Better than the Alternative...

Chapter 14 - Better Than the Alternative...

The only sounds in the forest were the subtle rustling of leaves and the calls of the birds that were planning on calling it a night before darkness fell over the land. This belied the chaos going on within.

Over the course of fifteen minutes after running across the first Naruto clone and ending its existence, Vega had decimated sixteen more of them in a sadistic game of cat and mouse. A few had managed to see him coming at the last second, but it was always too late.

As he moved through the jungle looking for another Naruto to kill he wondered if the original would be so easy to get rid of or-.

He managed to get his answer when he least expected it as he tripped a piece of metal wire that broke, bringing down four massive logs from all sides around him trying to crush him. They seemingly smashed into Vega and randomly exploded on contact, rocking the tranquility of nature with manmade destruction.

From a spot hidden not too far from where this occurred, Naruto observed the sprung trap and waited for the debris and smoke to clear from the blast. A trap should always have explosive tags attached. It just makes the whole thing at least twice as effective. He hadn't had an opportunity to blow things up without getting into huge trouble for a long time.

But here… if there was an explosion in the forest and no one was around to hear it could anyone prove that anything was detonated?

The death of a clone that was close enough to investigate the explosion warned Naruto that he needed to move, and he leapt from his hiding place just as it was cut asunder by a razor-sharp claw with tremendous force behind it.

Landing on the ground and dodging the falling heavy branch that he had been taking refuge on, Naruto turned and faced Vega who was standing on what was left of the tree limb he had just cut down, in his full masked glory, "Back for another asskicking?" Naruto quipped, with no love lost for the Spanish ninja, "This time you don't have anyone to take hostage. It's just you and me, dattebayo."

"That's just fine." Vega replied, holding up his claw by his face, "I wouldn't want to risk destroying something beautiful while ridding the world of something as repulsive as yourself." The killing intent in the air between the two could have been cut with a knife, "You scarred my beautiful body the last time we met."

"You seem just fine to me. You still look way too much like a girl to be a man for my tastes, but you don't look like I scarred you."

Behind his mask Vega smirked despite Naruto's insult to his masculinity, "Yes. You have something to do with that. At least you were able to fix what you managed to ruin. Behind that ugly shell you call your body, you possess amazing ki. I've never felt better in my life."

That shoved a sense of foreboding into Naruto's stomach. At least he thought it was foreboding until he realized that there was a quiet growling in his head, "You mean to say that even here too…" Kyuubi muttered so low that Naruto almost didn't hear, "I thought something felt familiar… they've bonded traces of our chakra with his body."

'What?' Naruto thought with a bit of shock, 'That's impossible! They don't have fuuinjutsu in this world! And even if they did, if they used your chakra shouldn't he be dying or something? It's too strong for most people right?'

"I said our chakra you little dumbass." Kyuubi asserted as it sat on its haunches within its cage, fully aware of the events taking place outside in the world, "It's not just mine. Yours is inside of him as well. As a matter of fact it's mostly yours, not even a significant fraction of mine. Either way, your chakra is like a base separating my caustic chakra from his own."

Were Naruto's chakra not there Vega's body wouldn't be able to handle even the little amount of Kyuubi's chakra within him at all, he'd become violently ill as it poisoned his system. But since there was more of Naruto's chakra within him, Vega was implying not only was he fine, he was saying that he was benefiting from this. But how?

'What does that mean?' Naruto asked the Kyuubi. He didn't want to hear the answer that he was more than likely going to get, "What the hell do you mean you've never felt better in your life?" He shouted at Vega as he threw shuriken his way.

As if answering Naruto's question, Vega jumped onto the tree trunk to dodge the metal stars and sprung off of them heading right for Naruto at an incredible speed with a brazen attempt to stab him through with his claw, "Vuelo de Barcelona (Flying Barcelona)!"

Shocked at Vega's increased speed, Naruto narrowly stepped out of the way, but Vega rolled through and swept Naruto's leg out from beneath him, knocking him to the ground. Gritting his teeth once he hit the ground, Naruto kipped back up to his feet and lashed out with a kick that Vega slithered out of the way of, low to the ground as he avoided the response attack, 'He's even faster now? What the fuck!'

Laughing to himself in an increasingly manic manner at his heightened instinctive reflexes, Vega scaled the side of a tree again as if he were moving along the ground, "I mean just what I said! Is this what you feel like all the time? It's glorious! I've so much energy I'm almost bursting with it! Give me a workout Uzumaki! Let me see the new limits of my ability!"

"Limit this! Kage Shuriken no Jutsu (Shadow Shuriken Jutsu)!" Naruto brandished a massive folding windmill-like shuriken and hurled it right at Vega and his place on the tree. Still laughing at the easy-to-scout attack, Vega jumped from the tree only to realize that Naruto had piled another shuriken underneath the first and had thrown them together, hiding the second shuriken in the shadow of the first so that it couldn't be seen.

He managed to block it with his claw as metal clashed against metal, but he was unable to dodge when Naruto had taken advantage of this opening after jumping from the spot where his first shuriken had hit the tree. He wound up delivering a deeply driving kick to Vega's belly that kicked him past a few trees and into some brush.

Naruto landed from his authoritative kick and slid to a stop, "You can't beat me by trying to be me Vega! You can have all of my chakra that you want, you still suck!" He taunted, not willing to chase the man into where he had kicked him out of sight. He wouldn't have chased himself and Vega was more devious and less honorable than he was. So his next option was to goad him out, "I'm the best ninja in the world you tranny! Go hide behind another unconscious teenage girl if you want a better chance to win!"

As a bullfighter, Vega knew the act of taunting the beast to attack on your terms instead of just letting it attack when it wanted to. Naruto was trying to goad him into striking when he was prepared instead of allowing himself to be attacked on Vega's terms and simply reacting to it.

A fairly decent stratagem against a dangerous foe who could attack without warning, but when it came to goading ugly brutes into making ill-advised moves Vega had been doing it since he had been younger than Naruto's age.

And Naruto was probably dumber than any bull he'd have fought against in Spain, because a silver-tongue was all that was required for him to force him into anything.

"A ninja you call yourself? Don't make me laugh. The art of ninjutsu is far too beautiful for an ill-bred fool like you to be considered the best in. You're the cattle of the ninja world; only fit for slaughter at the hands of one better than you." Vega's voice echoed through the trees around Naruto, "Who would want to be you? I doubt you even want to be yourself! No family wanted you probably due to your incompetence or repugnance, orphan. You can't protect a friend that needs you such as the real ninja girl back in Japan, failure! You can't even make your own ambitions a reality you're so inept! The only thing you're good for is the power within you, and now you're not even good for that, because I can keep it within my body!"

"You don't know the first thing about me!" Naruto snapped angrily, his voice echoing through the jungle, "I'll show you who's cattle! I'll show you how much of a failure I am!" He was sick and tired of hearing people question and slight his hard-earned skills. First Guy, now Vega. Even Ibuki's teacher Sanjou didn't see much in him despite everything he had done to keep himself alive and prove his skills.

He'd go as far to say that at least Konoha recognized him and acknowledged his potential as something after he defeated Neji during the chunin exams.

The taunting laugh of Vega rang out clearly, angering him further, angering him to the extent that his body became coated in the flaming orange chakra that resided deep within his core.

