The Devil You Know...

Chapter 32 - The Devil You Know...

Running from Chun-Li aside, Naruto had other reasons to go into the building set aside for the fighters to wait for their matches. He exchanged nods with E. Honda who was busy preparing himself and got shoulder bumped by Zangief walking past him to go and fight his own match.

Let that one slide… you already beat him once and clearly he was still sore from it.

Either way, the reason he went inside was to find someone that had already fought. Fought and lost. In the place set aside as a medic bay, Naruto found Guile sitting on a bed watching the tournament play out on a TV screen. His eyes were swollen and his face was bandaged in many places, especially over his nose.

Somehow his hair managed to stay in place perfectly though. What the hell? You could drop a boulder on top of it and it'd probably snap right back to the same position. It looked so cool too. Maybe if he asked Guile he'd show him how to-.

No, not the time. Maybe later.

Guile noticed Naruto when he came walking toward him and spared him a look before turning his attention back to the TV, "Kid." He greeted sharply, "You need something?"

"No." Naruto said, taking a seat on another bed right next to Guile's, "You're not that beaten up. Why don't you come outside and watch the matches with me, Ryu, Chun-Li, Ken, and Cammy?" He flinched when he saw Guile's eyes harden at the mention of Cammy, "She's not bad Guile, but we're your friends. Come on man, it's just a tournament." A tournament that was a trap, but that wasn't the trap portion of it.

"I didn't come here for any other reason than to break some Shadaloo necks, and I got bounced out before I even started!" Guile punched the wall next to his bed and broke it, "What kind of man am I?"

"Enough!" Naruto finally said, almost snarling at Guile's attitude, "This isn't you! You were one of the coolest guys I've ever met in my life! You flew all the way around the world to the absolute middle of nowhere to help your friend take down a whole empire when we first met! You were all about family and friends! What happened to that guy? Does that son of a bitch still breathe?"

Guile's hand lashed out and grabbed Naruto by the collar, pulling them close together, "I made a promise! I gave my word to so many people that I wouldn't let any harm come to Charlie and I couldn't back that up! Do you know how seriously I take that?" He gave Naruto a strong shake, "Do you?"

And Naruto didn't respond, because he finally realized it. He understood what Guile's deal was. It was similar to the way that Naruto felt about returning Sasuke to Konoha all those years ago. He felt so strongly about it back then that he was fully willing to destroy himself to get it done. The only thing that kept him from obsessing over it the same way that Guile was now with his own situation was due to the fact that Naruto had an even bigger situation to deal with after failing to keep his own promise.

He had something new and more important to take his mind off of it. Namely figuring out where he was and what happened to him. Guile had no such thing, and he had to deal with something worse, such as dealing with his friend's death. And once again, Batsu's own words from the recent past came to mind over Naruto's own seeming obsession with keeping every single promise he made, even if things outside of his control kept him from doing so.

What would he have ended up like if he hadn't been forced out of keeping his promise to Konoha's Sakura? If he indeed found a way back and saw her again, would he still be willing to drag Sasuke back now, now when he seemed to be… almost happy? What if Sasuke had gotten to Orochimaru and been used as his new body? What if their battle had resulted in Sasuke's actual death? It was certainly intense enough.

Any number of things could have resulted in the avenue of that guarantee to be closed off forever, and would have resulted in the death of his closest comrade at the time. Even if it was out of his control, something like that probably would have torn his life apart and for more than one reason.

"I'm sorry." Naruto said, not taking the slightest bit of offense to Guile's hold on him, "I understand where you're coming from, and I know that I have no idea how you feel. How you've felt." He slowly reached his hands up and removed Guile's grip carefully, "I can't tell you what you need to do when I don't know what I'd do in your shoes."

Naruto didn't know that Guile had made a promise, had given his word. He had figured that it had all just been an unfortunate circumstance.

If he had made a promise to keep someone safe, and then had to watch and be carried away as that person sacrificed themselves to save him instead, there's a very good chance he'd have been worse off than Guile was. Imagining his best friend in the position of Charlie made him feel rage in his heart, and that was just hypothetical thinking.

Getting up and leaving the room, Naruto stopped at the door and spared Guile one last glance before leaving, "I'm not going to tell you to get over it anymore. I can't do that when I've never had to deal with what you have. Just know that we're only telling you this stuff because we care about you. That's all I'm gonna say."

The hard eyes of Guile followed Naruto until he disappeared from the room, at which point he turned his attention back to the screen where Ken was currently in battle with Zangief, "Your foolish attacks are too weak to hurt me!" He heard Zangief shout despite the distance from the active camera. There wasn't a mike around to pick up the on-field banter either so it was extra impressive.

Despite the battle on the screen involving his brother-in-law, he couldn't find himself very absorbed in what was going on. He was more occupied by the conversation he had just had.

"I don't know how kid." He said to no one in particular before getting sick of just sitting there. He needed to take a walk and get some fresh air, "Maybe when I come up with the answer I can get everything back to normal? I expected to get some closure here, but I lost so quickly…"

His mindset was holding him back in more ways than one. And he didn't know what to do about it. How could he even think of taking revenge to satiate his anger when the anger itself didn't even allow him to fight at his best the way that he needed to?

XxX

(On the Battlefield)

"Ken seems to be handling the mammoth Russian wrestler despite his strength and durability! This is incredible! What a match!"

