was stuck frowning at Sakura. He had figured out exactly how to counter her Shou'oken a long time ago in such a circumstance. It was just bad form to use the attack like that when they'd been in that scenario countless times before, 'Come on Sakura-chan… don't make me do what I planned on doing… for both of our sakes.'

Sakura stood back up and instantly fired a flashing blue and purple energy ball from her hands at Naruto with shocking speed, "Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" As mentioned and made fun of repeatedly by Naruto, Sakura's stronger Hadoken attacks didn't have much range for all of the power she pumped into them, but her ones with range were far faster as they sacrificed force and accuracy.

This one didn't hit him, but it came close enough to get his full attention, and with that time Sakura closed the distance.

Naruto turned his eyes back to her with an intent swiftness and realized that he had been played with a feint. She turned a weakness into a strength by using a crappily fired Hadoken as a diversion… sneaky wench. But this caused Naruto to panic as Sakura was so close he could see the smile on her face from knowing that she got him.

When Naruto panicked he tended to fall into an old habit that was doomed to fail against any half-decent fighter. It was a habit he had come close to breaking time and time again because it did more bad than good, but Sakura pushed him right back into it. This was how well she knew him. And she was the exact last person to resort to this habit against.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

Naruto used a wall of over a dozen clones to put space between himself and Sakura, but this didn't stop her in the slightest. A good tap would destroy a clone, she didn't even have to put all of her focus and force behind it. They were empty bodies that Naruto used to overwhelm people and assist him with his more advanced techniques. In the heat of battle they would rarely show individuality, more akin to mob tactics.

Well hell, she could beat that.

After smashing her way through one clone without missing a beat or being taken back from seeing them all, Sakura immediately launched into her next move to fend off the simultaneous attack from four more jumping at her directly, "Shunpukyaku (Twirling Gale Leg)!" Spinning like a cyclone, Sakura kicked the attacking clones into smoke before immediately backpedaling form the other several clones.

Her strategy developed for dealing with Naruto's clones was simple in its execution. It just took practice to put into use. A lot of practice. All it required was that she kept retreating. Just running and running and running. Openings would present themselves as the clones steadily caught up to her one or two at a time and she could outmatch them quickly.

The more clones he used the easier it actually was to avoid them. They would constantly get in each other's way, crowd around, and make it easier for her to pick them off quickly. It wasn't like they were the real Naruto either as they couldn't take a beating. She could hurt them even if they got their arms up to block and they would dispel from the pain she inflicted even on their arms.

It didn't take long using this strategy for Sakura to dispose of the last clone, however when it burst into smoke an amphibian flew out of it and hit her right in the face, getting her to stumble back in shock until she could peel the slimy creature off of her face to look at, "Is that a… a frog?" She asked no one in particular before she realized that she was holding a cold, slimy frog that had appeared out of nowhere. It was huge too.

Sakura let out a shriek and shook her hands, dropping the animal to the ground as it hopped away from the shouting girl, and she would continue to do such until she heard a very calm voice from behind her that was very familiar.

"It was a toad actually."

Sakura stopped freaking out and turned her head and neck behind her to see Naruto crouched behind her with his hands clasped together and his middle and index fingers extended straight out as if in a hand-seal aimed right at her backside. Damn it she had lost sight of the most dangerous Naruto of all, the original.

Naruto's hand-seals were dangerous. Sakura knew full well that if he was holding a single one he had her dead-to-rights and there was nothing she could do, "Naruto…" She managed to get out with a tinge of fear in her voice from the look of melancholy on his face.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan. I didn't want to do this, but you're not giving me a choice!" Naruto said with a sigh before a sharp look of ill intent came over his features as he swiftly thrust his hands and fingers forward, "Konohagakure's Secret Taijutsu, Sennen Goroshi (One Thousand Years of Death)!"

"WAAAH! NARUTO, YOU DIRTY, PERVERTED BASTARD!"

There is no need to describe where exactly Naruto's 'attack' hit home at, but either from the sheer force at which he poked her or Sakura's own over-spirited attempt to jump away from Naruto's violation of her personal female rights, Sakura was rocketed into the air clear over the barrier into the crowd while Naruto held his kneeling pose from the aftermath of the attack like a rockstar.

Well, from the way the crowd treated him afterwards he might as well have been one… because he had won the rest of them over. Perverts. There were actually people in the front rows visibly bowing to him over it.

