Survival Of The Fittest...

Chapter 29 - Survival of the Fittest...

"Come on teme! You want it? Work for it!" Batsu shouted at Naruto, standing up from the backseats of his jeep to shout ahead of it, "If you fall out and don't make it just know Hinata-chan is recording this on your phone and I'll put it on the internet!" He said, and indeed in the passenger seat of the very same vehicle Wakaba Hinata sat holding Naruto's phone in camera mode, "I don't care how slow we're going, you better not let this thing stop!"

"I think even if he crashed out right now if you put this on the internet it would make him look cooler more than anything else." Hinata commented brightly in regards to the friend of her boyfriend's strength, "How heavy is this thing?"

"Not helping…" Batsu muttered under his breath to Hinata, "He works harder if you piss him off." In order to illustrate this fact, Batsu stood up straight again and yelled at his buddy, "Don't you let this momentum stop! Your set's not done yet you goddamn quitter!"

"Shut the hell up!" A struggling Naruto covered in sweat and scuff marks said from out in front of the vehicle. The reason for this being that he was tied to it and was pulling it forward, "You put it in neutral! This is hard!"

"That's the point, you're supposed to drag it yourself! I put it in drive to give you a bit of momentum to start. If I'd made you pull it from a dead stop you'd have never gotten it moving. All you have to do now is keep it going." Batsu said, plopping down heavily in the seat as his friend continued to drag his transportation around a scrap yard in the industrial portion of Aohura City.

It was a good place to train when you needed to work hard, and it had been Naruto, Batsu, and Sakura's heavy duty training area for years. There were plenty of sturdy things to deal devastating damage to, and lots of heavy things to work with like engine blocks, scrapped cars, all kinds of things. Even Batsu's girlfriend Hinata showed up to work on some of the more destructive techniques in their respective repertoires.

Yep. It was spacious and isolated enough so that no one would be troubled by the constant sounds of crashing and sometimes even explosions that went on there, it was in town so if someone was ever really hurt that badly they could take them to the hospital, and due to the fact that it was a scrap yard there was never a shortage of things to target.

"I hate you both." Naruto grunted as he continued to struggle forward slowly, leaning ahead for all he was worth for the leverage needed to do so. He then let out a growl when Batsu hit the horn and it blared in his ear behind him, "When I get off of this thing I'm punching you in the balls!"

Not really reacting to his threat, Batsu just kept periodically laying on the horn, "Well I don't have a whip for motivation purposes otherwise we'd be using that." He then noticed how wrong that sounded and kept Naruto from making a preemptive comment by holding his hand on the horn for the duration of what obviously would have been a scathing and insulting sentence involving some kind of fetish, perhaps involving Hinata dominating him.

This continued until the trio happened to be joined by Sakura and Ibuki dressed in their school uniforms, who then bore witness as well to Naruto audibly cursing and slowly dragging a jeep like an ox pulling a cart while Batsu kept yelling at him and smashing down the horn like a drill instructor.

Neither of them said anything, just staring at the spectacle with slightly open mouths until Ibuki slowly pulled out her cell phone and took a picture of the whole thing.

The audible shutter click of the electronic device got Hinata's attention and she turned in their direction, brightening and waving at the two girls, "Sakura-chan hi! Sorry I didn't call you after school let out but we had to come here right afterward."

Sakura stopped staring and walked over where she easily caught up and kept pace with Naruto, "This is what you've been doing for the last week and a half?" She asked, as he had sent a clone to school in his stead for the aforementioned amount of days, "You're going to cripple yourself at this rate."

"Not for that long… just today." Naruto strained to say as he kept dragging the jeep. He had long since hit a wall when it came to improving his explosive ability and strength and when in doubt do something extreme, like dragging a motor vehicle, "I should have started with an economy car first. Oh my back."

"Stop talking!" Batsu ordered, laying on the horn once more, "Talking wastes air! Now explode! Explode forward!"

Ibuki jumped into the back of the car, unknowingly adding more weight for Naruto to have to pull, but her curiosity as to what was going on won out over her sensibility, "Sakura-chan just told us that Naruto's been sending clones for the whole week at school. What is he doing exactly?"

Hinata smiled at the kunoichi and responded, "He's training, at least that's what Batsu's saying, for the Second World Warrior Tournament. Haven't you heard about it? Everybody knows what's going on."

A look of confusion sprang to Ibuki's face at the news of a big competition coming up, "He's training for a tournament? Why the hell didn't I know about any tournament going on?" She seemed a bit put out at lacking previous knowledge of such a thing, "I'm always out of the loop."

Out in front of the jeep Naruto was pulling and jumping forward to try and keep the jeep going, "No, you just don't watch TV!" He helpfully offered while continuing to work his ass off, "I'm so thirsty Sakura-chan…"

"So why isn't anyone else training?" Ibuki asked, crossing her arms over her chest at being put out in such a manner. Of course she didn't have a TV. She wasn't even supposed to have a phone at the Glade of Ninjas, how was she going to get a TV? "It's pretty weird that you two aren't doing something like this if you know about it."

"It's because we're not competing." Sakura said, following Naruto slowly and trying to keep the worry off of her face, "The second the first commercial came on TV and my mom saw it she immediately said absolutely not. I can't go."

"Same here. My mom got seriously pissed off when I came back in spring with a broken leg." Batsu said, noting that Ibuki still looked a bit confused. He pulled out his phone and went straight to his internet video site of choice before handing the device over to show Ibuki just what he was talking about, "You seriously need a smartphone. It'd solve half of your problems of not knowing what's going on."

Instead of replying, Ibuki took hold of it and watched as a big flashy display came onto the screen showing clips of the first tournament, taking liberal use of clips of Ryu's victories as an extremely militaristic voice did the voiceover, "The most powerful and skilled fighters from the four corners of the Earth are all welcome to come and test their skills in the Second World Warrior Tournament. Only real martial artists and the absolute best of the best will be found on the main stage! Enter now and prepare for the qualification rounds happening in three locations around the world!"

A projection of the world appeared with the Shadaloo winged skull logo in the background as there were three focal points on the map marked as Tokyo in Japan, Hong Kong, and New York City in the United States.

