A World Of Comforting Illusions...

Chapter 28 - A World of Comforting Illusions...

Quality time with his number one employer, close friend, and very pretty socialite Kanzuki Karin wasn't really that quality. She was always busy, which wasn't that bad because Naruto could go with her to wherever she needed to be as her bodyguard. No, that wasn't the thing.

The thing was that her attendants Shibazaki and Ishizaki never let the two of them alone to do physical teenager stuff.

Even when she brought Naruto with her on a business trip to finalize a deal that she had established for her father in the United States. A substantial investment in the most successful luxury hotel chain in the world to get them to expand into Japan. It helped that she already had an in with the tycoon that owned the chain. It was just going to be a matter of showing up and laying her cards on the table.

Boom, another win for the Kanzuki Zaibatsu courtesy of the soon-to-be heiress. Her father could suck it. She was so awesome even though he was exceedingly tough on her and he knew it. For a girl set to inherit things in a male-centric tradition she was certainly rising to the occasion better than any male heir would have done.

There weren't any nerves whatsoever as she rode in the limousine on her way to the meeting. Of course, the current presence of her favorite bodyguard ever might have had something to do with that.

In a silver dress, Karin sat off to one side of the limo as she shot a bemused glance down towards her lap. One hand idly rested on her cheek propped up on the armrest, "You are aware that if you wrinkle that suit before you return it the cost of cleaning it is going to come from you, are you not?"

Laying down long-ways on the limo seat with his head in Karin's lap as she ran her fingers through his hair was Naruto, indeed clad in a black suit with an open jacket, white undershirt, and orange tie, "It's your fault for putting a suit on me whenever we go somewhere like this. How am I supposed to fight in this thing if I need to?"

Private jet or not, that entire plane ride was miserable for Naruto who had only been that far by air one time prior; when he had been sent from the United States to Japan in the first place. Back then he hadn't had the time to freak out about the fact that he was in the air as he had still been terrified of his situation of being in a new world.

With that problem thoroughly adjusted to by this point, he had time for more pressing matters like protecting Karin. While he was lazing about in the limo he had an entire squad of clones keeping everything on the up and up outside. It must have been quite a sight to see. If he had made enough of them he probably could have reenacted the Agent Smith thing from the Matrix movies for kicks.

"Other bodyguards are asked to work in professional attire." Karin informed him with a smug smile, "Aside from that, you should get used to wearing a suit. The reason being that when we go on another date you will be wearing one and we will be going somewhere elegant. My choice of course."

"Yes my prissy, vain, hard-to-get playing boss lady." Naruto said with his eyes closed, getting her to pinch his cheek and put a grin on his face, "Just wherever you pick no theater again please. I did that for you."

"It was adequate for a first effort admittedly, but you have a long way to go to move past the role of possible suitor and constitute definite boyfriend material Naruto-san." Karin jested good-naturedly, "…Be aware that in order to do so you must do more than sit and act as if you are paying attention to stage drama that you care nothing about. You may have fooled my family, but I could tell that you were suffering in silence."

Naruto's face reflected that he was aware of the memory. Karin spent her birthday night two weeks prior at a play with her family, and Naruto went with her as her date so that she wouldn't have to meet another of her father's handpicked suitors on that evening. It technically wasn't a date since they weren't alone, but then again where did you take the girl that could and probably had gone everywhere worth going in the world?

He was proud of himself actually. He refrained from nodding off the entire time, and he didn't feel the need to curse or raise his voice like a hoodlum to make a scene. He almost wound up going stir crazy and chewing his arm off, but he didn't, "Your parents don't like me though. Your dad kept looking my way like he wanted to suck the youth out of my body and leave me a withered husk."

"Oh my mother thought that you were absolutely charming. But true enough, my father is not a fan."

"You love that though don't you?"

"I am quite certain I have no idea what you are talking about." Right. Sure she didn't. Maybe it was the fact that she could see both of them from both corners of her eyes and there wasn't anything her father could do in public about Naruto's presence as long as he didn't make any social missteps, because she didn't lose the smile on her face the entire evening, and it wasn't because of the play they had been watching.

So yes, there was probably a very good chance that she enjoyed how uncomfortable her father was with Naruto being around such a high-class affair, especially as her date for the evening. Too bad.

In the meantime while waiting for the limo to arrive at its destination for the meeting, Naruto just shut his eyes again and let Karin rub the marks on his cheeks. Perhaps Jiraiya's limited influence on him had some lasting effects because he was a sucker for pretty girls doting over him in some manner.

"You make that dress look good by the way." Naruto said off-handedly, getting Karin to say 'aww' at the compliment. Yeah, having a girl as his best friend for several years helped him learn how to talk to them without a doubt.

A clearing of someone's voice attracted attention to the fact that the privacy window had been opened and the sharp bespectacled eyes of Shibazaki peered in through the driver's seat, shooting daggers at Naruto with his gaze, "We are almost at the Masters Hotel. I would suggest that Uzumaki-san makes himself presentable for the meeting Kanzuki-sama."

Karin rolled her eyes at Shibazaki and his continued distaste for Naruto before smirking and leaning down to kiss Naruto on the forehead, making sure that her aide saw it clearly, "Very well. I believe it is time to put your skills to work Naruto-san, my body is your express responsibility from this point forward." She said as she reached for a black jacket that was meant to go on over her outfit.

Naruto's face turned red, but he figured that if it was possible to do so Shibazaki would have caused him to spontaneously combust by now with nothing more than pure sight, "You mean your body's well-being right?"

"Of course. What did I say?"

XxX

The meeting was more or less just a formality. The proprietor of the Masters Hotel luxury chain was someone that was very familiar to the visiting party. It was more like friends catching up than a real business gathering.

As he walked beside Karin and followed their host through the halls of the hotel while on tour, Naruto couldn't help but frown and look at his own attire for a moment, 'I've got to wear a suit, but Ken owns this place and he gets to walk around in whatever he wants? Balls.' And indeed Ken was wearing very casual attire for such a meeting. Just everyday clothes, along with his extremely lengthy blond hair flowing down past his waist.

