The Reason I Fight For...

Chapter 6 - The Reason I Fight For...

It was down to the semifinals as Naruto's two fights in both the first round and quarterfinals were total tomato cans as far as he was concerned. He didn't even need to use a clone to win. Batsu's second opponent in the quarterfinals was infinitely easier to defeat than Balrog had been, especially since the fool thought that Batsu would be easy pickings due to his injury. It took him less than a minute to polish the idiot off and lay back down on the ground in his friends' row of seats.

Sakura's quarterfinal opponent met a very unpleasant end to his tournament run when she realized that he kept forcing her to throw high kicks so that he could try looking up her skirt. Seriously… that damn uniform she wore brought out the pig in adult men for some reason. She then proceeded to introduce his face to her fist and then to the barricade until he screamed for her to quit beating on him, which she did reluctantly.

And now in the next round it would be Sakura against Batsu, and then Naruto would do battle with his own opponent for the chance to meet one of his friends in the finals.

"Is 5 million yen really worth this?" Batsu asked aloud as he sat shirtless with Ishizaki re-taping his ribs by request of the ever-so-gracious Karin, "The second you punch me in the stomach Sakura I'm going to be puking blood."

With that visual stuck in her head, Sakura was visibly uncomfortable with going ahead into the next round, "I don't want to fight you if you're hurt Batsu. But you're not going to drop out either, are you?"

"Hell no."

"That's what I thought…" Sakura mumbled with a frown, running a hand through her short brown hair, "Would you hate me if-?"

"I won't be mad if you fight me like you'd fight anyone else." Batsu said, cutting her off from asking the question. Of course he wouldn't care. It was a damn fighting tournament. What was she supposed to do? It was obvious, "I'm not laying down for you out there either. You're legit going to have to stop me." He told her as Karin's large butler finished heavily taping his ribs back up, "Ugh… thanks a lot." Ishizaki nodded to him before retaking his seat.

Instead of putting his shirt back on, Batsu tied it around his waist. Everyone left in the tournament with the exception of one guy were his friends, everyone already knew he was injured and he'd need to be able to move as freely as possible as he was. No need to hide it.

Even with the reassurance, Sakura was still kind of concerned. It was one thing to fight if Batsu was actually healthy. He most assuredly was not healthy if the good half inch thick layer of tape around his torso was any indication.

"Does anyone have a marker?" Batsu asked as he tried to find a comfortable way to sit in his seat with busted up ribs, "Because I think I want to draw a bullseye on my stomach just to be funny for the next round."

XxX

(With Naruto – Arena Lobby)

"Sorry! I got dragged out of bed at first light this morning, there's no way you were done with your morning training by then to get here anyway!" Naruto desperately defended over the mobile phone in his hand. His frantic motion up and down the hall getting others out there to look at him strangely as he continued to speak, "Come on, you can't really be that mad can you Ibuki?"

"You're damn right I'm mad you jerk!" Ibuki responded loudly enough through the phone for Naruto to hold it away from his ear, "I've always wanted to see Tokyo and you and Sakura-chan just take off a day from school without saying anything? No warning at all to anyone. I wanted to go too…" She finished, her voice making Naruto think that he could see the pout on her face from there.

"We would have had to pull another trick on your sensei." A grin came to Naruto's face as he finally stopped moving to lean against a wall, "And really, we've been standing in line and just fighting. You would have been bored unless you split up from us for the day."

"*sigh* I guess there always next time. I've got to go, I'm almost close to getting back to my village and I can't let them see the phone. At least bring me something back and I'll see you guys in school on Monday. Don't get yourself put into the hospital, alright?"

Hearing the sound of Ibuki ending the phone conversation got Naruto to put his own phone up and sigh, "…I wouldn't go by choice anyway… I hate hospitals." His thoughts then turned to the semifinals of the tournament. As expected, there weren't many people here that were notable, Balrog was an anomaly and his win over The Great Oni in the preliminary round was the only other example he could think of, "In the finals I'm going to fight either Sakura-chan or Batsu. For real this time."

It was sort of exciting, fighting his friends with something actually on the line this time. Not just a spar for once.

"I believe that you are getting ahead of yourself." A turn of his head saw Naruto looking at Karin as she walked down the hall towards him, proper as ever and ignoring the people around her until she stood directly in front of him, "You still have to win your semifinal bout before you can think of defeating one of your friends."

"Well… I'm excited." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "I haven't been this excited to fight in a long time come to think of it. I want to see just what my friends have really got."

Pointing a stern finger right in Naruto's face, Karin spoke again, completely serious, "Like I said before, you need to worry about your semifinal bout first and foremost. Your opponent is extremely dangerous and he received a bye through the quarterfinals after the victor of the first round match that would have faced him bowed out due to injury. He's fresher than you too."

Naruto grabbed Karin's hand to get it out of his face and flexed his other arm at her, "Heh, if you think that I'll get tired just like that then you're crazy. Don't worry."

"You didn't see his first round match because you ran off to get Batsu medical supplies after winning your own fight." Karin said with a touch of concern in her brown eyes that was difficult to miss. But just like that she squashed it and launched into an explanation, "What do you know about professional wrestling?"

"I beat that Oni guy in the prelims." Naruto said, dredging up the memory of the very showy man. But did that question mean that his next opponent was another wrestler? It had to be if Karin was bringing it up, "So I'm fighting a wrestler again?"

"Not just that. You will be fighting the best wrestler in Russia." Karin informed him with a hollow look in her eyes, "A national hero, and a walking monster of a man." With a sigh, Karin spoke again, looking like what she had to say was very difficult for her, "Naruto-san you have my express permission to surrender before the next round."

A look of shock came over Naruto's face. That was one thing he had never expected to hear, "S-Surrender? Are you kidding me? I haven't even seen the guy yet and you're telling me that you want me to just quit?"

