Hiding In Plain Sight 2...

Chapter 38.5 - Hiding In Plain Sight 2...

(State-of-the-Art Laboratory – Unknown Location)

Dozens of holographic screen projections with names of people all over the world and intimate biological information on what made them physically tick, all painstakingly gathered through the efforts of agents placed all over the globe for quite some time and compounded in the best information sorting hardware available anywhere.

Many of the bios had pictures to go with them, but as quickly as they were being sorted through, many were being cast out of the overall lineup. The main separating point was not nationality or blood type. Nor was it gender, age, ethnicity, or anything of the sort.

The deciding factor in which fighter remained in the lineup was their ability to utilize ki and the potential of their ability to do so in their bodies.

All of this was being overseen by a small, grotesque little man in a lab coat, balding with long stringy hair and beady eyes darting back and forth over all of the info in front of him.

"How goes the research Doctor Senoh?"

That powerful, yet cool and controlled voice was nothing like Bison's. That voice would never be heard again after his quite timely demise under mysterious circumstances at the close of his own tournament. Senoh didn't even risk turning around. For some reason he feared this person more than Bison.

Probably because he wasn't really human.

Probably because he was created by the people that he now commanded.

Probably because of all of those things, and the fact that he could crush Senoh's skull like a grape if he felt that his use had been outlived or if he was going to betray him.

"The research?" Senoh asked, wiping away a bead of nervous sweat that rolled down his forehead.

"Yes." The voice behind him replied without a single hint of negative emotion. There was only a calm confidence about him, "You were M. Bison's lead examiner of ki-based studies. Held in high enough regard to not be set in S.I.N., but instead kept closely enough with him in Shadaloo as a consultant. I'm quite certain that if anyone is skilled enough to lead the BLECE project to a breakthrough it would be you."

"Of course sir." Senoh said with a smirk at the ego-stroking praise from his newest boss. Bison never did anything of the sort. Always so impatient and violent. Perhaps there were benefits of working for someone that was not human, "I've discovered that one of the last things we need to complete the project is something that your other scientists were too foolish to think to utilize."

"Oh? Do go on."

"They were looking for a potent enough catalyst to allow the weapon to work." Senoh's face was full of the smuggest sense of self-satisfaction at his own apparent brilliance, "But they're so set in their technology. Cold steel. Circuits. Chips. For all their technological brilliance they're forgetting the most important thing; that this is a biological weapon. And there is no biological marvel greater than life itself. Life in its entirety. Or should I say life-force?"

"The ki."

"Exactly. The body of a living being has the potential to safely expend enough energy to rival the overload of an electric generator and continue to operate at prime condition, to say the least of what some are capable of." Senoh said with a pleased chuckle as he gestured to the screens in front of him, "What I present to you are the finest examples of the human condition on current record. The most acutely honed sources of the natural energy the human body has the ability to possess."

There was a moment of silence as the leader took in all that he was seeing. Impressively it only took him a matter of seconds to do so and to understand it for the sheer amount of info he had to absorb, "There are dozens. All over the world. But so many are concentrated in one area."

"Perhaps there's something in the water in Japan?"

"Indeed."

"Any ideas on our next move sir?"

"We should begin testing the BLECE project, but not on humans yet. A place with an abundance of life would be best for this."

"Yes. In the meantime what about my theory on the ki of the warriors? You sounded intrigued."

"And I am. Since we cannot use my own quite… potent abilities as a control for multiple reasons, we should aspire to find the next best available subject for testing. We need to observe some of the more impressive fighters with ki mastery and ki potential."

Yes. Senoh enjoyed working for S.I.N. much more than he ever enjoyed working for Shadaloo. Or maybe it was just his boss? There was a man, or a being, that was in control and knew what he needed to get done. Bison getting himself offed in his vendetta against those that had almost brought Shadaloo crumbling was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

The sudden hostile takeover of S.I.N. in the days following Bison's death led to Shadaloo's remaining scientists being transferred over to the weapons development sector of the criminal organization. It was safer, and it was almost legal since S.I.N. had a real presence in the world as a weapons research and development company.