Seeing this happen right in front of his eyes as he skulked through the quickly darkening jungle, Vega smirked and licked his lips predatorily underneath his porcelain mask, "That's right… bring that monster power inside of you out. I want to crush you at your ugliest you insignificant little-." He stopped talking when Naruto's head turned his way and the boy blurred out of his view, leaving a trail of orange in his wake.

Vega's body then left a trail of broken branches and smashed tree trunks when Naruto smashed him.

XxX

(Elsewhere in the Jungle)

Cammy's eyes snapped open and she went on her guard once she was aware of the multiple presences around her body, grabbing the nearest one sitting on the branch with her around the neck, "Hey! What the hell's the big idea?" She looked around to see multiple Narutos sprinkled about the area giving her guarded looks and she then realized that she had another one caught in her grasp, "We're friendly damn it!"

Letting go of the clone's neck as if she was burned from touching it, Cammy held her hands up defensively as the clone dropped down to get some distance from her, "I'm sorry!" She said abruptly before stopping to blush at the high tone she used. She felt weird.

"Just so you know that's embarrassment you're feeling right now." A grinning Naruto remarked before being shoved by another for picking on the former Doll, "Boss made us to watch over you so that Vega didn't try to use you to beat him again. For some reason Vega's stronger now. It'll probably be a tougher fight than at the hospital."

Another clone chimed in to defend their creator, "He doesn't have Sakura-chan as an unconscious human shield with boobies this time. Boss'll kick his ass in five minutes."

'Vega is here?' Cammy thought to herself, her eyes jerking all over to try and figure out which way he and her current companion had gone to engage in battle, 'This can't be good. He almost killed me the last time and they say that Naruto believes he's stronger now.' She then brought this up to the clones, "Won't Naruto need help? He can't get hurt too badly all the way out here. Not this close to Shadaloo's base."

"Boss… doesn't want you to fight." A Naruto clone said, getting a glare from the rest of his chakra-comprised brethren, "What? He doesn't." Another clone muttered that he was an idiot and smacked him in the head, dispelling him. Hopefully that didn't mess with Naruto if he were fighting.

Cammy didn't say anything in reply to that at first, just looking at the lot of them with an unreadable expression on her face. Man they wished that she showed more emotions more often, because it would have helped them recognize just when she was about to bolt off in the direction where she could hear a distant series of cracking noises in the quiet early evening.

"Should we chase her or dispel?" The clones asked themselves in a veritable meeting of the minds.

XxX

(Naruto vs. Vega)

Picking thorns and splinters out of his ass was not what Vega had been hoping on when he fought Naruto again, but the young man tapping into that powerful orange energy again was just what he wanted. Now if only he could get it to turn red he could give his body a test run for real.

He was still a dumb brute who would try his best to get his hands on him directly to pummel his brains out. He even moved like a brute, on all fours like some kind of animal.

Speaking of the orange-clad devil himself, Vega could hear him storming his way in that direction. It would be impossible to sneak up on anyone with such an output of murderous intent coming from him but he could at least try to put some effort behind it.

As he prepared himself to face off directly with the charging Naruto he got a nasty little surprise in the form of a clone bursting from the ground at Vega's feet. The Spanish killer jumped up into the air before the earth beneath him broke. A brutal cutting of the brazenly attacking ninja revealed it to be another copy, 'A decent move.'

A jagged chunk of tree was hurled at Vega at that moment that he narrowly ducked as it flew over him and Naruto came forward to attack again, but his flurry of punches were all slipped by Vega whose heart was beating with more blood pumping through it than ever before, 'Yes! Push me! Try to kill me! Come within a hair of ripping my head off with your blows! I can truly show my beauty and superiority in the heat of battle!'

An angry Naruto growled and stopped punching at Vega, choosing to stop and stand on all fours. The narcissistic Shadaloo assassin figured that Naruto was merely in awe of his ever-heightened reflexes and prepared to taunt the bull into charging once again until Naruto let out a brain-rattling roar.

A roar with enough force to throw Vega back like a rag-doll again, his body smacking a tree trunk solidly. But before he could get himself off of it to regroup, he found Naruto in his face with his fist already cocked back. The blonde unleashed a haymaker of a punch that smashed Vega's face and broke through the tree he was up against, felling it in the woods.

That felt great; to hit Vega right in his smug pretty-boy asshole face. In their first fight he hadn't hit him in the face at all. And even thought it had been covered by a mask, he could dream that the crack he felt was a bone in Vega's face.

There was a good chance that it was indeed a bone that had cracked.

Naruto picked bits and pieces of porcelain out of his fist as he walked through the path of forested destruction he had wrought with Vega's body until he heard a crack from something he stepped on and saw a broken piece of Vega's mask underneath his foot.

Looking up he then caught the sight of Vega rising back to his feet like a zombie as his vertebrae made sounds of popping themselves back into alignment. His own blood was staining his body from where his face had been smashed beneath his now broken mask, but cracking noises could be heard as if his facial bones were resetting themselves slowly.

"How does it feel?" Vega asked, drawing his own claw across his bare chest to draw blood as the wound stopped bleeding right before Naruto's eyes, "How does it feel to see such a wondrous power in the hands of one that actually deserves and appreciates it. Not only am I a different fighter now. I can never be scarred again."

"I'll scar you up right now!" Naruto shouted right back. But as he moved to rush forward he found himself stopped as his enemy was no longer at a distance, with Vega having balled up and rolled himself forward to increase his speed and make himself an even more evasive target.

"Rodante de Cristal Flash (Rolling Crystal Flash)!"

A sound of metal piercing flesh and a claw sticking out of the back of his shoulder/chest area showed that Vega had preempted him with his planned maneuver. His red eyes went wide in shock before a growling Naruto retaliated and slashed Vega viciously across the chest with his lengthened nails in a two-hit combination that sent blood flying freely.

All of this occurred in the span of a second.

Getting his distance back, Vega's wounds closed right before his very eyes, "I told you, you can't scar me anymore! Just as I can't scar you and make you any uglier!'" He pointed out as his wound closed itself up. The blood on his body was inconsequential as long as there were no marks on his flawless form, "A perfect gift to the human embodiment of visual perfection. Nothing can disturb the living work of art that is my body. Truly an endowment that only I am worthy of… and after tonight only I will have."

"He's worthy of nothing." The Kyuubi said aloud within Naruto's head, "My power isn't a trophy. It isn't a tool for some vain primping bishounen to keep himself looking pristine." There was only one man that had ever existed that the great creature of chakra would have ever deemed worthy of containing his lifeforce, and Vega was an insect in comparison, "I'll grant you more chakra boy, if you can promise me that he'll pay dearly."

'I was going to make him pay if you hadn't asked me anyway, but alright.' Naruto thought back as his wound closed shut and his chakra cloak grew dense, changing from orange to red as it took on the outline of a fox shape around his body, "Alright Vega, let's see you get up after I'm done with you this time." He threatened in a more feral and gravelly voice before abruptly lashing out with his chakra in the form of an extending claw.

It missed Vega and he dove towards Naruto, cackling as he utilized a sliding tackle kick to try and knock Naruto in the air, but Naruto's chakra claw latched onto a tree trunk and pulled him in towards it. This was not the course of action that Vega had expected, nor had he expected the tail of Naruto's chakra cloak to grab onto his leg after he had missed to drag him back along the ground.