"It would be better if you did." Karin said abruptly, running a hand through her curls to place them behind her shoulders, "I don't need to see my investment turned to pulp by some hulking brute just for this tournament. There will be better chances in the future to prove your strength and skill. You can walk away without losing anything."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." Naruto said, waving his hands in front of him rapidly to bring Karin's reasoning to a close, "So you can send me off to fight a sumo wrestler in a bathhouse but I can't fight this Russian guy? What's with the big change of heart?"

"Like I said…" Karin remarked, her eyes panning down to Naruto's hold on her wrist where she removed it with her other hand, "You didn't see his first round match."

(Flashback – First Round)

"Ow…" Batsu complained still laying on the floor in front of the row of chairs occupied by the others, "Where's Naruto? Hasn't he been to Tokyo enough to know where the nearest store that sells medical stuff is?"

Instead of being worried about that, Karin crossed her arms over her chest as one of the fighters for the next match walked into the ring, "If he is a savvy fighter he should return as quickly as possible to watch the rest of his opponents that he may wind up facing."

"He'll be back." Sakura said with full confidence, "Naruto didn't send one of his clones because they tend to kind of go off and do dumb things when he gives them money to buy things like this. They'll spend it on themselves, and Naruto doesn't like technically stealing since when his clones dispel the money the clone had in their pocket will dispel too."

Karin glanced over at Sakura momentarily before looking back down into the ring with an uninterested look in her eyes, "Well, well. You certainly know quite a bit about my employee."

A shrug came from Sakura, not really seeing anything notable about it. Of course she'd know that much after being around him as close as they were for well over three years, "Yeah. He was my best friend first, not your worker. Of course I know more about him than you. You don't even consider yourself a friend of his."

That made Karin bite the inside of her lip as she wanted to respond and dispute that point, but her damn pride. Naruto had to hound her in private to get her to say it. There was no way she was just going to come out and say that they were friends with no prodding.

"And now ladies and gentlemen it's time for the last first round match of the evening! Introducing first from Seoul, South Korea, he stands six feet one inch, and weighs in at 184 pounds; Chan Doo San!"

A man with a white taekwondo uniform on and a long ponytail lifted his arm in acknowledgement of the announcer calling out his name as he stood in front of a man that was crouched down with a red cape concealing his entire body as he kept his head down.

"His opponent, straight from his training in Siberia, he stands seven feet tall and weighs in at 254 pounds! This is the Red Cyclone of Russia; Zangief!"

The man threw off the red cape concealing his body to reveal his entire frame to everyone in view. He had brown hair in a Mohawk and a goatee/beard as well as a large patch of hair on his chest. Scars littered his body in numerous places and he wore red wrestling tights with a yellow studded belt around his waist, red boots, and red wristbands. All in all he cut a very intimidating figure.

It didn't seem to matter to Chan though, as he moved right at Zangief and delivered a leaping ax kick that Zangief blocked before throwing him away. The agile taekwondo fighter landed on his feet however and went right back in at Zangief, throwing kicks at the bulky frame of the Russian wrestler. One of the kicks happened to be caught though, and Zangief pulled him in for a stomach-rattling punch that fully doubled him over.

Taking this chance, Zangief grabbed his opponent around the waist and held him upside down before jumping at least ten feet off of the ground, spinning in the air before landing on the ground in a sitting position, slamming Chan upside down headfirst.

Cheering raucously, the crowd roared as Zangief tossed Chan's limp body aside and stood up, lifting his arms into the air to point at the sky and yell loudly at his victory. It was clearly his win because Chan was not moving an inch.

"And Zangief simply overwhelms Chan with his massive signature Spinning Piledriver! One move ladies and gentlemen, that's all it took! We can only hope that Chan is alright, but advancing to the next round of fights; the Red Cyclone, Zangief! Expect nothing less from the most powerful man in Russia!"

Zangief flexed to the crowd as they cheered his name and the EMTs took Chan away on a stretcher to hurry him out of the arena.

(End Flashback)

"Chan Doo San was not alright." Karin said, putting a hand on the back of Naruto's neck, right where she could feel his vertebrae, "He has since been pronounced by doctors as paralyzed. An attack of that nature on a concrete floor, there was no give. I am not willing to take such a risk with you."

Taking a moment to remove Karin's hand from the back of his neck, Naruto just held it and gave the back of her hand a few firm pats, "I'm not going to get paralyzed Karin." He had been piledriven off of a cliff headfirst into rocks before and lived through it. And aside from that, Zangief had to grab him first, "So don't you worry one bit boss lady." He then realized that something wasn't happening, "Where's Shibazaki? Normally other times when I've tried to lay a hand on you he has a heart attack at me."

Karin smirked at Naruto as he returned her hand to her, "I sent him to the vendor area to request the use of their equipment to feed me. While I am not that hungry, I did need to find a moment to speak to you alone. This was the easiest way to ensure that."

"Trying to get me alone without your butler looking over your shoulder?" Amusement crept into Naruto's voice as he smirked along with his fellow blonde, "I've got to be rubbing off on you somehow, because that seems like a 'me' kind of move."

Karin leaned in close towards Naruto, getting him to lean back a bit so that their faces didn't touch. The halls were beginning to clean out for the end of intermission as no one wanted to miss the semifinal round, leaving Naruto and Karin more and more alone, "You say that as if you've taught me how to be devious. That could not be further from the truth. I was already devious before you and I ever even met." She finished in whisper.

"…I already knew that." Naruto whispered right back, feeling kind of awkward at the proximity the two of them were sharing at the moment. If he wasn't so terrified of how much evil he was quite certain was kept in Karin's female body he might have been a bit flustered by how close the two of them were, "…If you're going to kiss me for good luck you should just go ahead and do it now."

An airy laugh came from Karin before she backed away from Naruto and placed her hands saucily on her hips, "I do not kiss commoners Naruto-san. Keep that dream though."