And Seth was a being of vision. Someone willing to use science and knowledge to obtain control unlike Bison who despite being a smart enough man did everything with brute force and intimidation, only willing to utilize science if it enhanced his own ability to do so and maintain control.

It was going to be a grand rise.

XxX

(A Few Days Later – Zurich, Switzerland)

"Oh Kami…" Naruto muttered to himself, once again stuck in his formal bodyguard suit and fighting the urge to tug at his tie. The suit wasn't the only thing making his job hard tonight, "Out of every single language that I hear in this ballroom… I can only speak three of them. If someone's gonna attack you, honestly they've got a pretty good chance of getting the drop on us because I can't make sense of any of it."

"I can speak every language that you are unable to comprehend Naruto-san." Karin stated, calmly sipping on a drink at his side while wearing a rather fetching red dress that hugged her body snugly and a white pair of gloves that went up to her elbow. Instead of her normal blue bow in her hair, she had a silver diamond-plated barrette, "I do not think that conspirators conversing in the open will be of any concern to us however. Not in a place such as this."

It was a gathering of some of the world's economic heavy-hitters. A function held by the very influential international technology company S.I.N. in order for them to announce an expansion of their business, allowing for more investment opportunity and chances for collaboration with intrepid partners. It was all blasé, boring state of the business talk, which was Karin's area of expertise outside of fighting.

The Kanzuki Zaibatsu had occasional dealings with them in the past going back before Karin was even born, as each had a small minority stake in the company of the other, and it was lucrative because S.I.N. seemed to have no ceiling on the profits that they could bring in. As an example, S.I.N. supplied the JSDF with most of their high-tech weaponry that brought their armed forces into the 21st century, a venture that they were still raking in money from.

Yes, and as a company that had a penchant for creating weapons from small arms to unmanned drones, S.I.N. had good security. Good, well-armed security, in superb tactical positions to oversee the interior as well as patrol the exterior of the meeting place. So maybe there wasn't any need for a superhuman ninja to protect a superhuman heiress to the wealthiest family in Asia.

But it couldn't hurt to have one at this party.

Naruto used the term party lightly when describing what was going on. There was light music, but it was mostly stuffy old men and women talking about things that involved more money than he would ever see. Speaking in terms of sums that he would never use in a sentence unless he was grossly over-exaggerating the number of something.

He understood the purpose of it all as this wasn't really his first rodeo so to speak, but he still absolutely despised it. He found it so hard to find something to eat these things. Things to eat that he could actually tell what they were. So he usually went quite hungry while working these things. That was another annoying thing about these VIP missions.

The only saving grace in the past during these events was that he could chat with Karin. But she'd been rather stiff since that day in school when he'd basically blurted out that they'd almost had relations.

That was the third and most annoying thing about the current mission that he was on.

He'd apologized face-to-face and he'd given her some space afterwards. She hadn't hit him yet and he didn't think she would, but then again Karin had always been above physical retaliation despite how tough she acted. She never hit anyone first. She'd make them try to hit her and then she'd kick their asses.

"Karin." Naruto said, trying to get her to talk to him. "Karin." This was how it would go when he usually tried to talk to her directly instead of making a broad statement like the previous thing he'd said, "Ka-rin." She'd act like she was ignoring him until he reached the magic number of requests, "Rin-Rin."

An eye twitch and a rather long sip of her cocktail to hide the reaction? Ooh, that one got to her. At first it used to piss her off that he referred to her without the proper honorific, but she eventually got over it. Now he had a brand-new button to push. Wasn't that fun?

"Talk to me Rin-Rin. I know you're bored. You haven't even tried to go talk about business or rich people stuff with these guys in almost twenty minutes." Naruto reasoned as to how he could tell she really wasn't feeling this gathering, "And I have no idea how many of those you've had." He said while the glass was still at her lips.

He hadn't really been counting, but she was underage by the standards of most countries. She was seventeen like him, only one month older. Granted she wouldn't be driving anything herself or flying them home that night after they left the party so in theory she could get as drunk as her heart desired, but that didn't seem a very Kanzuki-like thing to do.

