Chapter 4

Greatest Clash: Tiger vs. Demon

The minute the referee lowered her hand and signaled the beginning of the fight both fighters took off in a dash. Meru without waiting threw out a straight while Naruto counters with his own. But what most did not see is that they adjusted their heads slightly and moved out of the range of the other's punch. Missing their strike, both stood there facing down the other while the audience saw the shockwaves that came off the strikes.

Naruto glared and Meru returned the glare, without warning they pulled their fists back and threw their lead hands. Due to the timing, both fists clashed with the other creating a large explosion of power.

Naruto retracted his fist quickly and threw a quick front body kick sending Meru backwards leaving a small skid behind. Naruto quickly moved in on her but Meru reacted with a flying spinning roundhouse to the head. Naruto ducked the kick but she came down with a powerful downward straight. This strike hit the ground with Naruto pushing backwards making him see her crack the earth underneath her in the attack. Naruto glared, he took his bouncing stance and smiled,

"Your good."

Meru smiled,

"You too first time in a long time someone managed to avoid all of my strikes or at least match them blow for blow." She glared, "But this is where things get real," Meru quickly took a new stance this time being lower to the ground than she already was. Her hands in front of her face with her gaining a bit of a bounce in her step as well.

Without a moment of hesitation Meru was on top of him, throwing a right hook at his head. Naruto moved to block the strike but the minute he did she ducked deeper into his guard and grasped her arms around his legs.

'Fuck a grapple!'

Without warning Meru clasped her hands behind his knees and pulled him forward with her pushing downward. This led to him crashing into the ground with a thud and kicking up dust.

"AMAZING LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Meru has managed to get this fight to the ground after an amazing bout of them trading blow after blow with one another in the stand up! Does this signal that Meru is getting ready to end this fight!"

In the booth Agito was watching, his eyes trained on both fighters and noticing small things that others were missing.

'That boy he lifted his head at the last second.' Remembering clearly in the moment where he was going down he tried to tuck his head upward to avoid having is head bounce off the ground. Which was a smart move to avoid having his head ringing after the takedown and allowing his opponent the upper hand. However,

'Meru made a critical mistake.'

Back on the arena floor, Naruto smiled,

"Thanks for this."

Meru frowned,

"Huh?"

Naruto with practical ease slipped his upper body up and grabbed her right arm. There he gripped at the wrist with one arm over her shoulder and the other wrapping on her wrist. Leaning back he pulled her arm with him making her curse,

'Kimura!'

Agito nodded his head,

"That was a proper counter and now we can see how Meru will react." Katahara looked at Agito,

"You seem to know the ground game was going to play in at some point Agito."

The Fang of Matsudo smiled,

"Of course, after all Meru would have had to fight me meaning she would have to be ready for a ground fight at some point. However you can see the level difference in their ground attack."

Agito smiled slightly watching Naruto wrenching on the Kimura, which ultimately lead to Meru trying to lessen the pressure on her shoulder by rolling onto that shoulder.

However, this led to her being flipped and Naruto being on top in the mounted position.

"Impressive, these two could easily give even Cosmo Imai trouble on the ground with how hard they are working." Kyoka's mom smiled and laughed,

"Yes indeed, that is why I chose her in the past but now Naruto is proving more than a worthy match for her in this fight."

"Indeed." Katahara watched as Naruto started his next move.

Naruto seeing that he had Meru pinned on the ground quickly began wailing down strikes on her face, making Meru cover up from the blows but some were getting through her guard. Naruto soon split her guard with a well placed feint on the next ground strike which she dropped her guard afterwards, leading to him splitting her open with a well placed elbow strike. Right above her right eye blood started flowing down her face causing it to leak into her eye.

Meru finally gritted her teeth,

"Enough."

She used the power of her hips and bounced him off her body and back into a standing position.

"Amazing after a brutal onslaught from Naruto on the ground from the transition to the ground and pound Meru is now bleeding. More so it would seem that she has gotten out from underneath Naruto's much larger frame and is standing tall."

Naruto seeing this frowned,

'She is stronger than she looks, especially since I have to outweigh her for about 10 to maybe 30 pounds at the most. How strong is Meru to do something like that with nothing more than the strength of her back and hips.'