"I am not letting you grab me!" Ken shouted, slipping underneath Zangief's grasp through his legs, "Let's g-!" His shout and his attempted counterattack wound up being cut off by a spinning dropkick from Zangief that floored him.

Zangief instantly followed up by jumping in the air and landing on Ken in a full body splash, "Your muscles are too puny to contend with me!" Zangief said as he picked Ken up, arms wrapped around him as he squeezed a bearhug tightly, "Surrender or I'll crush you!"

"Not a chance… comrade." Ken strained to say, legs kicking aimlessly as he was robbed of air and his ribs were steadily being crushed, 'Come on, break free! There's always a way out!' He cocked his head back and smashed his forehead against Zangief's face two times, only getting a smirk out of the colossal Russian as he squeezed tighter.

Ken's mouth was twisted open as his body continued to lose air, and Zangief buried his head into the man's chest in order to crush him even worse. Ken's head lowered as his face turned blue and he latched his teeth around Zangief's ear, biting like a Rottweiler.

Zangief started screaming out in pain, eventually letting Ken go. The rush of air into his lungs forced Ken to let out a gasp and let go of his dogged method of escape. Zangief stumbled around holding onto his bloody, mangled appendage, cursing Ken before turning back toward him with murder in his eyes, "You!"

He charged Ken down and prepared to grab onto him one last time to put the blonde martial artist down for good, until he got a very unwelcome gift, "Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" A surprise ki blast from Ken hit him right in the torso and burned his chest hair clean off, "This is gonna hurt!"

Ken started unleashing a vicious barrage of spinning hurricane kicks so intense that fire trailed from his legs due to his ki usage. The kicks rattled off of Zangief's frame, pushing the large man back across the courtyard with ease before he was sent directly up into the air. Ken landed in a small spin and started to time the flaming Zangief's descent, "One more for good measure! Guren Senpukyaku (Crimson Lotus Whirlwind Kick)!"

The final kick sent Zangief and the fire that consumed him flying into the steps where he smashed a hole into them with his body. Buckets of water from the temple attendants were hurled onto the man and the flames were put out in a hurry as the crowd tried to move away from the blaze as quickly as they could.

"I don't know how to make any victory any more complete than setting your opponent on fire! It's over, and the winner that advances to the quarterfinals is Ken Masters!"

As the people started to chant 'Masters' for the victor, Ken smugly raised one hand above his head to soak in the cheers and walked past Zangief up the stairs as he was being treated on the spot. While he walked away he heard the semi-lucid and badly burned Zangief mumble about how fireballs sucked.

Walking up to the waiting area he passed Ryu and raised a hand, getting a high five from his best friend as if they were tagging out, "You'd better not lose after I went through all of that trouble to make sure we'd meet in the next round bud." Ken said.

"I don't intend to lose. Not to E. Honda and not to you." Ryu replied turning around and actually having a rather challenging smirk on his face, "But you do remember which one of us won the last time we fought don't you?"

"Bah, that was a different day." Ken dismissed Ryu's point, throwing both of his hands up behind his head lazily, "Just make sure you don't have Sagat on the brain or that sumo'll smush you like a grape."

"You don't have to worry about me." Smirk now gone, Ryu pulled his red headband tight around his forehead and continued down onto the battlefield to meet his first challenge of the day.

Stepping into the courtyard, the entire crowd began to come alive and applaud raucously, many of them bowing in a fanning motion to Ryu as people began banging on the stands as if they were drum kits in a rhythmic manner.

"Alright everyone, make some noise! Our last of the four legendary invites of the tournament is certainly not the least! Here to defend his title as the best fighter in the world, as the champion of the World Warrior Tournament, let me introduce the man that won the first event four years ago! Ryu!"

The fanfare was much appreciated, but it wasn't necessary. The humble warrior simply nodded and momentarily raised a hand to acknowledge the crowd and show respect for their high opinion of him.

"Well ain't we popular?" E. Honda said with a chuckle as he entered next, throwing salt all about in his path as he walked closer to Ryu to speak to his fellow countryman, "These people love you brother. You sure you don't own a summer home here or something?"

Not getting the joke, Ryu just tilted his head in confusion, "…I don't have a home anywhere. I wander the world and train. I have no need for a home." The deadpan look on E. Honda's face tipped him off as to the intent since he had seen the same look on Ken, Chun-Li, and Naruto's faces several times in the last four hours alone, "Oh, you were kidding. Sorry."

Ever the good-natured sport, E. Honda just laughed and gave Ryu a pat on the shoulder, "Don't worry about it. After this fight is over with, I'll have these people chanting my name as if I were the hometown hero."

Knowing a challenge when he heard one, even if he wasn't much for jokes, Ryu's face turned into one of an accepting challenger, "Of course. But first you must defeat my Shoryuuken to have a chance." He jumped back slightly and started shuffling his legs out to illustrate that he was ready, "Let's begin." Both men bowed to each other and the crowd roared.

E. Honda set himself in the ceremonial stance of the sumo and clapped his hands together before squatting down and placing his fists onto the ground, eyes locked right on target dead ahead. All on Ryu.

"Champion Ryu vs. E. Honda: fight!"

Ryu set himself in his special fighting stance and neither man moved, both of them seemingly trying to check the other over and wait for the first move, 'I don't believe I've ever fought a sumo before.' He wondered to himself what exactly a sumo would do in a street fight that would hurt him.