"Only four spots are open per qualifying area and four spots are reserved to honor well-noted legends of combat that have been selected to compete. Be a part of crowning the best of sixteen fighters in the world for the grandest of prizes!"

Pretty disturbing laughter then came from the speaker while more eye-catching visuals came from the commercial until Ibuki finally turned the phone off. She had seen all that she needed to see to form a point and then deadpanned to everyone listening to her, "Seriously? You're entering a tournament sponsored by Shadaloo?" She asked Naruto who was still out in front of the jeep pulling it steadily, "You do know that this is a trap, right?"

"I've got a good reason." Naruto said before mercifully hearing the shout of 'time' that let him finally drop to his knees and stop his exercise of pulling Batsu's ride around, "…Someone take this stupid harness off of me." He muttered weakly. Sakura obliged him and gasped when he fell forward directly onto his face in the dirt, "Thank you." His voice came out muffled from where he was laying.

Like an angel of mercy, Sakura flipped him over onto his back and sat him up against the jeep as she began checking him over, "Good God Naruto why do you always overtrain when I'm not around?" Pale and clammy skin, bloodshot eyes, and absurdly tense muscles even for having just finished an exercise like the one he had just done, "Just what have you been doing all week?" His heart rate was absolutely murderous.

Naruto's eyes glazed over as he thought of everything he had been doing while skipping school all of that current week with a clone in his place. He returned to the land of the living when Sakura snapped her fingers in front of his face, "Wha-! Oh, um… you know. Stuff."

Not much of an answer really. She looked up at Batsu and Hinata who had just shrugged to her. They didn't know. Naruto called Batsu just today to come up with a new way to give himself a full-body workout. They were just as confused as she was in regards to what he had been doing.

The adage 'no pain no gain' had its limits in regards to how truthful a philosophy it was.

With a concerted grunt of effort to lift Naruto's dead weight up off of the ground, Sakura placed him in the back seat of the jeep and got in, sitting him between herself and Ibuki. She rolled her eyes when Naruto slumped over in Ibuki's direction and the kunoichi started hugging his head against her chest, cooing over how Naruto was a poor baby. He did it to himself!

"Right." Batsu said as he fired up the engine of the jeep and endeavored to drive his way out of the junkyard, "Let's get the human bruise here and the rest of you girls home. We're doing this again next week Naruto, for even longer next time so you'd better be ready." Naruto let out a pained groan in response.

XxX

(Naruto's Apartment)

Sakura had to help Naruto limp his way up the stairs to get back to his apartment since his legs were like putty after the adrenaline from his training wore off. It was another telling sign that he was overtraining himself since he didn't even seem surprised that it happened. How many other times had he been left barely able to walk after he was done?

Well if Sakura was an angel of mercy Cammy was an angel of recovery, because the explanation of how he was able to get up and do it all over again the next day became clear after Sakura dropped him on a couch in the living room.

From where she was in the kitchen, Sakura had to take another glance at where Naruto was now lying facedown on the floor, head on a pillow with Cammy sitting on his back, "How does she even know how to do that?" She asked rhetorically under her breath.

With a concerted look of effort on her face, Cammy was steadily trying to locate and rub out the numerous painful knots of tension that his upper back, shoulders, neck, and arms were fraught with. Apparently this had been happening on a regular basis because she seemed to know right where to go, so she must have been getting a lot of practice.

Once again, Cammy was firmly asserting her position as the coolest roommate that didn't pay rent ever.

"Oh man Cam…" Naruto groaned out underneath the blonde girl working the tension out of his body, "I don't care what this looks like to anyone else right now, you're amazing."

"Thank you Naruto." Cammy replied, finally getting off of his back to sit cross-legged on the floor next to him, "There, that's the best I can do for now, so just rest for the night. You can kill yourself all over again tomorrow." She wasn't any physical therapist, but she had dealt enough structural damage to the joints and muscles of others to know what was going on, "You make me feel lazy. I'm not training hard enough to need a massage just to move every day."

"I wish you were. I'd definitely give you one." Naruto said before yelping when Cammy suddenly lashed out one of her leg to kick him and teach him a lesson, "Ow! Just say no thank you next time!"

"Wait, you're training?" Sakura asked Cammy, getting a nod from her, "You're entering?" It was a world tournament. Despite what they had dealt with it was still hard for Sakura to see the lot of them as world-caliber fighters.

"I don't see why not. I don't have anything else to do other than train while everyone is at school. I might as well put it to use." Besides, if these Shadaloo people that used to control her were trying to lure Naruto into something it wouldn't be very grateful of her to let him go alone. Cammy poked at Naruto with her foot one more time, getting an annoyed grunt out of him before she got up to walk around the apartment, "Are you really using that much energy?"

Let's see… making clones to train at home with Cammy all day, making clones to waste chakra shooting spitfires at him so that he could work on his idea to counter or negate chakra/ki attacks (a very painful process by the way), and he didn't even want to think about how draining his physical conditioning exercises were. Even the ones that didn't require him to act as the propulsion for a damn jeep.

He pulled a damn jeep around a junkyard for five twenty-five minute sets today. Now Batsu might have found it reasonable to chuck 500 pound motorcycles around at enemies without a second thought, but what the hell was he thinking? What was this supposed to be, some kind of strongman contest? If that kept up he'd have a deep seated hatred for motor vehicles by the time the tournament started.

"Yes." Naruto said confidently, looking as serious as possible while he was laying facedown on the floor, "Yes I am. I'm training my ass off. And now I want ramen to put some of that energy back."

"I don't think ramen is the best thing to eat to reenergize."

"Cam… I want ramen. I want ramen tonight. And I will have ramen tonight even if it has to be homemade."

Yes, because Naruto could be the most stubborn man on the planet from time to time. Cammy just shook her head and walked back to her room, beginning to take her twin braids out of her hair as she did so, "Walk to the kitchen, stand at the stove, and make it yourself then. I'm going to go take a nap."

Naruto looked down at his legs that were still pretty sore and frowned at the thought of standing at the stove long enough for the water to boil in a pot and long enough to get the noodles the way he liked them. He had eaten all of his instant ramen and hadn't gone to the store to get anymore since he started training. He turned his head back to Sakura who was still in the kitchen and gave her a pitiful look, "Sakura-chan? Please?"