Naruto soon took his stance again but saw that Meru was glaring harder than before and took a new stance. This one confused him a bit as her lead hand was scrunched up in the shape of a claw hand. Her back hand was facing palm up with the fingers scrunched up in a claw shape as well. The strangest part of her stance was that she is balancing on the tips of her toes with her heels off the ground.

"Alright it looks like I can't play around with you." Meru grinned darkly and soon her aura exploded to life, "So let me start using my real stance."

Agito smiled darkly,

"Now I get to see the tiger again, how exciting. Wonder how the boy is going to adapt to this problem."

Katahara smiled, "Indeed, the tiger seems ready to pounce now."

In another region the family from before was watching the fight and the girl was watching closely. She had a small blush appearing on her face when watching the boy fight.

"He is strong grandfather."

"Indeed." The man had a vein bursting on his head from the sheer fact this bastard was seducing his granddaughter without knowing it. "But now this is where the boy shall lose after all the tiger is about to come out and devour him."

"Yeah but I have to admit this guy would be fun to kill personally." The family sighed hearing a blond hair man with the same dark eyes and a sadistic smile on his face looking at the screen with pure bloodlust.

"Raian, don't make unneeded comments."

"Shut up uncle."

"Enough all of you!" The old man watched with a glare, "The boy will fall now that is all that matters."

The rest of the clan watched wondering if what the old man was telling the truth.

Back in the arena, Naruto looked at Meru and saw her change of stance and knew right away this is her using her true martial arts. The Tiger Style Karate. From what he guessed, she was going to use her fingers to cut and stab him while her toes are meant to push off in bursts of-

Naruto felt a cut on his chest and grimaced,

'FUCK stay focused Naruto!'

Naruto quickly threw a right but she was out of range of the strike before coming back and slashing at his stomach. Naruto grimaced from this pain and threw a knee at her face. On instinct the girl was up in the air and slamming her knee into his jaw sending his head up. But before he could react, she brought her elbow down on his face sending him down onto the ground, with one knee touching. Meru acting on this moment slashed him across the face causing a spray of blood.

Naruto quickly leapt away from Meru and opened her eyes seeing that he didn't lose his vision.

'Okay by the feel of the cut it is shallow, so that means she is going to try and cut me up or she didn't get enough of a swing on the movement.' Naruto stood back to his feet and watched her, but again she was gone in a blur and was underneath him.

'Not this time!' Naruto threw a knee at Meru to make her act, which she did by trying the same move from before. But Naruto backed away from the leaping knee to the face and loaded up his right hand.

But he found a foot in his face sending skidding backwards. Then without warning he felt something pierce his left shoulder before cutting his chest again. Naruto on instinct, threw a front kick to the body again but again the target was not there.

Looking at his shoulder where he was stabbed he was shocked, it looked like she jammed her fingers completely through the muscles and almost down to the bone. The cut on his chest was shallow again but the pain was starting to settle in and while he knew he could heal thanks to Kurama he refused to use him in this fight. He needed to be prepared for fights when he can't rely on him and when he might not be able to heal fast enough from the damage done to his body.

Naruto got in his stance, shoulder sore from the stabbing, and balancing himself again.

Meru smirked, she charged again and this time Naruto felt the direction she is coming from and lashed out. The right cross was infused with his Adamantine form thus enhancing the physical damage that could be done.

However, to his and everyone's shock, Meru had weaved her way around the punch and appeared at his side. Without warning she slammed her right fist into his ribs,

TIGER SECRET ART: Explosive Fist Strike!

Naruto felt it, his entire insides exploding at once, the blood pouring out of his mouth and him being sent flying across the arena with ease. He rolled on the ground and coughed up more blood on the ground with his wounds spreading out more and more blood.

The arena was shocked by the level of damage, Kyoka was unnerved, Rino shocked, and Ayane scared for Naruto.

'This level of power, it is insane. Is this what Meru was really capable of? The Tiger really was the strongest the school has ever seen.' Kyoka was shaking fearing for Naruto and the fact that she never was worthy, of seeing her full power.

'This is the power my sister couldn't reach? It is unreal, was my destiny to rule this school never possible?'

'Master, is this too much even for you?'

At the home of the Japanese family they were watching the fight getting more and more gruesome. The girl was shocked by the level of power of the girl and the difference between her and the boy. If she was honest, his strength equaled most of the clan and even surpassed her, the girl on the other hand was showing power greater than even her grandfather in his prime.