He didn't have to wait for long to find out, because E. Honda figured that if Ryu wasn't going to come to him he was going to go to him. Pushing himself forward off of his fists he pulled up bricks with the strength of his push and rocketed forward like a missile, "Sumo Gyorai (Sumo Headbutt)!"

A wide eyed Ryu had to jump to the side to avoid taking 300 plus pounds of sumo straight to the ribs as that was where E. Honda had been aiming. The large sumo showed incredible agility for his size, rolling on the ground out of his attack and taking his stance back again, glaring Ryu down once more.

That was a dangerous technique. Ryu had to admit that he had not been expecting that in the least. A small smile came to his face at the thought. He was really going to enjoy fighting this man.

XxX

On the beautifully tiled roof of the garden house, Sasuke had to hide the twitch of his eye when he felt someone land up there and sit next to him, "Who's winning Sasuke-teme?" Damn you Naruto. He thought that he'd be left alone if he went out of his way to stay away from people.

In all honesty Naruto had been busy looking for Dhalsim after visiting Guile in the medic bay. Since he had a free moment after advancing in the tournament and he had already seen everyone in his half of the tournament advance there was no reason not to search for him, especially since he needed something from him. But the problem in that lay that no one knew where Dhalsim even was.

It was maddening to think about. Seriously, how could anyone miss a guy that looked like Dhalsim? What kind of a sick joke was that? Thus when he noticed Sasuke's position he decided to stop off and see him instead.

"It just started." Sasuke told him, keeping his red eyes on the battlefield in case he missed something useful, "Now could you quiet down? I may have to fight the winner of this match down the line and I'd like to get their patterns and habits down so that I don't get surprised." He noticed that Naruto had gone silent and spared a momentary glance to the side to pick up Naruto glowering at him, "What's your problem?"

"You memorized everyone's attack pattern?" Is that what he had been doing up there the entire time? It figured, "Alright… how many moves did you copy? Probably like a thousand of them right?"

Sasuke scoffed and flipped his bangs out of his face, "It doesn't work like that idiot. I can't just copy everyone's special moves and do them on the spot. No one uses hand-seals but you, and if they use ki I can't do those techniques. The best taijutsu takes actual training and practice to learn how to use. I can't just do Chun-Li's kicks, I'm not conditioned to fight like that."

That wasn't to say that it was like that for everything, or that he couldn't take someone else's move and flip it into a little something original though. But hopefully Naruto would either overlook or forget that fact.

"If you stole my jutsu that I spent years coming up with…"

"Don't flatter yourself. I wouldn't be caught dead using your jutsu. I can do the same thing with actual fire you blockhead." With that thought Sasuke blinked and turned Naruto's way only to see the formerly accusative blond looking away from him. As a matter of fact, Naruto's spitfire move looked just like one of Sasuke's fire attacks without the fire, replacing it with pure chakra, "Wait a minute, you stole my jutsu? You motherf-."

"I didn't steal your jutsu." Naruto defended in an affronted manner, "I just used the idea of the shape manipulation of it for inspiration. I still had to break it down from scratch and make it work all on my own. Do you know how long it took me to find the right combination of original hand-seals for my own jutsu that actually worked?" He still had three completely full composition notebooks full of bunk combinations at home.

Still, Sasuke was now pouting in his own way, which meant he was going silent and ignoring Naruto's existence again.

Wow, how long had it been since they'd done that?

"So how does it feel when the shoe's basically on the other foot for once?"

"Shut up and spend another few years trying to come up with a jutsu you loser."

"…I hate you."

"I hate you more dobe."

Yep, just like the old days.

XxX

E. Honda watched Ryu place his hands together in position to fire a Hadoken and his eyes shifted. He dodged the attack by ducking behind a statue, and while Ryu waited for him to come out, the sound of hands pounding away on rock filled his ears. Moments later the large statue that E. Honda had hidden behind fell over in his direction like a tree.

Ryu jumped and rolled to the side to avoid the move only to find E. Honda charging right at him until he got back up from the ground. E. Honda stopped himself short and quickly started throwing one both arms in a furious series of palm strikes, faster than the eye could rightly keep up with and count, "Hyaku no te Binta (Hundred Hand Slap)!"

Much to the approving cheers of the crowd at the fast paced action, Ryu was able to force his head and upper body to move out of the way of the attacks just as quickly as his large enemy was throwing them. All of a sudden the strikes stopped and Ryu was hit when E. Honda spun around backside and struck out in a single palm thrust that hit him right in the chest.

Letting out a cry of pain, Ryu leaned up while holding the area where he was struck. There was a large red handprint on his muscular chest underneath his gi as if he had been sunburned in that one spot alone. There wasn't any time to fret over that, as E. Honda lifted one large leg in the air in a combat-adjusted sumo stomp that he rolled out of the way of.

It was a good thing too, because the brick underneath his leg shattered into dust. That just as easily could have been him. To show this fact off, a slightly chuckling E. Honda held up one hand with the index finger and thumb held slightly apart as if to indicate that it was that close to being finished.

Ryu nodded and harshly patted himself on the cheeks before setting himself to fight once more, "Again." He said, ready to continue. And E. Honda did not disappoint. Rocketing himself at Ryu with another sumo headbutt, he was smart enough to stop and roll out of it knowing that Ryu had already seen it and would dodge with less room for error this time. After rolling out of his attack, E. Honda quickly started shooting angled open-handed slaps at Ryu, trying to hit him flush in the face with one.