"Don't you know? The ugly monster always falls to the noble gentleman knight!" Vega's metal claw cleaved through the thick and tangible energy just as it lifted him off of the ground to throw him and he caught himself, standing on another tree's trunk before he leapt at Naruto in a blur with his tongue hanging out in a sick manner as he passed and landed on another trunk, bouncing back to cut Naruto again at his high speed, "Garra Sangrienta de Alta (Bloody High Claw)!" His blood was never even given the opportunity to hit the ground.

Each slash kept Naruto in the air was too fast to allow Naruto to fall as he was not given the time to heal one wound before another was inflicted, staining his orange fighting outfit red with his own blood, damn the metal mesh shirt underneath.

"I'm not a damn monster!" Naruto allowed Vega to stab him through the body. He gripped around Vega's wrist tightly and tore the gauntleted claw and the flesh straight off of him before spinning through and hurling Vega forcefully to the ground. Falling along with him, Naruto formed a Rasengan in his right hand that was surrounded by a stabilizing red shell of the Kyuubi's chakra, "Shui Rasengan (Vermillion Rasengan)!"

The resulting attack ended in a blast of red chakra permeating the air, rocking the ground from the pulverizing force behind it.

Knocked away from his point of impact by the explosion, Naruto sat against a tree trunk breathing tensely as he stood back up. His hand rested on the clawed gauntlet of Vega's sticking out of his stomach and pulled it out with a pained shout. The wound had healed around the blades of the claw, making it harder to do so, but he yanked it right out of there in one move and tossed it aside.

"You're not…"

Naruto was unable to hear the quiet mutter from Vega who rested, buried in rubble inside of a crater that had been formed from the attack. Slowly rubble started to move aside before it exploded up and Vega jumped out, covered in his own blood as the flesh from his wounds slowly knit back together as clear as day, "You're not worthy of this power you monster! It's protecting me! You can't turn me into an ugly monster like yourself! I'll kill you!"

A red haze began to emit from Vega's body as his eyes began to glow red and he walked towards Naruto. Prepared for another fight, Naruto's chakra cloak remained at the ready, tail swishing behind him as he waited to counter again. He could be as enhanced as he wanted to be, there wasn't any beating the original jinchuuriki in a battle of attrition if you were using his own chakra for the enhancement.

But after Vega took a few steps he stopped, his lip quivering with a lost look on his face. That haze was more akin to smoke emitting from his own body instead of a sign of him gaining more strength. And this brought a dark chuckle from the Kyuubi, "Heh… he finally did it. He broke through the barrier that your chakra created from mine that was protecting him."

Naruto watched as Vega regurgitated blood and bile onto the ground and fell to his knees. A morbid fascination was evident on Naruto as he watched Vega continue to vomit and convulse, "What's happening to him?"

"Anger at losing to you triggered him tapping into my chakra the way that anger triggers you doing the same at times. Only unlike you he can't handle my raw undiluted chakra running through his system, even the small amount he has. The unstable protection your own chakra inside of him gave was broken when he gave in to his desperation to live and to kill you."

Vega's insides felt like they were burning, but it wasn't a burn he could touch. It wasn't even hurting his organs directly but it was moving through his entire body, "You did this! W-What did you do to me?" He demanded from Naruto, trying to get back up and attack him, but failing to due to his agonized body.

"You did it." Naruto told him a bit remorsefully. Vega was a grandiose son of a bitch on the highest scale, but he didn't feel right about winning that way; beating Vega until he had more or less forced him to poison himself to keep from dying instantly via powered up Rasengan injuries. Naruto would rather have just flat out finished him in battle than watch him be tortured through his Chakra Pathway System, "That's why no one is supposed to have the power I have inside of me. It's too strong for humans to control. You used it."

Why didn't any of Shadaloo's scientists pick this up when they ran the tests on him? His bodily functions had been at an all time high, off the charts, and yet now he was suffering! His perfect body was unable to contain this power yet an imperfect creature like Naruto was able to utilize it? Why? That was what Vega was wondering as it felt like his entire body was being branded on the inside.

As he mused, body quivering randomly from jolts of paralyzing pain, Vega saw Naruto walking away from him into the thicket of the jungle to leave him there, "You're not leaving! I'll kill you for this!" He tried to get up, but that strain was too much for him to attempt to do as blood started streaming from his mouth, "You've ruined me! You and your cursed power!"

"It's not cursed power, and it's not evil power…" Naruto replied, drawing upon what Rose told him when they had met previously, "…it's just not meant for humans." He just kept walking towards the edge of the battle-scarred area, not even turning around, "And I don't want to kill you. You're gonna die all on your own."

No weapon and he could hardly move without causing major internal bleeding along with Kyuubi's forceful chakra travelling through and shredding his Chakra Pathway System like a sandstorm stripping paint from a building wall?

"Fitting." Kyuubi said aloud in Naruto's head, taking in the sight of Vega behind on the ground, a trail of his blood leading from where he had slowly dragged himself from the place where he had first fallen, "A narcissist dying in such an ugly way…" Now if only a cobra would slither across him and give him a little love bite, that would have been even better, "Wait!" Kyuubi said, stopping the young blonde in his tracks before he could leave, "Rest your hand on him. I want back what's mine."

Naruto strode back over to Vega who clutched weakly at his leg and tried to pull himself back up using the limb, but Naruto set his hand on the top of Vega's head and held him down, focusing to feel Kyuubi's chakra within himself before finding it in Vega. He pulled his hand away and drew a red aura out of the man's body, getting him to yell out in pain of having it extracted directly from his cells.

The man blacked out as the excess energy receded into Naruto's body, prompting him to flex his fist as he watched the nails on it go back to normal, "Huh. He didn't even have that much of your chakra inside of him. That was barely any."

"I told you so. My residual chakra from a single ninjutsu mixed with mostly your chakra. It was not only diluted until he accessed it directly, there was far more of yours within him. It shows you just how strong I am. Barely 1/1000th of my chakra was enough to devastate his entire body with this illness."

"Okay, you're super-strong." Naruto said with a roll of his eyes as he checked his bloody body and clothes over. At least the wounds had closed up. He still hurt all over like hell though, "You could at least thank me for giving you your chakra back."

"You mean the chakra that belonged to me in the first place? The chakra that I'm going to have to use again later to keep you alive the next time you get obliterated by a superior fighter? The chakra you just used to-?"

"Alright already, forget I said anything at all… damn."

"I already have you insignificant entitled little worm. If anything you should be thanking me… all the time." There was a lull of silence between them as Naruto took to the trees again to return to Cammy. Until Kyuubi felt the need to speak up again to mess with Naruto, "I hope the fool back there gets eaten by a tiger. I wonder if tigers in Thailand like Spanish cuisine."

"…That's really screwed up."

XxX

(Deeper in the Jungle – Secret Point 48106)

A small flying camera had been dispatched with Vega by the scientists to keep track of his progress in training his body with Naruto's power flowing through his cells, but this had the secondary effect of capturing the entire battle between the two, something that Bison was called to bear witness to in most of its entirety.

"Failure…" Bison muttered, shutting the feed off as he was sick of watching Vega writhing in agony as the Kyuubi's chakra continued to run roughshod over his body, "That was your last chance Vega, three strikes and all that. I don't tolerate weakness within my elites." He said to himself as he left his darkened private quarters and headed down the hall of the facility.