"I'm not particularly here to make any business dealings with any of the CEOs present." Karin finally started to explain, looking with one eye in Naruto's direction. Her cheeks had a touch of red across them, but that could have meant anything really, "This is more for appearances, which is why I am here instead of my father."

"He seems to be using you a lot more for this kind of thing instead of doing it himself."

"Quite. I am basically doing everything but running things on a day-to-day basis with the amount of work I do every day, even in school. I think the time is coming for me to usurp control of the company's majority holdings from him. It is what he taught me after all, to strike at times of weakness."

For some reason a confident and in control Kanzuki Karin was one of the most attractive things to Naruto in the world. He would never let her command him or tell him what to do as was his nature, but there was something inherently sexy about a beautiful girl that smart, and he had already admitted to himself that Karin was one of the finest examples of woman in his age bracket.

Focused, business-mode Karin was a dangerous, gorgeous creature. Even more so than usual.

As she continued thinking to herself she noticed that Naruto hadn't stopped looking her way for quite some time, "Security overseeing this place or not Naruto-san, I wonder why you are observing me so closely and not our surroundings. An assassin could be skulking amongst the guests here and I don't believe you would be prepared to adequately protect me."

"There isn't anything I wouldn't do to protect you." Naruto replied, still not taking his eyes off of her, "Not that you really need it. But you are my lovely boss lady, and it's a habit."

"Apparently that is all I am to you."

"What does that mean?"

Karin opened her mouth to say more, but looked around at the ongoing party and decided that it wasn't for the best where they were, "No, it is of no consequence. Forget I said anything."

That wasn't going to fly. Naruto looked around as well with a frown on his face before grabbing Karin by the hand and pulling her along with him in the middle of one of her sips of her drink. Eventually he found a path out of the proceedings and managed to get them out to a balcony overlooking the side lawn of the meeting hall.

Finally freeing her hand from Naruto's grasp, Karin walked away toward the railing and looked out over it, "What do you think you are doing?" She said as he stood behind her leaning against the wall, shutting the door leading back inside, "I do not care much for how you removed me from the ballroom for reference's sake."

"What did you mean by that's all you are to me?" Naruto didn't bother mincing words now that they were by themselves, "Just my boss? That's what you think?" He wasn't even accepting much pay at all for this. He didn't mind travelling with her and he'd have definitely done it for free by now, it was just that she wouldn't take charity work from him as an offer.

"Yes." Karin kept her voice very even and her posture quite stern as she leaned on the railing, back to Naruto, "I mean-. I… I do not know. I am not certain. Expressing what I feel in a manner such as this is confusing to convey, and I am not much for understanding matters of the heart to begin with. And I do not know why I am finding it so easy to say such things now."

"Well now you're confusing me." Naruto said, crossing his arms over his chest, "I mean, before the tournament we danced around dating for a little while, but right before I started training hard for it I played around at asking you out to test how it'd fly with you. You froze up and backtracked, so I didn't. I just trained that whole time and things stayed the way they were."

During the period of training for the Second World Warrior Tournament his clone still saw her every day in school and she treated it like it was him she was talking to. Sometimes she'd show up to the junkyard to see his progress, but she wouldn't do that too often due to the surroundings not appealing to her, which was expected. Nothing seemed any different between them.

If anything he figured that she'd be the last girl that cared about anything he'd do.

'I confused you?' Karin asked, frowning as she continued to sip at her drink and took in the chain of events prior to Naruto's leaving for the tournament in Thailand, "My apologies. I panicked. I still panic when faced with the thought of you as a suitor."

"Yeah, I know I'm not the ace catch or anything. Your old man would probably throw the ultimate bitch fit if you brought me-."

A rather throaty chuckle came from Karin as she still had her back turned to Naruto. She downed the last of her drink and left the glass on the railing before turning around and leaning against the surface, "I am not concerned with a trifle of that nature. It is not what you are, or aren't in this case, that is the problem. It is me."

There was definitely something wrong, because Karin was admitting that she was at fault for something. That never happened. Once again, Naruto looked at her intently and realized that the faint blush on her face that he'd seen inside hadn't faded yet, "You've had more than three drinks haven't you?"