The wandering warrior used his arms to parry each attempt from E. Honda to clean his skull out with his open hands before quickly dropping down to sweep his legs out from beneath him. The large sumo found himself off of his feet all of a sudden when Ryu suddenly popped back up from his spin and slammed a downward elbow into his torso, dropping him hard to the ground flat on his back.

With such a crushing strike E. Honda still got back up from the ground, but he had one arm pasted to his side, cringing at a thick purple bruise on the right side of his bare chest. His ribs. He wanted to believe that they were just bruised, but in his head he knew better. If that were really the case it wouldn't feel like he was being stabbed every time he tried to move his right arm away from holding his chest.

He looked down at the ground with a grim smile on his face. If he was going to go out he was going to go out on his shield. Even in defeat he could make his fighting art look strong. One more attack. He set himself down in a sumo starting stance one more time, using one fist planted on the ground instead of two.

"This train's about to run you down brother." E. Honda said, readying himself for launch, "You might want to get yourself off of the tracks because this one's a shinkansen. Kyuukyoku no Satsujin Zutsuki (Ultimate Killer Headbutt)!" This time he threw himself forward with the force of a cannonball, digging foot deep trench into the ground as he jumped ahead.

Ryu was prepared for the motion this time, and realized that E. Honda wanted one honorable clash to save face as a fighter. With the injury that Ryu had inflicted on him he'd have been at a severe disadvantage and his performance would have suffered for it. He was willing to grant him what he wanted.

Because he knew what to do to stop it.

'Find your spot and don't miss.' Ryu said to himself with a breath right before E. Honda came flying at him. His timing needed to be absolutely flawless or his show of sportsmanship would be his downfall in the very first round. Tightening his fists he amazingly landed a showstopping uppercut underneath E. Honda's chin that stopped his finishing attempt. But that wasn't all, lifting his head up with his fist, Ryu switched it up and delivered a powerful leaping uppercut, arm charged with blue ki and being boosted beneath his feet by the same, "Shin Shoryuuken (True Rising Dragon Fist)!"

One hit to disorient and the other one to finish. It was a simple enough principle for combination techniques, the basis of many of them, but putting such a thing into practice while countering a dangerous attack where one mistake could mean the end was something else altogether.

This was the champion, and he didn't make mistakes.

The rising fist of Ryu planted under E. Honda's chin carried them both over fifteen feet into the air before Ryu's jump topped out and his opponent drifted off of his knuckles and floated slightly before both of them came back down to earth… one more gracefully than the other to say the least.

With a pair of thumps, E. Honda hit the ground and came to a stop unconscious on the brick.

"You've just experienced the Shin Shoryuuken." Ryu said as he shook out the fist he had used for the finishing blow of his powerful technique, "When you wake up I want to know if you've ever felt any greater force." This time victory was his.

"Advancing to the next round to meet Ken Masters next, it's the defending champion: Ryu!"

Sparing a moment to bow to E. Honda's unconscious body as the medical staff of the temple rushed to him to make sure that he was alright, Ryu made to return back to the waiting area and reflect on his performance and what he could do better next time, "One step closer…" He said to himself quietly, "One step closer to proving to myself that I'm a true fighter."

Something that he needed to prove to himself after the way that the first tournament ended.

XxX

"So that's Ryu." Sasuke said, still placed up on the roof with Naruto and now Cammy who had eventually gone looking for her friend and had found him. All three of them had watched the conclusion of the battle together, "Doesn't he have similar techniques to that Sakura girl?"

From his cross-legged seat next to Cammy who was swinging her legs over the edge of the roof, Naruto nodded, "Yeah, he's the person that she admires most. She's based her fighting style off of his, but she does a lot of the techniques differently since he won't train her himself. So what do you think?"

Sasuke didn't answer at first, just standing up with a bit of a smirk on his face, "Oh, I was just thinking about possibly beating the hell out of him should he advance in his next match." After all, he was in Sasuke's particular bracket of matches, "Nothing big."

Never one to let obvious things slide when faced with them, Cammy turned inquisitively to the dark and confident teen, "But you yourself still have to win your first fight and another one before you even get to start thinking about that."

"Exactly." Was the simple answer from Sasuke who said nothing more to elaborate.

That lack of elaboration got the twin braided former assassin to raise an eyebrow at his lack of elucidation, "'Exactly' what?"

"All I have to do is win twice. You say it as if I could possibly lose."

Cammy just stared up at the standing Sasuke who was looking down at her with an unblinking gaze, even though it clearly wasn't a stareoff due to Cammy blinking at appropriate intervals.

With a shake of his head, Naruto just sighed, getting Cammy to turn away before that dragged on for too much longer. With the two of them it could have potentially lasted all day, "Cam, meet Sasuke-teme. Sasuke-teme, meet Cammy." He said as if they had never been formally introduced before, "He's just like that all the time."

"You mean like how you're always abundantly confident that you can do anything that you endeavor to attempt?"

"Well yeah it's kind of similar, but at least I'm charming about it."

"Charm is all a matter of perspective Naruto."

"You don't think I'm charming?"

"I didn't say that."

"…Wait, you think he's charming? Damn it not you too."