Vega was replaceable. Though he was a skilled killer this did not mean that there was no one that could fill his spot. The world was full of powerful prospects, and at the moment he had perhaps the greatest potential tool to his ambitions that had foolishly come to him of his own accord after defeating the Doll that was sent to spy on him and obtain information on his fighting style.

He hoped he could defeat him. Stupid hero.

Entering a bright laboratory area, Bison smirked at the sight of Ryu bolted to a sturdy table, seemingly unconscious. He moved past a few scientists watching over the man and shoved them out of the way before placing his hand on Ryu's head and channeling his Psycho Power directly into the man's head, "Wake up now. Your services are required."

Ryu's eyes snapped open, white and pupil-less just like Bison's were.

The sick grin that crossed the powerful crime lord's face showed that this was just what he wanted, "Release him." He demanded of the scientists that hurriedly did what was instructed of them, "Ryu… while the Satsui no Hadou within you is inferior to my Psycho Power, it is still more than enough to allow me to use my power to unlock your, shall we say vast potential? Now let's test how much you've grown."

Ryu stood up and waited seemingly at attention obediently. But one could see a slight twitch of struggle on his face and a minute jerking of his fingers at his sides if they were really paying attention or cared to.

"Like a good little minion I want you to do something for me." Bison said to the brainwashed Ryu, "There is only one road through this part of the region either in or out. I want you to watch over it. You will kill anything that comes from either direction on this road. Now go."

A short growl tore from Ryu's throat as he turned and left the lab amid Bison's laughter. Just outside of the door of the lab, he passed by an exceedingly tall man with long limbs and a bald head. He wore blue Muay Thai shorts with red trim and wrappings on his fists and feet. An eye-patch sat over his right eye and on his chest he bore a massive scar that spanned from his waist to his opposite shoulder.

"Ah, how do you like the new Ryu Sagat?" Bison said as he could sense the powerful man standing just outside, "Just think of it; you say that he wouldn't rematch you when you demanded it of him, well now he has no choice. He'll battle with you to your heart's content after I have him eradicate the pests flittering around our base. Just observe how much stronger he is now."

"Shoving your power into him didn't make him stronger." The large Muay Thai legend said, stepping off of the wall and walking down the hall as he left Bison alone with his victorious laughter, 'I don't want to fight a corrupted Ryu. I want to fight the same man that defeated me. This isn't him, it's a husk being driven by Bison's orders.'

The warrior in him did not want a dark and brainwashed puppet version of Ryu to fight him. He wanted a true match. There was no one else he deemed worthy to fight, and here Bison had gone and besmirched such pure character and will. And he was ecstatic about it from the sound of his booming laughs.

Sagat was Bison's bodyguard. That was the sole reason for his employment in Shadaloo. Being second-in-command really meant nothing with a control freak like Bison at the helm, as all decisions were made by him.

He had been angry and consumed with a desire to get his revenge bout against the man that had defeated him, this was his mindset when he joined with the promise of an eventual rematch. But as time passed he cooled down and felt his desire to stay with Shadaloo diminish. There was just nothing worthwhile in it for him.

Still, he was Bison's bodyguard.

Just a glorified bodyguard… so as long as he was willing to accept this as his job it didn't mean he couldn't do whatever he wished. With that in mind he left to follow Ryu in an attempt to beat him to the point where he was certain he would go.

XxX

(The Next Day – Late Morning – Jungle Roads of Thailand)

"Ow! Fuck it!" Batsu shouted from the backseat of a jeep where he was sitting, a cast-covered leg propped up on Sakura's lap as they went over a bump in the road, "Why is the American guy driving?" In the front, Ishizaki sat on the passenger's side while Ken was manning the wheel as they traversed the rough road, "Why's he even here?"

"Kid, why didn't you stay back with that doctor?" Ken asked in return. Driving that jeep wasn't driving a performance vehicle, but there weren't really speed limits so he could go nuts with that in this country, "I'm surprised you're even awake. You just had surgery yesterday evening."

He was barely awake, but it wasn't like he needed to be attentive and aware while he was sporting a cast and crutches, "I'm not staying in a doctor's clinic in a town that the guy that broke my leg is still in, especially after what you did to him and what I did to those punks first." Batsu gave Sakura an apologetic look as she shifted a bit uncomfortably with his injured leg sitting on her own two, "Sorry. There's no space on the floor."

Even though her legs were both utterly asleep at this point in the journey, Sakura spared the injured Batsu a smile, "It's not like you can help it. But I just wonder if everybody else is okay. I don't think Naruto or Karin's phones have a signal wherever they are." She tried to call them during Batsu's hasty surgery, but got no response. They were already in a rural area as her signal was weak, so there probably wasn't one at all even further.

"I hope Kanzuki-sama is fine all the way out here in the middle of this country." Ishizaki fretted, wishing he and his young charge had satellite phones so that signals didn't matter, "I wonder if the water is any good for her, or how many venomous snakes find their way into people's rooms. I doubt there's a hotel out here that would even qualify as four-star."

Amused laughter came from Ken as he heard the butler worry over Karin. Being a rich man himself, this amused him because of how he was brought up as a martial artist, "Well it can only be good for her. If she's here and if she's capable enough to be allowed to go on this trip you should trust her that much."

No one else in the jeep was actually concerned, "Dude, you should worry more about what she's doing to this place instead of what this place is doing to her. That girl is sinister." Batsu said, flicking the butler on the ear to get him to stop worrying the way he had done since they had been delayed by Batsu's injury, "That's one scary chick." He held his hands over his mouth once he realized that he had said such a thing out loud.

It was too late though, as Sakura had heard him and was grinning from ear-to-ear. Finally, something to make this crappy car ride more bearable, "You're scared of Kanzuki-san? That's… the best thing I've ever heard."

"I didn't say that." Batsu said, averting his gaze to the trees surrounding the road, "I said she was scary. There's a difference." He then winced again as the car hit another bump, "Damn it, how am I supposed to fight anyone on this thing, swing a crutch at them? We're supposed to be attacking a fortress you know."

"No we're not." Sakura replied, "We're just supposed to be marking coordinates for an airstrike. No one's attacking that base... only Naruto and the Cammy girl are supposed to be going into the jungle anyway." And thank goodness. Taking on the stronghold of a paramilitary group was just a little step past what she was prepared for. Guys with guns were a different animal altogether compared to just fighters.

"Aww, bases are easy." Ken insisted, one hand on the wheel and his other arm hanging back over the head of his seat to grin back at the kids who were mortified that he was taking his eyes off of the road, "Guys with guns… just make sure they're not pointing the damn things at you and you're good to go!"

"Eyes on the road!" Both Batsu and Sakura shouted simultaneously, getting Ken to laugh good-naturedly again. They didn't see anything funny though. Neither of them wanted to die in a fiery car wreck a thousand-plus miles away from home.

Waving off their concerns as he turned back around to keep them from freaking out anymore, Ken scoffed, "Are you kidding me? It's a straight shot right through the jungle. If there's one thing I know how to do besides fight it's how to-."

"Holy shit dude!"

A sudden and powerful blue blast of ki slammed into the side front of the jeep, destroying the front left tire and forcing the vehicle into a spin and then a flip before it came to a stop just within the trees and bushes lining the side of the road.