"I'm not your mother, your wife, or your girlfriend Naruto." Sakura insisted with a pouty look on her face, "Why do you think I'll make an evening snack for you just like that?" Especially since he'd been skipping out on her for weeks at this point, even before his training started.

A shrug came from Naruto as he started pulling himself back onto the couch to sit down, "Because you love me, and because when we were younger I used to help you cook for yourself and Tsukushi all the time when your mom had to work late."

Sakura just gave him a bit of a stare before grabbing a pot, filling it with water, and placing it on Naruto's stove, throwing a big grin on his face, "You're lucky I like cooking."

Despite how she was feeling she couldn't keep a smile of her own off of her face as she opened his refrigerator and already found some chicken that was fully prepared and ready to be added in as well as some vegetables, 'I just can't say no to him about things like this, even if it does feel like we're a bit farther apart these days.'

It had started after the tournament they had fought in together, but it wasn't really noticeable until after Naruto woke up from his coma. Something didn't feel normal; like they weren't as close as they used to be. Thinking about things that way made her sad. If things were like this now, how would they be when they both graduated from high school the next summer? Sakura planned on going to college, and she knew without a doubt that Naruto wasn't into that scene at all.

Shutting the refrigerator with the container of chicken in hand she found Naruto at the counter rending fresh dough into noodles. Man he was good at that. He'd better be with as much of the stuff as he ate, "Hey Naruto, what are you doing next year after we graduate?"

"I don't know." Naruto said absentmindedly as he was more focused on preparing dinner at that point, "I'll probably really start looking for a way home again. There's too much to do now keeping me from it."

'Oh.' Sakura thought to herself as she steadily cut up pieces of the chicken that would go into the pot later, 'That's his plan? All he's going to do is look for a way ho-?' Wait. A way home? As in that 'other world' home? The place he came from? "Why would you do something like that? You haven't tried in this long."

"Before the whole Shadaloo thing happened my original reason for searching around Asia was to see if I could find some mystic crap to get me home." Naruto explained, seeing no reason to hide it at this point, "But then everything just spiraled out of control and we had to focus on stopping Bison before he could hurt any of us anymore. So I never got to really look like I wanted to."

So he had already tried to go home as well. He just didn't know how, "…What would you have done if you'd found a way while we were in Asia?" Would he really have left? Would he even have said goodbye first? Why would he go back now? He'd spent so much time there with her.

And he knew that even as he stopped and thought about Sakura's last question. If he had found a way out would he have taken it? Sure Konoha was his home, but that being said, he'd been close friends with the people here longer than he'd been close friends with the others there. Four years for some of them in Aohura City, like Batsu… or Sakura.

Did he really even want to leave? No, but that didn't even matter. He'd made a promise.

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would you make your entire life goal something that you don't even want to do? You don't do anything else that you don't want to do no matter what, but you're trying to find a way to do the impossible, and your only motivation for trying it is some bullshit promise that you made to yourself when you were a runt?"

Batsu's words from the tail end of summer.

"You've never screwed over anyone else with a promise that you didn't keep. So cut yourself some damn slack. Do what you want, not what you feel like you have to do."

It wasn't that simple. For a lot of his life the only thing he had to his name worth any real value to others was his word, and he would never break that for anyone. The same became true again when he wound up fresh off of a plane in Japan without a banknote to his name.

But he couldn't even keep the biggest promise lingering from his world; the promise to that Sakura to bring back Sasuke. He definitely didn't feel up to that one anymore, especially since Sasuke was so mellow now. Comparatively mellow anyway. He was still a horse's ass, but it was better than the alternative that he was turning into when they were twelve.

In the end he didn't have much of an answer for her, "I don't know what I would have done." It was best to answer honestly in a case like this, "But I'm starting to think that it was a one-way trip either way."

"Oh."

At the sound of that dejected tone of voice he turned over towards where Sakura was and frowned at the sight of her; so low energy, "Hey come on. You're graduating next year. Even if I found a way home you don't need me anymore. You never needed me. I needed you."

"That's not true." Sakura said as she walked over to the counter and took the noodles that Naruto had prepared to place in the pot, "Naruto you have no idea how important you are to me. I really can't imagine how my life would be if I'd never met you." They considered each other best friends for a reason, "But nowadays it's like we're… I don't know how to say… not as close as we used to be. And I don't know why."

What was she talking about? Sure they hadn't hung out as much, as a matter of fact he couldn't remember the last time that he or her just spent time around the other for the sake of hanging out, but they weren't really drifting apart. Not by his watch. If it came down to it he'd still do anything for Sakura. Nothing had changed as far as that went.

But Sakura wasn't done yet. As she spoke she tried to preoccupy herself with adding in the chicken, vegetables, and spices so that she didn't look too pathetic while spilling her guts, "Hearing you talking about leaving and going home makes me feel like I'm right about that." As long as she didn't have to look at him she was okay, "Thinking about you leaving and never coming back breaks my heart."

And if he actually did, she'd probably be no good for a long, long time. Just leaving forever without saying goodbye like that. She got enough of that with someone that she wished would be her master and train her. She might not be able to take it if he went somewhere she couldn't reach too.

But she had said enough. As horrible as it would be if it actually came to pass, Naruto was an adult. He could make his own decisions, and she wouldn't keep him from doing what he wanted, even if it was a killer to allow.

She tried stirring the ramen in the pot, but her grip on the large spoon was far too weak. Her hand shook too much for her to tighten her grasp on it. She wished she'd never brought it up and let his comment slide now because she'd gone and upset herself. Too curious for her own damn good she was.

"Hey." From behind her, Naruto set a hand over hers and started moving the spoon around in her stead, wrapping his other arm around her stomach in something of a comforting hug, "You'd better not cry. I've never made you cry before and I don't want to start now." That didn't seem to help since making physical contact with her seemed to open the floodgates so to speak, "No… hey come on Sakura-chan please don't cry."