"Definitely not. I almost tried to kill him when I heard he had hurt you before, remember?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and dropped down from the roof, landing on the ground and brushing his clothes off. He wasn't about to get stuck listening to those two debate each other. He had his own things to do, such as kick his opponent's ass.

"Hey mon!"

Oh, Kami no. Damn it he set himself up for running into that one.

The ever-grinning Dee Jay came walking out of the garden building that Sasuke had just jumped off of and gave him a few pats on the shoulder, "What's with that look mon? You're not excited about our fight? I can't wait to see what you've got!"

Sasuke caught his hand in his grasp and tightened it to an uncomfortable level as he glared at Dee Jay, shifting his black eyes to his red Sharingan ones for added intimidation effect, "Then maybe you should get down there and leave me alone."

Dee Jay just stared at Sasuke, grin never dropping as Sasuke let his hand go. Dee Jay pointed at Sasuke with the index fingers on both hands as if he had imaginary pistols and he was shooting them at the irritable Uchiha, "Right, right! Gotta get the crowd all pumped up and ready to go right? Yeah, I catch your drift, good idea mon! I like you!"

As the musical kickboxer whistled a jaunty tune and basically danced away and down the stairs, Sasuke let out a groan that he had been holding in as he smoothed his hair up off of his forehead. Oh, he might have just found the next most annoying person on the planet to him.

Maybe even more annoying than…

Suddenly turning his head toward the roof where Naruto was still sitting with Cammy, deeply engrossed on a conversation about personal charm and the merits of each person's traits with Cammy actually listening to him and adding her own input. Dumbass.

Sasuke idly wondered if he'd have rather grown up with someone like Dee Jay constantly assuming they were on good terms or someone like Naruto who was constantly a thorn in his side.

Talk about picking your poison. Jeez.

In the end, of the two evils Sasuke selected to go towards the one that he could actually beat the living daylights out of then and there and headed down the stairs to enter the arena. He had no one's attention, just the way he liked it, and it was due to Dee Jay apparently giving an impromptu musical performance for the crowd that had them fired up just like he said he was going to do.

Maracas shaking to his own beat, Dee Jay's body danced while lyrics to one of his songs came from his mouth, at least until he turned around and saw Sasuke standing there stoically, seemingly waiting for the noise to stop so that they could fight.

Dee Jay tossed his maracas aside and thumbed at his nose before the Caribbean superstar put his hands up in his Americanized stance. Realizing that ha-ha time was over, Sasuke slowly removed his hands from the sleeves of his long Chinese-styled shirt and stepped into a Crane-style Kung Fu stance, "Are the show tunes over? Can we finally skip the song and dance and get to the fighting?"

"The seventh match is Dee Jay vs. Sasuke: fight!"

"Come on now, don't be that way!" Dee Jay said, still grinning even though the fight had officially begun, "It's alright if you've got no rhythm. I'll make sure I teach you a little something before this match is over!"

Sasuke watched as the first thing to move happened to be Dee Jay's feet. The man's legs began to shift as if he were taking choreographed dance steps in his mere. What a unique way to move. Had it not been for the Sharingan, Sasuke wouldn't have noticed that he was beginning to move his way.

Faking a step forward, Dee Jay then hopped in Sasuke's direction and switched feet for a strong forward kick that Sasuke dodged and immediately retaliated to with a strong punch to the head. Sasuke's fist made contact with nothing but the braids going down the back of Dee Jay's mohawk as he made it out of the way of the punch, letting out an audible 'whoo' at dodging the hit.

Dee Jay tried a sliding tackle with his legs at Sasuke's feet, but Sasuke used a front handspring to flip over the kick and Dee Jay altogether. The little over-under exchange ended with Dee Jay back up onto his feet and rapidly lashing out with many furious slashing jumping spin kicks with yellow ki wisps flying off of his legs, "Jackknife Maximum!"

'These movements are strange.' Sasuke thought as he dodged the kicks and kept himself moving out of the way of Dee Jay's furious attack. It was so flaky. It would stop and start in a way that made absolutely no sense for fighting. He'd throw punches, step out of the way as if Sasuke was about to counter even if he didn't and then he'd throw a large lunging kick before suddenly breaking into a flurry of quicker, less damaging kicks, 'What is it?'

"Come on mon, you can't keep up?" Dee Jay said, trying to coax Sasuke into action, but trying to goad him into something wasn't exactly a formula for success. Sasuke had been goaded into attacking in bad situations and had it beaten out of him enough times when he was younger by Gen to have gotten over such a thing ten times over by now.

Sasuke's head swayed out of the way of one of Dee Jay's punches only for the man to clasp his punching hand down on his shoulder. Planting himself up over Sasuke, Dee Jay flipped over, balancing himself on the young man before using his feet to push off of Sasuke's posterior while falling to throw Sasuke head over heels in reverse.

His body flipped through the air and he grit his teeth as he braced for the landing. What was with Dee Jay? Either way, by now Sasuke had seen more than enough than he wanted to from this opponent. He didn't want to say that he had been taking Dee Jay lightly, but he definitely hadn't been taking him seriously as a threat.

Underestimation? Yes perhaps, but that wasn't important now. It was time to analyze just what the hell was going on. Dee Jay wasn't looking into his eyes, but he didn't even know anything about the Sharingan, so how would he know how to anticipate the hypnosis? Unless that was merely how he treated all of his opponents, but that was highly unconventional.