"It is over." The old man blew smoke and sighed, "The boy put up a good opening fight with her but there is no way he can defeat the Tiger. I fear that his effort was all for nothing. This fight has only confirmed my suspicions that she is truly the strongest of her generation."

"Grandfather, look." The old man looked at a largely port man in the family and he was pointing at the TV.

The man looked and was shocked,

"Impossible, there is no way he could be doing this."

Back in the arena, Agito was watching and soon the hair on the back of his neck was standing on its ends. More for the fact, he sensed something was off with the fight, something deeply terrifying but he was not sure what.

"Oh my it would seem the fight is reaching its conclusion."

"I wouldn't bet on that Mr. Matsudo." The old man looked at his fighter and one of his dear friends,

"Oh? What makes you-," he looked down and his eyes widened before smiling, "I see what you mean. This fight is just getting more and more interesting as time goes on."

Back on the floor Meru was standing still watching as her opponent hit the ground with a thud. While she could sense his pulse, she felt this fight was over. So dropping down on her heels she turned,

"You were strong, stronger than most but sadly not strong-," Suddenly the hair on the back of her neck shot up. 'What the hell?' Turning her head she is shocked and the rest of the arena shared the same expression of surprise. More so, what was going on with the teen in question.

Naruto down on his face, he coughed up some blood and could feel his vision blurring,

'What is this? Is this defeat?'

"KIT!"

'Kurama what is it?'

"Kit listen to me your suffering major bleeding and damage to your body if this continues you might just die from the injuries alone! Please let me heal you now!"

'Heh, no I won't allow this. I have to fight on my own strength and no one else. Otherwise how can I reach them?'

"Kit listen to me your doing your master and the 3rd great joy in your improvement but it won't end the way they want if you die here now because of your pride!"

'Pride? That's right.' Naruto's vision started blurring he could see himself as a child and him standing there watching a crowd walking away from him. 'I never had anything, nothing to be prideful for. Nothing to believe in, nothing to stand for.' He then saw the Hokage and he smiled to the child while sitting on the mountain with a smile on his face. 'That's when he taught me the Will of Fire, how it burned brighter in me than anyone before me. How I wanted to use this Will of fire to make my own path in this world. To make people respect me and do anything to earn their trust.' Naruto soon saw himself fighting Sasuke and barely beating him, 'That damn mission cost me everything. It got to the point that I was tired of throwing my life away for others that would never respect or trust me. I was tired of fighting for a place that didn't want or believe in me.'

Naruto gripped the ground and was gathering dust into his fist and could feel his back contorting slightly. Unknown to him a man in the shadows was watching with a smile on his face and he was starting to release his aura at the sight of his back.

'Then I met him. My teacher,' Naruto saw Niko standing there with a smile on his face and him motioning for him to come at him. 'He took a child with no hope or future and taught him something precious to him and made him feel like something was worth fighting for. He taught him the important lesson, of finding your own ambition and striving for it more than anything else even if others don't understand.'

Naruto felt a blur coming over him, his mind was growing fuzzier and fuzzier, but he recalled a single memory,

"Naruto what is it that you want to accomplish for yourself? Something that means the world to you and would be proud to achieve it?"

"My dream? I don't know. But I guess if I have to be selfish, I want-,"

Naruto stood tall and in his mind he screamed,

"TO BE THE STRONGEST IN THE WORLD/TO BE THE STRONGEST IN THE WORLD!"

Meru didn't know what happened but one minute it would seem Naruto was out cold. But then he stood up and she saw that something had changed about him personally. She was not sure what, but after watching his back shift around for a bit she was sure something was up. So getting in her stance she waited for him to stand up, in doing this she charged him. In this charge, she blurred to hit him in the face again with her claw strike.

The arena and the people watching saw Meru approach and then get blown away with a powerful blow. She was flying through the air and having to flip and rebalance herself after landing on the ground. Looking up everyone saw her right cheek was swollen and blood was seeping out of her mouth.

'The fuck?'

Agito smiled darkly,

"So I was right, he is like us." Katahara laughed,

"Yes he is, it is terrifying how alike he is with the rare breed of monsters like yourself and HIM! It is more interesting now than ever before!"

At the house the old man sat down in shock,

"It can't be, he is from that damn bloodline!"