More like a nightmare, but he wasn't about to say that out loud and wreck any good will between them.

"Very good. I've found you fairly easily."

Both Naruto and Karin turned to see a man flanked by many beautiful women following his every move, and Karin had to admit that he was an extremely attractive man. Definitely not a commoner from the looks of his suit, or his long flowing brown hair kept in a neat ponytail with not a stray hair in sight, "Is there some way that we can help you?" Karin said to the man as he got closer, "Do you have some business with us?"

The man looked at Naruto with a bit of disdain, 'Now that I've seen him up close he's rather unattractive. What are those marks on his face? He looks like a complete thug.' With that, he chose to turn his attention to Karin who was obviously beautiful and the one he would rather be conversing with. It didn't matter as long as the message got out, "I have business with the young man here. I wish to offer him a job of sorts… I simply need to see more of what he is capable of in order to finalize whether or not I will require his services."

"And you are?" Karin asked, raising a delicate eyebrow at how the man had not introduced himself.

"Ah, of course." With a sweeping bow that got his female hanger-ons to swoon at his grace, the man lifted his head up to smile at Karin disarmingly, "You may refer to me as Vega. You are quite a charming young woman Kanzuki-dono. Your family name precedes you even amongst the nobles in Spain."

Hearing her name brought up in a formal matter by a man with proper foreign conditioning, Karin returned Vega's bow and stood back up, "You have an issue you would like to bring up to Naruto-san? Is this true? It pays, correct?" She added, thinking it thoughtful to try and broker a good price for Naruto. For some reason, Naruto was stockpiling money and this could greatly help with that if the man paid well.

"Of course." Vega said with a pleasant smile on his face, "I can assure you that he will be paid very well for his assistance."

A nod came from Karin before she turned to Naruto who hadn't spoken a word since Vega's arrival, "What do you think Na-?" She stopped her question when she saw a rather hard, scrutinizing look in Naruto's eyes as he stared at Vega, "Naruto-san?"

It didn't get Naruto to break his stare away from Vega, as if he was trying to find something by looking into the man's eyes, and he apparently found what he was looking for when he narrowed his own eyes and moved slightly in front of Karin in a bit of a protective manner, "I don't want to hear your offer. I'm not interested."

"Are you sure?" Vega said, but this second offer only got Naruto to bristle in a harsher matter. He could see the darkness behind Vega's seemingly harmless eyes, 'The boy is quite perceptive… I guess he has to have some qualities to compensate if his appearance is so unsightly.'

'There's so much bloodlust in his eyes.' Naruto thought. From the moment Vega got a good look at his face, Naruto could feel the killing intent flooding the hallway. It was thick, but he had felt worse before. This man had clearly taken many lives though. It was as if Naruto could still see the blood on his well-kept hands as they spoke, "I'm completely sure. I don't need to hear anything. Karin pays me more than enough, I'm not looking for another person to work for right now."

Vega nodded stiffly, seemingly in understanding before turning around and walking away, the women following him, "I see. Well thank you for your time Kanzuki-dono, Uzumaki-san." Even with his hard-soled shoes his footsteps never made a sound. That was crazy.

He was skilled. So what in the world did he want Naruto's help for? He seemed capable enough all on his own.

"Why did you turn that man down so abruptly?" Karin asked him, rather heatedly as Vega returned to the main arena. Her foot was tapping the floor impatiently for his answer, "He was well connected. I could clearly see that much. He had incredible funds and would have paid you handsomely. Isn't that your goal?"

"I'm not taking anyone's blood money." Naruto said, still glaring down the hall where Vega had long since departed, "That guy… he had the eyes and the body language of a killer." Since coming to Japan Naruto could see marked differences in how people carried themselves from people in Konohagakure. It was rare to see anyone carry themselves with a modicum of combat etiquette, let alone the tense assassin-like manner that Vega moved with. It seemed like his every motion could have been transitioned into a lethal attack, "Whatever he wanted me to do, it wouldn't have been worth it."

"What about your goal?" Karin asserted, trying to appeal to the side of Naruto that wished for financial security… for whatever reason he needed it for, "How is turning down a lucrative opportunity going to help you?"

Once again, Naruto didn't budge on the matter, "That guy's eyes… I don't like him. There's something really messed up about him past that pretty boy face of his. I don't work for people I don't like." He then addressed the silent issue that Karin's skeptical eyes were asking him, "…Yes, that means I kind of like you. You're not a bad person at all."

Oh, a compliment. How nice. But that wasn't really the point of conversation from Karin's point of view. So Naruto just flat out didn't like or trust anything about Vega. That was his right as his own agent to line up his own work, but still… "Apparently you need my money to help you, so why do you not simply tell me now what it is? There is no need to cause an incident like this to occur again by accident. What are you searching for?"

"I can't tell you."

"And why not?"

"Because you'd never believe me… no one would. And I don't need anyone thinking I'm crazy."

So this was something he hadn't even told Sakura, his best friend, about? If that were the case then trying to strong-arm it out of him by being bossy wasn't going to work for a single moment as far as Karin went. There truly was something strange about Naruto that went beyond his fighting abilities.

The two had something of a standoff before Karin sighed and waved the whole thing off, "Honestly… you say I need to be open, well what about yourself Naruto-san? There isn't much that you could say to me at this point that would cause too much of a stir with me. I am very level-headed." She sounded as if she were bragging, but there was something more behind it, "Just know that whenever you wish to bare your secret ambition to me I will lend you an ear."

"Why would you care?" Naruto asked in legitimate curiosity towards her intentions.

"Who knows? It could serve to be just as interesting as I figure you yourself to be." Wow, what a cryptic answer. If Naruto wanted such a vague answer from Karin he wouldn't have asked the question in the first place, "Now shall we return to our seats? Shibazaki should be finished preparing my meal soon."