Sakura wasn't making any noise, biting her lip to hold it back, but tears were still rolling down her cheeks. She didn't cry around Naruto, ever. No girls ever did, so he was a little bit out of his element in trying to deal with it. People didn't go to him to emote, unless that emotion was anger.

In the end all he could really do was keep his hold on her and rock with her gently as it was the only thing he could think of. If nothing else she accepted it and leaned against him, so that was better than nothing.

"Sakura-chan, I made a promise to myself that I'd find the way home…" Naruto said, and Sakura nodded and gave a tearful noise of acknowledgment, "…I never said that I'd actually go back when I found it though." Her body stopped shaking so much when he said that, "I think I just want to know if I have the choice or not. Even if I don't go back it's a huge part of my life and I can't just pretend that it doesn't exist."

"Naruto, don't say something like that just because I'm-."

"I'm saying that because I don't want to go back damn it. I love it here."

Naruto rested his chin on top of Sakura's head and sighed quietly while she continued to calm down. He was supposed to be resting his bruise-ravaged body after a day of relentlessly abusing it, not soothing his closest friend from tears.

Sakura was so comparatively tiny when matched up with him. He was a full head taller than her and it just made him want to protect her for some reason, even though she was fully capable of knocking his head off if need be. It was a sign of just how long he had been there, because she used to be taller than him at first.

"You can't get rid of me that easily, dattebayo." He muttered into her hair before planting a kiss on the top of her head as she sniffled, "Do you feel better now after crying it out a bit?"

"I think so. Sorry about getting all girly on you Naruto."

"It's okay, anytime. Now let's get back to stirring the ramen, because I'm still hungry."

XxX

(One Week Later – Hong Kong – Genhanten)

It was so annoying to have to come back to Hong Kong again, and for something so trivial to boot. He had to interrupt his training just to drag Chun-Li to Gen so that she could get her stupid confirmation of what he had already told her out of Gen himself.

Sasuke stood glowering over by the door of Gen's office in the original Genhanten restaurant that also served as the main base of operations while Chun-Li bowed to Gen who was sitting behind his desk like a proper businessman. He had a bit of a sickly and frail look to him, but you could look past that and see the expression of a hardened killer on his face.

"Everything that Sasuke told you was true I'm afraid." Gen said as he stroked his beard for no reason other than the fact that he knew that it bothered people, as if he were condescending to them. He was such a cantankerous old man, even though he was good at disguising it by seeming wise, "Bison is alive. He's trying to rebuild his empire in Southeast Asia by way of his government connections and funding from the other parts of his business."

So all of that work earlier that year and it was all for nothing? What was all of that time and all of those resources wasted for? A good friend of hers died during that mess, "So after throwing the damn kitchen sink at him we couldn't kill him, and we can't even get his puppet companies convicted? We didn't do anything."

"I wouldn't say that either." Gen interrupted before she could go off on a tangent, "Whatever you did in the spring started bleeding them out. His affairs in Asia are on life support, and the criminal organizations that started bending to Shadaloo's will started raising a fuss against them now that they seem weakened in this region." But she didn't just want Shadaloo destroyed.

Chun-Li wanted Bison to pay directly. It was plain to see in her eyes. He had killed her father with his own hands and too many more to go along with him. It wasn't good enough to cripple their operations. Not even close.

Having obtained the information she wanted, Chun-Li spared another bow to Gen before turning to leave. She had to prepare for the qualifying matches in two weeks for the tournament.

Sasuke spared her a nod that she returned before he and Gen could hear her exiting the back area of the restaurant to leave through the front, "Well if that's it I'm going back to Japan. I can't keep flip-flopping back and forth every time someone wants something."

"Oh? But I have a mission for you."

A sigh came from Sasuke at hearing Gen's tone, as if he were surprised to hear that Sasuke wanted to leave so soon. He wanted to get out of there before Yang and Yun realized he was back in town and came to mess with him, "…What do you want from me now?"

Gen stood up from his desk with a serious look on his face, "Enter the Second World Warrior Tournament and ensure that Chun-Li does not confront Bison. That girl will ruin herself with all of these thoughts of vengeance. If it comes to it and you two are slated to fight, defeat her."

What? He had to put his neck on the line for something like this? Why did Gen even care aside from the fact that Chun-Li was the daughter of a friend? She was a grown woman, and if she wanted to walk into a trap to get a shot at some criminal overlord that was her own business.

Basically Sasuke didn't see the big deal. If she wanted to tear the guy that killed her father limb from limb more power to her. He knew that if he had the shot to do the same against Itachi he'd take it, "A little revenge never hurt anyone." Anyone other than the person that the revenge was taken on anyway, "Seems like a waste of time to me."

"In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior." Gen stated flatly as he walked past Sasuke, "You should have learned that by now boy. It's been how many years?"

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child."

"You are a child, no matter what you think you've seen."

"You want to die Gen?"

"If you think you're finally able to make good on that threat after four years of saying it every day by all means go ahead."

The old bastard could have at least risen to the threat just a little bit. Sasuke scoffed and walked out of the office instead of indulging the old man with verbal sparring, "Tch… I won't waste the chakra. I'll let the leukemia do it." Low blow? Yes, but they had said far worse to each other in the past when Gen realized that Sasuke's family was a soft spot for him.

All Gen did was chuckle in a smug and knowing fashion as he headed back to the storefront. He knew that Sasuke was going to enter the tournament anyway for his own reasons and it wasn't like he would throw any matches or fight at less than one hundred percent, he just wanted to take a shot at the resentful little shit before parting by implying that he couldn't defeat Chun-Li without being directed to first.

Maybe one day he'd take the young man up on that battle to the death. After all, he couldn't run the assassins forever and he needed someone to take over after he was dead. Hopefully by unnatural causes. He'd despise going out on a sick bed instead of in battle.

"Prepare hard now…" Gen commented in a patronizing fashion as Sasuke headed back to his own office/room, "You don't want to go out and lose before your friend does. There are rumors that he was invited like Chun-Li was. It certainly would be embarrassing wouldn't it?"

Sasuke didn't even bother dignifying that with a response.