There was no motion from the overturned vehicle until the driver's side door was kicked off of the hinges and Ken pulled himself out, followed by him yanking the unconscious Ishizaki out. The butler was bleeding from where he had slammed his skull against the metal door, and he would be no help in this situation, "Ugh." Ken grunted after freeing the man and laying him down propped up against a tree, "Are you kids alright?"

"We're not dead…" Batsu said in a bit of a pained voice, "My stitches over my eye popped and I think my kneecap shattered like a dinner plate all over again but other than that we're a-okay. You ever heard of defensive driving motherfucker?"

Sakura crawled out of the wreck looking a bit shaken up but no worse for wear really, as did Batsu as he crawled out holding a pair of crutches, though blood was streaming down his face from where he had been stitched up the day before, "What in the world… what hit us?" Sakura asked as she stood up and helped Batsu get upright, "It was like someone shot a cannonball."

"It was a Hadoken." Ken said with complete certainty in his tone as he faced away from the direction of the car wreck and the now useless jeep, "Yeah… definitely a Hadoken. I'd stake my right arm on it."

Batsu winced as he set his crutches rightly underneath his arms to stand on his own, "That thing was moving so fast man. How can you be that sure about it?"

At first Ken didn't answer, still staring across the road from the accident intently at the figure waiting there staring right back at him emotionlessly, something the kids hadn't noticed yet because they were too busy worrying about Batsu's injuries, "Oh… it was just a good hunch." Staring back at him was his best friend Ryu, "What's up buddy?"

XxX

(Rural Village by the Deep Thailand Jungle – With Naruto)

Naruto should have been more self-conscious due to the fact that he was sitting outdoors with no clothes on other than the pair of boxers being the only thing covering his modesty, but he wasn't. It was hard to be embarrassed when you were just short of being pissed off.

"What the fuck do you mean there's no airstrike coming?" Naruto said to a recently arrived Chun-Li and Charlie, wincing slightly as a local doctor wrapped his would-be wounded areas in bandages just in case it was necessary. It was just unbelievable to them that he was completely healed, but that was not important. What was important was that his assignment had apparently just been revoked, "You just told me three days ago, 'Wait for us at this village with the coordinates marked but don't go in, there's an airstrike coming.'"

Instead of talking inside where it was all hot and sticky due to the late spring climate of the region, they were all just outside of the building that Karin had basically rented out and had utterly transformed to suit her 'needs'.

With Charlie and Chun-Li was another blonde American man with a square jaw and serious flattop hair, wearing an olive tanktop and military fatigures as well as his dogtags around his neck. Apparently he was Charlie's friend named Guile, "Well this is how it is kid. We made it here and we called to confirm the aerial bombardment for an hour once we got the coordinates, they told us it was off. What do you want from us?"

"To find your stoolie in the air force and kick his ass like I kicked Vega's." Naruto replied as the doctor finished with lightly bandaging him, allowing Naruto to get up and change into a spare orange fighting uniform and metal mesh armor undershirt. Vega had messed up his previous set, "Bet he won't try to jump me in the jungle again… bet he won't jump again at all."

"You killed Vega?" Charlie asked him, knowing who that man was from what he was told by Chun-Li on the known associates of Shadaloo.

"Killed him dead."

"How dead?"

"Deader than dead."

"Right Said Fred?"

"Simply Red."

Everyone just stared at Naruto and Charlie in silence as they all doubted that what they said made any sense even to those that did speak English in that village, "…Okay." Chun-Li said, taking a large pack from her back, "Luckily I came prepared. Take a look." She opened it and showed that she had managed to bring along enough C-4 to take down four separate buildings if need be, "Looks like we're going to have to do this ourselves."

Guile cleared his throat to get her attention and gestured towards the three teenagers who were looking at Chun-Li's large bag of explosives, with Naruto mumbling about how she'd never sneak that anywhere and that explosive tags were better, "Hrmrphr… kids…"

Well technically Cammy couldn't really be considered a normal kid, she was an assassin. And Naruto couldn't really be considered normal either… for a bunch of reasons. But still, ethics were ethics, "Yeah, by 'we' I mean Guile, Charlie, and myself." Chun-Li said, much to Naruto and Cammy's chagrin, "Sorry… but all we planned on having you do was to get the coordinates. You're not going into the base."

Naruto's eye twitched before he spoke up again, "Okay, everyone here who's a trained ninja that can transform into any person he's ever seen to sneak inside an enemy base raise your hand." No one but him did so, "Anyone who actually knows how to get to the base fast, knows how Shadaloo's going to protect the place, and knows the layout of the base, raise your hand." Cammy did so, even though she was unaware that Naruto was just being facetious to Chun-Li, "Anyone who… actually I don't really have any reason for Karin to go." He conceded, ignoring her indignant squawk in return.

"He has a very good point you know." Cammy chimed in, trying to be as helpful as possible. She didn't really know any of them, had tried to kill one, kidnap another, and the rest of them only knew her as the soulless Shadaloo assassin that had gained awareness, "Without me it would be very hard to find the base, and without Naruto there probably wouldn't be anyone that could sneak inside. We have our own reasons for wishing to go."

Chun-Li just stared at Naruto, not seeming to be fazed by the points brought up, "No. I can't be held responsible for what happens if you go along."

"Responsible for what?" Naruto replied, waving his arms about indignantly, "If Vega beat me last night and killed me I could probably count out the number of people that would have cared on one hand without even using all of my fingers. Anyone that would care that Cammy's doing this are the people inside of the damn base. The only one out of the three of us that what you just said applies to is Karin."

Again Karin let out an offended noise at being treated like a glass figurine and marched up to Naruto to bicker with him, "I am not helpless Naruto-san. I came all the way here to fight Shadaloo and teach them a lesson when it comes to dealing with the Kanzuki Dynasty."

"Don't I represent you though?"

"What?" Karin said confusedly as she looked at her fellow blonde high school student, "What do you mean?"

A victoriously grinning Naruto pointed directly at Karin as for once he remembered something trivial that worked to his advantage to circumvent a disagreement, "I represent you don't I? When I win you win and when I lose you lose because you're my benefactor right? Well let me represent you then boss lady." He remarked, throwing her words from months prior back into her face, "Let me fight for you, okay?"

Remembering where he had drudged the previous reference up from, Karin's eyes widened and she opened her mouth prepared to argue some more before no words came out. Instead she just started chuckling and wiped away a tear of humor from her eye, "Ah… that is correct. I do recall saying that to you. Very well then Naruto-san; all I need is victory after all, it doesn't matter which method I use to obtain it."

"Karin?" Naruto said questioningly as the girl quickly turned around and started to head back into the building that she had rented space inside of for the duration of their stay, "Karin, are you going to be alright by yourself?"

"Everything should be fine." Karin replied, not turning around as she continued to walk, "I will be alright here by myself until Ishizaki, Sakura-san, and Ichimonji-san arrive. They're late, but I believe they should be here by noon." With that, she disappeared through the open doorway leaving the others to themselves.

That was strange. Naruto hadn't expected her to just cut out and leave. Instead he had expected her to stay at least until they had decided to set out. And despite the fact that she had spoken with her usual confidence and airy uncaring demeanor there had been something wrong.

"Naruto." His attention was torn away from the temporary lodgings of his rather good friend when Chun-Li called to him, "We're heading for the base. The other girl is already leading the way. Let's go if you're coming kid. It's supposed to be far in there." She had a very serious demeanor about her as she pointed to where Charlie, Guile, and Cammy were already walking towards the edge of the village.