"Yes. Far more."

"How many exactly?"

"I did not keep count."

"Why?"

"Because I did not know how I would speak with you without something loosening my tongue first." She moved off of the railing with a slight sway in her step that he hadn't noticed on the way outside because he'd been guiding her, "I believe it has worked."

"…You're drunk?"

"Considerably so."

"To talk to me?"

"I could not look you in the eye and confront you otherwise."

Naruto didn't say anything else about it, nor did Karin. And upon taking a few regular looking steps forward it was quite clear why Karin's first move had been to move to the nearest sturdy object in the railing once they got outside when she stumbled into him, forcing him to catch her lest she fall to the ground.

"I am afraid that I have intimacy issues you see." Karin mumbled, her face pressed against his chest before she looked up at him with soft brown eyes, "I was taught to mask and bury all imperfections or everything would be lost. To give yourself so casually to another. To allow them to take you as you are, including all flaws and imperfections… these are things that frighten me."

Karin really was more free-flowing with the words with a few drinks in her wasn't she? She was still awfully smart, that much didn't change, but-. Oh holy crap, she was rubbing herself against him now. Oh man, that was not good.

A content little moan slipped from her mouth as she rubbed her cheek against his chest comfortably, "But you do not care about any of that. You know of my few deficiencies and you are not bothered by them. You yourself are a walking imperfection." No, really. Complement him more, "Affection is not something I am accustomed to giving, but I am willing to try."

She let out a few laughs as she balanced herself against him to stand properly, and Naruto came to the conclusion that Shibazaki and Ishizaki were going to try and kill him once he got her back to the limo.

"Okay." Naruto said louder than necessary as he started to lead a rather intoxicated young woman out of the building the way that they came in, "You're still really eloquent when you're sloshed Rin-Rin, but we should get you out of here before something embarrassing happens to you."

"Do not refer to me in such a familiar manner Naruto-san, endearing though it may be." Karin said, blinking as the lights of the ballroom started getting to her alcohol-stunted senses once they started moving back through, "Why must these functions always be so well lit?"

That was the first time Naruto had ever heard someone complain about there being too many lights in a public room before, "Because rich people like lights and don't have to worry about the electric bill?" Naruto answered questioningly, "I don't know. Come on."

He continued leading her out until their way was blocked by a large, muscular man in classic formal Turkish attire complete with a sleek-looking turban. He had red skin and turquoise hair worn in weird circular curls and on many of his clothing pieces he had a very ornate golden lion. Probably a family crest or something. Lions were so overused for things like that.

"Miss Kanzuki." The man said in English in a thick accent. It was just as well. Naruto didn't think Karin knew how to speak Turkish anyway. And obviously neither could he, so it all worked out, "I'm looking forward to setting up the meeting we discussed earlier in the evening. Your family's company is quite illustrious."

"Of course Mr. Hakan." Karin managed to say louder than she should have, transferring her lack of balance too far forward before Naruto could help her pull herself back up properly. He kept her from falling, though, so he just went with the illusion that she was trying to bow, "I'm afraid I must be going as I have responsibilities to adhere to as soon as possible at home." Responsibilities like sobering up and possibly dealing with her first hangover, "But you have my personal number. Feel free to call at any time and we can arrange something."

Naruto skillfully pulled her back upright as Hakan reached out a hand that Karin took a shook, and then did the same for Naruto for some reason, which he accepted. It was strange, but Naruto wasn't about to screw up Karin's work by not taking it. He felt the little bones in his hand crack as the gargantuan man squeezed down, 'Oh my Kami! That's the one Cam broke damn it! Not again!'

His face didn't show a thing, but if there had been a dog in the room it would have been howling at the high-pitched noise coming from Naruto's closed mouth that no human being would have been able to hear.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Hakan said, satisfied at Naruto seemingly not flinching at his strength, "Hearsay of your strength has not been embellished I see. I like that." He looked back at Karin with a grin on his face, "The Kanzuki family really is able to procure the best of everything, even bodyguards."