Karin merely rapped him on the arm once again to get him to stop, "Would you behave? You can remove the suit when the meeting is over."

"That's the spirit girl. Keep your man in line." Ken barked, chuckling when he saw the glare from both Naruto and Karin. Naruto probably would have flipped him off if he could have. The kid was totally short-fused, it was awesome.

"I do not need to keep him in line. He knows that I own him."

"For the last time; nobody owns me, it's renting me. Renting!"

Walking along with Ken on his arm was an absolutely gorgeous blonde woman, his wife Eliza. And unlike her husband she did indeed decide to dress up in the proper attire for the situation, a sleeveless red dress that came up to her knees and black heels, "Oh don't tease that boy." She chided good-naturedly, "He's fine. As if you would be able to dress yourself without me."

Ken rolled his eyes at his wife's chiding before speaking to the youngsters again, "It's good to see you two again. So now that everything is basically a formality at this point, why don't you catch me up on what's going on in your neck of the woods?"

Where to begin?

"Well do you want to hear about me getting ripped apart by some guy in a black gi, how we had to take down the gang that wanted to take over Japan, or about how I've got to go on a spiritual journey inside of myself to fix my balance of power?" Naruto asked, tugging uncomfortably at the tie around his neck until Karin gave his hands a swat to get him to stop.

Ken paused in confusion and looked at his wife Eliza before both of them turned around to stare at Naruto, "Let's start with the one that's probably easiest to explain. You got beat up by someone that wasn't me?"

"Bad." Naruto said with a nod, "Some guy named Akuma, he was a monster." He then saw Ken's posture stiffen, something that his wife noticed too as she looked at him worriedly, "What's the matter?"

'He fought Akuma too?' Ken thought to himself. He remembered how three years prior he fought the man after witnessing him kill his master. He was beaten in one move and wasn't deemed worth his time to kill. Naruto had come across him and survived a bout against him as well, "Listen Naruto, I want you to forget about that guy. You won't find him unless he wants you to."

A nod came from Naruto, as he didn't want to go looking for Akuma anyway. Not unless Akuma was some kind of mystical guardian of a dimensional portal and he needed to kick his ass to use it to see his home like some kind of final boss in a video game, "There isn't any reason for me to look for him unless my bruised ego is a terminal illness. Trust me, one crappy situation like the one we got stuck in fighting Shadaloo is more than enough for me."

Ken sucked air sharply through his teeth at the reminder of what happened in Thailand and looked down toward the ground, "That's more or less the reason I came back home after all of that was over too. I still want to beat his ass, but making Akuma pay isn't worth wasting my life over." As he said this he shot his eyes towards his Eliza. He really seemed to love her, and as sappy as that was it put a smile on Naruto's face to see.

Maybe that was why Naruto liked Ken more than he liked Ryu? Ken loved life and all of the things that came with it, but Ryu just seemed to only care about fighting. Ken was pretty focused on it too, but he had a world aside from that for him.

Ryu only cared about traveling around and getting stronger only for the sake of fighting. He took things too seriously at times and everything centered back to martial arts for him. On the other hand Ken was the kind of guy you wanted to hang out with to get into some shenanigans. And anyone that knew Naruto knew that he loved him some shenanigans.

There was nothing wrong with being focused on being the best, and he honestly liked the guy because he wasn't a bad person at all, but without stopping to smell the roses every now and then what was the point? Ryu only trained for the sake of getting stronger, and that was it. He wouldn't even hang back in Japan for a bit to train Sakura a little. The girl treated him like a hero and aside from that she actually had the talent to warrant some kind of attention.

"You're talking about the incident that Guile got involved in as well aren't you?"

Karin turned to Eliza who had spoken with a look of fret on her face, "Yes… I was there as well, as was he." She said tentatively, "You know of Guile?" She asked while Naruto looked from her to Ken questioningly.

Eliza nodded and explained, "He's actually my brother-in-law. He's married to my sister."

And that never came up before?

Both Naruto and Karin gave Ken dual deadpan stares that got him to back up a few steps. It was as if they were asking him how in the hell that never came up before back when they were all together. Stupid kids that could synch up their ire for a situation, "Hey now you two, it never came up. And he left to return to America so quickly after it was all over you never saw us talking together."

"Excuses I see…" Karin stated, turning her nose up at the excuses. Naruto didn't quite go that far in physically exhibiting his displeasure, but then again he wasn't one for Karin's kind of drama. That kind of drama anyway, because he had his own brand.

Ken had a point though. Between Guile leaving more or less the next day after it was all over without saying a word to anyone and all of the fallout from the destroyed Shadaloo base including the dozen teenage girl assassins that had been kidnapped from their homes to be brainwashed it wasn't necessarily an empty defense. Aside from that, everyone met up in the middle of a battle. Nobody cared who was loosely related to whom, what with all of the explosions and the fighting and the killing and the dying and the amnesiatic girls.

Still, Eliza had a troubled look on her face at the topic of her sister's husband, "He's been distant and moody for months at nothing in particular. Julia says he's rarely at home even though he hasn't been given any outgoing missions in quite some time."

"I tried talking to him about it, but he blew me off." Ken said to follow up on his wife's words. He left out the part that Guile's form of blowing him off actually led to a fight that tore up an entire airplane hangar at a testing facility, "Having Charlie die really messed him up."

A frown crossed Naruto's face before he turned and looked over at Karin who had a raised eyebrow, curiously wondering what he was looking at her for until she realized it, "No. When this is finished we need to return to Aohura City quickly."

Naruto continued to frown at her, though Karin hung tough and stared him down right back as she made her own reasonable case.

"I am not going to allow my perfect grade point average to drop because of something like this."

Naruto's frown now included a pout complete with shining blue eyes and the appealing aura of his chakra extending for good measure. By this time she was subtly averting her gaze to keep from having to look at him but that was what the aura was for, to encourage her to look back. Her response was noticeably less stern and a bit desperate for him to stop this time.