XxX

(One Week Later – Tokyo, Japan – Tokyo Dome)

On the grounds usually used for baseball in the massive arena there were four platforms elevated slightly off of the ground for combat that took up space an equal distance apart. Standing on the field all around the rings were people dressed for a fight. The turnout was massive in regards to competitors. As the only qualifying grounds for the entirety of the Pacific there were people from Eastern Russia, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, not just Japan.

It was such a diverse field of competition. Did this many people actually think that they had a chance to go to the real-deal tournament in December? Well there was nothing wrong with thinking that way really.

Amongst the rest of the would-be fighters, Naruto stood limbering himself up and dressed in his new equipment. It was a loose sleeveless one-piece outfit with a hood that he currently had pulled over his head for the time being, similar to the other one he had worn prior only it was navy blue instead of orange. His supply belt was orange though. Had to have it on him somewhere. His ankles were bandaged down to his blue sandals and he had his kunai holster around his thigh.

"Are you done yet Cam?" Naruto asked, trying to let off enough killing intent so that some handsy testosterone-filled guy didn't try to put hands on Cammy before the matches began… for their own safety really, and so Cammy didn't get kicked out before the event even started for breaking someone's arm if they tried to get too friendly with her.

Cammy on the other hand was wearing a silver leotard with long sleeves that fully exposed her legs and her red gauntlets and white boots. She was on the ground killing two birds with one stone by stretching and lightly painting a white lightning bolt design on her legs, "Almost." Hey, everybody had their own thing that they liked to do before battle, "I wish the others could watch us though."

Yes, no Sakura, Karin, Batsu, or Ibuki, and Naruto hadn't seen Sasuke in well over a week, so none of them were going to be there.

The stands were jam-packed. Around 50,000 people as a more or less. Apparently a lot of people that liked fighting didn't have anything to do on an early Thursday evening. Well it was an extremely important tournament after all. No one wanted to miss it. Once again Naruto had to skip school to attend, thank Kami for the Kage Bunshin technique, because they had to leave early to get there on time and sign in.

At least the whole thing would be televised from start to finish. After the smash hit that the First World Warrior Tournament turned out to be, the moment that the second event was announced to the public the major broadcasting networks in every country around the world started fighting like cats and dogs for the licensing rights to air the qualifying rounds in the regions that they were happening and later the actual tournament itself when it took place.

Those idiots were putting money right into the pockets of Shadaloo who were clandestinely sponsoring the thing. The ratings were going to do gangbusters though.

"Hey, they'll see us when we get home later." Naruto told Cammy as he started looking around for the people that they had come to the arena with on the train that morning, "Where the hell are Dan and Blanka? They left like twenty minutes ago to get ready."

They had all walked through the door in line together and had been given different letters corresponding to a ring. Because they had all entered one after another none of them were placed in the same qualifying bracket. Dan, Blanka, Cammy, and Naruto would not have to fight each other… at the moment anyway. But then again no one there knew how the rules worked either so they theoretically could have been paired off right off the bat somehow.

"It's time to show the world a real superstar! Everyone can either lay down now, or I can put them down the hard way!"

"I found Dan." Cammy stated flatly. As she put a small white garrison cap on her head she gestured it over to where Dan was making a fool of himself amidst the throng of other fighter, following around a camera that was weaving through everyone to get a ground floor view of everyone there, "What's he doing?" She couldn't imagine parading herself around in front of the cameras like that. Too intrusive for her tastes.

Making an ass of himself for one thing, but that wasn't the answer that she was looking for, "That's just the way Dan is." Naruto tried to explain as he motioned for Blanka to make his way over to them. Blanka grinned upon seeing them and hurried his way over, parting the crowd in his way that were somewhat afraid of the feral-looking man despite his generally pleasant disposition.

He still didn't wear anything other than frayed brown shorts and his anklets, and that didn't help the green skin and extremely wild orange hair so he was pretty intimidating admittedly.

"Is it almost time to start yet?" Blanka asked excitedly, "I've never fought in a tournament before. I can't wait." Apparently he had developed a fondness for fighting against people since he started living with Dan. It was weird to see him so animated about something like this.

But then again he had been like that for the whole trip. Getting him on the train was a major chore because he thought it was some kind of titanic snake that people found in the city. When he saw Tokyo itself and the entertainment area that the Tokyo Dome was the centerpiece of they were almost late to line up before the doors opened.

Why he chose to try and qualify or how Dan tried to convince him Naruto had no idea, but it was what it was and he was there now. Still his enthusiasm was more than welcome given the circumstances.

The speaker system over the entire arena came on and the voice of the event's emcee came on to give everyone their instructions, "Ladies and gentlemen thank you all for coming and I welcome you to the Pacific qualifiers for the Second World Warrior Tournament!" As it seemed that things would finally be getting underway, everyone in the stands let out cheers, "All participants prepare for the competition to begin. Those issued A-cards report to the A ring. B-cards to the B ring. C-cards to the C ring. D-cards to the D ring."

Naruto looked at his B card and Cammy checked hers as a C. Blanka had D, which meant that since he had been the last one out of the four of them in line Dan had A, "Well…" Naruto said with a shrug, "…Break a leg guys." He then noticed Blanka looking at him strangely, "Not literally. It means good luck bud."

"Oh." Blanka said in understanding at the friendly gesture, "Well break your leg too." He then parted to head over to the D ring. It was hard to believe that he was six years older than they were, but if they were stuck trying to survive in the jungle they'd probably see it then. If he'd said it to Blanka in Portuguese he'd probably have gotten it though.

Right, well either way it was time to get this show on the road, "Well I'll see you when this whole thing is over Cam." Naruto said as he watched Cammy jump up onto the platform that served as her qualifying ring, "You'd better win, because travelling to the real tournament by myself would suck."

"Worry about yourself first." Cammy responded, stretching her arms out above her head, "We've all got to fight our own battles tonight so fretting about me won't do you any good here. The same goes for me." She reached a hand down for Naruto to take which he gladly did with a big smile, "If you lose and I win I'll never let you live it down." She teased as she used her other hand to push his hood off of his head.

"If I lose I'll kick my own ass, you won't have to do it for me." Naruto eventually released Cammy's hand and went to get to his own platform to begin fighting. There was just a mass of humanity in each ring that was large enough to fit them all. Shadaloo didn't skimp out on some puny rings, that much was for certain.