"Of course." Karin said, patting Naruto on the cheek before the both of them moved past Hakan, "Have a good evening Mr. Hakan." She said with a bit of an airy giggle as Naruto continued to guide her out, "Oh my. I don't feel quite like myself I must say." She said before laughing a bit more and spontaneously planting a kiss on Naruto's cheek, "Ara, you take such good care of your Kanzuki-sama don't you Naruto-san?"

She was a really cute drunk; actually sweet and quite pleasant to be around. But that didn't make the situation any less potentially catastrophic if someone there figured out that she was smashed, "Let's go get your drunk little ass sobered up." Naruto said quietly enough for only her to hear, "…And get me a cast."

XxX

In a place that easily allowed the observation of the party from stairs overlooking the ballroom, several black-suited guards stood in various locations, scouting for potential problems. With all of the important people in the crowd it would be easy for anything wrong to happen, and they needed to be diligent.

Amongst them there was only one caramel-skinned female, extremely attractive, wearing a suit as well but one unique to her.

The outfit of the full-figured lady consisted of tight black slacks into heeled boots with a golden belt buckle. In addition, her open black suit jacket and white dress shirt were short enough to expose her stomach with three buttons undone higher up to show portions of her ample breasts. The button at the collar was done up though, and around her neck was a black tie. She had extremely long dark red hair done in a single braid that reached down to the back of her knees.

From behind yellow-tinted sunglasses she peered down into the crowd much like the other suited guards, but she was not amongst them. She was a different sort of S.I.N. employee altogether. From a point of view only she could see behind the glasses a small icon appeared above the heads of Naruto and Karin as they exited the ballroom, marking them as ki-adept.

She had been watching them all night. Those two and Hakan.

The only reason she had come was because she already knew that they would be there. It was known that the Kanzuki family had been invited, and while it was too much of a trip for the patriarch Daikenjuro to bother making, the daughter was a well-known busybody in the circles of enterprise.

And whenever Karin travelled out of country on one of these trips, Naruto was almost always guaranteed to come with her. Touching at the Bluetooth on her ear to make a call that had already been set up, the woman spoke into it, sounding quite bored, "Three potential candidates for the experiment were here tonight. But I don't really see them as too terribly impressive."

"You are aware that each of them can qualify as the most powerful humans in the world aren't you? Hakan is the most prominent Yağlı Güreş practitioner in all of Turkey. The Kanzuki girl is a part of the top echelon of fighters in Japan, not just amongst women, but in all of the country. And the power of Uzumaki is well-documented by Doctor Senoh even before then."

"Hakan looks powerful, I'll admit that much." The woman replied into her headset, "But the other two are rather unassuming."

"If anyone should recognize that looks can be deceiving it should be you Viper. But then again you didn't get to watch the tournament did you? You were hard at work as always."

A wry smile came to the woman Viper's lips as she turned away from the overlook of the ballroom and walked away, heels tapping on the floor, "There's money that needs to be made. I don't have time to indulge in my downtime as much as most." She pulled her gloves tighter on her hands and her face got serious once more, "So they're leaving. Should I test the potency of their battle ki for the sake of the project?"

"No. We have enough information on Uzumaki's ki from Shadaloo run-ins with him in the past. If you attack the Kanzuki girl in Switzerland you'll have to fight him no matter what."

"What about Hakan?"

"If you would like to risk destroying that brand new battle suit of yours feel free. The prototype is not meant for direct combat."

"It has to be field-tested at some point Seth."

"Agreed. But not here. And you are not part of the BLECE Project either. Not yet anyway. Leave the field work on the project to others."

Viper stopped walking and mulled over his words before shaking her head at speaking to her superior once more, "By others you mean that woman don't you?" There was a distinct distaste to her voice when saying 'that woman', "I wasn't aware that you wanted the candidates dead." She jested dryly.

"Her orders are strictly to test the targets I indicate for her. If they aren't strong enough to survive her when I'm directing her to keep them alive they aren't worth the attention are they? It's the perfect way to field test her new weaponry after all, even if there's the risk of her losing control in her excitement. You may retire from your mission. I will contact you again soon with your next assignment ."

"Juri Han is a dangerous person." Viper said to herself after Seth hung up the phone, "That woman doesn't know the meaning of subtlety. I'd hate to think of what she can do now, especially with the results of her recent surgery."