Naruto just stared after her as she started walking back down the hallway corridor to return to the appropriate arena entrance before deciding to just follow after her. Thinking about what was exactly was going on in a wealthy girl's head was just going to sidetrack and confuse him. He had a fight to prepare for, and his friends were on deck for their own bout in just a matter of minutes.

XxX

(A Few Minutes Later – Main Arena)

A tentative looking Sakura stood in the middle of the ring facing off against a calm looking Batsu, though he still had his uniform top tied around his waist to reveal the bandages adorning his torso. His face slightly twisted in a scowl when he could see Sakura's apprehension from her body language, "Are you still on about me fighting hurt?" Batsu said with a lot of irritation, "I'm fine with it… mostly. So just get over it."

"I don't fight to hurt people, just to win." Sakura replied with conviction in her eyes, "I can't win without making your wounds worse. Way worse."

"Then just do it and stop bellyaching about it." Batsu said, standing in a ready stance with his fists clinched, "Because I'm not going to take it easy on you. If you aren't going to quit then you'd better put me down hard and in a hurry."

"The first semifinal match involves two high school students from Aohura City and they seem to know each other quite well, how interesting! It is Kasugano Sakura against Ichimonji Batsu! Winner heads to the final round! Let's see who's the strongest student!"

"If you won't attack me, I'll attack you!" Batsu said, holding out his left fist before hitting it with his right as if he were striking a match, "Kiaidan (Guts Bullet)!" Wasting no time, Batsu fired off his specific ki attack at Sakura, forcing her to dodge it and beginning the battle in earnest as he tried to close the distance, using the previous attack as a feint to give him a chance to get closer.

Sakura was still hesitant to use a special attack of her own in retaliation. And this actually allowed the far slower due to his injury Batsu to get close and begin trading strikes with her. The wild swinging kicks of Batsu didn't touch Sakura, but she wasn't countering. Outmaneuvering him was a definite possibility, but her immediate instinct when getting past the guard of someone bigger than her was to deliver punishment to the body.

Her hesitance to do so in this instance caused Batsu to take advantage of her pulling her punches, making her pay in the process, "Mikazukikero (Crescent Moon Kick)!" Sakura felt pain rip through her own torso as Batsu delivered a deep, driving kick to her body that sent her fumbling and rolling back over the floor. Of course, the full extension of his body that was required for the move to be effective caused Batsu to drop to his knees, clutching his stomach, "Stop fighting sloppy Sakura…" He said, "Even if I'm hurt I can still beat you to a pulp damn it."

Feeling her blood pumping at being hit with such a clean shot, Sakura got back up and saw Batsu himself on his knees. And just like that, her resolve to fight back started slipping away again.

Pity from an opponent, especially someone close to him, pissed Batsu off, and this was no exception as he got right back up to his feet and got back into his fighting stance, "Come on already! Naruto says that you're good, well stop acting like a coward and fight me!" He shouted, charging at her again.

"Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" Sakura fired a wild and fast flashing Hadoken at Batsu, hoping that the weak but fast attack would put him down without too much harm, but Batsu just jumped over it and made her pay for her errant miss.

"Ryuuseikero (Falling Star Kick)!" Falling from the sky, Batsu drove another stiff kick into Sakura actually hitting her hard enough to cause friction sparks as she went flying back again. The crowd collectively let out an 'ooh' as her body crashed into the sturdy barrier separating the crowd from the fighting area, "If you don't fight back you're the one that's really gonna to get hurt!"

XxX

(In the Stands)

Naruto flinched when the sound of Sakura's body hitting the barrier sounded out through the arena, "Come on Sakura-chan. Even I know that when you've got someone hurt you've got to finish the job." He said quietly from his seat next to Karin.

Her butlers due to Shibazaki's previous absence wound up sitting on her right side while she had Naruto to her left, much to Shibazaki's chagrin. The two seemed to be getting along very well though, focusing on the fight before them, "She should be more aggressive than this. When we fought she was sharper. Her form was very unclean, but this is completely different altogether. It seems like she does not even wish to hit him."

"She's too scared she'll hurt him worse."

"That's stupid." Karin bluntly stated, seeing her rival in a lesser light with the revelation from Naruto, "If he was fine she'd be trying to beat him to a pulp. The way things are now the only thing that has changed is that the job is halfway done. She's too soft to win a real fight."

As much as Naruto wanted to defend Sakura's good-natured heart, there was a time and a place for it, and if Batsu was stubborn enough to fight she should have flat out torched him. Naruto could see why Batsu wanted to keep fighting as he would have done so himself, "Sakura-chan if you lose without fighting him back I'm gonna make your life a living hell when we get home! You can count on that, dattebayo!"

XxX

(In the Ring – Sakura vs. Batsu)

Naruto's voice was very distinct, and when he wanted someone to hear something there was no amount of background noise possible to keep his voice muffled. Sakura clearly heard Naruto's threat and knew that he would never harm her, but that wasn't the kind of hell that she was well aware that he could bring her. Embarassing prank booby traps, and it would be unbearable because he was well aware of her entire daily schedule and anywhere she could go to try and hide from him.

"Take him seriously damn it!" Naruto shouted down at her again, "You're disrespecting Batsu like this! He wants your best, he doesn't want you to pity him! How would you feel if that was you?"

She'd be pissed. If she was still able to stand and insisting on fighting and her opponent didn't give her the time of day in a competition she'd go at the bastard tooth and nail to let him know what a huge mistake it was to underestimate her. Apparently Batsu felt the same way because he had delivered a few nasty attacks while her guard had been down.

"Okay Batsu…" Sakura said aloud as she stood back up and walked away from the barricade she had crashed into, "No holding back anymore. If this is what you want, this is what you're going to get."