Thirty people give or take one or two in each ring ready for action in four different sections of the open arena. And dozens of referees and doctors were standing at the ready all over.

"The rules are as follows. These matches are to be free-for-all affairs. Every participant must remain in their designated ring. If they are knocked from the ring and touch the floor they are eliminated. If they are rendered unconscious, are killed, or are otherwise deemed unable to continue by our doctors and officials on hand they are eliminated. The last man or woman standing in each ring will be declared one of our four winners and will have qualified for a place in the Second World Warrior Tournament in December!"

Everyone in the all of the rings started eyeing each other warily and trying to keep turning to watch their own backs and try to get the drop on someone else as well. Some people were already cutting deals on working with certain people to better their chances of lasting until the end.

It was like Naruto could feel tons of eyes trying to melt him from all around with their stares. It wasn't everyone, but it was enough people to be noticeable. Why the hell was he getting singled out? He hadn't done anything to anyone yet.

Oh. That's right. He was kind of famous in Japan in circles of criminals, fighters, and martial artists in general. He forgot about that since people in Aohura City where he lived really didn't care about that. But here he could hear people whispering things and his name would pop up in the smatterings of conversation.

"All competitors ready! Fight!"

Everyone had already cased a soft target for themselves and began the melee that became a rather brutal display of human force. Most fighters would land a punch before getting hit with something by someone else from another angle. And those unskilled that started out closest to the edge of the ring were forced out by the fighting expanding and spreading out from the center.

First and foremost Naruto started off by jumping into the air and running on the heads and shoulders of the taller fighters to avoid the edge of the ring, finally coming to a landing near the center, 'Okay, this was a bad idea, but it was better than the alternative.'

Now he had gotten the attention of too many people that he had walked on in order to get 'safely' to the middle of the ring. Evidently they didn't like that too much. Before anyone could bear down on him Naruto placed his fingers together in the cross seal and created five Kage Bunshin, four that went off to fight the others and one to remain next to him while he formed a Rasengan.

"Rasenbakufuu (Spiraling Shockwave)!" The clone next to Naruto moved its hands around Naruto's Rasengan and forced the chakra from it in an outward burst of energy all around him that slammed many of the enemies away forcefully, along with Naruto's clones as people were pushed out of the ring at the edges.

While people were on the ground Naruto ran around kicking them in their faces before they could get back up in order to render them unconscious. A lot of people in other areas were letting their opponents get back up when they were knocked down. Screw that.

Doctors were pulling people out and the herd was steadily thinning in Naruto's neck of the woods until he felt the footsteps of someone coming up behind him and lunged aside as a white blur passed him by. He reached out and grabbed his attacker by the back collar of their top to retaliate when he had to suddenly let go lest he find his face filled with the view of someone's kicking foot.

With a growl Naruto spaced himself away and squared off with a familiar girl. The messy-haired, karate-gi wearing Makoto, "What? What are you doing here?" She lived even farther away from Tokyo than he did in a rural area. She had to travel for well over an hour just to catch a train, "I know you're a student too! Who let you skip school?"

"My grandfather understood that some things are just more important." Makoto said with a smirk, excited at the prospect of fighting Naruto in an environment where he couldn't use the battlefield to his advantage the way he did last time. Unfortunately there were those that didn't care about her desire to rematch Naruto and tried to attack them both, "I don't feel like dealing with weaklings!" She ducked an attack from behind and turned to grab a man far larger than her by the neck, lifting him up roughly before punching him away from her viciously.

Naruto had to block a pair of kicks from two more people before launching a counter that was comprised of sweeping the standing leg of one man and while he was low punching the second man in his exposed testicles. Needless to say that was that it for him.

"That was so dirty." The man that Naruto had knocked down commented before Naruto noticed that he was still awake. While still low and on all fours, Naruto just lunged at him and headbutted him in the face to knock him out.

Naruto stood back up straight and swept the debris and possible blood of his enemy out of his hair, "There aren't any rules in this thing." Speaking of no rules he then once again had to fend off the assault from the very determined Makoto, having to weave his head out of the way of many rapid-fire strikes launched at his face.

That girl was seriously trying to knock him out. She'd already gotten him good in a previous encounter and blackened his eye badly, and he'd be damned if he'd let something like that happen again.

Makoto had to stop when once again the last few remaining dregs of their qualifying area tried to take advantage of the ongoing fight between her and Naruto when it strayed too close to the edge of the ring. Both of them just stepped away from each other when the man tried a flying kick to kill two birds with one stone. Instead of hitting anything he merely flew out of the ring and eliminated himself.

With the slight lull in Makoto's boisterous attack, she realized that she couldn't give Naruto any room to move if she was going to beat him and dashed forward in a blur to knock his head off with one shot, "Hayate (Swift Wind)!" Her attempt to crowd Naruto only resulted in him ducking her sharp power punch and moving past her.

Before he could possibly retaliate she turned back around and jumped away to face Naruto who was holding a black belt in his hand and looking confused at why he was holding it. He had tried to grab her around the waist to try a new special attack he had come up with during his training, but all he had gotten was Makoto's black belt.

Looking up from what he had in his hand, Naruto saw an embarrassed Makoto holding her gi shut with one hand. Crap. His bad, "I was trying to attack you, I swear to Kami. The only thing I was trying to do was hurt you."

Instead of answering him, Makoto just took a deep breath and cast her gi aside instead of holding it shut any further. There wasn't any room for shame when you were a fighter. Thank goodness she had on a sports bra underneath though. Naruto stood at the ready as there was still a battle going on.

Makoto started breathing faster and tensed up in her fighting stance until her skin started to turn a deep red. This wasn't her blushing at her less than presentable state though, "Since you don't have anywhere to hide here, it's the perfect time to use this against you. Tanden Renki (Chi Abdomen Training)!" At the ground her feet drove an impression into the ring that until that point hadn't been damaged aside from bloodstains.

'She's making dents in the ring just standing there in her stance.' Naruto thought to himself, sweating quite a bit at the thought of what kind of a punch she would pack with something like that driving her, "What does that do?"