"Naruto-san…"

XxX

(That Afternoon – Japan: Chigoku Region – Aohura City)

School had been very uneventful without the main source of its anarchy there to keep the faculty and students alike on their toes throughout the day out of his sheer boredom, but the aftermath of it made things quite interesting once they had walked home to retrieve Cammy due to the guest that had wound up there to check in on her.

And from that point Sakura, Ibuki, the only normal person in the group Kei, Cammy, and the person that had spent much of the day with her went to get an early meal at one of the many eating establishments in town.

"Get the hell out of my restaurant." Sasuke deadpanned upon coming from his office and seeing Naruto's normal batch of friends sitting at the table one of his employees directed him to. Apparently he had been asked for, "Wait, did you order yet? Nevermind, I don't care. Please leave. Every single time more than one of you are here something gets destroyed."

A pretty frown spread over Cammy's face as she held a cup of tea in her hands, "That seems like a gross exaggeration." She said aloud as she took a moment to think about all of the other times that she had been there with Naruto just so the blond could bother Sasuke, "Oh, you're counting that one time as my fault? You threw a plate at him like a shuriken and missed. I had to protect myself."

"Hey, you don't even know me yet." Ibuki said with a displeased look on her face. She agreed to go eat at that place because she heard the owner was Naruto's friend and he was apparently gorgeous. Then he opened his mouth. How rude. Who talked to girls like that? Nobody was good-looking enough for that to be cool, "You're trying to kick us out?"

"Yes. Leave." Sasuke said blankly as his eyes panned across all of the females at the table, "…Not you Akira. You're fine with me." The normally silent girl in question nodded with a very small smile on her face, "The rest of you though, no."

They had come across Akira on the way and she was keen on going along with the girls and their guest, thus she did, "That's why we asked her to come too. The girls said that you wouldn't try to make her leave. Find someone on your work travels that you'll actually acknowledge exists did you Sasuke?"

That voice. Damn it. He thought he had shaken her damn watchful gaze before getting himself out of Hong Kong the last time. It was probably Yun and Yang that screwed up and messed him over. Those two couldn't keep their mouths shut and they idolized/borderline crushed on the woman that was calmly sitting with Naruto's friends at the table sipping tea with a smile on her face.

Damn Chun-Li. Damn that woman. She could smile all she wanted to, it wasn't going to fool him. Freaking super cop. The only law enforcement agent that he was wary of.

"What?" Sasuke asked, holding his hand over his face as if he wished he could just will her away with his mind, "What? What? What? What do you want? What do you need? Why the hell are you here? I haven't killed anyone that wasn't on the fly list so I don't know why you'd show up in my place."

"It's Master Gen's place, not yours." Chun-Li corrected helpfully, still smiling even when Sasuke glared at her with his Sharingan on. Her eyes were closed though, so no hypnotic suggestions or devilish illusions would be coming her way, "And I know you've been a good boy, but this isn't about anything like that so don't worry your oddly hairstyled little head."

"You're lucky you're with Interpol."

"I'm not on duty right now if that helps."

The killing intent at the table rose and Kei seemed to be the only one bothered by it as she slid her chair back a little bit away from the table in case she'd need to get behind something or run. Poor thing. But she wasn't alone because the other people inside of the restaurant were feeling the strain and were handling it worse than she did.

At least Kei was somewhat used to feeling it with all of the strong fighters she knew. Nobody else was though, "C-Can you guys tone it down or something before someone passes out?"

Eventually Sasuke's lowered and people took a deep breath because his presence was far darker than Chun-Li's was, "Hn. I'm not messing up my restaurant just to kick a cop around." He turned around and walked away toward the stairs that led to his office, "Whatever you have to say come on up and say it. Then leave."

After Sasuke left, Chun-Li slowly and calmly finished the rest of her tea before getting up and sighing as she pulled out her wallet to drop a few bills on the table. She seriously hated that kid, "Thanks for showing me where this place was." Chun-Li said before walking to Sasuke's office, stopping momentarily to stare at Akira who was radiating a bit of latent killing intent her way, "I'll see you all later."

Sakura looked after her and looked around at the restaurant patrons that were getting back to normal after the clash of strong wills that occurred right in front of them, "What the heck was that all about?" She asked, looking in Cammy's direction who just shrugged in confusion herself. Cammy had spent most of the morning and afternoon with Chun-Li and didn't know why she was looking for this restaurant.

How did those two even know each other? Sure they were both based out of Hong Kong, but that was a terrible reason to assume that two people knew each other just because they were from the same general city area.

"I can't believe that guy is a friend of Naruto's." Ibuki commented with a hand on her cheek, elbow set on the table as they continued to wait for their food, "He's such a jackass. He's a good-looking jackass, but ick. That attitude of his is gross."

She then felt that she had garnered the indignation of someone at the table and looked over at Akira who was glaring lightly at her. Huh, they hadn't even been really acquainted yet. Apparently she had said or done something to offend her. It couldn't be the elbow on the table, she was all the way on the other side of it. She wasn't much of a talker either so Ibuki doubted that the biker girl was going to be spilling what her beef was anytime soon until it came back up.

Kei scooted back to the table now that it was safe again and breathed a sigh of relief before looking next to herself at Sakura who seemed a bit less spirited on this particular day, "What's wrong sweetie?"

"Nothing really I guess." Sakura said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "I'm just not feeling too cheerful today."

"Miss your yellow shadow?" Kei slyly remarked quietly with a smirk on her face that got Sakura to pout at her for bringing something like that up, "He's been skipping a lot though. I bet you he wouldn't have gone if you'd kick his butt about it once in a while."

Her lowered tone was utilized all for naught though, as both Ibuki and Cammy were very adept at picking up quieter sounds like another girl's whispering. Upon hearing them, Ibuki chimed in, "Nah, There's pretty much nothing Sakura-chan won't let Naruto do. If she really wanted to she could crack down on him and try to get him to be good, but she likes it. Trust me."