He nodded in acknowledgment and started to follow her and the others but not without sparing one last glance in the direction of where Karin had retreated to, "Stop calling me kid damn it." Naruto muttered absently as he trailed behind the Chinese Interpol agent.

Though he didn't see that Karin was just inside of the doorway, leaning against the wall outside of the sight of everyone else. Once she heard the sounds Naruto's footsteps finally shadow away, signifying that he had left the vicinity, she allowed herself a deep breath and walked back to her room, keeping her eyes from misting over, 'He didn't even defend me coming along. Am I really thought of as being that weak? Why do I even care what a bunch of commoners think? I've never cared before.'

But was it really what all of them thought, or just one?

Chun-Li, Guile, and Charlie were merely covering for themselves and that was understandable given their position in the matter. They didn't know her and she was the heir to a vast fortune, thus if she were hurt or killed attacking a military stronghold like some foot soldier they and their respective organizations would definitely be receiving the blowback from hell when her family found out about it.

She never even cared what Sakura thought of her and they were supposed to be rivals. She was supposed to be trying to prove her superiority over Sakura as a combatant, so as long as she could overcome her in battle and prove that it didn't matter what she thought.

Still, the thought of Naruto looking down on her opinion as if it weren't important the way he had the other day made her angry and sad, and the thought of him finding her to be weak made her actually feel weak, 'Why do I feel as if I have something to prove to him?' The only person she felt she had anything to prove towards was her father, not an employee of hers, 'I pay him. An employer has nothing to prove to a worker.'

"-I don't know if you're my boss, my rival, my friend, my manager. What?"

What was wrong with being all of them together and balancing them? Though admittedly this little arrangement had already muddied the waters in all of those regards several times in the past. And any combination of the aforementioned titles without the inclusion of the 'friend' one being amongst them forced a pang of hurt through her, 'Idiot… I'm above thinking of something lowly the likes of a commoner. I'll make him pay for making me feel like this when this is all over with.'

XxX

(Jungle Roads of Thailand)

"Ryu stop! What are you doing?"

Sakura's desperate cry fell on deaf ears as the white gi clad warrior attacked what he perceived to be the most significant threat out of the group; Ken. The two went move for move, trading similar looking punches and kicks in something of a blur of arms and legs before breaking away just out of range of each other where they quickly fired off another similar attack they shared.

"Hadoken (Surge Fist)!"

The two similar looking blasts of ki slammed into each other and exploded, sending both men flying back and landing on their feet. Ken still stood in his fighting stance as Ryu rushed through the smoke and dust to attack him again, "What the hell's wrong with him? His fists are hollow, he's not fighting with any spirit!" Both fighters clashed with a single knuckle-shattering punch before trading kicks that clashed and pushed off, "His ki is all messed up too-!"

Ken's next sentence was cut off when Ryu slammed a knee into his body and doubled him over. This was something that Ryu took advantage of with no wasted motion, "Shoryuuken (Rising Dragon Punch)!" The powerful rising uppercut nailed the man right underneath the chin and knocked him into the air.

"Holy crap he knocked the piss out of him!" Batsu exclaimed, unknowingly getting Ryu's attention next who zoned in on the wounded teen, "Aw… damn it!" Ryu charged Batsu down and he was forced to block his injured leg from a leg sweep by jamming his metal crutch into the ground to make a sturdy base to defend with. With his good leg he jumped using the crutch as a prop and delivered a dropping ax kick that the crouching Ryu blocked, "This guy's a machine!"

Ryu grabbed Batsu by his good leg and threw him over his shoulder at the wrecked remains of the jeep until Sakura dove in the way to prevent him from slamming against it. The girl caught him out of the air and slid back across the grass and ground, pulling up earth before she came to a stop, "Ugh…" With a grunt, Sakura safely set him down onto the ground, "Are you alright?"

"Fine." Getting his crutches back beneath him, Batsu thanked his lucky stars that he didn't have the misfortune of getting his other leg broken to go with his already recently injured one that was still throbbing, "What are you going to do? That guy's your hero right?" He asked Sakura who was set in her fighting stance that looked similar to that of Ken's and Ryu's.

Before she could respond, Ryu moved forward to attack the weak link in Batsu again, however he was cut off when he had to block a kick aimed at his head from Sakura, "There's no choice, we've got to beat him somehow!" Landing on the ground after her attempt to attack, Sakura was forced to sway out of the way of a furious assault from the fists of her idol. The punches were so furious her hands grew sore just blocking them, 'He's so strong! How hard does he train? Or… or is it that he was holding back on me that much when we sparred?'

"Sakura move! Kiaidan (Guts Bullet)!"

Sakura instinctually did as instructed and Ryu covered up just in time for Batsu's blast of energy to plow into him and drive him back into the road before he deflected it directly upward into the sky. Having braced himself with his back against the wrecked jeep, Batsu had made himself an easy target for a return blast of a Hadoken from Ryu who charged and fired it directly at him.

Once again, Sakura jumped in the way to help the immobile teen, using her own Hadoken to deflect it, but she had no time to charge any power behind it. Ryu's perfected Hadoken punched right through her flimsy one, barely slowing down at all. She was hit by the move but weathered it despite taking it directly, as luckily her own Hadoken was able to take the brunt of the blow away even if it was unable to stop Ryu's.

The hit was followed up on by Ryu rushing forward, and despite Sakura's preparation for his movements, he dodged her punch that she had timed with his incoming and grabbed a hold of the yellow scarf tied around the front neck of her school uniform. Pulling it tight, Ryu choked her and rolled backwards, taking her with him before kicking her off and away forcefully.

Ryu's attention turned back to Batsu who he attacked, lashing out with a thrust kick that Batsu was able to avoid by pushing himself into a small by his normal standards jump that seated him on the top of the overturned jeep. The kick caved in the door of the jeep it had impacted against and a crutch was swatted off the top of his head forcefully. He looked up and saw Batsu preparing to hit him again with the only available weapon he could realistically use to fight with physically.

Preventing him from taking a swing, Ryu grabbed his injured leg in a paralyzingly painful grip that caused Batsu to drop the crutch and cry out in agony as Ryu started to squeeze down on the leg hard enough to begin cracking the hard cast.

He let go when Ken got himself back into the battle, jumping and getting to Ryu's side before firing a midair Hadoken that Ryu backflipped out of the way of, "Brat you've got to sit back and let us fight. You're a target!"

Batsu growled, but had to concede the point as Ken charged back towards Ryu to try and beat some sense back into his friend, "So I've got to sit on this fucking jeep and watch you two get your asses handed to you by zombie-Ryu. Cool." He quipped angrily. Being injured sucked! Why couldn't he heal like Naruto? Naruto would at least be limping around right then. Better to be a gimp that totally immobile the way he was.

"Sakura, Ryu's right handed so attack from his left to avoid his power!" Ken advised his informal kohai who nodded and ran back in to assist him in engaging Ryu once more, "Ryu snap out of it! Don't make me hurt you man!" He got a tight hold of Ryu's gi and prepared to throw him when his grip was broken and Ryu kicked him square in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

A rear attacking punch from Sakura flew past his head narrowly and he grabbed a tight hold of her arm before violently judo tossing her straight to the ground, planning to follow up with a brick-breaking chop that plowed into the road instead of Sakura when Ken pulled her out of the way and slung her around before throwing her at Ryu, "Shunpukyaku (Twirling Gale Kick)!"