Then again Dee Jay didn't exactly scream conventionality.

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu)!" Sasuke's hand-seals were quick and he finished them before he even ended his flip from Dee Jay's throw. The miniature fireballs were flying through the air from his mouth before his feet touched the ground.

"Whoo! Hot!" Dee Jay shouted as he streaked his way through the open paths that the multiple fireballs had open between them, "That's not bad! I'm starting to like you even more, but you're still lacking rhythm!"

Rhythm? He'd give him a rhythm when he was bouncing his head off of the pavement.

Sasuke wasn't just sitting idly as his fireballs flew at Dee Jay. He rolled through them using them as a screen. Dee Jay's impressive feat of simply weaving and wafting through them only placed him closer to Sasuke's two rolls and wound up with him getting stricken directly in the chest with a momentum-added thrust that he hadn't anticipated when Sasuke suddenly wound up back on his feet in a grounded state, "Jyasen (Serpent Puncture)!"

The sudden surprise strike allowed Sasuke to almost uncoil and strike Dee Jay directly in the chest with a strike that used his fingers instead of his fist. Dee Jay let out a sharp grunt and was knocked back to the ground as Sasuke's stance shifted. Instead of the Crane-style he had been using it was now Snake-style Kung Fu. Another of the styles that he gleamed from his seemingly endless beatdowns from Gen.

"I don't know what your nuances are for how you're managing to do so well, but I'm through trying to figure it out." Sasuke said with an impatient look on his face, "It's time I keep you guessing instead of the other way around. Do you have any idea how many different forms of Kung Fu I've picked up over the last few years?" Dee Jay started getting up and got back into his same strange kickboxing stance, "I've been all over China… and I've seen pretty much every style there is."

Dee Jay touched at his chest where Sasuke had stricken him, and there was a mark that was on his left pectoral but seemed to be slightly off, "It looks like you missed." Dee Jay said, still grinning.

And much to his surprise Sasuke got as close to a grin as anyone would ever see from him, which was just a smug smirk, "I did miss… on purpose. Believe me, you don't want me to do that the right way. Let's just say I don't think your heart could take it." For once Dee Jay's grin dropped, because he knew full well what Sasuke was implying.

If Sasuke had chosen to do so he could have killed Dee Jay with his last move. The use of the Sharingan allowed him to alter his aim enough that he didn't do so. And that thought took Dee Jay's frown and turned it right back upside down, "You missed me on purpose mon? I was right after all! You are one of the good ones aren't you?"

A well-timed facepalm would have made Sasuke feel so much relief at that moment, but he knew something that would make him feel even better. Winning.

But that would have to wait since Dee Jay was back on the attack again. He danced and shook a pair of maracas that he grabbed from his pants, seemingly shaking uncontrollably before throwing them up into the air, "I'm feelin' the beat now! Are you ready! Max Out!" From both arms, Dee Jay threw uppercuts, one after another rapidly with yellow and orange shockwaves flying from them, spinning at random intervals.

Sasuke saw this all coming and had already clocked an avenue of approach through every single ki blade that was sent his way, 'I can see it now!' He thought to himself.

Dee Jay's fighting motions weren't all improvised, never looping or repeating. This was how Sasuke assumed he was fooling him at first and he was originally wrong. They did repeat. They repeated a lot. In fact, Dee Jay only really ever used three patterns of movement. It wasn't this that kept throwing Sasuke off even with his Sharingan. It was the rhythm that Dee Jay attacked and moved in, something just as important as the moves themselves. He seemed to create new timing ratios on the fly. Incredible.

But now that he knew his trick…

"Hah!" Sasuke said, delivering a high kick that sent Dee Jay hovering into the air before he vanished in a whirlwind of leaves. The next thing Dee Jay knew, Sasuke was at his back, floating through the air at the same trajectory as him. Sasuke grabbed onto the back of Dee Jay's pants and spun him around in a circle before drifting above him where he began to devastate him with punches and kicks until they started falling.

Three more heavy combined strikes led into an ax kick to the body that slammed Dee Jay into the brick forcefully, smashing him between the ground and his leg. His entire frame rattled and recoiled from the finished combination as Sasuke flipped away from him and turned his back, "Shishi Rendan (Lion's Barrage)." He said simply as he shoved his hands into his pockets and started to walk away, "Yeah, I am one of the good ones. In fact, I'm the best there is."

Yeah, he wished Dee Jay was awake to hear that. And for some reason he was still grinning even though he had just been beaten into unconsciousness. Oh well, at least he didn't have to deal with him now.

"The winner and advancing to the next round: Sasuke Uchiha!"

XxX

Upon getting back to the top of the stairs and walking through the garden to the competitor's building, Sasuke left Naruto hanging as he seemed to be wordlessly requesting a high five. He inwardly smirked at the downcast look that flickered across his face for a split second after he walked past him, "You looked to be having a bit of trouble there." Naruto commented.

"I didn't get hit as much as you did, so what's your point?" Sasuke asked, stopping and turning with a raised eyebrow only for the two of them to be jerked apart by their collars with Chun-Li inserting herself between them, "Can I help you?"

"You can help me by saving the fighting for the ring." Chun-Li replied, massaging her forehead with an exasperated expression on her face, "What's the deal with you two anyway? You both act like there's some old world blood curse clan feud going on between you." Both Sasuke and looked at each other and then back to her with expressions saying that they didn't know, "I didn't even know you two knew each other until a few months ago."

