A Shock To The System...

Chapter 36 - A Shock To The System...

One hour. After the semifinal fight Naruto and the second finalist would have one hour to suck up whatever was wrong with them from their last two days of fighting before the last battle of the tournament would commence.

It was a time like this where Naruto found himself grateful that his semifinal fight had been first. It gave him extra time to recuperate, even if it was only a few minutes longer. The nature of his win over Sagat still didn't sit well with him, but as Ibuki had advised him before he left for the trip his pride had to take a backseat for the victory.

Sagat had been one of Bison's henchmen, his absolute best without question. An army-killer of a man. Whatever reason he quit for saved Naruto a lot of pain, possible death or dismemberment, and perhaps prevented the temple from being destroyed in a wild battle. An entire building had already been a casualty as a result of their fight and it hadn't even spilled fully out of control before it ended.

E. Honda shoved a kebob in Naruto's face much to his surprise as he was sitting and thinking before the next match began, "Eat." The rotund sumo ordered him, "Get back what energy you can while you can." He grinned when he saw Naruto do just that, "Atta boy."

Guile just shook his head with his usual stern look on his face before turning his head as he watched Sasuke take his time walking down the stairs. Looking between Sasuke on the large stone stairs and Ken down in the courtyard, he voiced his thoughts aloud, "You could probably quit right now and lose nothing."

Naruto followed part of Guile's gaze and wound up locking eyes with Sasuke who merely smirked at him before continuing on his way, "Fuck that." And let Sasuke have bragging rights for life? Not a chance. He'd already beaten his ass every single time they'd fought since they were kids, and now he was supposed to back out with the world watching?

Sitting right by Naruto, Chun-Li noticed that the two former Konoha genin had taken part in a momentary staredown with one another and felt the need to ask, "Seriously, what is it with you two? I know you fought once, and I heard that was how you 'got to this world' or whatever that means, but it can't be just about one battle."

"Sasuke almost killed him." Cammy said, with her usual lack of tact that she didn't seem to care about being devoid of, "That fight you're talking about, they almost killed each other. Apparently Sasuke shoved his hand through Naruto's chest and shoulder."

"That's not what it's about." Naruto quickly stated before too many of his older friends could jump to some sort of conclusion, "Every day. Every single day back when we were kids training to be ninja, he was the one guy I kept comparing myself to. And no matter what I did it never seemed like I could be better than him." If he couldn't prove himself better than one rival how could he ever have become Hokage, "It used to eat at me all the time because everyone always called him the best and used to say that I sucked."

Why can't you be more like Sasuke Naruto?

Sasuke can do that better Naruto.

I'm so jealous because you're on a team with Sasuke-kun, it must be so easy.

Every damn day.

"I want to be better than him and prove it to someone. One time. Even if it's just once." Naruto finally said, "I want him to win this fight. Ken beat me before too, but this is different. This is literally over ten years in the making."

Yeah it sounded selfish. In the middle of all of the things that had happened over the last two days he still wanted to find time to do battle with his friend/rival. Did that make him a bad person? That he cared more about fighting Sasuke than getting ambushed by an enemy in waiting?

Guile seemed to nod in understanding as to what his younger blond counterpart was saying. It was a matter of pride. Naruto was a prideful young man. He took great pride in his abilities. For God's sake he called himself the 'Best Ninja in the World'. But then Sasuke resurfaced. And how could you call yourself the best ninja if there was a ninja that you'd never been able to defeat once out of oh so many encounters?

"Is that the dark side talking?" Chun-Li muttered, rubbing her temple. She was right on the money with those two idiots earlier the other day. They did have a history of problems with each other.

"No it's probably both sides." Naruto responded, not bothered by the dark side remark. He then crossed his arms over his chest and glared out at the battlefield, "But if he doesn't win then fuck it. I'll just laugh at him, get over it, and fight Ken." Because that was how they lived.

As he finished walking down the stairs, Sasuke could swear that his ears were burning, but paid it no mind. Instead walking out to where Ken was standing to meet him on the multi-leveled temple courtyard that had been reduced to a good chunk of a rubble pit.

The monks that populated that temple were going to throw a bitch fit after everything cleared out and they finally counted up the revenue of their hosting the tournament. It wasn't his problem though, thus he didn't care, 'And to think, the only reason I entered this tournament was because of Gen.' He'd probably have to thank that old killer whenever he made it back to Hong Kong, 'Nah, not really. That old sadistic bastard can die and rot.'

Ken smirked at Sasuke confidently as he rolled his shoulders out in preparation for combat, "Ready to get your ass kicked I see." Quickly slipping into his fighting stance he let off an air of being ready for action.

"This is the fight that will fill out the seed for the final round! Assassin Sasuke Uchiha against the U.S. Champion Ken Masters! This is going to be a fiery semifinal, and there's no pun intended there folks! Let's get this started! FIGHT!"

"Hm." Sasuke returned, standing in a rather indifferent posture, not looking ready to fight at all, "You should watch your mouth. I've got a pretty stellar track record against big talking idiots like you."

"Is that any way to speak to an elder? Where's the respect?"

Yet another scoff came from Sasuke who turned his nose away from Ken at the mere thought of what he was implying, "Respect? Sure, I'll show you some respect. Just as soon as you do something worth respecting. So far I've seen you beat an idiot brute of a wrestler, and in the last round you lucked out because your friend didn't want to kill you."

And just like that a switch seemed to be flipped in Ken's demeanor. The smiling was all gone from that point forward, "…What was that?"

Ooh, a nerve had been stricken. Who was in whose head now? "You heard me." Sasuke decided to pile it on and go straight for the jugular, "Ryu had you dead-to-rights twice. The second time was the worst. The only reason you're not dead is because he valued your life more than winning. He didn't want to end a decent sparring partner maybe."

"The powers he used were dark. Evil." The conversation was really taking a turn down an avenue that Ken didn't want to take it. He knew Ryu was watching and he knew that his best friend could hear everything that they were saying, "If he gave in to that power he'd kill people." And of all things, Sasuke began to laugh. He held a hand over his eyes and forehead and laughed, "And you think it's funny?"