The kunoichi and the regular school girl moved together and started chattering amongst themselves with Sakura between them as they intentionally ignored her growing discomfort, "You might have a point. She does scold him sometimes and she's basically the only person he listens to, but that's more because of common sense stuff. She might like that he's like that."

"It's the classic case of a good girl inexplicably attracted to a bad boy. A wrong side of the tracks kind of thing. You know."

"Naruto's not a bad boy though. He's just kind of nuts. It's not really something he does on purpose."

"Mmm… I don't know about that. I think he does and I think Sakura-chan here believes she can tame him. I personally hope she can't though, because I like him the way he is."

"Of course, because you're into Naruto for some weird reason. We already knew that though from how you hang off of him all of the time and try to play around with him."

"I took some quality hot spring time with him too in my village during the summer by the way. He was so cute but I'm pretty sure that I didn't see or touch any part of him that Sakura-chan hasn't already, right?"

Sakura shrank down in her chair the entire time Ibuki and Kei were speaking over her as if she were a ghost that wasn't really there or something. Her gaze darted over to Cammy and Akira and soundlessly begged them with her eyes to do something to get her out of this.

The normally silent newest induction into this small unit Akira was clearly amused at the conversation, and on the other hand Cammy actually seemed legitimately interested in pondering the merits of what Ibuki and Kei were saying, which meant that she was taking it seriously.

'Someone please kill me…' Sakura thought to herself desperately, 'I hate my friends soooo much.'

XxX

(With Naruto – United States of America – Great Basin Desert)

The meeting came to a close by noon and after lunch a new 'mission' of sorts was set.

After being given the okay to take a few hours to do so by Karin, who simply couldn't hold out against Naruto's pleading look, Naruto grabbed a ride with Ken in the man's red convertible as he knew where to find Guile since Naruto wanted to see him. It was quite a ways out of town in the damn desert, but it wasn't some place that they couldn't drive to.

It took a bit longer though when they got into a scuffle with one another at a gas station after Naruto made a Barbie Doll crack about rich blond Ken and his shiny red sports car while walking out of the convenience store with copious amounts of snacks. Luckily by then Naruto had changed out of the suit that he had been wearing earlier because Ken threw gasoline at him.

Naruto did not like this and in response he smeared powdered doughnut hands on the hood of Ken's car and threw an open bottle of Cyclone at him, but didn't escalate the fight further than two minutes of wanton punching and kicking because he didn't want to be set on fire by a Shoryuuken while he had gas on him at a gas station.

It had blown over quickly enough, and back into the desert they ventured looking for the air force base that Guile was stationed at.

While taking the extremely long and spontaneous road trip they had managed to bond over several things out in the middle of nowhere over the course of. Normal guy stuff such as random challenges:

"I'm telling you I can beat you in a straight footrace for two miles."

"You're full of crap kid. I may not be a 'ninja' but I'm fast."

"Fine. If I win I get to drive this thing for the next thirty miles and I get to hack off your long-ass hair with a kunai 'Sampson'."

"You're on. If I win you have to lick the powdered sugar off of the hood of the car and I get to film it."

"…I don't know why you didn't just clean that off at the gas station."

Manly bonding over music:

A shade-wearing Ken with a brand new haircut that went down just past his neck sat in the passenger's seat grinning widely, as did Naruto in the driver's seat as they sped down the empty highway. The opening strains of a well known song opened up and they proceeded to butcher it horrifically, "An angel's smile is what you sell! You promise me heaven then put me through hell!"

Pointing over to Naruto, the shameless former Konoha ninja had no qualms with taking over off-key with a cracked voice, "Chains of love got a hold on me! When passion's a prison you can't break free!"

"OH~~~! You're a loaded gun, yeah!" Thank goodness they were driving so fast and no one else was on the road with them, "Ohhh, there's nowhere to run! No one can save me, the damage is done!"

"Shot through the heart and you're to blame, you give love a bad name! I play my part and you play your game, you give love a bad name! You give love… a bad name!"

"God kid, you are awesome!"

"No! You're the coolest adult ever, dattebayo!"

And other assorted dude stuff:

"I'm telling you Naruto…" Ken said, driving through the sunset with Naruto lazing in the reclined passenger's seat, "…Guys like you, you're going to end up with some girl that can kick your ass. Mark my words."

"Whatever." Naruto responded flippantly while staring up at the slowly darkening sky, "Why am I listening to you anyway?"

"Because I'm nine years older than you and I'm actually married so shut your lips and learn junior." Ken asserted with an air of seniority about him, "But anyway, that's just the way it's going to be. Wanna know how I know?" He took Naruto's silence as a yes, "I've got a running theory that you're a part of proving. In essence it's because you're basically surrounded by lionesses."

"Lionesses?"

"Girls that can fight." Ken explained, tapping his temple as if he thought of that tag himself, getting a look of understanding from Naruto, "Yep. Let me guess… if Sakura was your first friend it probably took a few years before any other girl that wasn't already her friend got close enough to be one too."

Hey, that was true come to think of it. The next one was Karin after she and Sakura had their little drama and in order to start messing with her 'rival' Karin originally hired Naruto to try and demean him with jobs not befitting of a true mercenary. This backfired of course as the crux of Naruto's income had been generated until that point by D-rank missions, and hers were infinitely better than the ones he had usually taken.

The look on Naruto's face told Ken that it was realistic enough for him to be thinking about it so hard, "Know why?" He asked rhetorically since he was going to give Naruto the answer anyway, "Because lionesses are territorial over what's theirs and outside females don't really get to join the pride." He said half-jokingly.

"You've been watching a ton of documentaries haven't you?" Naruto quipped dryly in response. He resented being referred to as anyone's property. And they were humans damn it, not fucking lions! The more he thought about it the more it made sense though.

Sakura was strong enough to easily beat up adults twice her size when they first met and she'd only been growing in strength and ability by leaps and bounds until she could fight on par with Naruto. She finally fought another girl that could kick her around quite a bit in Karin. Then a year later Ibuki shows up, and then Cammy. Every girl that had hung around since that span of time was able to kick his or Sakura's ass to some extent.