Still, fan support was fan support and he'd accept it for what it was.

From her seat, Karin was completely red-faced and torn on the inside. She wanted to laugh, because it wasn't every day when she actually got to see someone get one over on Kasugano Sakura, especially to the extent that Naruto just did… and as her representative it was like she herself had just done so to her greatest rival. On the other hand the sheer audacity of Naruto to do such a thing to a woman, and in public as well.

If he ever did that to her she would tear his head off.

"Naruto-san!" Karin snapped at him as she stood up from her personal chair to storm over to the barricade. She beckoned him over to her, leaving no room for refusal with the look on her face. She wanted to chew him out personally, "What in the world do you call something like that? How vulgar!"

"I know…" Naruto said, feeling like a five year old being scolded by a teacher, "And I'm gonna pay for it too." He already knew because the crowd was scattering away from a path being walked through them like someone was swinging a knife to clear the way. That only meant that Sakura was up, and she was very, very pissed, "Maybe I should have just groped her instead?"

He turned in the direction where Sakura had just stormed her way back through the crowd and felt like he had just provoked a tiger from the look on her face.

In his mind he had been trying to do his best friend a favor, by getting rid of all of her mental obstructions when it came to hurting him. Perhaps a chance existed that he had done too good of a job in that regard.

"Sakura-chan…" Officially regretting his action at this point, even if his original reasoning for attempting it seemed sound in theory, Naruto slowly moved away from Karin as if he were trying to keep a predator as calm as possible while he made his escape, "I only did that to make you get serious." It didn't seem to be working as she jumped over the barricade back into the ring and started stalking towards him with punching into her palms.

"Uzumaki Naruto… you're a dead man." Sakura hissed out lowly as Naruto could only see the angry whites of her eyes at that point. She didn't say another word as her footsteps began to quicken, steadily increasing until she was in an outright sprint coming his way where her hands and feet began flying furiously at Naruto in her best attempt to knock his block off.

She didn't slow up a bit as Naruto dodged and ducked as best he could, finally being forced to block a kick that would have stricken him in the side of his body had ne not used his bicep and forearm to block. Of course with only one other arm useful for blocking he was unable to stop a punch that slammed right into the front of his head and snapped it backwards.

"Did you think it was funny?" Sakura asked, with every move she made, the dance that was their respective moves becoming more and more of a blur between the two of them, "Did you think it was cute? Be smart about picking what you say next!" Naruto wisely did not say a word and focused on defending himself appropriately.

His blocks were preventing less and less of Sakura's attacks from getting through. She had more of a bead on punching right past his guard. Eventually she wasn't even trying to throw any kicks anymore, choosing the direct punches as a way to hurt Naruto with a furious flurry directed at his head and torso. With nothing to utilize Kawarimi no Jutsu with in the empty ring, Naruto was pretty much on his own.

He did not know that she was that fast. Even though he was hurt from his last matchup there was nothing wrong with his legs. He was still able to move with the exact same speed available to him prior to any fights at all. But Sakura could match his and Ibuki's speed in direct combat. That was a change, she had never used it.

Maybe because she never had to? No one in Aohura City worth fighting ever really needed the use of blinding speed, so of course Sakura would never show it because unlike Ibuki and Naruto her method of fighting didn't rely on being faster than everyone else. She was more used to directly fighting and outmatching her enemies, but she was keeping up with his every step.

Naruto decided to dig in and stand his ground, stopping his attempts to get away and instead meeting Sakura's hand-to-hand attempts to batter him with his own efforts to do the opposite.

It surprised Sakura as Naruto was not one to trade blows with her, but into the fray he charged, forcing her to stop her own reckless attack and duck a high kick before having to block a low kick from the same leg. The kicks were thrown so that Naruto could use his hands to make a clone in Sakura's blind spot that charged and slid into her from behind with a dropkick, knocking her up and forward right into a strike from Naruto's knee.

Sakura gasped with the sudden loss of air from her body and stumbled back, but sucked in a big breath of air as she knew that this was a setup for one of Naruto's signature moves that she needed to stop before it was too late. She saw his hands come together to form the Kage Bunshin needed for the coup de grace, but still holding her ribs, Sakura charged directly forward and smashed the crown of her head into Naruto's face, preventing him from creating more clones.