Sasuke kept laughing for a short while longer before he smoothed back his dark hair and shook his head, "Yeah, I really do. What a weak thing to say, that the power makes him evil. He should learn to control it, to stop being a wimp that's afraid of the feeling that the power gives him." The black marks of the Cursed Seal of Heaven began to spread across his face and body from the back of his neck as he made a show of locating Ryu before staring at him, "The power isn't what's evil. You see, power doesn't make you want to kill people. It's the person behind the power that kills people."

"Shut your mouth!" Ken moved forward with a blur and launched a haymaker of a punch that Sasuke's black-marked hand caught firmly before it could impact with his face, "What?" The hand tightened around his gloved fist, "What is this?"

"My dark power." Sasuke explained, "And unlike some people here, I can actually control it." His movements barely visible, Sasuke sank his fist into Ken's belly with enough force to shoot him back several meters.

The man remained on his feet, dragging a trench through the ground with his bare heels. Though after his movements ceased he sank down to one knee, holding the area that suffered the blow, 'What was-. No, what is that?' He asked as the marks on Sasuke's body regressed, "Wait, why'd you stop using it."

"I don't need it to beat you." Sasuke reasoned with a shrug. His dry confidence covered for the real reason he chose to stanch the Cursed Seal, 'I need to save it for when I need it, not just to make quick work of this guy. If I use it for too long it'll start harming my body and I still have one match left.' There was no need to get reckless just to demoralize the enemy.

Standing back up straight, Ken started channeling ki to his hands, "You're going to be rethinking that in a moment. Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" Putting extra kick into the blast, Ken fired a faster than average blue ki ball the size of his head at Sasuke, putting his reflexes to the test. It was a test that Sasuke passed though as he managed to move around the attack and streak toward Ken.

The American managed to stop a knife-hand strike aimed at his throat similar to how Sasuke stopped his own punch moments ago. Ken didn't have time to rest on his laurels though, as Sasuke's free hand still had a shot at his head that he took with rapid-fire attacks that Ken skillfully evaded by the slimmest of margins. The quick flurry of attacks ended when Sasuke tried to use his Sharingan to time Ken's dodging and slip in a front elbow, but where Sasuke's situational awareness was incomparable due to the Sharingan, Ken had sheer experience fighting against nearly every style under the sun and blocked the elbow.

Yanking the first hand free, Sasuke pushed down on his captured elbow and posted up in the air, spinning upside-down as he delivered acrobatic kicks that still wound up being blocked since Ken now had one arm free as well. Eventually Sasuke was thrown off and flipped through air, landing on his feet in a crouch a short distance away as Ken pressed the pace of the battle by moving forward this time.

Trying to break his momentum, Sasuke timed a flip over Ken before attempting a kick at his blind spot before landing, but this too was blocked, 'What the hell is this?' Sasuke wondered as his failed gambit resulted in Ken getting close enough to begin physically attacking him in earnest, 'I didn't use a single move from the same fighting style that entire time and he still evaded everything!'

The man wasn't even looking in his eyes, he was watching his core. Look up damn it! Just once while they were fighting so he'd never notice getting caught in something illusionary!

Now that his temper was even again, Ken could feel that Sasuke was beginning to get a bit flummoxed at having not put dealt him a critical blow yet, "You're probably wondering how I haven't fallen for any of your crap yet aren't you?" He asked while Sasuke continued to dodge punches and kicks with no room left to counter safely, "I don't fight exactly like Ryu. His ki manipulation is stronger than mine, but when it comes to the actual art itself in hand-to-hand, I'm better. And I can see through your little game kid."

To emphasize that point, Ken's foot stealthily slid forward and stepped on Sasuke's big toe just enough to disrupt his movement, allowing Ken to drive home a crushing hook to the face. Sasuke didn't get hit that hard very often, but he knew how to take a punch. It didn't mean he was pleased with taking one of that magnitude though.

A visible bruise formed on Sasuke's face as he got sight of Ken coming his way again once he jumped to get away from him, but he planned on making Ken pay with his attempt to keep the pressure on, "Gouki Kagizume o Oshite (Grand Talon Press)!" With lightning crackling around his lower body, Sasuke landed on the ground and unleashed a crushing discharge of lightning from his body that actually caught Ken at the end of its range and pushed him back, giving him some shocks.

"Grr." Ken's muscles twitched with discomfort from the blast of electricity, but he hadn't been hurt too badly all things considered. At least he hadn't been any closer. A crater had been blasted into the ground the entire height of Sasuke himself. Survival instincts told Ken to check his six, and indeed from his blind spot he had to dodge a Chidori, the only warning of which had been the telltale sign that the lightning jab produced during its existence, 'The kid's still so fast though. If it wasn't for the sound that would have gotten me.'

"Nice dodge." Sasuke said, flexing out his hand now that it was no longer engulfed in lighting chakra, "I don't know how you had the time to react to that, but that's still pretty impressive."

"I'm so glad I meet your approval." Ken crowed sarcastically gesturing Sasuke forward with two fingers on one hand tauntingly, "Come on, I'm not done beating your ass yet."

XxX

Were anyone to venture onto the only dirt road leading to and from the temple hosting the tournament they would have found themselves paralyzed by a crushing battle of powerful auras. Miles away from the actual site of the televised battles, Sagat stood face-to-face with M. Bison, both waiting on the other to make the first move.

Animals that had been near the road, from the birds to the most insignificant insects, they had all taken it upon themselves to move away from the pending conflict as far and as fast as they could.

"So you're really going to challenge me here?" Bison asked before narrowing his eyes at his former subordinate, "I was not aware that you were so gutless Sagat."

"How is fighting you gutless?"

"Because… suicide is the coward's way out."

The no-nonsense visage of Sagat stared directly at the smirking face of Bison as the man slowly reached for the cape at his shoulders and cast it away. But the throwing of the cape concealed his body, and by the time it floated up and out of the way the man was gone from his sight.