A scoff came from Batsu as he moved his hands away from soothing his injured ribs to getting back into a defensible fighting stance, "Finally. This way when I beat you I can say I'm that much better than you." Bad physical condition or not, he still knew in his mind that he could win. All he needed was to string together a good combination of moves. His body could take the pain that a good chain of attacks would give him.

"Hadoken (Surge Fist)!" Sakura fired another wild Hadoken, sacrificing power and control for speed and range, but missed wide. It let her get close enough to fight hand-to-hand though, letting her start off with a low front sweep that Batsu avoided by lifting his leg up. Sakura followed up with a spinning backfist that he ducked, but it put stress on his ribs to do so, and Sakura's spinning combination was not complete as she spun through for a third time to land a rather solid low-aimed kick that battered his right side, even with his guard up to protect himself.

A small pained grunt came from Batsu as he shoved her leg away and stood up straight, now blocking a flurry of punches coming from Sakura before shoving her back and trying to unleash a harsh rushing uppercut that missed, again causing incredible pain to his body due to the full extension required by his body to put his full force behind the move. Sakura didn't pity him this time and delivered a side kick to his body, picking at the weak point instead of trying to avoid a fight altogether.

Stumbling back, Batsu's knees shook and he fought to keep them from giving out on him. This was what he had asked for, Sakura not taking it easy on him, so there wasn't any way he could complain about it. Sakura let out a yell of effort as she struck home with a direct, straight punch that got Batsu right in the ribs. However, she found that she couldn't pull her hand away and looked at Batsu's face to find him smirking at her painfully.

Of course it was going to be an attack to the ribs. Any half-assed schlub that fancied themselves a fighter of any real value would have gone for that big white-taped opening at any and every opportunity. There wasn't any way around it. So all he could do was prepare accordingly, "All I do… is get into fights where I'm guaranteed to get the crap beat out of me." He said, tightening his grip on Sakura's arm before lifting his leg to give one authoritative big boot to her face that freed her from his grip but knocked her down and away, "Do you really think I don't know how to take a punch like that?"

Sakura lay down on the ground for a moment, holding the shoulder of the arm Batsu had held onto before kicking her away. It felt almost like she had dislocated her shoulder, but she could still move it so that was not the case. She counted herself lucky to be awake after that, as she had seen Batsu throw a racing motorcycle like a shot-put before, and that kick to her head was underpowered due to his injury. That was her only reasoning as to how she was not knocked unconscious by that clutch counterattack.

She got up and growled to herself as she charged towards Batsu again and attacked, "Shunpukyaku (Twirling Gale Kick)!" Multiple 360 rotations went into Sakura's jumping spin kick that merely bounced off of Batsu's guard and let her drift into the air, almost like a pinwheel as she flew over his head and followed up with a falling punch that got through and smashed him right in the face.

Blood sprayed from Batsu's mouth onto the ground as his head snapped down and to the side from the shot, but he turned back and retaliated with an attempted haymaker of his own that Sakura ducked under, 'Fuck.' Batsu thought to himself as Sakura was in a full crouch underneath his fist and entire arm, 'I overextended! I was too wild!'

"This ought to fix you!" Sakura shouted before delivering two low spinning kicks that bashed Batsu in his ribs. Before he could fully double over and hold his torso, Sakura hit him with a third kick, a high front kick to the face that knocked him into the air. Flipping above him, Sakura used a two-handed smash that sent him back to the ground with her landing flawlessly in a double stomp right on Batsu's ribs again, "Haru Ranman (Turbulent Pride of Spring)!"

"AAAHHH!" Batsu cried out loudly, with all of Sakura forcing herself right into his torso before blacking out from the pain, going spread-eagle on the ground and lying there motionlessly.

Sakura stood in her crouch on Batsu's body before falling to the side on her backside and heaving a sigh of exhaustion, "I really didn't want to break out my new special combination on you, but you just wouldn't go down." She said to the unconscious young man before standing up from the ground.

"That's it for that one everyone! The winner of the match, and proceeding to the final round of the tournament; Kasugano Sakura!"

Smoothing out her dress as she lifted up one hand in victory, Sakura looked back at Batsu sorrowfully as the EMTs were already there checking him over and loading him up onto a stretcher, "He's going to be alright isn't he?" She asked, walking with the doctors for a ways.

"You broke one of his ribs, but nothing ruptured as far as we can see yet. No internal bleeding coming from his mouth." The main doctor amongst them said, "We've got to take him to the hospital though." Hearing that stopped Sakura at a pair of ground level double doors that would have led to the back of the arena, just looking at the doors in shock.

"Oh no…" Sakura said, feeling lower than the floor. This was what she didn't want. She didn't want to hurt a friend and now she had sent one to the hospital. Such was the nature of rule-free full-contact fighting. She turned around and saw that Naruto had hustled his way through the stands to see Batsu off as well and immediately ran towards him to hug him tightly, "Naruto I didn't mean to do that to him."

"I know." Naruto replied, just hoping that she wouldn't start crying on him. The last thing he needed and something he had no idea on how to handle was how to console a crying girl. And he was up next to fight, he knew he couldn't calm her down by then if she wound up losing it, "Look, Batsu knew what he was doing when he came down for this round. You didn't do anything wrong; you went after the weak spot. That's how you win a fight. It's okay Sakura-chan."

Well hell, she knew that. It didn't sit easily with her though regardless. Sakura pouted, though he couldn't see it from the position of her head buried in his shoulder and chest, "I know how to win a fight… I don't want to hurt my friends though."

"Batsu's going to be fine. He's a tough bastard." Naruto asserted, patting her on the back, "Now come on. Stop being all emotional and girly. My fight's next and I can't be all full of estrogen and touchy feelings when I'm trying to crack skulls."

Pulling away from him, Sakura thumped Naruto in the chest with a small smile on her face, "I'm girly because I'm a girl stupid." She remarked before sighing a bit, "…Thanks for that though. So you won't be too angry when I beat you will you?" The sound of someone loudly clearing their throat got both Naruto and Sakura to turn around to see Karin standing there with her hands on her hips, "Yes Karin-san? We were talking."