The contrast to lions was unnecessary and weird though.

"Yes. Animal Planet is amazing, but that's not the point." Ken said without shame as he continued, "So the only girls that feel secure hanging around you and the girls around you are ones that are dangerous enough to deal with the ones that are already there. It works like that in reverse too in theory, but I don't know if any guys your age that aren't you hang around."

"Your theory's kind of dead-on then." A disgruntled Naruto begrudgingly admitted, "Because there's Batsu and Sasuke. They're strong. A guy named Blanka's not our age but he does sometimes. Hibiki Dan does too I guess, but I don't see how he figures into this at all because he isn't really tough enough to be a threat to any of us."

"There's always one exception that proves the rule."

"Oh. Okay."

Frivolity aside, eventually the desert odyssey came to a close when they wound up driving into a small residential community in the shadow of a local base for the U.S. Air Force. It was a nice town, but with it being a base that much was obviously to be expected.

Even so that wasn't the point for them driving hours and crossing state lines. They were looking for someone on the base itself and they were provided with guest passes to do just that. Being as wealthy as Ken was had advantages that he chose not to take advantage of every so often, and this was one of them.

Being in front of the tarmac of an air base was not Naruto's idea of a comforting place. He hated regular old commercial airplanes, well now he was in a place filled with the fastest, freakiest-looking, and most destructive aircrafts in the western hemisphere. All those missiles and bombs…

After getting out of the car and walking around the base, Ken snickered at the sight of Naruto flinching due to the noise of the a jet engine blaring but just as quickly sobered up and got serious, "Alright kid, if nothing's changed since the last time I was here we're coming up on Guile."

The open doors of a hangar had country music echoing outside from within as many of the base staff were busy checking over the planes and making sure everything was optimal when it came to the important vehicles.

Even late in the day as it was there were people still working. It was close to being time to knock off until tomorrow, but it was so busy in there one wouldn't have known as much at first glance.

They both looked around for a moment before Naruto smacked Ken on the arm and pointed to where they both saw Guile wearing an open blue jacket over his normal camouflage fatigues and olive tanktop sitting on a set of portable stairs, idly observing the others at work while drinking coffee from a tumbler.

Of course it was him. That hair was totally unmistakable. He seemed as tough as ever with his stern no-nonsense expression set firmly on his mug. Naruto started walking over when he realized that Ken was lagging behind, "What's the matter? Come on, let's go." He had to get back to Karin at the airstrip by midnight so they could fly home.

"Remember how I told you that the last time I came here we wound up fighting?" Ken said, shoving his hands in his pockets as he continued to keep his distance, "I think it's best if I hang back for a bit."

Whatever. That was alright with Naruto though as he headed over to his previous comrade-in-arms, "Guile! Long time no see! It's been like six months!" His boisterous and friendly greeting and grin was met with a frosty glare that could have chilled molten rock, "Whoa…"

"What are you doing here Naruto?" Guile sounded a bit annoyed at the sight of the young blond and his bright attitude as he didn't even bother walking down from his seat on the stairs, "It's almost time for this portion of the base to be off-limits to civilians. How did you get in here?" Naruto wordlessly pointed at Ken who sheepishly waved at him, "…Of course. Look, just go back home. I'm fine."

He really wasn't excited to see him, and that was honestly a bit of a put-off. Like them or not, anyone that survived that hell with him in Thailand would always be a buddy of Naruto's, "But Ken said that your wife is pretty worried about you." Naruto responded with a concerned frown on his face, "That you've been seriously down since Charlie… well, you know. You were there." He finished in a lower tone and a mumble.

Yes he was there. And he would have been able to drag Charlie with them had Ken not knocked him out so that they could escape and leave him there. Charlie would have never felt the need for sacrificing himself to buy time had Naruto confirmed that he had killed Bison far enough away from the Psycho Drive.

That man had been his best friend; and that very same man had formally trained him in the advanced arts of fighting and taught him all of his complex skills. His senior teammate that he had been responsible and sent on a mission to find and bring home, and now he was dead.

And now he had a bunch of people that were there and thought that they could empathize with him because they had seen the explosion that claimed the life of their friend. Shadaloo hadn't even really been brought down because of it, and that was the biggest slap in the face of all.

"I don't want to hear this from you kid." Guile said in a gruff tone of voice, "Did you have to fly back to America and tell your superiors that you didn't bring your best friend back because you were willing to let him throw his life away bringing down a tyrant that no one will ever truly know about? Did you have to go to Charlie's family and tell them to their faces that he died in the jungle in Thailand and they would never hear anything officially of what he did because it was off the record?"

It took this for Naruto to realize that no matter how guilty he had felt for the end to Charlie's life, Guile felt way worse. It took his friends constantly telling him over a series of months that it wasn't his fault for him to finally get over it enough to take his swagger back, and even now it still stung at him.

But that wasn't the issue here, and even someone like Naruto knew it. It was more important and bigger than Naruto's faculties over his feelings about how he had screwed up. Much more important. He was about to sound like some kind of jerk, but it needed to be said and the fallout from it needed to occur.

"You know, if you were single I'd probably let that be." Naruto started saying as he looked up to where Guile was sitting, "But you're married. You've got a daughter. That makes this different, and that means that you need to get over it and fast."

Ken palmed his forehead and shook his head, "Oh Naruto no…"

A look of surprise was on Guile's face before he let the words soak in and he gave Naruto a hateful look, "What did you just say to me?"

Oh, that was what he was afraid of. But it still needed to happen one way or another. Someone had to throw the cold water in his face for better or for worse, "You heard me. Yes, Charlie died and that sucks. It's terrible. But you're both soldiers-, no you're pilots! You make a living doing something that'll kill you the second you screw up in practice! He was a grown man, and he knew exactly what he was doing."

If nothing else, even if he hated it, even if he blamed himself for letting it come to that point Naruto still realized that Charlie did what he did of his own volition, and that made him respect the man all the more for it. It would be an insult to him to continue living his life obsessed with what had occurred that day.