Sagat's single eye widened as he turned and blocked a punch that would have been directed at his neck had he not known that Bison's killer instinct would have called for him to take that shot, 'This is the power he possesses.' Sagat's entire arm tingled from merely guarding himself, and then he saw the crackling ball of purple energy that he was holding in his other hand, "What are you-?"

"Psycho Shot!" Bison let the blast fly, but even at close range Sagat had been mobile enough to move out of the way. As the unstable projectile left his hands, Bison chuckled evilly at the sight of it tearing down trees in the jungle and going forth until it eventually exploded, "You have nothing to offer that I can't send right back at you ten-fold. You are but the learner Sagat."

A low growl came from Sagat as his eye had also been locked on the destruction wrought from his opponent's single attack, "You make me sick." The Muay Thai master stated coldly only to elicit more laughter from Bison.

"You know that cute little technique you use to bring out your full potential in battle." Bison started to say as he slowly walked toward Sagat, "The one you used in your fight with Uzumaki before you cut it short… you're going to want to start using that if you want this to last longer than five minutes." Without warning, as if his body were made of paper, Bison floated into and glided through the air before swiftly dropping down in a forceful stomp that Sagat had to jump back to avoid being crushed beneath like the road.

He was completely unable to avoid the following punch shrouded in sick purple energy that hit him on his blind right side. Another punch straight to his chiseled body doubled Sagat over and allowed Bison to clutch the top of his head and propel him down into a mean-spirited knee strike right to the face that sent blood flying.

'He's still this powerful.' Sagat thought to himself as he could hear the madman's laughter echoing through the open-aired wilderness, 'He's lacking his original body and he's still as strong as he is.' He could hear the dirt of the road shift beneath Bison's feet and when he felt he was close enough he lashed out with a high kick from his back aimed at the head that Bison blocked with one hand. Still, it let him get back up which was the main reason for the attack, "You're not supposed to be this strong without the Psycho Drive."

"Oh Sagat…" Bison said, his eyes glowing for show, "You have no idea how powerful I was without the Psycho Drive, in a body that was decaying from the amount of power that the device gave me. Well this body is new, not yet decimated from my own powers. What I lack in strength, which isn't significant compared to the rest of you worms, I make up for in speed instead. You've never seen me fight seriously, you only know about it in passing."

"Ying Seụ̄x (Tiger Shot)!" Firing a blazing orange blast of energy at Bison, Sagat growled when the man merely floated up over it into the air before flipping and dropping down holding out a fist to punch down on him with, "S̄eụ̄x Sxydāw (Tiger Uppercut)!"

Instead of falling into the trajectory of Sagat's devastating rising uppercut, Bison altered his descent to miss it altogether, landing on the ground while Sagat was still stuck in the air. He was trying to drive the point home that Sagat could play stand-up all he wanted to. There was nothing he could do.

Sagat landed from his failed attack fists clenched tightly at how Bison was walking right through him. World-class fighters had crumbled at his feet from less effort on his part.

But fighting this man was like fighting no one else on Earth. As if to taunt him further, Bison pointed to his wrist as if he were wearing a watch and mouthed 'five minutes' to antagonize him. A grin sprang to the man's face when he saw Sagat's scar finally begin to glow again, "Oh thank goodness we can finally get this out of the way and I can get this over with. I've got my own tournament finale to crash you know."

Triggering his Angry Scar technique, ki flooded out of Sagat's body and engulfed him in orange. If he had to compare the feeling to anything he would have said that it felt like a weight had been lifted from his entire body, "This is what you wanted?"

Bison grinned cruelly and answered the seemingly harmless question, "Why yes it is. I was-." He was cut off from whatever taunting remark he was about to make by Sagat flying across the road and plowing into him with a Tiger Knee that drove the both of them into the forest and brought down an entire row of trees in brutal, smashing fashion.

XxX

(Meanwhile – At the Temple – Ken vs. Sasuke)

Sasuke was in the midst of playing the most high-stakes game of dodgeball he had ever dreamed of partaking in. Instead of having to duck and avoid red rubber balls filled with air he had to avoid screaming blue projectiles of focused energy.

Ken wasn't letting up, constantly moving back before firing repeated Hadokens that wowed the audience as if it were a light show. Normal light shows wouldn't potentially debilitate you if one of them hit you though.

It was still more of an exercise in futility from Sasuke's point of view though, 'He'll never hit me with a single one of those. Not if he keeps firing them off by themselves. He's wasting energy for nothing.'

The rate of fire from Ken kept up though, as he felt that he was subtly luring Sasuke near the high crowd wall, 'Just a little bit further now and I'll be ready to put an end to this.' Despite the young man's obvious talent, Ken was not as wary of Sasuke's martial arts skills as many others probably would have been, and he had a very good reason for that. Making Sasuke think he was afraid of getting close was all a part of his plan.

However Sasuke wasn't entirely unaware that Ken had something planned for him. He was allowing himself to be corralled to learn just where he was to be taken until he figured out that it was to the far wall, 'He thinks he can trap me with something as simple as that?'

This wasn't some amateur hour show. Even if he had roughly 180 degrees of movement unavailable to him, that still left more than enough space for someone like him to get away. The blasts from the Hadokens started pummeling the sturdy metal wall that hid the undersides of the crowd stands, and with each blast that vibrated their positions the people thought that it was great with all of their cheering and yelling.

Ken faced Sasuke who was mere feet from the wall and fired three blasts, watching Sasuke skillfully sway out of the way of each one without moving his feet, 'Okay, now that was kind of cool, but whatever.' "Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" Ken fired one at his body that Sasuke would have to make a move in order to dodge.

Rolling his eyes, Sasuke seemed to drift up and back like a levitating phantom before planting his feet on the wall and kicking off to leap over Ken's head, dropping with a sudden single-leg kick aimed at his rear side. It was so quick, and all of the extra directions were meant to criss-cross an enemy's eyes and leave them vulnerable to the final move. Ken merely grinned when he saw Sasuke jet overhead and hopped back in anticipation.