'Talking is what she calls it?' Karin thought to herself with a twitching eyebrow before squashing that thought, "While you two were having a moment, Naruto-san's opponent entered the ring. So if you're done holding him up with your little near-breakdown…" She trailed off before smirking, "Unless you want to cry on his shoulder some more little girl."

Damn it, he could damn near see the electricity flying between their eyes at each other at that point. Naruto let out a groan and just started walking to the ring. He was not about to stand there and break up a catfight between two girls that could potentially beat him unconscious right before a match just for getting in the way, "Don't beat each other up please…" He remarked before walking back to the barrier and hopping over it to enter the ring.

"Now it's time for the second semifinal match of the evening! It's the sixteen year old self-professed ninja, the part-time soldier with a chip on his shoulder; Uzumaki Naruto! And he's taking on Russia's greatest athlete, the most dangerous grappler on the face of the planet; Zangief! This is a real David vs. Goliath matchup, I'll let you go ahead and guess who's who!"

It had been a while since Naruto had to look directly up at someone to see their face. Zangief stood more than a full head over him and was at least twice as wide, "…I didn't know you could get muscles there." He said, almost meekly at the sheer size of his opponent. Naruto was just utterly dwarfed, "Well whatever… after getting the chance to get into the ring with the best ninja in the world and getting your ass kicked, I'll give you the chance to shake my hand." Naruto said, trying to muster some bravado and braze to up his own fighting spirit.

Zangief chuckled down at Naruto and ruffled his hair, unknowingly almost popping Naruto's neck from the strength in his very large arms, "Let's see just what you've got to offer little one." Naruto felt Zangief's grip begin to tighten and remembered that Zangief was a wrestler and that this was not good. The powerful Russian lifted Naruto up, palming his head like a basketball, but Naruto wrapped his arms and legs around his arm like a leech, not willing to be thrown, "What do you think you're doing? Let go!"

"No! Screw off!" Naruto shouted back at him, attaching himself with chakra as Zangief tried his best to shake Naruto off for a throw or a slam. Zangief got upset and lifted his arm to slam it into the ground, Naruto and all, but that was what it took for Naruto to eventually let go, swinging himself around Zangief's arm like a metal bar and dropkicking him right in the face before flipping away and gaining some distance, 'I've got to stay fast or this guy'll kill me if he can grab me.'

With a mighty yell, Zangief jumped through the air at Naruto, firing a dropkick of his own that Naruto rolled out of the way of. This guy was too big to try and test with a punch, kicking him in the head earlier felt like he had just booted a log, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" Twelve Naruto clones manifested out of smoke and dove at Zangief to pin him down, but they might as well have just been ragdolls from the way that Zangief threw them away into each other and kicked them off when they tried to grab his legs.

"Are you kidding me? Tell me I'm not seeing double… or dozen in this case! Uzumaki Naruto just cloned himself on command! Is he even human?"

It bought Naruto enough time to land a flipping ax kick, but Zangief's core was like iron and he grabbed a hold of Naruto's leg after its heel smashed into him. Naruto could feel a pressure directly on his kneecap and realized that he was a hair's breadth away from getting his leg broken. Naruto made more clones that were quick to leap to their creator's defense, brazenly pummeling Zangief's face and tugging at his arms to free Naruto before something terrible happened.

The combination of the beating and the incessant pestering of the clones freed Naruto as several of them dragged Naruto away. In a burst of angry strength, Zangief stood up, throwing away Kage Bunshin, one in each hand, picking up another one and headbutting it into oblivion and punching the last that tried to attack it in the face, turning it to smoke.

After disposing of his multiple attackers, he glared at Naruto and his seven remaining clones, growling as a blood pulsed out of a throbbing rage vein in his forehead. The clones looked at each other warily but they all had Naruto's original grit to fight. Well there was one sure-fire way that they could all break a man's spirit for fighting… and since Zangief already seemed to be spurting blood from a vein in his head it probably wouldn't even take this much to finish the job so to speak.

"Let's finish this!" Naruto shouted as his clones surrounded Zangief like a wild animal, making hand-seal, "No man alive can stand up to this move! Harem no Jutsu (Harem Jutsu)!" Smoke came and went to reveal that in the place of Naruto and his clones were multiple beautiful blonde women that were sorely lacking clothing, smoke not even concealing their modesty or lack thereof, "Hello Zangief-sama!" They all cried in unison as they hung all over the man.

XxX

(In the Stands)

E. Honda had to cover his own nose to keep blood from flying out of it upon the sight of what was below in the ring. Hopefully no one saw him, but he felt safe since most of the guys in the place were either cheering wildly or suffering the same physical affliction as him at the moment, "What on Earth? How in the world does he call that a technique?"

"I might kill him." Sakura said stiffly, glaring down at the ring where her friend was making a perverted ass of himself. He had somehow neglected to ever use that 'world-beating technique' in her presence ever… luckily for him, "I might really kill him this time. I don't think I can hit him enough to make him realize how messed up this is."

"I am sure there is a proper number somewhere." Karin said, gritting her own teeth at the sight of the Harem Jutsu, "…A very high number." Would it have been wrong of her to think of docking Naruto's wages for his actions?

XxX

(In the Ring – Naruto vs. Zangief)

Sadly, having nearly a dozen nude women hanging off of him did not have the desired and practiced effect on Zangief that Naruto figured it would. Instead of going red in the face and ejecting most of his lifeblood through his nasal passages the way many before him had done, Zangief's face twisted in anger, "Raaah! Double Lariat!" Extending his arms to the side, Zangief spun around at a high speed and blasted the transformed clones and the original away violently with clotheslines and spinning backfists, "What kind of fighting technique is that? Turning oneself into a whore!" He spat hatefully on the ground before running at Naruto who was sitting up.