With the equivalent of getting smacked in the face with a battering ram, Naruto spit blood and flew through the air, landing right on his back on the ground, "Gah!" He sat up to try and stand once more to continue on, but would be met with a rude wakeup call upon doing so.

"Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" Sakura was close enough to fire a multicolored ki blast at Naruto's head as he sat up, forcing him to lay back down flat to avoid it but as it passed over his face harmlessly, Sakura stood directly over him. Needless to say she wasn't planning on being harmless. She lifted one leg and stomped it down hard on Naruto's torso, cringing for the first time in the bout at the shout of anguish that came from Naruto's mouth.

"Oh… Sakura-chan you bitch." Naruto coughed out, holding on to Sakura's ankle after having received the stomp to the ribs, but finding no strength in his arms to pry her foot off of him, "Gah, right for the ribs. You took long enough."

Sakura shut her eyes tightly before pushing her foot up off of her friend's chest, hearing him grunt again at the force she shoved off with, and raised her leg high into the air for an ax kick, "Quit." She asked him, "Please."

"No."

It was impossible to reason with that stubborn ass, and Sakura wasn't going to give him the recovery time trying to do so. Apologizing mentally, she slammed her leg down and kicked Naruto heel first in the chest, his hands barely able to negate any of the impact.

Naruto let out another shout of pain, but grit his teeth before it got too loud or too long. Trying to defend himself, Naruto quickly swiped at the back of Sakura's knees to knock her down and off of him, but Sakura's balance was impeccable and she managed to fall forward, pinning Naruto directly to the ground where she used the force of the fall to headbutt Naruto in the face, knocking the back of his head into the ground.

At this point, Sakura scooted up towards Naruto's chest and pinned his arms to the ground with her knees before grabbing a hold of his hair and cocking a fist back, 'Keep him down. Keep him down. Keep him down.' She kept repeating in her head like a mantra. It was the only keeping her from breaking down at seeing a bruised and battered Naruto beneath her as he was, "Naruto… just quit."

Naruto locked eyes with her and sighed as he tried to struggle beneath her, unable to move anything above his midriff where Sakura was pinning him down awkwardly. Kami, Sakura had strong legs, "…I can see up your skirt from here you know."

That was more or less Naruto ignoring her request altogether. She knew that he heard her, and he was responding with a 'do whatever you have to' in his own way. Her eyes softened a bit and she leaned forward enough to kiss Naruto on the metal plate on his forehead before her features steeled and she began relentlessly pummeling Naruto's skull, "Don't hate me Naruto. I'm sorry."

Karin from her seat looked away from the scene with her face being blocked by one of her hands. It was too much to ask of him to fight after being wrecked by Zangief. The sheer fact that he stood up and moved around after the last round was mesmerizing. But Sakura wasn't even giving him the chance to get back up. She wasn't going to stop until he went limp, 'If only he were fresh. Sakura-san is far healthier than he is.'

Back in the ring the punches kept thudding off of Naruto's head, but his eyes never lost their focus, 'Come on Sakura-chan, give me some daylight here.' He thought in between getting his brains scrambled with hit after hit. Just one opening. That was all he needed. As he thought this and tried to wriggle his way free, a punch smacked the back of his head onto the concrete again. He didn't need to see a mirror to figure that his face was a mess by now.

He grit his teeth tighter with each shot he took that turned his head from side to side. Whoever told Sakura to beat the stuffing out of him like this to win was an evil bastard that knew their stuff for certain. Naruto's vision was starting to swim as he started struggling harder and harder before he wound up being rendered unconscious. He was hurting all over to begin with, his head was being tenderized by a pair of very strong fists, and it had been a long day.

Sakura at this point had shut her eyes as she continued to punch down. He was still awake because she could feel him bucking and trying to twist himself free like a pinned down wolf. But with her eyes closed she couldn't see Naruto's canines grow sharper as he grit his teeth. Nor could she see his whisker-marks darken and deepen, or his eyes begin to turn red.

"Sakura-chan get off!" Naruto roared as orange chakra burst from his body and he rolled them both over in a show of overwhelming strength before jumping back away from Sakura to get space.

Having been thrown back onto her butt, Sakura immediately stood back up and formed her fists, unfazed by Naruto getting back up. What gave her alarm though was his appearance once she looked at him again. In addition to his obvious aesthetic changes, Naruto's wounds on his face were quickly healing up before her eyes. She let out a gasp at Naruto's feral and overpowering form.