The moment Sasuke's foot touched the ground he wound up being punished for his assumptions of his opponent's tactical skills, "Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (Tornado Whirlwind Leg)!" Ken's jumping body spun like a top and delivered kick after kick to Sasuke, each blow a reminder of just how ill-advised his blindspot attack really was.

Ken landed in a skid while Sasuke's body flew through the air and smacked off of the metal wall with a clang as he dented it. He fell off to the ground and bounced once before going still.

"Oh man…" Ken said to himself, chuckling slightly as he watched Sasuke begin to stir and get back up, "You still don't see it do you? Either that, or you do see it and you're just trying to ignore the obvious for some reason."

"What the hell are you talking about loser?" Insults were always a fallback when you were losing your temper, and Sasuke snapped out one as he stood up in another foreign fighting stance that only got Ken to shake his head again, "What?"

"That. This is exactly what I'm talking about." Ken said, pointing at Sasuke's form, "That's the Chinese Kenpo stance that Chun-Li used on Naruto last round, and when you were standing against the wall you were using Fei Long's stance to help you sway out of the way of my Hadoken barrage."

While he came off as a careless bonehead stereotypical blond, Ken was highly intelligent. He had to be in order to run the business ventures that he oversaw with his family's fortune, and he had to be in order to be as skilled as he was in fighting without possessing Ryu's level of ki manipulating ability. He was a savant of physical martial arts styles.

"What's your point?" Sasuke said, switching stances to Eagle Claw kung fu as if he was reacting to Ken's words.

Ken's gaze turned hard and his face became completely serious, "Don't play stupid with me. It's your favorite little trick. Somehow you can copy the techniques that you've see people do. It's how you overwhelm people. You use so many techniques, and you've probably got so many more that no one's even seen you do that no one can possibly scout you properly. You could probably fight twenty battles and never use the same move twice. But you've got one major problem, and because of it if you keep trying this cute little crap with me you're going to get beaten to a pulp."

Sasuke didn't want to hear any of it and rushed forward, zigzagging until he got close enough to lash out with a swinging kick that missed Ken's torso, following up by switching legs to deliver a back kick that Ken caught before delivering a snap kick to Sasuke's body and throwing him away by the leg.

With a growl, Sasuke looked up from the ground. He was starting to lose his temper. Just how was Ken pulling this off? Everything he tried, nothing seemed to even catch him off-guard. Sasuke was faster, everybody knew it, Ken had to know it, but something was wrong. Did Ken really come up with a weakness?

A stern finger pointed in Sasuke's direction before Ken gave him a thumbs down, "You know what your problem is? You've got all of those moves, and you execute the movements themselves well. That's all fine and dandy… but you don't have any idea of how to use most of them the right way." He held up five fingers on one hand, "Since this fight started you've used five obvious moves that didn't fit in with the style you were set in."

Most of them had happened at the very start, after the first time Sasuke closed the distance right after ending his Cursed Seal actions. Sasuke started with his usual mixture of kung fu styles but switched abruptly to more acrobatic moves of several different disciplines.

Just now he used an obviously American Kickboxing technique, a style Ken knew like the back of his hand, out of an Eagle Claw stance. That move had absolutely no place being used out of the stance, especially given the Eagle Claw's combat nature being so absurdly different from kickboxing.

A bead of sweat formed on Sasuke's brow, 'That old bastard Gen always said I'd run into something like this one day.' After seeing how Gen could seamlessly shift between dozens of kung fu styles, even some lost to mainstream knowledge over the years, on command, Sasuke decided that he would try something similar but on a far grander scale. He learned the entirety of the Snake, Crane, and Mantis as a start to this.

Over the years after hundreds of fights and assassinations, Sasuke had been subjected to multiple moves and fighting postures that he found himself able to perform in one way or another and this formed the second portion of his fighting theory. While his base came from the three kung fu styles he had learned and trained with Gen, he spliced in random techniques and stances in an effort to create shock openings; little windows of surprise that would allow him to throw an enemy off-guard and kill them with his next series of moves.

His versatility in a fight was nearly limitless using such a method, and confusing enemies without genjutsu was all a matter of switching to the right move at the right time, but there was a serious weakness to fighting that way. Any real martial arts master could see the attacks foreign to Sasuke's formal training the way that Gen did and how Ken was doing now. Anything unfamiliar with the Snake, Crane, and Mantis styles could easily be picked out and adjusted for if one knew what to look for or not to look for.

XxX

In the crowd, the heel of Naruto's ninja sandal was beginning to wear the luster off of the metal beneath his chair as quickly as his foot kept hitting against it. Sasuke had basically taken the theory of using Rock Lee's movements from his chunin exam training years ago to several different levels, and Ken could still see through it.

'No matter which one of them I fight it's gonna be rough.' That much went without saying, which was why he didn't vocalize his thoughts to his surrounding friends.

He had fought Ken in the spring, along with Sakura against Ryu as well, but that couldn't be considered anything more than an exhibition bout. It was a fight in an airport terminal, there was no way it was going to get anything close to serious with so many bystanders in close proximity.

From the way the man acted so carefree most of the time it was hard to believe that he was the contemporary equal of Ryu, the former World Warrior Tournament champion (that had actually lost that accolade at the hands of Ken in the previous round). But then you watched Ken fight, and it all came together. It could not be disputed.

Ken Masters was one of the most dangerous people on the entire planet. With skill forged in fire and sharpened by the steel resistance of combat.

As Naruto's eyes scrutinized the fight as best he could, trying to soak up whatever he could to use in the near future, Chun-Li and Guile couldn't help but look around routinely, keeping their senses open, "As long as we're all this close together he's never going to show himself." Chun-Li said, speaking of Bison, "What is he waiting for?" Guile merely grunted in agreement, his thickly muscled arms crossed over his chest.

Really, what was he waiting for? They were all hurt, physically and mentally exhausted, and wound up to varying degrees of severity amongst them. If there was going to be a time to strike it was going to have to be then. They were going to keep Naruto and Ken watched over like hawks until the tournament ended, and they weren't splitting up again after all of the bad things that had happened.