"What are you, gay?" Naruto shouted from his backside, blood streaming from his own nose due to being hit by Zangief's pole-like arms. Who just shrugged something like that off? He got a good view of the man charging towards him and made a few more hand-seals before spitting his next attack at him, "Chakura Tanki-sha (Chakra Spitfire)!"

"Banishing Flat!" Zangief's right hand glowed green and he simply slapped Naruto's spitfire attack away, not stopping his charge and reaching Naruto by the time he had gotten back to his feet.

"He just slapped it away!" Naruto cried in disbelief. No one just knocked his jutsu away like it was a baseball, it should have done something. What was that green stuff? Zangief's ki? But Naruto then sharply exhaled when Zangief slammed a knee right into his belly.

Grabbing the doubled over Naruto around the waist, Zangief flipped him up onto his shoulders and jumped into the air, slamming Naruto directly onto the ground head, neck, and back first, "Flying Powerbomb! This is what real fighting is all about!" He shouted to the crowd with spittle flying as he stood on Naruto's chest with one foot and lifted his arm into the air victoriously, "Not cheap light tricks or misdirection! Crush your opponent and show your superiority with no shadow of doubt to the outcome!"

The pain from being powerbombed on the concrete overwhelmed Naruto's senses as he almost couldn't feel himself trying to move for a bit. When he got feeling back in his limbs though, he wasn't about to let this meathead just step on him like he was a bug. Naruto clutched at Zangief's boot with one hand as he formed a blue sphere of rapidly moving energy in his other hand, "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"

Zangief let out an intense howl of pain when Naruto slammed the Rasengan into the side of his knee, the force of which forced Zangief to do a full flip through the air thrice speedily before landing on his face on the concrete floor.

Naruto quickly crawled and then stood up to run away now that he had his opening and turned back to see Zangief looking at him from his place belly down on the ground, eyes nearly bulging out of his head in either agony or fury as he rolled over and sat up, his right leg clearly dislocated at the knee.

'That's got to be it.' Naruto said to himself mentally, spitting his own blood out as he stared at the downed Zangief as if telling him to give up. But when Zangief painstakenly lined his own leg up and slammed his hands against both sides of it to audibly pop it back into place he had to fight back the urge to gulp, "Fuck…" Naruto thought, seeing Zangief beginning to stand back up, "Fine! I'll just knock you out now then!" He created five clones that surrounded Zangief again as he stood up, with all of the Narutos attempting a rising kick, but it was like trying to kick a small car off of the ground as they barely got Zangief to lift up to his tiptoes, 'Is he really that strong?'

"Spinning Lariat!" Another wild, spinning arm attack once again rid Zangief of Naruto's clones, but Naruto himself ducked, retaliating quickly with a hard uppercut to the ribs that got Zangief to grunt from the cleanly landed, technically sound shot. It hurt, but it wasn't enough, "You punch like a girl."

That wasn't really much of an insult especially when it came to the girls that Naruto knew, but an insult was an insult and he didn't take them without responding.

So he stomp-kicked at the knee that he knew he had just dislocated moments earlier.

An appropriate response.

Zangief dropped to one knee, shouting in pain once again before growling and grabbing Naruto around his neck with both hands. The mammoth Russian warrior lifted him off of the ground and began strangling Naruto with his bare hands, "Close your eyes and go to sleep little one…"

Naruto started kicking away wildly, but Zangief's reach was scary and Naruto could barely reach his body with the tip of his toes as he tried in vain to pry his opponent's hands away from his throat, 'He's so strong! It's like Super Bushy Brows Sensei's grip!' Naruto couldn't even make choking or coughing noises as his blood buildup started turning the whites of his eyes red as blood vessels were feeling the strain due to the blood pressure building in his head.

He didn't want to do something like this in a fighting tournament, but he wasn't about to be strangled to death in the middle of an arena for a bunch of bloodthirsty people. Naruto stopped trying to pry Zangief's grip free as his vision began to blot and darken. He reached for his supply pouch and pulled out two kunai that he proceeded to bury deep into Zangief's forearms.

Getting stabbed by the black iron blades forced Zangief to drop Naruto to the ground. He stumbled back in surprise and pain, roaring as he tried to pull the stubborn weapons out of his arms. He tossed them onto the ground with a clatter and stomped angrily towards Naruto who was on his hands and knees, wheezing and choking down sweet oxygen for the first time in over a minute.

Zangief stood behind Naruto and pointed both of his fingers into the air with a shout, "For Mother Russia!" He then bent down and grabbed Naruto by the back of his waist from behind before bridging his own body back and slamming Naruto's back, head, and neck into the ground, "Ultimate!" He seamlessly rolled through and picked Naruto back up before slamming his back down across his knee, "Atomic!" He then flung Naruto into the air and jumped with him, catching him and driving him into the ground with an improvised spinning piledriver, "Buster!"

"Oh my goodness! What a terrible display of chain-grappling! On the unforgiving concrete floor to boot! I think we've found our winner, there's no way that our young friend is still conscious! There's just no way!"

"NARUTO/NARUTO-SAN!"

Sakura and Karin's panicked shouts from the stands were more or less drowned out by the loud cheering of the people surrounding them as Zangief got up from the ground, letting Naruto's body lay out in a more natural facedown position from where it had been previously. With a satisfied smirk as he didn't see Naruto budge an inch, he turned towards the crowd and raised his hands in victory.

"…That last attack was cotton soft."

Zangief heard Naruto's weak voice and turned towards him to see that he was still down in the same position as before, eyes still closed and everything. He scoffed at Naruto's attempts to taunt him and crossed his arms over his massive chest, "I hear your mouth moving little man, but I don't see you getting back up to prove it."