"Naruto? What's this?"

"Just keep going!"

Sakura took a step back at the gravelly voice and the authoritative order, but went on guard when Naruto moved faster than she had ever seen him move in their entire time together. It was purely inhuman as he reappeared right in front of her and took a swipe at her instead of punching at her. She jumped back, but he slashed the bottom of her top off to reveal a significant part of her bare torso. His nails had grown to a dangerous and sharp length like that of a beast. He couldn't be allowed to get that close again, "Hadoken (Surge Fist)!"

Upon seeing Sakura launch the blast at him, Naruto ran forward and swatted it away like a volleyball with his bare hands. She didn't even have time to drop her jaw in shock as she had to block a punch aimed right at her body. Even though she got her arms up to protect herself, the one punch from Naruto knocked her meters away and off of her feet as if she weighed nothing.

It was ridiculous. Naruto was strong. Very strong. He could heft a 220 pound man a decent ways into the air with a kick. He could drag a 300 plus pound man to the ground and make him cry like a girl, she had seen it. But the way he had just punched her… if she hadn't braced her arms against her body he would have broken her forearms.

'Is this what Naruto's real power is?' It felt too angry to be Naruto. It didn't feel like him at all. That power wafting off of his body couldn't be his. She had felt his energy signature before. He had run it through her body to give her the feel for ki or chakra when she was developing her skills with it. Naruto's sheer power felt safe, it felt kind, calming. This felt dark, "Naruto, what is this?"

Naruto prepared another attack before stopping and realizing that she was scared. Scared of him. He looked at his hands and saw his sharpened and toughened nails and paid attention to the orange aura surrounding him, 'What? I haven't done this in years. Turn it off already you stupid fox.'

It took a moment, but the dark voice inside of Naruto's head chimed in again, "You fool. I suppose letting this girl try to kill you with her bare hands is supposed to be acceptable to me. You demand that I heal you… I find this a waste of my chakra! Healing you is not what it is meant to be used for, I am not your doctor! It's meant to destroy!"

'Sakura-chan wasn't going to kill me!' Kyuubi's excuse for giving him its chakra was lame at best. Sakura wasn't Sasuke. Not even close. She would never kill him, even by accident, even if she was angry at him for before, 'Turn it off before I hurt her for real! I can't fight her like this without killing her!'

"Well how unfortunate that would be." The Kyuubi responded sarcastically, "Too bad! Don't you remember what you said to me when we first spoke years ago? That I owed you 'rent' as it were? Well consider this payment for time passed." Oh that malicious, vengeful bastard. Was this because he kept ignoring it for all of those years? What would anyone else do if all it said when Naruto went into his head to visit just so happened to be the demon telling Naruto that this world could be taken over? He was no dictator or megalomaniac.

Naruto's breathing started getting faster and faster as the Kyuubi's chakra didn't cease coursing through his body. So he had the options to either quit, continue fighting and maim his closest friend for a stupid tournament, or saw screw it to both plans that were lose-lose and fight down the Kyuubi's influence before he was forced to do either of the previous options.

'Stop giving me chakra damn it!' Naruto shouted in his head.

"Or you'll what?" Kyuubi chuckled at Naruto's empty threat. If he planned on trying to do anything that required him to get close to the seal he would pay for it somehow.

'Fine.' Eventually Naruto realized that realistically there was nothing he could do to the devilish chakra construct, 'You want to know what I'll do? I'll show you.' Naruto started focusing and channeling more and more of his chakra until instead of a layer of orange chakra there was a tower of it just piling off of his body.

Sakura had to jump back as Naruto's chakra began licking out dangerously, even leaving a lash in the concrete floor where it struck with some force, "…What is this?" She couldn't beat that. She knew that Naruto wanted her to fight him for real. After she calmed down she figured that this was the only reason Naruto used that damnable 'technique' on her from earlier. He would never have done anything like that without a reason.

But even fighting as hard as she could, she couldn't even get close to him safely.

Meanwhile Naruto's will to be calm was trying to override the Kyuubi's chakra and its influence to do the exact opposite.

His breathing began to taper and slow after he realized that he wasn't going to burn off all of the chakra in him, and that it was stupid to even try to do so at first. So fighting it down would only be possible by calming himself.