Even Ryu was in easy sight, standing at the top of the plaza to oversee the match. He wasn't even playing lone wolf/solitary warrior as blatantly as he usually did. Looking up at him Chun-Li saw him look down at them for just a moment, giving them a stoic nod.

He was reliable. Seriously socially-inept and seemingly unwilling to make the effort to be personable due to his martial arts purist upbringing yes, but Ryu was still a good man that knew how to fight the good fight. Or any fight really.

Seated next to Naruto, Cammy's thoughts dwelled not on the battle at hand on the field the way that Naruto seemed to if his dancing eyes following the action on the field told her anything. Even though her face wasn't much for showing her thoughts or emotions, she did have them, and that much was clear by then.

There was serious apprehension in her heart being brought forth, all due to the heightened paranoia of Guile and Chun-Li, and Naruto's ever-increasing tension going on inside of his spiky noggin. It made her think. Think about the horrible man that came to her after her defeat and took control of her. Something deep inside of her told her to dread him, and she had been given apt reason to do so until Sasuke had managed to free her before she could do something horrible.

Cammy did not see any reason to rush any potential conflict with such a man. As far as she was concerned, assassin's instinct within her or not, she wasn't looking forward to standing against a person like that.

Turning to her side though, she took a very close look at Naruto's battle-weary face. He was showing the wear of the past two days even if he wasn't outwardly wounded.

He was a prime target, as Bison took it upon himself to sic her on him in her moment of weakness. The person she cared for the most. She didn't know why, but the thought of causing permanent harm to him the way Bison wished her too, to destroy him, it made her feel sick to her stomach.

That by itself was enough motivation to fight. For nine months she hadn't felt much of a reason to fight other than instinctual reaction to the crazy things that went on around her, but she seemed to have one now, and it felt good.

…When she got home she really needed to talk to someone about just what all of these feelings meant. Caring for someone should not have evoked such an odd feeling in her belly when thinking about it as far as she knew what it consisted of.

However she was still unaware that caring about a boy was not the same thing as caring about a cat.

XxX

(Miles Away From the Temple – Sagat vs. M. Bison)

"What insolence." Bison said, dusting his uniform off as he walked up from the wreckage of trees and earth that his body and Sagat's Tiger Knee had created in the jungle. Holding his military cap in one hand he finally placed it onto his head after he cleaned as much off of himself as he could. Sagat had managed to deliver quite a bit of punishment, "One must be careful what they wish for after all…"

"You can say that again."

Sagat burst from a pile of fallen trees and rushed across the forest floor where he and Sagat began trading strikes that were blocked and dodged by their adversary. While Bison avoided most of the powerful punches and knees thrown his way, Sagat was enough of a bull that blocking most of them didn't cause his body much further harm.

A move backward gave way to Bison quickly somersaulting forward and slamming Sagat's head down into the dirt with a clubbing kick, "Double Knee Press!" The moment Sagat's face touched the ground, Bison grinned cruelly and slid his feet forward through the dirt to try and grind Sagat's skull into pulp, but he slid past him when Sagat rolled aside and escaped, "Stubborn fool!"

With not a bit of wasted motion, Bison turned around and stopped Sagat's attempted elbow strike by clashing forearms with him, keeping him from taking back control of the battle's ebb and flow. A booming pressure was released from the two powerful energies, purple and orange, colliding. The need for the wildlife to get away was self-preservation in its purest form, for if they stayed anywhere near the battle between those two they would run a high risk of being killed in the crossfire.

The ground beneath the two began to split and shake before they pushed off of each other and Bison teleported out of Sagat's sight. With a growl, Sagat whipped in a random direction and lashed out with a swinging kick just as Bison reappeared. The maniacal grin on his face was seen for a portion of a second before he vanished again in a purple energy shroud and Sagat's leg smashed into a tree trunk, tearing it down.

The miss resulted in Bison winding up behind Sagat, wrapping his arms around the man's sizeable form and pinning his arms to his sides as he began to squeeze the life out of him like a boa constrictor, "The difference between you and I is like trying to reach the moon from atop a skyscraper. Your power is vast, but compared to me it is nothing!"

It was going to be a slow, arduous, painful death. Sagat's rib cage creaked and cracked in protest, drawing sputtering coughs from the man as his lungs were forced to contract against the protective bones surrounding them.

How could this be? Even with the power-up of his anger driving his ki past the point that any mere man could hope to match on their own, Bison did just that, and he was making it look like child's play to keep up with him. No, not on this day. Bison would feel his full fury.

It was an agonizing length of time Sagat managed to slip one of his arms underneath Bison's grip low enough to maneuver it and began blasting him repeatedly with low elbow shots to the kidney that eventually had Bison spitting up blood until he was forced to let go, "You wor-!"

"Cū̀com Seụ̄x (Tiger Raid)!"

Sagat's legs rattled off rapid-fire kicks fast enough to leave speedy, shadowy afterimages. They were meant to fool an adversary into kicks only to hit them with the ones that they couldn't see, but it didn't matter. Everything was landing, regardless of whether Bison saw through the fakes or not.

A strongman might as well have been freely wailing on Bison's body with a mallet. Nothing was missing its mark.

"Raghh!" Sagat finished with a jumping side kick that propelled both him and Bison forward through trees, knocking them and their flaming leaved tops over to mark a fiery trail of their ever-destructive battle.

His body still radiating every last dreg of orange extra ki that he could muster, Sagat's breath came in heavy doses. The Angry Scar technique to tap into his full body's energy and potential had never been active for this long. He'd never needed it.

The shuffling of trees gave notice to Sagat's senses that it was not over, and right on cue Bison came hurtling out of a pile of destroyed and fragmented lumber, like a spinning torpedo, covered in his Psycho Power that reeked of chaos and torment.

Sagat calmed his breathing and shut his eye for a split-second to focus himself. Anger fueled him to push past the limits that his unconscious mind set, the limits that every human being's mind placed to keep them from destroying their own bodies. That would not help at this moment. He needed a clear mind or Bison would grind right through him and there would be nothing he could do.