Adding a quick spin, Sakura kicked at Ryu with the extra force provided to her by Ken's toss hard enough to break his guard, "Ryu! Stop it!" She cried as she landed, simultaneously punching him directly across the face. Without missing a beat, Ryu returned fire and punched Sakura in the stomach hard enough to lift her off of the ground on nothing more than his fist, 'Why is this happening? What's wrong with him?'

He pulled his fist from Sakura's stomach and let her land back on her feet, stunned motionless from the punch that had robbed her of the air in her lungs. Ryu then let loose with a brutal combination of punches and kicks that she had no answer for.

"Sakura!" Batsu cried out, watching her take a beating that she wasn't even able to protect herself from, "American dude! You've got to stop that guy already!"

"Ryu!" Ken shouted, running right at him as fast as he could to get him to leave Sakura alone, "Put Sakura down! I'm done being patient with you! We don't want to hurt you!" Ryu punched Sakura aside as he saw the incoming Ken and in response Ken spun a 360 in mid-step, dragging his front foot across the ground and engulfing it in flames as if he had dragged a match across a rough surface before launching himself at Ryu with a kick, "This'll hurt me more than it'll hurt you! Guren Senpukyaku (Crimson Lotus Whirlwind Kick)!"

The first kick slammed into Ryu and didn't stop there as Ken kicked him again and again with flaming kicks that knocked him into the air directly up. A burning and bruised Ryu shifted his body in midair as he fell down towards Ken who was waiting to finish him with one last jumping corkscrew kick and charged his ki as intensely as he could, "Shinkuu Hadoken (Vacuum Surge Fist)!"

Instead of Sakura's monstrous normal orb-like Hadoken, Ryu's was a direct beam of power the size of his body that he fired right at Ken who had already jumped up to deliver his kick. Ken's spinning flame kick allowed him to cut through most of Ryu's Hadoken only to find that his friend was not in the air at the end of the beam.

He landed on the ground unable to find Ryu until a diving knee strike slammed into the back of his head and neck; a move with nothing but the worst of intentions behind it that sent Ken face-first down into the dirt, not moving.

Sakura was on the ground as well and was able to clearly see Ryu's sleight of hand that allowed him to get the upper hand before the dirty strike to the base of Ken's neck that if done properly could have killed the man, "No!" Ken was supposed to be Ryu's best friend. His training partner for well over a decade. And he was able to simply strike him down, just like that, "Ryu, we're your friends! What's happened to you!" She shouted, getting herself back up off of the ground, "You're like some kind of shell!"

In response, Ryu merely turned to the beaten up girl and started charging up another Shinkuu Hadoken meant exclusively for her, something that brought tears to her eyes. This wasn't her hero. He looked like him and fought like him, but there was no heart in any of his moves; nothing but the pure intent to destroy.

"Damn it girl move! He's going to kill you!" Batsu yelled in warning. He couldn't get up and fire his own ultimate Guts Bullet to try and protect her from afar. He didn't have the leg strength to do so because of his injury. The recoil it would have caused upon release would have reinjured his leg all over again, 'Gah! I'm so useless!'

The blue glowing energy charged in between Ryu's hands as he prepared to let it all go and engulf Sakura who was unable to move due to her shaky knees. She had never dealt with anyone powerful enough to kill her that actually intended to do so. She had never faced down killing intent before, and Ryu's mere presence as he charged the massive Hadoken caused her to see her own death as it was about to happen, 'Is this really it? I never even got to-."

"Shinkuu Hadoken (Vacuum Surge Fist)!"

"Khæn Nxn Seụ̄x (Tiger Cannon)!"

As Ryu fired his destructive blue beam of ki at Sakura, a massive yellow sun-looking orb the size of a wrecking ball plowed into the side of the stream and redirected it into the trees lining the side of the jungle road where it tore down well over twenty of them and left a massive trench in the ground.

Ryu was then forced to block a sudden arrival's kick that had enough force to send him sliding several meters away before he came to a stop, glaring at his new apparent enemy.

"What kind of a man are you Ryu?" The menacing, bald, and battle-scarred form of Sagat calmly walked onto the scene from his side of the jungle, staring Ryu down, "You allowed a man like Bison to enforce his will over you. I'm disappointed. I expected far more of a fight out of you. Or are you really that mentally weak? Do you really doubt yourself after defeat that much?" That was the pot calling the kettle black, this he knew, but he had a point he needed to make, "Snap out of it or I'll force you to."

Over on the jeep, Batsu's jaw had dropped from the sheer destruction that had been wrought and at the person who had wrought it, "No way. Oh my fucking-…"

"-God…" Sakura basically said the same thing without the expletive when she caught sight of the former 'God of Muay Thai' stepping from the shadows of the jungle right in front of their eyes. Ken, who had recently awoken with his head still swimming from the strike he had taken had even seen Sagat and couldn't believe he was actually there, "That's… that's Sagat. And he's going to actually fight Ryu? Right now?"

"…I didn't want my rematch to be under these circumstances." Sagat admitted, standing at the ready to engage his vaunted rival, "But it appears I'll have to break you out of this if I ever want a true encounter to occur ever again." A wry smile of amusement ghosted across his intimidating visage for a mere moment at the thought, "At least now you can't sandbag your way out of it like the last time."

Sakura was awestruck at what she was about to see, but found it within her to speak up regardless, "Uh, ah Mr. Sagat. Thank you for stopping Ryu's last attack. I think you saved my life."

"I did save your life girl, there's no two ways about it. I think I should step in here. That is unless you're not finished eating dirt." Sagat replied gruffly, getting Sakura to flinch and blush at the blunt statement. Sagat didn't really care though. What was a little girl like this doing stepping into a situation of this magnitude? Go home and do some damn homework, "Now get the other man off of the road and get some space. I don't need anyone else getting caught up in the middle of this."

Obeying, Sakura rushed over and assisted Ken back to his feet as they both left to the wayside with Batsu, "Hey!" Ken shouted in order to get Sagat's attention, "You were talking like you knew what was wrong with him? What is it?" Yes, Ken had taken quite serious blow, but he was awake now and seemed ready to fight again.

"Ask him yourself after I wake him up. I know that you're powerful in your own right-." Sagat said succinctly towards Ken as he never took his eyes off of the mind controlled Ryu, "-But since you're not willing to do what you must to fight on par with your friend for long I'll step in. If you want to keep your heads I'd advise you to keep them down until the two of us are finished here!" He warned just before diving headlong towards Ryu in a crushing offensive as he and Ryu made their first strikes against each other.

Omake: Working Rehab

(Aohura City, Japan)

"Fuck I'm bored." A school uniform clad Ibuki muttered to her pet tanuki Don who was sitting on her shoulder as she walked on the sidewalk away from school. She had returned a week ago, but her friends were still on that trip that they had been planning to take for the last few months before her injury.

The young kunoichi was still pretty sore, but it wasn't any kind of pain that one couldn't just work themselves through if the need for it really arose. With this argument she took it to Sanjou and the master of her village and they decided to let her go back to school, because otherwise she would have just been hanging around the village doing nothing until they chose to clear her and let her return.