Seeing as how this conversation wasn't going to lead to anything productive, Sasuke just continued to walk away and ignored Chun-Li's cries to stop. He had one more match to watch before the next round where he'd start forming his strategies to beat everyone left in the competition, including her and Naruto. He really didn't want to talk with them while he was doing such a thing.

An exasperated groan came from the young female Interpol officer who turned to the last remaining Konoha-borne ninja, "I've known that kid for two years and I can't figure him out. He's more than just some jerk of a punk, otherwise grouchy old Gen would have kicked him out on the spot." Or killed him by now. Either or.

"I don't know." Naruto said, walking with his law enforcement friend while they headed back to the edge of the bowl ledge of the courtyard to see if the next fights had gotten underway yet, "He's been that way since he was a kid. It started back around the time-." Naruto then quickly shut his mouth before he spoke on one of Sasuke's family secrets. It wasn't his place to talk about anything like that.

After all, how would he feel if someone had come along and blurted out how he had the Kyuubi in him back before he felt comfortable with telling people about it? It wasn't right.

But the inspector in Chun-Li noticed this and turned to fix him with an interrogative look, "Around what time? Come on Naruto, cough it up. I'm going to find out anyway so you might as well tell me." No she wouldn't. Only two people in the world (this world) knew, and if Sasuke wanted it that way Naruto planned on keeping it as such, "Do I have to blackmail you?"

"You don't have a damn thing on me." Naruto said with quite a bit of certainty, "Nobody does."

"Oh I don't? Because Aohura City P.D. sure does. You really think I can't get their cooperation on investigating you? I'm sure you were a pain in their collective asses the entire time you've lived there." And she knew that because she had 'looked in' on him while she had been in Japan. It was harder than she thought. There weren't even any records of him until just over four years ago.

And from Naruto's side, damn it she had a point. He never did anything really illegal outside of a bunch of moving violations, but they stopped calling those in years ago because he was always on foot. Still, he was suspected for a lot of stuff that they couldn't prove.

"If you're not afraid of that then maybe embarrassment is your weakness. I can call Sakura, and Cammy lives with you so I'm sure she's seen some things."

Uh-oh, not good. And from the satisfied look on Chun-Li's face she figured she had a decent amount of leverage here. But no. Despite this he would not flip on a friend. Even a friend as crappy as Sasuke was. And then he got a distraction that he never saw coming. Not then at least.

"Oh my goodness! What a close to round one! Dhalsim defeats T. Hawk and in surprisingly dominant fashion! I don't think he ever even got close!"

What? The next fight actually happened? When? It couldn't have possibly started and ended that fast. Naruto and Chun-Li actually saw T. Hawk leave the competitor's building during Sasuke's fight to prepare to go down, but no one ever saw Dhalsim, and they were close to the stairs until they started walking around getting farther away from the field of competition.

Rushing to the bowl edge of the high-tiered garden, both looked over past the stands containing the crowd and saw Dhalsim levitating in his meditating position over the body of the hulking Native American T. Hawk who was conscious and looking rather sore at his defeat.

Wow. It really did end that fast.

"He won already?" Naruto said, a bit disbelieving at Dhalsim's apparent skill, "What did he even do? I wish we'd have seen it!"

If he hadn't heard from Cammy pre-amnesia that she had fought him and he'd survived it and managed to overcome her he'd never believe it. Doll Cammy was an absolute emotionless destroyer. If he was able to stand up to her and actually mess with her mind to give her free will without hurting her extensively or killing her in the process he was probably pretty strong.

Chun-Li on the other hand had seen the tail-end of a Dhalsim battle, during his qualification matches in Hong Kong, "I've seen him fight and I believe what the announcer said." There was probably a completely realistic chance that T. Hawk was defeated without ever even getting within punching distance of the man, "He's a weird man, but he's more than strong enough to be here."

Naruto frowned and looked down into the ring. Okay, well when Dhalsim came back up the stairs he'd meet him and then they'd have the conversation that he needed to have about his help with fixing his connection to the Kyuubi. Easy.

Turning around, Naruto started his way to the steps but was in for a bit of a surprise when the Indian Yoga master didn't take the stairs. Instead he just teleported and vanished from sight right in front of everyone's eyes.

Needless to say Naruto's jaw needed to be picked up off of the ground. That solved the mystery of how he got to the ring past a slew of highly trained fighters.

Chun-Li walked up to Naruto and gave him a pat on the shoulder as she walked past him and stood next to him looking down into the courtyard that served as their battlefield, "Yep. He can do that." She sure wouldn't want to fight him. An ability like that was annoying enough when Bison did it. There was an entirely different caveat of danger the way Dhalsim used his ability to short-range teleport, "So that makes two people in the tournament that can teleport."

"Who's the second one?"

"Sasuke. Didn't you see him do it?"

"That? That wasn't him teleporting. That was just short-range speed and leaves as cover. It's a ninja trick. A jutsu."

"Interesting." Narrowing her eyes at him suspiciously, Chun-Li figured that this was a trick. After all, they were about to be opponents after the very next match, "And if it's a ninja trick and you're a ninja why are you telling me about it? We fight next round."

"Because it's not that useful to me." Naruto said dismissively. He didn't use it and after he beat her she wasn't going to ever have a chance of winding up fighting Sasuke anyway, "So I don't care if you know about it or not."