Once again Makoto didn't say anything, she just vanished from Naruto's view in what he could only consider to be a hallucination because he had no idea she was that fast. Really. He had been chased by her in full-on sprints, he had fought her directly and she had never done… whatever it was that she was doing before.

His warning as to where she had gone to came when the remaining fighters in the ring were all decimated and hurled from contention by Makoto who was shouting with every hit that she landed. And then he had to use those sharp senses to avoid getting his appendix punched out.

Makoto's fist impacted off of Naruto's arms instead of his body the way she intended. He was forced to slide back across the surface of the ring until he drew to a stop but Makoto was already streaking toward him for another attack. Any normal move he made to avoid her was scouted out, even when he thought he jumped out of the way she wound up right underneath him.

Altering his trajectory in midair, Naruto landed with a kick that struck Makoto's face. Instead of being knocked down or away by the kick she merely growled and slapped Naruto's leg, flipping him all about and forcing him to crash onto the canvas. He rolled out of the way of a brick-breaking chop that again left a groove in the mat and kept rolling away as she kept punching away at the grounded Naruto rapid-fire.

Taking a risk, Naruto let a punch come close to plowing him into the ring so that he could deliver a kick from the floor to Makoto's head that stunned her. It certainly threw her off-balance from her compromising stance that she had been in while attacking him.

Naruto quickly made a clone and got up, shoving his shoulder into Makoto's stomach and grabbing a hold of her before immediately jumping high into the air and rolling upside down to kick her back at the ground where the second Naruto was waiting and started throwing absurdly fast punches, hitting Makoto again and again in the stomach. Descending from the air, Naruto stomped on her back and did so in rapid repetition, catching her in between himself and the clone, "Dengeki-Sen Rendan (Blitzkrieg Combination)!"

Eventually the red wore off of her skin and she went limp, prompting Naruto and his clone to kick/punch her away in tandem and send her rolling on the ground until she came to a stop. Quick to respond to the violent final attack, doctors quickly deemed her unconscious and waved off any attempt by her to continue the fight. Redundant since she was out cold anyway.

Naruto landed back on the ground as his clone dispelled with its assignment now accomplished. He looked around and found that he was the last person standing in the ring, "Oh man… what was that technique she used?" He asked under his breath as he walked over to see how bad off Makoto was. She was stronger than he had figured if she was able to pull something like that out, but she didn't fight very smart for what she had at her disposal. It was like she was in a blind rage or something.

The doctor checking her over checked her pulse and went wide-eyed at what he found, "Whatever she did sped up her heart rate far past that of a regular human being. It probably increased her blood flow, which was why her skin turned red until it wore off." He explained before shaking his head and muttering something about ki users.

So she supercharged herself by forcing her ki to kickstart her heart into overdrive for a temporary boost. That sounded dangerous for her too, not just him in case she actually managed to score a clean hit on him. He couldn't access Kyuubi chakra to flat-out overpower her even if he had been feeling that mean and testy today, so he had to win with misdirection and a roundabout attack the way that he did.

Well it was over now, and with that he sat down cross-legged in the middle of the ring with a big sigh as the crowd cheered, "Sorry about putting you down so hard Makoto. We can fight again when you heal up if you feel like it then."

"The winner of Ring B and advancing to the Second World Warrior Tournament; Uzumaki Naruto!"

XxX

Elsewhere Cammy had been a serious pest to everyone else competing in her ring. No one was fast enough to hit her and she simply kept diving through the forest of legs presented to her while everyone else fought amongst themselves, injuring any kneecap that she could reach with her fists and feet. A pretty basic strategy, but while things were crowded it thinned the herd effectively and kept her from having to fight anyone head-to-head.

"Hold still!" The last remaining adversary to her advancing had been more skilled than everyone else due to him lasting as long as he had. He was a massive man, but he simply couldn't lay a hand on Cammy due to how fast she was, "You're not even attacking! How can you think you'd win the tournament if you won here?"

Instead of responding she just kept getting her distance until suddenly flinging herself forward through the air in a rapidly spinning ball. The quick motions of the move threw off her opponent enough that he didn't know how to retaliate. He tried to punch at her in the air but with a target that small and that fast he didn't have a chance of hitting her.

Cammy wound up wrapping her legs around her enemy's head before bending her torso back suddenly and using her legs to send him head over heels, driving him into the ground by the top of his head, "Hooligan Combination!"

Flipping and cartwheeling away from her prone foe, Cammy stood ready to keep fighting until the man was waved off and deemed unable to continue, "Well then. How does it feel to be beaten by a tiny girl like me?" She said as she eased out of her fighting stance. He probably would have wished that she still hadn't attacked if he were conscious to think about anything at the moment.

"The winner of Ring C and advancing to the Second World Warrior Tournament; Cammy White!"

Looking a bit put off and embarrassed as the center of attention, Cammy waved to the crowd regardless, red-faced and all. God, she'd better not have to get used to that kind of thing regularly. And how did any fans get a giant-sized poster of her to hold up in the audience? She was more than certain she'd never been on TV before, let alone seen by any of those people period, so how did she already have fans?

Cammy muttered to herself at the sight of… herself, everywhere, "So strange…" Before she left she looked around the ring and took note of all of the people that hadn't been taken out yet laying on the mat clutching at their legs. Whoops, "I might have gone a tad overboard though." She commented, scratching her cheek guiltily.

"Oh and the winner of Ring A is… E. Honda!"

XxX

"Oh my back… my ribs… my everything…" Dan mumbled to himself, facedown on the mat as the sumo wrestler E. Honda sat on his back and laughed boisterously after being declared victorious by the announcer to the roar of the crowd, "Damn it. Just one more win."

He felt that he had it in the bag. He didn't have to fight his wild and very strong jungle friend Blanka, he didn't have to fight Uzumaki Naruto's cheating ninja ass, or that pretty little killer that Uzumaki had brought with him. But then he wound up in there with perhaps the most famous sumo that hadn't achieved yokozuna rank yet.

All he needed was to eliminate E. Honda. Dan had played it smart and kept back while everyone else had tried to use force in numbers, rushing E. Honda who had posted himself at the middle of the ring and fended off challengers from all sides in a Herculean effort that he made look easy.