"Huh? Gramps what's wrong?"

"Yeah what's so scary about him. I mean he landed a hit but-,"

"SILENCE RIANAN!" He glared at the house and his granddaughter, "LOOK! LOOK AT THAT MAN'S EVIL BACK! THE SIGN IS THERE!"

The clan looked but most didn't get it, minus the older ones who know WHAT he was talking about.

The audience on the other hand was freaking out how his body was contorting in ways that should not be physically possible for a human. His back turning into something akin of a demon mask, terrifying the shit out of everyone in attendance of the match.

The man in the shadows laughed,

"So you finally did it, not even my sons have achieved it yet but you somehow have surpassed them in every shape way perform. I can't wait to see what happens when you fully awaken and control it."

Standing there, Naruto his eyes were vacant white but what really scared everyone was the demonic smile on his face. He looked like someone that was enjoying this feeling of death and destruction (Agito's evil smile in Kengan Ashura).

"So you-," Meru didn't have time to make a comment when suddenly Naruto was on top of her. She quickly pushed back on her toes but Naruto was still on top of her.

'Fuck his speed increased but how? I was faster a few sec-,' She ducked under a powerful swing, it was wild compared to what his form was earlier. It was as if he had no real form or style anymore and was just going through the motions. But she quickly capitalized on his opening by jumping up in the hopes of hitting him in the face with a powerful knee strike again. But before it can land Naruto brought down his other fist and sent her into the floor with a thud cracking the ground underneath her.

Naruto laughed at the pain she was in and soon slammed his other fist down but Meru blocked this one. She noticed the power coming from him now, it was beyond anything she had felt before with it causing her arms to bruise and her entire body to feel heavy from the impact of the strike.

Meru pushed him back with a mule kick to his stomach, giving her time to jump to her feet and get back in her stance.

But when she did she was shocked to see Naruto had taken a new stance and this one was, infuriating to say the least.

"HOLY SHIT NARUTO's IS USING MERU'S STANCE!"

The person that yelled this was right, Naruto was balancing now on his toes heels off the ground, hands in a claw shape form, but with the same bloodthirsty smile on his face.

"So you want to test your skills in the art of the Tiger huh? Let's see what you got poser!" Meru's eyes turned to slits and she was gone in a faster blur than before. Naruto smiled at her approach and without warning was gone as well. But this time, people could only see them clashing in small blurs before Naruto managed to slam into her and pierce her shoulder.

Meru coughed up some blood from the attack but quickly aimed her unimpaled arm at his face again. But Naruto took the Meru's shoulder that he pierced and threw her across the arena before appearing above her with a rolling axe kick to the face. Slamming her into the ground with a thud.

Naruto took off in a mad dash and landed away from her again taking up the same stance as before.

Meru stood up coughing up blood shocked about how strong Naruto was and terrified about something,

'In less than a few minutes, he mastered the same moves and techniques that I demonstrated against him. How, how is it possible that someone can achieve such level of power and skill with such ease? Something, something evil has changed about Naruto but what?'

Naruto on the other hand was on top of her again and cutting her to pieces with his own claw hands and making her scream from the pain and trying to counter. But sadly the movements were limited and she soon found her legs and arms almost reduced to sliced shreds.

While this fight is going on, Kurama inside of his head was watching Naruto slowly slip deeper into some kind of water, they were not sure what it was. But something about it was dragging him deeper and deeper into some form of madness. He was whispering about, 'power, strongest, killing' and this greatly disturbed the fox. It tried to wake him up but the bars prevent them from helping him.

Naruto felt more and more of his sanity slipping before finally feeling someone grabbing him. They dragged him out of the water and back to the surface.

"Woah kid it would seem you really became strong right now huh?" Turning his head Naruto's eyes watered,

"Niko-sensei?" The brown hair man wearing the traveler's cloak smiled down at the teen,

"Hey kiddo it's been a-," Naruto ran up to the man and hugged him tightly. He was confused until he saw the tears coming down the teens face and smiled, before hugging the teen back. While he was not the most affectionate to people he knew that the teen needed this right now.

"Master please forgive me for being so weak that I couldn't fight by your side."

"Kiddo, its fine I fought and lost that is all there is to it." He pushed the teen away while smiling, "But look at you kiddo almost as tall as me. You must be a hit with the ladies these days huh?"