"Fine." Naruto said as his body started to twitch, but he didn't get up Zangief let out a barking laugh at his expense. Even a few vocal crowd members started telling Naruto to stay down, getting Zangief to laugh even louder, "Don't laugh at me…" He said, stirring but still not even beginning to stand up.

"You have the heart of a tiger, but the body of a deer… broken by a real tiger." Zangief mocked, crouching down to Naruto's level as he started pushing himself up, "Stay down!" He yelled directly into Naruto's ear.

"Apparently steroids shrink your brain as much as they shrink your balls because I already told you that your last move was soft!"

Zangief kicked at Naruto's body, sending him rolling on the ground, but to his surprise Naruto got up faster this time, his body and clothes covered in the marks of battle. Upon reaching his feet and almost falling back down again, Naruto let out a chuckle and proceeded to flip off Zangief with both hands.

A sneer took over Zangief's face and he charged towards Naruto, intent on grabbing the defenseless looking teen and turning him into a pretzel for his disrespectful remarks and actions, "I'll crush you and throw you into the wind!"

From flipping the double bird, Naruto's hands set themselves in hand-seals as he started making them again, "Crush this." Naruto mumbled, inhaling deeply as the seals continued. Zangief charged up his glowing green hand again to repel whatever energy attack Naruto had planned, but Naruto kept charging it anyway. A blue glow formed in the back of Naruto's throat as he stopped his hand-seals on the tiger seal, "Chou Ikitaihou (Chakra Breath Cannon)!"

Instead of blocking a normal kind of projectile attack, Zangief found his body completely blasted with a steady wave of millions of thin, spraying chakra needles from Naruto's mouth that all seemed to stab into him as they bounced off of his body and dissipated into the air. It was clearly not an attack with all-encompassing range, but whatever its range really was didn't matter much as Zangief was right in Naruto's face and took every little bit of the attack.

Zangief yelled until his voice was hoarse at the sudden and shocking sensation of being blasted with raw chakra straight from the source of Naruto's throat until he ran out of breath and let the attack fade. Blood covered the entire front of Zangief's body from his pores instead of from actual wounds as none had been opened. He stood tall for a moment, face still twisted in yell-mode until he fell backwards with a great crash onto the ground like a fallen redwood tree.

All Naruto did was stand in place, panting and eying the downed Russian superstar, hoping that he didn't do his best impression of the things in those zombie movies that Sakura liked to watch in the dark all the time.

It seemed to be an eternity before enough seemed to be enough and the announcer decided to call it. He had given Zangief even more time than he had planned on giving Naruto to stand back up, but he couldn't and wouldn't hold out any longer, "Can you say upset! Like I said, it was David vs. Goliath, and that amazing blast of ki from the little blonde guy was the slingshot and stone that felled the giant! Ladies and Gentlemen your winner and advancing to the final round of the C9 Corporation Grand Ace Fighting Tournament; Uzumaki Naruto!"

The crowd once again roared, inspired by the crushing finale to the extremely violent match that left both combatants bloodied and battered. Naruto didn't even bother raising his hands up in victory or playing to the crowd, because for a winner, he didn't feel very much like one.

"You're good… but you're not 'Uzumaki Naruto' good." Naruto crouched down painfully in front of the unconscious Zangief and stared at him before blinking and frowning, "Okay, you can't shake my hand, but I'll shake yours." He said, grabbing Zangief's closest hand and giving it a hearty shake before standing straight back up and limping off, "Kami… do I even have enough for the finals?" He asked no one in particular as he barely reached the barrier and sat down against it, not caring that the fans were taking that chance to pat him on the shoulders and ruffle his sweaty, grimy, and bloody hair, "Hurry up and heal me you stupid fox…" He muttered under his breath, "…I'm gonna need it."

XxX

(In the Stands)

Vega's eyes were coldly locked onto Naruto as he concluded his battle with Zangief. Even with his flock of lovely female companions surrounding him and vying for his attention, they didn't matter to him. He could have more women just as beautiful anywhere he went in the world.

No, his concern was on the victor of the last deathmatch.

All of that skill and power, and he turned his offer down without hearing him out.

What an insult. An insult that Vega's pride wouldn't allow to stand. How dare that ugly peasant slight him and stare at him in the lobby with those spiteful eyes. Eyes… all eyes were to look upon him with admiration, adoration, and jealousy. And all that could have stood if he had just accepted the offer for work.

Well if he wouldn't work he could serve another purpose. His blood could ease Vega's mind. Watching the life drain from the boy's eyes would be equal to obtaining his services in Vega's mind. After all, if one wasn't with Shadaloo they were against them by default.

And with that in mind, Vega stood up and walked off to another place. He had someone to see and an arrangement to set up. The final round was of no matter to him. The victor was unimportant. No matter what, Uzumaki Naruto would pay for his transgressions by the end of this evening.

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{Character Profile}

Name: Zangief

Nationality: Russia

Gender: Male

Age: 33 (Birthday: June 1)

Height/Weight: 7'0/254 lbs.

Bloodtype: A

Likes: Wrestling grizzly bears, Cossack dancing, eating borscht, drinking vodka.

Dislikes: Projectiles, beautiful young women, bears that can't wrestle properly.

Hobbies: Drinking vodka in one gulp, enduring the cold, deflecting energy-based projectiles.

Rivals: E. Honda

Fighting Style: Pro Wrestling, Sambo

Current Techniques: Spinning Piledriver, Banishing Flat, Double Lariat, Flying Powerbomb, Atomic Suplex, Vertical Suplex.

Hyper Technique: Final Atomic Buster, Ultimate Atomic Buster, Siberian Blizzard.

Background: Zangief is a Russian national hero, revered for his worldwide recognized skill at professional wrestling, something he has a reputation in on every continent on the globe. When he is not set to compete in tournaments of both fighting and professional wrestling to show the strength and talent of Russian athletes, Zangief is usually found training in the Siberian wastes and the Russian wilderness wrestling bears for sport.