A clear mind.

"Thảlāy Seụ̄x (Tiger Destruction)!"

Unlike earlier with his powerful ki-enhanced leaping uppercut, the second time and the advanced version was the charm, and Sagat did not miss. His fist planted right in Bison's chest and a brutal part of him wished that he had managed to rip his torso open the way Ryu had done to him with his Shoryuuken years ago.

The power of the move carried them both up into the leaves of the trees and the heat of Sagat's untamed ki managed to set fire to the aerial foliage. Luckily many trees around had been smashed, so any chance of a forest fire was contained within their own little battleground.

Upon landing on the ground, Sagat's body sported burns of his own doing. His formerly white hand wraps were dirty and grimy with blood and other foreign stains from the pair of battles he had fought that day.

Looking around for Bison he saw no sign of him. Nor could he sense the man's presence. Even so, Sagat was not an inexperienced, hopeful fool. If there was no body, the fight wasn't over, 'Could he have fled?'

Tactical retreats were not against Bison's morals, but where could he go when he was trying to hide himself from the tournament competitors until the finale when there would be no one well enough to fight him back?

"The end has come…"

His senses were full of Bison all of a sudden as the man fell from the sky, through the burning canopy, arms crossed and body straight like a javelin hurtling towards Sagat.

Sagat licked his lips and prepared one last ultimate attack that Bison was setting himself up for perfectly, but Bison's stomp was not even aimed at him. It was aimed for directly in front of him. The stomp had enough impact to extinguish the heavier flames around them and knocked Sagat off of his feet where he found himself grabbed around the face and head in an iron-tight clawhold.

'I… I miscalculated?' Sagat thought as his vision was obscured by Bison's hand and the purple energy surrounding it that squeezed down on his head with skull-cracking pressure. Bison had

"A fangless, clawless tiger might as well be a harmless kitten." Bison said as energy in his free hand grew intense enough that it started letting of a coursing noise like that of a power generator, "Now kneel before my Psycho Power. Psycho Punisher!" One haymaker of a punch to the captured Sagat punched through his chest and blasted power straight through him out through his back.

It was like a colored spotlight being fired straight through his torso into the air. The rest of the forest fire flames were snuffed out by Bison's chilling power that choked the life out of the blaze.

Sagat didn't even need to look down at the hole in his body to know that something was horribly wrong. If he was hurt so badly that he couldn't even feel the devastating pain that he should have been in, there was a major problem.

It was cold. The light faded from his single eye amid Bison's madly grinning face before his body was cast aside by the head.

As Sagat's corpse hit the ground, Bison stared at his right hand covered in gore from Sagat's innards and flexed his fingers out, "You made me work. To force me to such a degree all on your own with no assistance or strange abilities… you really were the 'God of Muay Thai' weren't you?"

Of course, Sagat could not respond. He had passed on. And as Bison walked past him one last time before leaving the area he had to wonder to himself why despite such a brutal end, Sagat had died with a smile on his face.

Career fighters were certainly a strange breed.

'I never got the battle with you that I desired Ryu… but at least… at least I remembered who I was… who I am.'

XxX

(At the Temple)

Ryu's attention was directed to the south. From where he was standing at the top of the courtyard above everyone and everything within it he had his sight directed to a purple light that he could barely see.

Something was up. It had to be.

The light was faint and it was miles away from the martial arts temple, but he knew that he could see it. It wasn't some trick on his eyes. Looking around he could see that the fight between Ken and Sasuke had everyone's attention, and even if it hadn't no one else would have been able to see the light from between the trees from where they were all sitting.

Was he just seeing things?

'What was that?' Ryu thought to himself before turning his gaze back down to the fight going on below. He unconsciously tightened the red fighting gloves on his hands as he observed. Everyone was starting to lose it, but just because someone was paranoid didn't mean that there was something out to get them.

XxX

(Ken vs. Sasuke)

"Don't get all tentative now!" Ken shouted as he dashed after Sasuke through the courtyard. Ever since it had been clear that Ken had found a method to break the tricky approach to hand-to-hand arts that Sasuke utilized, the Sharingan of Sasuke was utilized to keep him out of Ken's reach, "Come on and try your luck in close!"

Not a chance.

Sasuke had a high sense of pride in his own abilities almost to the extent of a possessing superiority complex, and that little personality trait that had never quite subsided. A deep part of him was yelling to get back in Ken's face and beat him at his own game to show him who was the best. Even so, there would be no benefit to banging his head against the brick wall that was fist-fighting with Ken Masters and he was more than smart enough to realize that.

Utilizing a random jutsu would not help either. He needed something quick that wouldn't tip Ken off that he was about to attack. As he moved, constantly slipping out of range whenever Ken managed to get close, Sasuke noted the terrain of the battlefield. He analyzed anything around him that could be used to throw Ken off of his game to allow him to retake the advantage.

A quick movement of his hands to underneath his sleeves gave Sasuke two separate shuriken to throw Ken's way. It was a surprise, as those had been weapons that Naruto used, 'This guy uses ninja stars?' A quick look away from Sasuke to make sure that he had dodged the metal blades and his focus was right back on him.

With a straight path through the two missed shuriken, Ken darted forward before forming a fist as Sasuke still seemed to be drawing his hands back from throwing his weaponry. An opening.

With a hand covered in flames quickly followed by his entire body being shrouded in it, Ken rushed Sasuke and lifted off of the ground, planting his fist underneath his chin to carry Sasuke with him in the physically abusive specialty of his fighting style. The added spin to his attack caught both of them in a flaming vacuum of his own creation to put an end to his opponent.

It was an incredible sight for the audience, looking like the massive body of a dragon with its body coiled around the two of them, the head of it formed by Ken's fist that was firmly planted under Sasuke's jaw.

"Shinryuuken (Divine Dragon Fist)!" The victorious look on his face gave way to shock and pain when he felt a harsh burning feeling at his back and was knocked from the air a flaming wreck, 'What!?' Sasuke's midair body that had been fully engulfed in flames was gone as if it had never existed.