Guile had basically stopped being a functioning adult in his grieving, and that was a massive slap in the face to what Charlie had laid his life on the line for as far as he was concerned. People that sacrifice themselves don't do it so that the ones they do it for can spend the rest of their lives obsessing over how it was their fault. It's a choice to protect, "Sitting on that damn step with a thousand-yard stare is an insult to what he did for us!"

"What do you know? He was like family to me you little bastard!"

"You have a real family that needs a man, not a weepy loser!"

Naruto barely had time to get his arms up to block before his body was then suddenly hurled back by a spinning wave of energy thrown his way by Guile. Naruto was knocked to the smooth ground and slid back until he wound up being stopped by the foot of Ken who was looking down at him chidingly, "I told you. He doesn't want to hear it."

With a growl, Naruto stood back up and dusted his clothes off, "Well that's too bad because he's going to today. This is ridiculous." He started stomping back over to Guile while Ken whistled the funeral march song aloud, "Shut up if you're not gonna help!"

Ken held up his hands defensively and stopped whistling after Naruto snapped at him, "Hey I agree, but it's all you. I can't get into a fight like this with my damn brother-in-law anyway even if it needs to happen."

Basically given the green light to start throwing hands, Naruto turned off the radio in the hangar and yelled over to Guile, "Is that the best you've got?" The dead silence that came from everyone stopping what they were doing was amazing. This kid that had already gotten put on his backside was calling out Guile, "Who trained you? Because you hit like puss-!"

Angrily, Guile jumped off of his seat on the portable stairs and landed on one of the jets in the hangar before jumping off of that as well and launching himself at Naruto on the ground.

This time Naruto was ready, and for once in a battle he could claim to be the calmer, clearer-headed fighter and it showed when he went to his back right when Guile was to land on him and he used his legs like a spring to hurl Guile into the air and outside.

Kipping back up to his feet, Naruto wished that he had been wearing clothes for a fight today as he walked outside to face Guile who was getting up. Guile threw off his jacket and put his hands up in what looked like a boxing stance. Well from the look of his arms he hadn't been training any less than usual, because they were ripped.

'Okay, come on let's get this over with.' Naruto thought to himself as he put his hands up into the cross hand-seal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" Three clones formed and looked at each other before nodding and proceeding towards Guile tentatively.

The hard look on the soldier's face didn't change even when they slowly started trying to get on each of his sides. Without warning he turned and threw a double-armed cross slash that fired another wave of energy at one of the clones, "Sonic Boom!" The attack was fast enough to catch a clone flat-footed, destroying it.

The remaining two clones lunged next to each other the moment Guile turned and jumped at him side-by-side. After turning from his Sonic Boom attack, Guile saw them in the air just short of being upon him and jumped in the air, throwing a lightning fast kick, "Flash Kick!"

One of Naruto's clones jumped off of the other just before the kick could extinguish the existences of both of them and got into the air before aiming itself down at Guile, "Chakura Tanki-sha (Chakra Spitfire)!" A few baseball-sized chakra projectiles flew from the clone's mouth and drilled him, knocking him straight down to the ground.

A disadvantage of fighting more than one enemy reared its head the moment Guile's back hit the ground. He didn't even have time to exhale in pain before he found one of his arms grabbed by the original Naruto who was running with him and dragging him along the pavement. He got a killer case of road rash before Naruto spun around and hurled him into the metal fence that separated the side hangars from the tarmac.

Guile had to cover up as Naruto started hammering away on him with punches and kicks as he was stuck against the fence, 'This stupid kid…' Guile thought to himself. There were holes in the berserk attack, but he just couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger and counter when he could have.

He dropped his guard to get a peek once the punching stopped, but wound up taking a pair of boots to the face via a vicious dropkick from Naruto's clone that had clearly gotten a great running start prior to hurling itself at him. It kicked Guile hard enough for them to punch a hole through the fence and the impact of such a double-edged kind of maneuver dispelled the chakra doppelganger.

"Stop being all 'woe is me' and wallowing in this crap!" Naruto shouted at Guile from his side of the fence, "You see what just happened? This should have been way harder than that!" He left those holes in his assault on purpose. The entire point of his all-out beat down he had initiated against the gate was to get Guile to fight back. He was sorely disappointed.

This couldn't have been the same person that had instilled enough confidence in Chun-Li and Charlie that they included him in their mission. It couldn't have been the same man that fought against Bison and held out against his full power long enough to get a numbers game established against the overlord.

Guile was lucky Naruto didn't have any weapons on him because of the checkpoint, because if he had any he would have riddled him with shuriken to prove a point. Beating him up as quickly as he did worked almost as well though.

The bare arms of Guile had gotten torn up and scratched deeply via being kicked through the metal fence, but he stood back up regardless, head down as he tried to clear the cobwebs, "You're ungrateful… thinking it's okay to forget the man that saved our asses!"

Any other remark he was going to make died in his throat when his entire world got turned upside down so quickly he had no idea what happened. All he knew was that one second he was standing and about to keep fighting, and the next he was laying on his back looking up at the night sky, cut up by a wooden crate that his body had just been hurled into and wondering what the hell had just happened to him.

"Don't you ever say that to me again!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs, pointing a finger directly at Guile, "If you ever say anything like that to me again, that I'm not grateful to Charlie every single day for what he did, I don't care how down in the dumps you're feeling, I'll put you in the goddamn hospital next time!"

This definitely wasn't the same man he met in Thailand. That Guile would have put Naruto through the damn ringer ten times over before getting put in such a precarious position as the one he was currently in. It had been like Naruto was fighting an empty husk. A mere shell of the man.

He stomped directly over to Guile and planted his foot on his chest to keep him pinned down, "You didn't plant the explosives in the base, I did that with Cam and Chun-Li! You didn't have Bison dead-to-rights and let him slide, I did! So stop feeling guilty, go home, and be a fucking family man!"

Guile just stared up at him like a deer in the headlights as Naruto stalked away through the small crowd of observers, muttering to himself as he jumped back over the fence he had kicked him through. He tried to move around in the wreckage without cutting himself even worse on the edges of the crate when he then saw Ken standing over him.