Omake: Meet the Family

(Six Days Earlier – Aohura City, Japan – Genhanten)

Sasuke sat on the stoop in the alley out behind the building that contained his restaurant. His reason for being out there being to oversee the delivery of ingredients to Genhanten while his workers kept things going during the end of the day early dinner rush.

'Goddamn I'm bored.' Sasuke thought to himself, 'I wish something interesting would happen around here. Anything. I don't care what it is.'

Turning to his left he acknowledged the presence of Akira who was sitting right there next to him on the stoop, her bike parked off in a corner of the large open alley. Her helmet was off and she was just looking off into the distance with a content expression on her face. With that helmet off she was really mellow and shy, but when she put it back on she could be assertive and downright fierce. It was odd.

Kazama Akira had made it a habit of stopping around on most days after her high school let out, even if it was only for a little while. Admittedly it was nice company, albeit confusing as to what the point of it was. He didn't know what she wanted.

She didn't want to fight. She never really talked when that helmet of hers was off. And she didn't want to hire him, though she did show interest in him being an assassin and not liking Naruto, probably hoping in vain that he'd take it upon himself to kill him to make her day.

Who knew what she wanted? Maybe she just liked the atmosphere of his restaurant?

Either way it didn't matter.

Eventually though, more people walked into the alley. All high school students from the looks of them, led by three young men. One was of normal height in a purple outfit with weird-looking blond eraser hair, one was massive and looked like a sumo in the making, and the last one was calm and cool... even though he had a crutch to walk with he was the most dangerous of them all.

Akira tensed up and let out an almost silent gasp, but Sasuke didn't notice. As they all looked at him and Akira he felt the need to speak up at this strange situation, "Hello? Can I help you with something?"

Edge was the first to speak up, stepping forward with his hands cockily in his pockets, "Yeah, the first thing you can do is go die. Save me the trouble."

"Ooh." Sasuke said with a smirk before hopping off of the stoop. Somebody came to call him out. He hadn't beaten the piss out of anyone in quite some time, upstanding small businessman that he was, "Ooh is this really happening? Because I really hope it is." That was the most excitement for anything that Uchiha Sasuke would ever show.

"Oh trust me." Edge said, removing a hand from a pocket before pointing it at himself, "You don't want any of what I am right now." He had just beaten the finalist in the World Warrior Tournament in a game of darts and he had an entire gang at his back. It could be said that the small-time punk was feeling rather lucky today.

"Come on then." Sasuke said, beckoning him forward. Something about this guy really made him want to slam his head through one of those delivery trucks, "Bring all five feet of you, or should I count your stupid hair?"

"Pretty big talk coming from a lame-ass playboy pretty boy."

"Pretty big talk coming from a chickenshit wannabe-Yakuza bitch."

Before Edge could literally make Sasuke's day and pull some throwing knives to initiate a fight with, Daigo lashed out with his crutch and swept his legs, knocking him to the ground, "Control yourself imbecile. This isn't Uzumaki. Look at those eyes. He won't just beat you up and leave. He'll actually kill you on purpose."

'Check out the big brains on the boss man.' Sasuke thought, giving Daigo a nod of respect of sorts for keeping his subordinate in line, 'Is that guy serious? I've killed actual gangsters. What does he think I'll do to him?'

Akira tugged on Sasuke's sleeve and quietly spoke to him, "…Kill him..." Was all most people listening in could hear from her. Sasuke was close enough to hear the extended version though and got everything.

"Fine." Sasuke said with a scoff before sitting back down next to her, "For you. I won't kill the blond idiot since he's your friend. But he'd better check that attitude at the mouth of the alley or he might not make it back out with all of his teeth."

From his place on the ground, Edge growled and started getting back up, ready to pull another throwing knife, "Motherfucker thinks he's tough." Before he could get up and do anything Gan sat on his back pinning him to the ground, "Get off fatass! This is a matter of respect!"

Ignoring Edge, Daigo walked forward and looked over at a red-faced Akira, "So this is where you go every day little sister."