And indeed it hadn't.

After Ken had dodged the shuriken he looked back over to Sasuke to keep track of him. Well he had made a cardinal mistake that he hadn't made until then due to how he had been looking at Sasuke's body to track how he was going to move.

He looked into Sasuke's eyes, only for a second before he moved forward to attack him with the Shinryuuken, but that was enough.

There wasn't any time to weave any creative or well-thought out mind-screws, but he didn't need to. The illusion that Ken's next attack struck home would be all that he needed, and he'd seen what a properly landed Shoryuuken could do to an opponent, so he could create a fake scenario with it, thus he suggested using such a move. It wasn't hard to mentally persuade Ken to do so either because Shoryuuken was his go-to attack.

The fact that he went for the stylish victory in his ultra-devastating but more time-consuming Shinryuuken made it all the better.

From there it was a matter of practice to shoot him out of the air with a fireball.

"I'm in a good mood…" Sasuke said to himself, charging lightning chakra to his right hand before rushing toward the upside-down and falling Ken with his own signature move, "So I'll finish this in one shot! Chidori (One Thousand Birds)!"

The crowd gasped and shouted, cheering for Sasuke to put it all to an end, or for Ken to get up and survive somehow.

Ken's eyes had been closed on his fall down, cringing in pain at the fireball that had burned through his clothing and the skin on his back. Once again, the chirping electric noise of the Chidori forced him to pop his eyes open as Sasuke was incoming to finish the fight, "Hadoken (Surge Fist)!"

Just before Sasuke could reach him, Ken fired off his last chance to counter and it turned out to be a success as the blue ki ball struck Sasuke right in the chest, landing clean. It was pure luck that it had been such a clean shot, as while Sasuke had been pulling his arm back to thrust it forward for the final strike he had been wide open for a split second.

The resulting blast off of his body knocked Sasuke back across the ground, being propelled away by the Hadoken like a groundball that had resulted from a hit off of a sizzling fastball. Ken still hit the ground in a smoking heap though, and neither man was quick to stand.

Ken grabbed a fistful of dirt and pebbles, trying to pull himself up. His back was cooked, and he'd probably need a good haircut after it was all over because Sasuke had to have singed a good portion of it off, "Ahh…" He willfully pulled himself back up to his feet, the top of his gi slipping off down his highly muscular form due to its complete lack of a back to it. Before he could take too many breaths a grand and rolling cry of pain, "RAAAAHHH!"

From behind, still down on the ground on his back, Sasuke was propped up on one elbow with his other arm and hand extended, the last remnants of a previous jutsu streaking across his fingertips. On the big screen the cameras made a big show of the electricity around the end of the appendage.

"Just because I didn't hit the original Chidori doesn't mean I can't alter it." Sasuke said as Ken fell to his knees following the free shot at his back that Sasuke had taken, "I do more than shoot fireballs from a distance. You forgot about the Chidori Senbon (One Thousand Birds Senbon)." He concluded, standing up to begin walking over to his opponent, the buttons on his black top had been obliterated by the Hadoken, leaving the garment open.

It was a slow gait. Slower than anyone that had been watching him intently for the last two days expected him to move. By now Sasuke had realized that taking his time was not an unnecessary waste of his speed. Ken had shown himself to be frighteningly surprising, and rushing in, even with the Sharingan, led to him paying for it for assuming that he could handle himself in close because of it.

Finally reaching Ken, Sasuke carefully rolled him over with a foot, planting it on Ken's belly while still holding the Chidori, 'This took too much chakra to finish.' He thought to himself while keeping up a stoic countenance, "It's over. If I even feel a muscle twitch I'll finish you." As a show of force the Chidori seemed to solidify into a blade that he held down at Ken's chest, "I tried to murder my best friend. Killing you means absolutely nothing to me."

Ken just stared at the business end of Sasuke's shape transformation of his Chidori before shutting his eyes and sighing. He had a wife to worry about instead of possibly losing his life over some martial artist bravado. Even if he survived Sasuke's retaliation after he tried to get up again, even if he won that fight, it was a tournament match, and he'd already given enough of himself to it.

Come to think of it, he'd already gotten everything that he wanted out of the tournament. He defeated his friend and rival in Ryu. He'd proven that he was just as powerful a fighter as anyone else there. He was fine with the road ending there.

"Fine. This time I surrender." And just like that, Sasuke allowed the jutsu to fade and removed his chest from Ken's form as the crowd cheered at the impressive back-and-forth battle.

"That was a war! The winner of the match is Sasuke Uchiha, and we have our finale set at long last! One more fight left, for the honor and prestige of being the best! In one hour it'll be Naruto vs. Sasuke! Sasuke vs. Naruto!"

Sasuke turned his head to where he knew Naruto had been sitting in the crowd and the two simply stared at each other without surcease. At least until Sasuke heard Ken let out a slight chuckle from the ground. Craning his head over to where Ken was still lying, waiting on the doctor monks to arrive and treat him, Sasuke watched him grin despite the burn on his back that he was firmly planted on.

Looking up at the victorious young man, Ken let him in on the big reason he was laughing, "That's the best friend you almost killed? I thought you might have been bluffing about that at first when you said you tried, but now I get it. Some people are too tough to kill on the first try."

"Your point?"

"No, nothing." Ken said with a cough before he spat some bloody phlegm to the side, "It's just… I really don't want to miss this. I love a good fight."

Sasuke let out a 'hm' noise before walking away to catch some rest and recharge while he still had the hour to do so, "It won't really be much of a fight. In over ten years he's never beaten me once. No matter how strong he gets, I can stay one step ahead."

Ken just let him go as the doctors arrived and started getting him ready to be moved. Ignoring the pain in his wounds, Ken just stared up at the sky in thought, "One step ahead huh? Well that's great and all… but even if you stay one step ahead you can still get tripped up."

XxX

(Aohura City, Chigoku Region, Japan)

Seated on one of the couches in her living room, Sakura had to endure the rundown of the entire tournament and its highlights while the hour was ticking down for the final round to take place. Her little brother Tsukushi had been good company to watch the second semifinal match with since she was at home that day instead of out watching with her friends.