"Well that was embarrassing wasn't it?" Ken said, hands still shoved in his pockets from earlier, "Naruto beat you like a piñata. That's what we should call you from now on; Senor Piñata. We'll rent you out to Mexican birthday parties." He joked dryly.

"Shut up." Guile said, as now that the adrenaline was wearing down he was feeling just how many clean hits Naruto busted him up with while he had him trapped. He knew Naruto was strong, but he could take the kid. It made no sense that he lost like that. He still trained every chance he got.

The blonde hotel tycoon didn't extend a hand to help Guile up, he just stared down at him with his arms crossed. He doubted that Guile would let him help anyway, "I hope that proved something to you. And just so you know, I can call him anytime I want to and he'll probably show up to do this again if I asked him. Eliza said I can't beat some sense into you myself because you're more or less family, but I can get someone else to do it for me."

The man on the ground just grunted and shifted slowly as he averted his gaze away from his brother-in-law.

"I watched my master get killed you know." Ken said, remembering watching Akuma finish off Gouken right before his eyes, "And I fought his killer just like you did just now. Akuma was way stronger than Naruto, and wasn't a hundredth as nice to give me a chance to get my head straight. He put me down with one punch." Naruto kept trying to get him to clear his head with battle. That was the main point of egging him on after talking failed, to let him vent, but he fought so poorly it wasn't worth trying, "You keep this up and you're going to lose more than a random fight to some teenager."

He'd lose his family. Guile didn't need him to spell it out for him, he wasn't a fool that missed what Ken was alluding to. If he couldn't focus on what was important in a fight long enough to keep himself from being dusted off, he would never keep his wife.

"Nobody's saying to forget about Charlie, but he didn't save you so you could obsess about it for the rest of your life." Ken said as he turned to walk away and leave him with his thoughts, "Don't let it rule you. Bad things happen to people that way."

"Come on Ken! Your wife might be cool, but Karin's gonna whip my ass if I'm not back at the airstrip by midnight!"

"You came with her on the business meeting for free. Just sweet-talk her into forgiving you when you get there!"

"She's the devil's seed! You don't get to sweet-talk her, you only compromise with her and trust me you always lose!"

"Fine you stupid brat, but if we get abducted by aliens driving through the desert at night I'm blaming you!"

Guile just kept lying on the ground and stared up into the air with a sigh as the base staff started to surround him and make sure he was fine. He didn't know how he felt about getting his tail kicked by a sixteen/seventeen year old, but that was irrelevant. His mind had really been so weighed down that he couldn't even fight properly… he could only imagine how bad he had been to his family.

Did it really have to go to that point though?

Carefully he reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled up invitation form that he narrowed his eyes at once he saw the tagline for it, 'Second World Warrior Tournament…' It had been sent right to him directly and hand-delivered while he had been on base instead of dropped at his house as mail. Something about it told him that entering was the best way to get what he wanted.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Japan: Chigoku Region – Aohura City)

Chun-Li had followed Sasuke up to his office much to his displeasure and merely sat calmly while Sasuke did his day work and got in some slight training in. All the while she just sat aside and kept a watchful eye on him.

It was annoying to the very reclusive former Konoha ninja to say the very least. He liked being left alone and hated company, especially the company of people that he didn't like for no reason.

"Do you actually want something or are you just that interested in the life of a restaurant manager?" Sasuke asked, ceasing his exercises once it was time for the nighttime rush to begin. He needed to go down and check things over just in case they needed a sterner touch, "You want a job?" He taunted.

Chun-Li just kept scrutinizing him, "I've been treating it like a riddle." She said at first, confusing Sasuke immensely until she elaborated, "Why you do missions to kill people that you know are wicked for the government, but how Gen just skirted over M. Bison. I know he knew who it was."

Oh, the Shadaloo thing. Admittedly Sasuke had often wondered that too. When he proved himself to be a splendid earner and an in-demand assassin he got more in touch with the criminal underworld of Asia he learned of them. He never went near them though. Gen frowned upon his network doing that heavily.

When Sasuke finally asked why he was given a rather cryptic response, but it didn't take him long to get what the old man was casting out.

"Because the government put him on the no-fly list." Sasuke said as he put his black Chinese shirt on and buttoned it, "He was untouchable or else they'd have to put the crackdown on Gen's assassin network. I think he bribed the officials."

It didn't surprise Chun-Li honestly. It made sense since Shadaloo got off without being pursued by the officials past what she did off the record in Thailand, "I thought so too…" Well that was all over now as far as she knew. Until Sasuke spoke up again.

"Are you trying to hire me to kill him for some off the record thing? Because I can tell you right now that you don't have the money to afford it. Not even if you dip into what your father left you when he died. Taking him down by myself is work too dangerous for peanuts."

The female Interpol agent blinked in confusion before addressing what she saw as Sasuke's mistake, "Sasuke, he's dead already. Since several months ago in Thailand. I was there."

In return he raised an eyebrow at her mistake and spoke on it accordingly, "No… he's not. He just disappeared for a few months, probably after whatever it is you did. Bison is back in charge. You didn't kill him."

"That's completely impossible!" Chun-Li shouted, getting up fast enough to push Sasuke's chair all the way back to the wall, "I was there! An ant couldn't have survived that explosion!" She seriously seemed to be taking that touch of information personally.

Her anger wasn't Sasuke's problem. If she didn't want to hear what he was saying he just wouldn't talk. And here he was helping her out, "If you don't believe me go ask Gen. That old bastard knows it too." That didn't seem to help any, "Before you go and PMS over this whole thing just remember who it is that has their finger firmly on the pulse of the world's seedier side before you start doubting me."

Oh she was definitely going to break his jaw for that PMS remark. Later though. Right now she needed him to talk. And right now she needed him to come with her, "We need to go back to China and talk to Gen. I'm not believing this until I hear it from him."