"Not every day." Akira said softly, still blushing more than a little bit. Of all things, was she really staying around there enough for Daigo to get curious as to her usual whereabouts? How embarrassing… and possibly dangerous, "Daigo-nii, why'd you come here?"

His eyes quickly darted Sasuke's way and Akira's jaw dropped slightly before she glared up at him, trying to warn him off from possibly humiliating her. Being that he was stronger than her, it did not work, "Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Yeah?" Sasuke replied, eyes up and staring emptily at what he'd obviously by now figured to be Akira's big brother. His fingers twitched a bit at the thought of a big brother, but this was not the time to bring his own family issues into the open, "Is there something I can do for you?"

Daigo didn't say anything, instead just sizing Sasuke up for what seemed to be the longest time. In the end though, he just smiled, something that looked out of place on his face that was probably twisted in a scowl or a frown more often than not, "Make sure you take care of Akira."

Why? Even if someone attacked them stupidly Akira was strong enough to fight just about anyone by herself.

Either way, Sasuke had been addressed and had to respond. With an interestedly quirked eyebrow Sasuke just nodded, figuring that agreeing would get this whole awkward situation to drop as soon as possible, "Sure."

Akira was trying to carve a hole through Daigo's skull with her stare at this point, so much so that the entirety of the Gedo High Gang started taking steps back away from her. She was so going to punch him in the stomach when she got home later. She was definitely not cooking for him that night. He could feed himself for a day or two.

Seemingly satisfied after his quick observation and screening of Sasuke's character, Daigo motioned for everyone to leave the alley. With Gan getting up off of Edge, Daigo picked him up by his collar with his free hand and hurled him all the way out in an impressive show of strength, "My apologies for the actions of Eiji by the way." He said, speaking of Edge, "He lacks manners and common courtesy."

"I know the type." Sasuke deadpanned, "You might want to put him on a leash if you want to keep him."

"I'll keep that in mind." Daigo said with a humored look on his face before turning to leave with the rest of his gang as well, "Akira, I'll see you at home."

Akira's eyes didn't stop following her older sibling until long after he had left and she let out a quiet sigh of resignation. She'd done a pretty good job of keeping the crazy that was her brother's high school gang as far away from Sasuke as possible only for all of it to fall on his head in one fell swoop.

She was seriously going to kick the crap out of Daigo later. That jerk, he knew exactly what he was doing.

"Your brother seems like an alright guy." Sasuke commented idly, much to Akira's surprise. Not only because he hadn't been disturbed by anything that had just happened, but also because he was talking to her period. He barely did that without some kind of prompting first, "He should really keep better company, but whatever."

"…You don't hate Daigo-nii?"

"I didn't say all that." Sasuke said, making sure she understood him correctly, "Let's just say that I hate him less than a lot of other people I've met in this town."

A frown sprang to her face upon hearing that from him, "Is there anyone you don't hate?"

"You. Duh." Sasuke said with a shrug. He felt that much should have been obvious by now, "It's why I let you hang around. Out of everyone I know in Aohura City you're the only one whose presence I can tolerate for more than ten minutes at a time without wanting to bury a kunai in my eardrums."

Disturbing analogy aside, Akira took in the gist of what Sasuke was saying and accepted the heavily concealed compliment that it was meant to be, "Do you mean that?" She asked in a very quiet voice.

"Yeah." Sasuke confirmed, either not knowing or caring about what his words happened to do in regards to her insides doing flips, "Seriously. You're the only person I like. Everybody else I've ever met sucks." Even his other friends.

No. Especially his other friends.

All of his other acquaintances; Naruto, Yang, Yun, Chun-Li on a good day. Every single one of them could be absolutely overbearing when they wanted to be. Even when they didn't want to be most of the time actually.

Akira was better than all of them. She never talked when there was nothing going on. When she did have something to say, it was always useful. She knew how to enjoy the tranquility around her. Yeah, from his viewpoint she would be his first choice whenever he needed a second for something. He might even bother with giving her his phone number in case she needed him or vice-versa.

Hey, you never knew.

All Akira could do was look down at her biker boots with a small smile on her face that she did her best to hide...