Whatever. Since Naruto had effectively distracted her from asking questions about Sasuke that he was not going to answer so he'd be killed in his sleep, they both decided that it was time to oversee the next round that was starting soon. After going through one another they'd be fighting the winner of the very next match, and that very next match involved someone close to them regardless.

But it was really going to be one tall order ahead of one of the participants to win. The next match was going to be Cammy vs. Sagat. Strong as she was, she would have to dig down deep in order to find a way to win that one.

Naruto knew she was capable of it though. No one else had ever seen Cammy fight at her maximum potential other than him, and it was hard for a lot of them to believe. Everyone else had merely seen the watered down amnesia afflicted version. He'd seen the real deal that had almost killed him. He'd felt it and he'd seen her give the business to Bison as well, and no one knew but him.

Speaking of the angelic devil herself, she walked down the path leading to the courtyard only to stop once she saw Chun-Li and Naruto walking together, "Ah, are you two about to watch my next fight?" She asked with a small and pleasant smile on her face. She was still a bit shaken over how she had defeated Blanka, but Sagat wasn't a friend of hers so she didn't worry about what she might do to him at all.

Chun-Li walked forward first and gave Cammy a quick hug that she returned. After the events of the Shadaloo base she felt a bit protective over not just Cammy, but all of the kids younger than her that were there.

"Be careful alright." She said, making sure Cammy was focused up and ready to go, "You've got the most dangerous opponent in the tournament. You saw what he did against Guile. He made it look easy." Cammy nodded sharply, having taken the advice to heart after she had watched Sagat beat Guile earlier.

She took every fight seriously and never took anyone that raised their hand against her lightly, but her A-game was needed today and she knew it without a doubt.

A grand towering shadow covered them all as Sagat came from another area of the temple grounds. Standing in front of them he looked them all over and his eyes once again stopped on Cammy this time. The subtle difference in his expression made him look as if he had aged five years since the end of his first round fight.

Cammy didn't seem shaken by him though, she merely extended her red gauntleted hand his way, "Good luck."

Sagat just stared down at her and her gesture of good faith for several seconds before finally reaching forward to give it a loose shake. With that he turned and headed on his way to the courtyard.

As he left, Naruto threw an arm around her shoulder and walked with her, "Okay Cam, Sagat's a bruiser. I haven't seen him fight in person, but Sakura-chan has. I don't care how long this fight lasts, from what she told me you can't let him hit you at all. Just one hit'll hurt you enough to slow you down and then what'll you do?"

He had an uneasy feeling in his gut, but what could he do?

"Okay Naruto. I'll just have to make sure I break him up before he lands anything solid won't I? I don't plan on getting hit." She said as she went to walk away, only to find that Naruto was holding onto her hand. She turned to face him again only to see a worried look on his face, "What's the matter?"

Naruto had heard some things… about Sagat, and that was before they had discovered that he had been a part of Shadaloo. He was notorious for killing opponents in the ring that were too weak to stand up to his attacks, and for beating some people to a pulp even after it was clear he had won just because they had driven him too far.

None of that sat well with him whatsoever.

"Cam promise me something." Naruto asked her in a solemn tone, "If it starts looking bad in there…" He trailed off and quickly shook his head. What kind of way to think was that? He was basically signing Cammy's own requiem for a brutal defeat by thinking that way, "Nevermind. Go kick his ass. I'll see you in the next round."

Sparing another little smile, Cammy nodded and continued on her way, making sure her gauntlets were tight and her hat was in place as she descended the stairs.

Once again, the sole ninja of Aohura City watched his live-in assassin leave, and this time his eyes weren't stuck on her retreating backside.

"Why didn't you tell her what you wanted to say?"

The question came from Chun-Li, who had stood aside and watched the entire interface with her hands on her hips. The two young adults were closer to each other than she was to either of them, thus their interactions were their own. But she didn't expect Naruto to back off from giving his intended message. He never did that. This was someone that always said what he wanted to say.

All Naruto did was shake his head and go somewhere to find a good seat, "How could I tell her to do something like that?"

"Like what?" She already knew, she just wanted to hear him say it for himself, "Tell her to do what?"

Gritting his teeth, Naruto was aware of what she was doing. Damn her. Why'd she have to play sexy big sister all the time? She treated all of them like that; him, Sakura, Cammy, Karin. It wasn't fair, she didn't even live near them and it was like she was their den mother, "How could I tell her that if things got bad I wanted her to quit?"

She knew he was going to ask Cammy to quit if things looked to be too tight, but the reason she brought it up was that she didn't know why he held himself back from saying it, "What's so bad about asking her to give up?"

The same thing that was wrong with asking Guile to quit trying to repent for breaking a promise he had made to others even though it wasn't his fault that it happened. It was a really simple reason as far as Naruto was concerned.

"How could I ask someone else to do something I wouldn't do myself?" He wouldn't even begin to insult Cammy's capabilities like that. She was smart and capable. She had pride and emotions just like any other person even if she sometimes didn't know what exactly they were or how to convey her own feelings on things.

Such negative thoughts were shoved to the back of his mind as he continued to look for Ryu and Ken. They would obviously be watching this match. No way Ryu would ever miss a fight involving his first true rival. He left Chun-Li behind as she stood and thought to herself.

What was he talking about? He couldn't ask her to do something that he wouldn't do himself...?