"Fine. Go." Sasuke said, walking past her to the door to leave his upstairs office, "Tell the old sack of shit that I said I want a raise and that I hate him while you're there." Before he could open the door a delicate yet strong hand set itself on his shoulder, "…Do you want to die?"

"Are you lying to me?" Chun-Li asked sternly. It wasn't like he couldn't have told her this sooner. They lived in the same city, they knew of each other. It would have been helpful to do so, especially since he knew enough about the entire situation to know that she wanted Shadaloo to fall. But then again taking Chinese government contracts didn't mean that they were on the same side. Not even close.

That was all she stopped him for? Sasuke shook her hand off of him and opened the door to leave, "Why would I? Now get out of my office." He said, gesturing for her to leave, "If that's all you wanted you've heard what I had to say, so beat it."

"You're such a charmer. I can see why girls like you." Chun-Li said sarcastically as she walked past him on the way out, getting a scoff for her trouble, "Note how I said girls like you and not women. That whole bad guy routine wears paper-thin for most women after they turn 18."

"Wait."

Hearing Sasuke speak to her got her to stop on the way down and turn around to face him. If it led to another empty insult she was just going to keep walking. She didn't need to go back and forth in a contest of verbal abuse to sate her own ego.

Sasuke started walking down the stairs, "I've got to know since you wasted so much of my time… what brought this along to begin with? If you thought he was dead before you said something to me what did it matter what I knew about Shadaloo?"

The moment he would have gone past her, Chun-Li brandished a loud and colorful ceremonial document that Sasuke was able to see in the low light of the staircase. The most prominent words on it were the only ones that really mattered in the end. She was by name formally invited to compete in the Second World Warrior Tournament.

Big deal. She was noted as a powerful fighter in places with farther reach than just Hong Kong or even just China. Why wouldn't the second tournament comprised of the world's absolute best want her there and in person? "A tournament invite? And that set off the alarm how?"

"Use those sharp eyes of yours and look closer."

A bit more scrutiny found that underneath all of the flash and pomp of the invite he could see that in the background of the tournament logo he could see a winged skull with a lightning bolt right on its forehead as the tournament symbol. Shadaloo's insignia. Not an emblem that most of the world was aware of, "This tournament is bait to kill you?"

"More than likely not just me. All of us in the know… Bison wants us aware of the fact that we screwed up and didn't finish him. He's mocking us." Chun-Li took her invitation back and continued down the stairs, "I was suspicious before with Shadaloo seemingly promoting the event, but now at least I know what to expect when I enter with some certainty."

XxX

(With Naruto – United States of America)

After being dropped off at the airstrip by Ken he quickly bid his older blond friend goodbye, promising to get his win back the next time they met before sprinting hastily onto the Kanzuki Family private jet that had been dispatched to take them to and from Japan.

Stepping inside of the plane, Naruto found Karin in her normal clothing sitting in one of the chairs with her arms crossed and one leg over the other, looking at him seriously. He pulled out his cell phone to check the time and found that he had made it with fifteen minutes to spare before midnight. Still, he left before noon that day so it had to have been one hell of a wait on him to get back.

"Sit down with me Naruto-san." Karin said, getting him to flinch. What did he do? She didn't sound like she was in the mood to play at all. Even so, Naruto realized that being stuck on a plane for hours and hours gave him no room to avoid a tongue-lashing if it came to that. He did as requested and just waited until she spoke again, both of them buckled in and ready for takeoff.

Naruto decided to get off a preemptive strike to deter any of her possible anger and cut it off at the pass, "Look. If this is about cutting out across the desert all day I can tell you right now that it wasn't as fun as you probably think it should have been." And he meant that. It was way more fun than she probably thought it was.

"I am not angry with you at all." Karin said with an empathetic look on her face, "While you were both gone, Eliza-san and I were approached by men sent to deliver messages to both you and her husband." She pulled the message from underneath her chair and handed it to him, "I believe apprehension would be a more accurate description of what I am feeling at the moment."

It didn't take Naruto long to see what she meant by that when he got to reading what was put on the message for him. Uzumaki Naruto had been invited to compete in the Second World Warrior Tournament. This wasn't the problem though, as had it been a normal scenario Karin would have encouraged him to enter. The thing that got her to fret was the sight of the Shadaloo emblem displayed prominently for all to take note of.

"I feel…" Karin began to say, looking more uneasy than before, "I feel that if you do not enter you will be marking yourself as a target for death." The fact that the messenger had managed to run them down thousands of miles away from the land they called home proved that they knew how to get to him, "But if you do choose to enter-."

"It's a trap?" Naruto ventured in an attempt to finish her sentence for her, getting a nod for his trouble, "Well if I don't enter it'll probably blow back on you and everybody else at home." If they didn't invite her on the spot the way they seemed to do for him and he hadn't gotten a call from anyone in Aohura City about it yet that meant that Shadaloo wasn't targeting people like Batsu, Cammy, and Sakura.

"You'll enter then?"

"Of course." It was better than risking his the necks of those he cared about when he could have just faced them down and gotten it over with, "I'm not scared of them. It's a tournament and it's going to be on TV. They can't do anything to me during my matches."

The problem with tacking on the name of the Second World Warrior Tournament was that it was going to come with extreme high expectations after the first one that Ryu won years back. Excessive media attention had to be expected at the event, and that would be what would keep any foul play from going on during the tournament itself; because everything would be under a microscope.

'But your problem…' Karin thought to herself before shaking it off due to the plane jerking as it started off down the runway and began ascending, "What do you need?" She asked him seriously.

"Nothing but time to train. Don't worry about it." Naruto said as he looked at the invitation and it looked like he would have it. The tournament didn't start until December. Kind of appropriate for something like this, "I've got two months, but what the hell? Man, I have to qualify for this thing first?"

What good was the invitation then? Just a tool to let him know what was going on and coax him into entering it seemed.

Well it worked, because whatever was up Naruto was going to stop it. As loathe as he was to go actively looking for trouble at a time like this it was his responsibility to finish what he had started.

Especially since it seemed like he wasn't going to get the chance to leave well enough alone.