Still though, Dan had endeavored to fight him and paid for it after a relatively quick battle. Unfortunately when it had come down to a one-on-one, he got smushed into the canvas.

"You did fine." Still sitting on Dan's back, E. Honda slapped him on the shoulder in a show of sportsmanship, "But you should know that in an event with ring-outs you should never ever bet against a sumo."

XxX

Crouched down in the middle of his ring, Blanka's body was still coursing with electricity from his qualifying match, dozens of quivering bodies suffering from electric burns all around him, "Aw no. Dan didn't win his match? That's no fun."

Well he certainly had though, for obvious reasons when it came to his abilities. Everything Blanka could do was tailor-made for defeating multiple enemies. From generating electricity, to using his body as a cannonball for attack, it was academic who would win when many people decided to flee the ring rather than face him.

"You guys are weak." Blanka said as he lay down in the middle of the ring to try and take a nap, "None of you would ever survive in the jungle."

The winner of Ring D and our last winner in the Pacific qualifiers for the Second World Warrior Tournament; Blanka!"

Well at least from their end of the world the field was set.

XxX

(Hong Kong – Eurasian Qualifiers)

"YEAAAHHH!" Standing over a series of thoroughly decimated foes, Zangief's hulking mass of muscle posed to the cheering audience, "No man is a match for the Red Cyclone!" Parts of the ring had holes punched in it from multiple uses of Zangief's spinning piledriver and flying powerbomb attacks.

"And that's it for the qualifying round folks! The four moving on from the Eurasian qualifiers are Zangief, Dhalsim, Sasuke Uchiha, and Chun-Li!"

Standing outside of the ring, watching the last leg of the event proceed, Sasuke rolled his eyes and scoffed at the sight of Zangief's victory, "All of those losers were too slow to even think of getting close to someone that strong. Idiots."

"Well not everyone has eyes that can see everything in slow motion." Chun-Li remarked, somewhat chiding Sasuke for his attitude and getting no response for her efforts, "Did you have to make your fights so violent? You set people on fire." Yeah with the small fireballs though, not the big ones, so it didn't count.

Fighting the urge to yell at her that he was an assassin and that they were lucky that there were doctors and referees to stop him or else he might have killed them, Sasuke instead chose to point to the last man that had already qualified as well. The contradictively muscular and emaciated frame of Dhalsim was nearby, levitating off of the ground while meditating.

He wasn't confrontational in the least, as he hadn't tried to play mind games with Sasuke after qualifying which led to the question of why someone like that would enter a fighting tournament in the first place.

And indeed as Sasuke had wordlessly alluded to, Dhalsim had set his own fair share of people on fire with his special techniques as well, but he had mostly stuck to striking foes with his very unorthodox method of hand-to-hand fighting. Sasuke was quite certain that trying to copy it would have done him absolutely no good, and Chun-Li had finished so quickly in her matches that he didn't see anything from her either. He'd also be damned if he'd be caught dead using any of Zangief's moves. They didn't suit him to say the least.

A cop, an assassin, a spiritual leader, and a pro wrestler. That was a rather diverse cast of competition that managed to earn their way into the tournament through the versatile field of fighters that had come to Hong Kong to fight.

XxX

(New York City, U.S.A. – Atlantic Qualifiers)

Still jazzed up from finishing his free-for-all match, Ken had a grin on his face as he was confronted by Guile who had also won, "So you're in this thing too?" Ken asked cheekily, "Trying to punch the demons out are we?"

"Something like that." Guile gruffly responded, "If by 'punch' you mean 'kill', and by 'demons' you mean 'Bison'. Now that I mention it you were accurate about the last thing." Because Bison certainly wasn't a man. Not a man at all.

That was enough to bring down Ken's mood, putting a frown on his face for the first time all day, "Huh, well if we get seeded together you'd better bring your A-game. None of that crap that you threw at Naruto when I watched you fight him, because I'm not going easy on you."

Guile gave a stiff nod before walking off to leave. There was still one more month to prepare for the tournament and he wasn't going to waste it just sitting at home. His family would have to endure this him for just a little while longer. After the tournament was over he'd be all theirs again.

Ken watched him leave and shook his head at the sight, 'He's too single-minded, even for entering a fighting event.' Guile wasn't even staying to see who else advanced, missing out on a chance to scout the competition. All he wanted was to punish Shadaloo, nothing more. He probably wasn't the only person entering with that sentiment since Ken shared in it to an extent, but Guile was doing so to a dangerous extent.

Oh well. There was nothing he could do about it right then. Only time would tell if Guile wound up getting his act together, but until then Ken had himself to worry about. He put his grin back on his face while watching the rest of the qualifying free-for-all matches, wondering if his best friend would find it prudent to get himself involved.

After all as the previous champion of the World Warrior Tournament, Ryu had to defend his title didn't he?

XxX

(Forest in Southeastern Asia)

"They're doing a second one?" Sitting by a waterfall during a rest in his training, Ryu took note of the invitation in his hand to enter a competition similar to the one he had emerged victorious in a few years ago. Unlike the others it said nothing about having to qualify, as he had a 'legends seeding' to bypass all of that and merely fight in the real contest.

So he was a legend? That didn't feel right, and part of him wondered who else was given a pass like him since there were apparently four, but considering that the tournament seemed to be organized by Shadaloo it seemed like a trap anyway.

Maybe the fact that they had been waiting for him in several nearby towns to give him the pass (he now had four of the exact same ticket) when he ventured there for food and supplies had been a dead giveaway that they really wanted him there for some reason?

Still he would be taking part in it. Trap or not it seemed like a lot of fun to him. Ryu was excited by the challenge and wanted to test his skills fighting in an organized competition again since it had been while. Many strong fighters, a stage to see if he was closer to mastering his martial arts? Why wouldn't he enter?

Sticking the entry pass back into his nearby duffel bag he stood up and prepared to continue his training. It wouldn't do to be unprepared for such a major event. After all who knew what kinds of competition he would wind up running against?

"Maybe I'll get to spar against some friends?" Ryu said to himself as he walked back into the forest to get back to work, "I know a few people that I wouldn't mind showing up to fight against."