Eventually the orange aura started shrinking, his physical features grew normal, and the oppressive feeling in the building faded to nothing as the crowd collectively exhaled breath that they didn't know they had been holding.

"Hah… hah…" Naruto was visibly winded from shoving the intense chakra back inside of his body, but he still spared Sakura a grin to let her know that this was not going to happen again, "Sorry about that Sakura-chan… I'm good now."

Sakura still stood in her fighting stance in case this was Naruto trying to Trojan Horse a sneak attack on her, "Naruto, what was that? You've never done that before." She was clearly still shaken due to Naruto's unconscious killing intent while he had been in that form, "Are you alright?"

No, no he wasn't. Simply fighting down the slightest influence from the Kyuubi reinjured his tender torso area, "Yeah, I'm fine." He had to finish this in one shot, and he knew it had to be a sure-fire night ender for her, or it could be the end of the night for him, 'Fighting the Kyuubi, myself, and Sakura-chan at the same time isn't smart…' He wasted an absurd amount of chakra not even twenty minutes before this fight even began and he used even more to regain full control of himself, 'I haven't been this tired since after the fight with Neji in the chunin exams.'

But if he was still standing that meant that he had more to give, and if he had it he would be using it. A clone appeared at Naruto's side and the two extended one arm between them, putting Sakura on guard.

"Naruto…" She warned, moving her hands into the position to prepare a Hadoken as she charged her ki up. It was like an old western standoff at high noon, "A Rasengan isn't going to stop this one." She said as the energy in her grasp started shining through her fingers.

Naruto and his clone were molding their own chakra between their hands as a blue orb started forming, "Yeah? Well a Hadoken isn't going to stop this one. So let's find out!" He and his clone ran forward at Sakura as a larger than previously seen Rasengan came into clear view. It looked like a Rasengan encased in a larger Rasengan shell, "Odama Rasengan (Great Ball Rasengan)!"

Sakura took a deep breath before launching her own attack in response. Bigger, stronger Rasengan or not, she had a bigger and stronger Hadoken all ready for him, "Shinkuu Tengyou Hadoken (Vacuum Heavenly Command Surge Fist)!" A blast like a cannon shot emitted from Sakura's hands as she fired a flashing Hadoken twice the size of her own body at Naruto's incoming Odama Rasengan.

Naruto and his clone shouted as they charged headlong into the attack and thrust their jutsu forward.

Much like earlier in the contest the two moves were evenly matched as they had been constructed under similar pretenses; extra time needed to build the power for the moves, far larger than the original form of the attacks… and since they were evenly matched like their earlier Rasengan/Hadoken clash, they once again exploded.

This time the blast was deafening and its effects were clearly felt. A burst of harsh wind and debris from the epicenter of the explosion pushed outward over much of the front rows and into the air directly.

Coughing and shielding her eyes from the dust and debris, Karin stood out of her seat and right at the barricade, "What happened? It is too thick to see through!" The only thing anyone could do was wait until the dust raised towards the ceiling before finding out what happened.

Slowly, the dust began to float up and away from the point of the blast, and the scene became visible, eliciting a gasp of shock from the audience. A crater sat where Naruto and Sakura met, but neither of them were inside of it. Instead Sakura sat on one side of the ring, limp and with the barricade nearly destroyed from her body's impact against it.

On the direct other side opposite from Sakura, Naruto had been closer to the point of the two attacks detonating and had paid the price for it. He had been dragged through a small trench bored out by his own jutsu's volatility and wound up smashing clean through the barricade on his side, laying at the feet of the front row fans equally as unresponsive as Sakura.

The entire building was silent as everyone waited for one of them to move and stand back up, but neither of them budged an inch from where their bodies came to rest.

"Neither Uzumaki Naruto or Kasugano Sakura are capable of moving ladies and gentlemen! This match is declared a draw! We've seen something very special today now let's get those kids some medical attention!"

"A draw." Shibazaki said as he, Ishizaki, and their charge Karin witnessed the EMTs rush into the ring to tend to Naruto and Sakura on the spot, "Kanzuki-sama, Uzumaki-san didn't win." That meant that the endeavor was a failure. If there was one thing he knew Karin couldn't stand it was failure, and that meant that this little relationship between her and Aohura City's local cracker of skulls had to be over.