She really wished that the others would return soon though. With Naruto, Sakura, and Karin being gone the only one of the group left to talk to that she knew well enough was Kei, and after school was over with she couldn't go to her house to hang out in a timely manner because of Kei's afterschool club commitments. That meant that all she could do was go back home to the village.

Boring.

Well, she wasn't in her village at the moment, and she wasn't in class, so she wouldn't get busted for giving her friends a call to see how they were doing, if they weren't in catastrophic trouble at the moment of course. If they were then they'd get the message and they'd call her later… if they weren't dead by then from the aforementioned catastrophic trouble.

With a smile, she fished her cell phone out of her school bag and started looking through her very limited contact list to find Naruto's number before dialing it where she didn't even get a dial tone before an answering machine message came up.

"Thanks for contacting Uzumaki Naruto, jack-of-all-trades ninja for your interest in hiring me. Sorry, but I'm currently out on a sabbatical of sorts so leave me a message and I will contact you to discuss terms and payment after I come back if I'm interested. If the mission is of a… more sensitive nature, a dead drop would be recommended for me to go over if you want me to accept the mission at my address of-… wait, what the hell am I saying, why am I giving you my address? You know what? Screw it. Instead just drop it at-."

"Damn, wrong number." Ibuki had instead called Naruto's piece of crap, untrackable prepaid phone that he used for business, "Why do I even have that one? Why would I ever actually try to hire Naruto for something again, he's my friend." And if she really wanted his help with something all she had to do was give him a heartfelt look with big doe eyes and he'd melt like an ice cube guaranteed, "'Jack-of-all-trades ninja' Uzumaki Naruto? Really?" She said to herself with quite a bit of amusement.

"So I've found another person that knows who Uzumaki Naruto is! Oroshi (Wind Blowing Down From the Mountains)!"

Ibuki turned around and hurriedly backflipped out of the way of a powerful overhand chop that missed her and smashed the concrete of the sidewalk as if it were a demonstrative cinder block. After landing, she winced and held her torso, "Ah, still hurts. What's the big idea with attacking me like that?"

Standing across from her was a girl slightly younger than her with messy black hair wearing a karate gi with patches in it from wear-down. Around her neck was a yellow band that hung down past her back behind her and she was set in a traditional-looking karate stance, "Every single person I ran into in this town that I asked about this Uzumaki Naruto guy that knew about him tried to fight me first. Well you just said he was your friend, which is better than any of them so I expected you to attack me first too."

"Why do you want to find Naruto?" Ibuki asked, narrowing her eyes while Don stood up defensively on his master's shoulder and neck. If this was another person that was trying to take him out, well at least it was one-on-one this time and she could definitely handle that even if this girl was skilled. She couldn't hit her when she was unaware of her presence and that spoke volumes.

"To kick the crap out of him so I can get my father's dojo some notoriety and attract students!" The karate girl shouted, getting Ibuki to stare at her owlishly instead of accusingly the way she had been before, "He won that tournament a few months ago with that girl that's from this town too, speaking of which; I should probably beat her too for good measure."

She wanted to fight Naruto to get her father's fighting style famous. For some reason that was very normal around Aohura City just in different ways. Street punks liked to try and fight Naruto to prove that they were strong and on the rise, but they usually just wound up getting knocked out in short order. At least it kept him from getting out of shape, "Right… well, what's your name?"

"Makoto of the Rindoukan-ryuu Karate discipline." The girl stated firmly.

'Why do all of these little punks want to knock off Naruto so bad?' Ibuki thought to herself before sighing, and speaking to the younger girl, "Well Makoto, Naruto isn't here right now and neither is Sakura. They're out of the country, so you'll have to wait until he comes back."

Makoto seemed rather disappointed and impatient at having to wait for Naruto to return, "Are you kidding me? I came 80 kilometers all the way to the Chugoku region to fight this guy and he isn't even here?"

"That's unfortunate." Ibuki commented, "Your father let you come all the way out here to fight someone?" Makoto nodded as if there was nothing wrong with that, but Ibuki was well aware how strange that was for normal people.

"It's just an hour by bus. And when it comes to a young fighter in training challenging themselves no distance is too great." She seemed proud of that bit of combat philosophy, "I hope he's not just hiding or anything. I don't want to fight a guy like that."

"No… he's just not here. You should try again in a few weeks. Unless he's dead he'll be back by then, I'm sure of it. We've still got to finish up the school term." Makoto's eyes lit up when she heard that Naruto's life might be under duress, 'Crap, she must think he's a really strong opponent if I'm talking about him doing something that can kill him. So she's that kind of person.'

"Well then I'll definitely wait and then I'll come back." Makoto stated resolutely, "He and that Sakura girl are the closest fighters with any kind of name value based near the Shikoku region."

An idea formed in Ibuki's head to take some heat off of Naruto from this girl, because she seemed to be the type that would get madder the longer she waited to fight him, and she herself didn't want to get into a useless fight while she was still injured, "Well if you want to waste some time there's a dojo in town run by Hibiki Dan. He's kind of famous. You could go dojo busting."

That worked just fine. And Ibuki was in need of some entertainment. Keep a crazy karate girl off of her friend's back for as long as possible and amuse herself a bit before she went home by watching this girl kick every single one of Dan's student's asses (and maybe Dan himself if he was there).

The city was so much more interesting than her village.

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{Character Profile}

Name: Sagat

Nationality: Thailand

Gender: Male

Age: 34 (July 2)

Height/Weight: 7'6/330 lbs.

Bloodtype: B

Likes: Strong opponents.

Dislikes: Metsu Shoryuuken, losing the pride of his people, Satsui no Hadou, Adon.

Hobbies: Diving (20 minutes time holding breath)

Rivals: Ryu, Adon, Dan

Fighting Style: Muay Thai

Current Techniques: Ying Seụ̄x (Tiger Shot), K̄hèā Seụ̄x (Tiger Knee), S̄eụ̄x Sxydāw (Tiger Uppercut), P̄hælpĕn Korṭh (Angry Scar).

Hyper Techniques: Kār Kh̀ā Lāng Phèāphạnṭhu̒ Seụ̄x (Tiger Genocide), Thảlāy Seụ̄x (Tiger Destruction), Khæn Nxn Seụ̄x (Tiger Cannon).

Background: As a teenager, Sagat won the title of God of Muay Thai and became a national hero in Thailand where the combat sport is revered. Over the next fifteen years he established himself in many violent, hard-fought encounters as perhaps the most infamous martial artist in the world, cementing his name for beating a fighter named Go Hibiki to death in an uncontrollable rage for destroying Sagat's right eye mid-bout. Sagat's defeat and subsequent scarring at the hands of Ryu and his Satsui no Hadou in the World Warrior Tournament was his first defeat nearly two decades and caused him to become obsessed with training and avenging his loss, so much so that in his anger he was driven to accept an offer from M. Bison to join Shadaloo due to promises that the group's resources would locate Ryu and bring him to Sagat for a rematch that Sagat was convinced he was ducking. Sagat is a very powerful fighter and a proud warrior that has dedicated his life to physical and spiritual training in the martial arts and believes in the merits of a fair fight. In combat he can become easily enraged and will then increase his strength further than normal as a result. He makes good use of his size, incredible strength, and abnormal height and range with an aggressive attack pattern and style.