She had somehow managed to take off from school a bit early to make it home in time to see the tail end of the second fight of the day between Ken and Sasuke. The live start time of noon for the event in Thailand translated over to 2 p.m. for her and others in Japan, thus she was caught in school for Naruto's earlier match and had to stream it online to watch it there.

Her brother had already been plucked out of school that day by their mother for some reason, so he had already been watching when she flew through the door and bore witness to watching Sasuke inexplicably overcome Ken.

It was a good match. A great match actually, granted with a rather dubious finish that seemed strange on TV. But she wasn't able to enjoy it, and she found herself internally rooting for Ken in the second semifinal match more than she thought she would have.

All for naught as Sasuke somehow picked up the surprise victory.

And she didn't want that at all.

With a sigh she splayed herself out on the cushy chair, fishing her phone out of her skirt pocket and holding it up in the air just staring at it. Fortunately she was broken of her thoughts by a rather obnoxious horn blaring outside, "Oi, Sakura! Come outside! Come on!" Yeah, that was definitely Batsu, "Let's go, we're gonna miss the whole thing!"

'What whole thing?' Sakura thought to herself as she sat back up and walked to her front door, poking her head outside to see the wild-haired brawler hanging out of the top of his jeep as well as her close friend Hinata, with both still dressed in their school uniforms. So they actually spent the whole day in their school, 'I didn't expect Batsu of all people to stay in school the whole time on a day like this.'

Hinata poked her short brown-haired head over the passenger's side window as she fussed with the white headband on her head similar to Sakura's, "The big TV set up in the arcade district is playing the tournament and everyone in town that's into it is there to watch." That numbered basically everyone in Aohura City that could throw a punch halfway straight, which was actually a lot of people, "You're coming right?"

She didn't really need to ask. Sakura had already started putting on her shoes by the door to leave before she was finished with her statement, "Mom, Tsukushi, I'm going downtown, I'll be back later!" She yelled back into the house as she ran out and shut the door behind her. Without missing a beat she jumped from the front stoop and landed right in the back of Batsu's jeep that was parked a mere ten feet away.

"Hey! The shocks on this thing already suck, don't make it worse!" Batsu warned as he plopped back down in the driver's seat and shifted into drive, "Alright, gonna watch my bud win a world tournament! Whoo!"

Sending her boyfriend a smile at his exuberance for the coming event, Hinata looked into the backseat and was surprised to see that Sakura wasn't as high-spirited as she normally was, "What's the matter Sakura-chan? I would have figured you'd be just as excited as Batsu-kun."

"I should be shouldn't I?" She asked rhetorically, knowing that in other circumstances she'd be just as fired up as anyone, "It's just… I-." She didn't know how to explain it, "That guy. The Sasuke person, he can let people see his own memories with those eyes of him. I saw him fight Naruto five years ago when they were younger. It was terrible. Even when Naruto was using that nasty red energy, it didn't tip the balance in his favor enough to win."

"-And you're scared." Batsu finished, speaking for her as he kept his eyes on the road and navigated his way through traffic, "Look, I know the whole shoving his hand through teme's chest thing is kind of eerie, but we've seen worse than that." Hinata popped him on the shoulder to chide him for his blunt words, but he just rolled his eyes. He knew she knew he was right.

The Chidori through the shoulder thing wasn't the problem. Sakura had seen more screwed up crap happen to Naruto in fights right there in Aohura City, even though the Chidori still ranked up there as one of the most messed up things she'd ever seen happen to him.

"No." Sakura said, lowly, her gaze affixed to the floor, "You don't get it. Whatever happened to them at the end of the last time they fought, it ended up with them showing up in America, in our world." Neither of them knew just what happened or how their battle closed out. It was like God just scooped them up and spat them out here because they pissed him off by fighting, "They don't know what happened, and they're going to do it again, and they're way stronger than they used to be."

"Is there a point to this or are you just suffering from Naruto-deprivation?" Another hit to the arm from Hinata for Batsu's picking on of Sakura, "If I crash this car you're both gonna be looking dumb."

"My point is…" Sakura gave a thankful glance to Hinata for trying to keep her man in check as best she could, "…No, nevermind. I probably am being silly. It's just, between the fight they've had before, the fact that bad things happen whenever they get together, and the whole tournament supposedly being a trap from Shadaloo, I'm feeling a bit skittish over the whole thing. The idea of something terrible happening just keeps sticking with me."

Hinata had to block letting out an audible 'aww' and instead tried to take the talk elsewhere, "Why don't you call him and tell him that then?" Let it be known that she was even more of a romantic than their friend Kei, and wondered fitfully why Sakura and Naruto had never been any closer than best friends. Batsu was not helpful on cracking that secret at all, "He's got his phone on him."

Sakura rolled her eyes and held up her phone again, "If I call him and say what I just said to you here's exactly what'll happen. He'll laugh first and make a stupid joke, then I'll get mad, then he'll realize I'm serious and he'll assure me that everything'll be fine, and even though I already knew that that's what'll happen I'll settle down about it."

"…And you're not calling him because?" Batsu asked with a raised eyebrow, because none of that seemed bad. The end result was that she would calm down, so what was the problem?

"I don't want to calm down." Sakura said grumpily, "To me, being scared means I care. Neither of you are scared, Karin's not scared, Ibuki's not scared. Somebody here needs to be afraid or worried about him, and it's me… because I'm the one that always cared when he was by himself here and didn't have anyone. It's a habit."

This time Batsu had to be the one to rebuke Hinata, as he used his hand to keep her from turning around to bombard Sakura with twenty straight junior matchmaker starter questions. Thus with a pout she had to stay in her seat and let the moment to strike pass as they all just rode deeper into the city, resigned to making small talk about who they'd probably see on the scene and whatnot.

None of it did anything to cast out the nagging little thought at the back of Sakura's mind, and she couldn't figure out just what it was that had her so unnerved...