Instead of expressing complete irritation at what was an obvious fact, Karin simply stood against her side of the ring's barricade and turned her head away from the EMTs to Shibazaki where she glared at him sharply, "He didn't lose either. You of all people should know that Sakura-san was powerful over a year and a half ago and that his injuries were already grave. I may be asking him to do something extremely difficult for my benefit, but the parameters he happened to be put under today were nearly impossible to overcome."

If he had won today, she would have wondered just what she would have had to do to defeat him if he just so happened to actually become the most famous fighter in the world per their agreement.

Aside from that, she had to know just what Naruto did during his fight against Sakura. It was the most intense thing she had ever felt. Her instincts were telling her to run away, to get away from him, and he never even did anything with it. Yes he was stronger still than he let on, and he was getting increasingly interesting by the day.

Taking the initiative to jump over the barricade and walk over to Sakura first since she was closer, she found Sakura loaded up onto a stretcher as she tried to take the neck brace that been placed on her off, much to the chagrin of the medical staff. Upon reaching her side, Karin frowned, but assisted her in removing it, "You should have kept the brace on Sakura-san. You do not know how hurt you appear to be right now."

"Yes I do." Sakura said weakly, taking the moment to lay back down now that the tight and in her view unnecessary neck brace was off of her, "I've never felt this bad in my life. Naruto really messed me up. He earned that win."

"He didn't win." Karin said, getting the EMTs to turn the stretcher so that Sakura could see Naruto getting placed onto his own, much like Sakura he was trying to keep something from happening, he was trying to keep from being placed on the stretcher altogether. Apparently he could stand up since he was limping over to them at the moment, 'I… don't believe it. He can move?'

How would have been the first question on her lips if she had the thought to speak instead of gawk.

"Never again…" Naruto uttered once he got within earshot and almost collapsed, keeping himself upright by leaning against Sakura's gurney. His legs gave back out and he dropped to one knee despite his having made it all the way over to her and Karin, "We're never fighting again." He had his head held down as he was too exhausted to pull it up enough to face her.

"No way… that's not your choice."

This however, prompted him to lift his head to stare at her curiously only for her to set one of her gloved hands onto the top of his head, "You won though. I can't get off of this stupid thing. At least you can still stand up."

Karin chimed in with a little fact, "It was actually recorded as a draw. Neither of you won this fight."

Hearing that, a gleam came to Sakura's eye as she smiled at Naruto sweetly and ruffled his hair with the hand that was set on his head, "In that case we're definitely going to fight again Naruto."

His eyes widened in surprise, "Say what now?"

Sakura let out a sigh and continued explaining, "This was my very best shot. If I lost I'd have stopped trying to get stronger than you. All these years, all that hard training, and I'd never beaten you even once. This was as close as I've ever gotten. And it proves that I can do it. So next time, crazy orange ki or not, it'll be clear that I'm the one that beat you." She tugged on his whisker-marks playfully the way that she did from time to time to show that she was alright, "I'll see you at the hospital."

"Yeah, yeah Sakura-chan…" Naruto said, peeling Sakura's weak grip from his cheek while lowly conceding the point that he was still going to have to fend off challenges from his closest friend in the future. Now that she knew defeating him was possible for her she'd probably start training the moment she was medically cleared, "If you see Batsu first, make fun of him for losing before I did for me." With that, he plopped down on the ground sitting cross-legged as Sakura was escorted out of the arena.

Karin stood next to him watching her rival being taken away and endeavored to increase her own training if Sakura could fight that well at this point in time. It was obvious that there was quite the divide between them. Still, she had something more important at the moment sitting by her legs.

That orange power was incredible though...

"So the tournament is done. I believe the prize money will be split between you and Sakura-san, and I guess you have performed well enough that I will recompense you as well." Karin said with a small smile, knowing she would gain favor with her interesting fellow blonde for paying him even more money, "So tell me… what are you thinking now."

"…That I should have stayed on that stretcher and waited to talk to Sakura-chan at the hospital."

THUMP!

A groan escaped Karin's lips as she didn't even need to look to the side to know that Naruto had fallen out on the floor. Stubborn ass… and what necessarily did any of that prove to anyone there? Well it was probably best that she escorted both Naruto and Sakura to the hospital since that was where everyone in their merry little party seemed to be going anyway. First Batsu, then the other two, "Okay, Uzumaki-san is unconscious again. The paramedics can load him up into an ambulance before he awakens now."

XxX

(Sometime Later – Tokyo, Japan – Nearest Hospital)

A pair of ambulances pulling into emergency room parking attracted the attention of one person sitting on a rooftop nearby in the shadow of the nearby hospital. He had been waiting there ever since after the semifinals. He simply knew that somehow his target would end up there.

A phone vibrated and it was pulled out to be placed by the man's head, "Yes?"

"Vega-san, the competition is over. The final round was contested to a draw by Uzumaki Naruto and Kasugano Sakura. I don't understand why you couldn't stay until the end of the tournament, but just as you've asked I've informed you to the end results."

"Thank you director-san." Vega said in a very pleasant and friendly manner as he still sat swathed in the natural night shadow provided by the moonless night and the proximity of the hospital to his own diminutive building of roost, "I must say, it was a very interesting show before a more personal matter pulled me away. Were there anymore unfortunate injuries like the man that the Russian paralyzed?"

"No thankfully not. Although both of the finalists are in quite rough condition. I was surprised that children could fight so fiercely, especially against one another."

"Well human nature is indeed constantly surprising. And as you said, hopefully those children can get some quick medical attention for themselves. Goodbye and congratulations on a successful show." With that, Vega ended the conversation and dropped the phone on the roof before standing up and stomping on it to destroy the now useless to him device.

Walking out from the pitch-black shadows, he was no longer wearing his noble and distinguished looking clothing. While he still had his long light brown hair in a braid down his back, he now wore purple and yellow trousers with a red sash around his waist, white leggings down around his calves, and brown loafers, something like a matador. He wore no shirt now, leaving a purple snake tattoo visible on his chest that went up and around his right arm.

Still, the most noticeable attachment on his person was on his left arm. Around his bicep he wore a golden bracer, but further down his arm on his hand he wore a long razor-sharp metal three-bladed claw.

He slipped an expressionless white porcelain mask onto his face and through its eyeholes looked out where he could see Naruto and Sakura being taken from the ambulances into the hospital itself.

"You should have accepted my offer you little fool. Bison would have loved to have another pawn like you to play around with. And having another ninja-trained assassin around could have been interesting." Vega said to himself, tightening his weapon around his wrist and hand, "Still… this only proves just how crushingly ugly you truly are my poor unsightly friend-."

With absurd speed, Vega rushed towards the hospital building and leapt from his own to begin effortlessly scaling the side of it towards the rooftop.

"-Because handsome fighters… never lose battles."

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

{Character Profile}

Name: Vega

Nationality: Spain

Gender: Male

Age: 21 (Birthday: April 24)

Height/Weight: 6'1/185 lbs.

Bloodtype: O

Likes: Beauty, himself, beautiful women, hair conditioner, killing the ugly, bloodshed.

Dislikes: Blemishes, ugly people, getting sweaty or dirty, his face getting damaged.

Hobbies: Climbing walls, being vain.

Rivals: None

Fighting Style: Bullfighting, Ninjutsu.

Current Techniques: Rolling Crystal Flash, Scarlet Terror, Sky High Claw, Flying Barcelona Attack, Izuna Drop.

Hyper Techniques: Flying Barcelona Special, Rolling Izuna Drop, Bloody High Claw, Splendid Claw.

Background: Born to a noble family in the midst of decline, Vega's mother was forced to remarry for financial security. Still, Vega ventured around the world in his teen years, studying bullfighting and actually receiving training in Japan to learn ninjutsu, a style that meshed naturally with his grace and agility. Vega used these skills in underground cage fights until his stepfather murdered his mother because he felt that she did not respect him. In response, Vega butchered the ugly man and the incident warped Vega's mind, planting sociopathic and murderous (borderline hematolagniac) tendencies behind his dignified and graceful day-to-day façade as a man of affluence. He is in truth a barbarous psychopath who due to the appearance of his mother's killer has no respect for those he deems ugly, saying that they warrant no mercy. He cherishes beauty of all kinds, especially that found in young women. Due to his killing ability, Vega was sought out to run the main assassination and covert activities of Shadaloo. Despite his flamboyance and egotism, Vega is perhaps the most ruthless, dishonorable, and wildest fighter in the criminal organization.