Naruto laughed,

"I guess, I've gotten really strong since your passing and found my goal in life."

"Oh? What is it?" Naruto smiled at him,

"I want to become the strongest in the world, something that no one or no creature can possibly match or defeat."

Niko laughed,

"Woah kid you really are shooting high there huh?" He ruffled his head, "With the Niko Style you will achieve this no doubt." He smile before looking down at the dark water below, "I figured this would happen sometime in the future."

"What are you talking about? Do you know what has happened to me?" He smiled and continued rubbing his head,

"I do kid, this is something called the Demon Awakening, it is a rare trait that some people of the martial arts gain depending on lineage, mind, and how they train. It enhances all of their physical abilities to almost super human levels and sometimes even makes them godly if their basically strong to begin with. However yours seems to unlock a rare trait in the Demon's Awakening called Evolve."

"Evolve?"

"It's something you'll come to understand in time. But for now we have to get your back to reality."

"What!? Now but I still haven't-,"

"Kid listen to me," Naruto looked at him and saw a sad smile on his face, "I was a lot of things in my life but there is one thing I take the most pride in being. That is your teacher, after all you took to my teachings and became something of a son to me. So as my son, trust me when I say I will always be watching over you. I mean we both will."

Looking behind him he saw an old man smiling at him and cried,

"Jiji." The old man smiled ghostly,

"Go Naruto-kun we'll be watching." Naruto nodded his head and turned away with both of them pushing on his back.

"Go forth Naruto and show the world your Will."

Naruto felt his conscious return, he was standing there in the arena with a badly injured Meru and himself feeling his injuries.

His back had untighten and the audience saw his demeanor change again and thus shocked to see him being more calm than before.

"Hey Meru, want to finish this fight now?"

Meru was shocked but smiled,

"Yeah I can see you're on your last legs and I'm in the same condition." So tightening her muscles she quickly and made a mad dash at Naruto. But when she threw her fist she shouted,

TIGER HIDDEN ART: EXPLOSIVE FIST STRIKE!

The hit landed on his face this time around but unlike the previous attempt, Naruto started changing the direction of the attack in mid hit. Soon he went slightly limp allowing the flow of the move to go through his body, before taking a step and channeling all the power into his body along with his own and then using his final form the Adamantine form sending the blow back.

In that short second Naruto had taking her strike but sent her flying backwards with a brutal counter with his off hand. This led to her crashing across the arena and imbedding herself into the wall without resistance. The explosion was massive and the entire arena shook from the impact with a small crater created with Meru deep inside. But when people looked closer varying reactions came from it;

Agito was grinning darkly

Katahara was smiling brightly

Kyoka's mom smiled while breathing a sigh of relief

Kyoka was cheering along with Ayane,

Rino was gritting her teeth in frustration,

The family that was watching were in mixes of shock, devestation of the power, confusion, and in one person's case, flustered.

The girl watching was smiling and nodding her head,

"It would seem that the title of the Strongest has now gone to someone else and honestly he is worthy successor to this title."

The man in the shadow sighed,

"Well it would seem that you made some great strives kid. Hope to see you get stronger as I truly believe you are the one that can give the greatest joy of the hardest fight of my life. Come and get me when your ready to become The Strongest in Existence." The man walked away but was gone in a blur no sign of him even being there but if one would have noticed, the man's dark red hair dropped a strain on the ground.

Back in the arena Naruto was standing there exhausted and bleeding, but he raised his right hand into the air with it covered in blood. Showing clearly the fist itself was damaged or at least broken.

"IT'S OVER EVERYONE! THE FIGHT HAS ENDED WITH THE VICTORY OF THE DEMON! HE HAS CLAIMED THE TITLE OF THE STRONGEST IN THE SCHOOL'S HISTORY AND MAYBE THE STRONGEST OF ALL YOUTHS OF THIS GENERATION!"

Naruto smiled at the ceiling hearing the cheering going and seeing the smiles of his friends and looking at the booth a large man smiling down at him nodded his head. Naruto sighed and collapsed to his knees in exhaustion,

"This is my Niko Style."

"Sure is kid." Turning his head slightly with blood dripping down his face he could see the ghost of his teacher hovering above him.

"Niko."

"It's yours now Naruto. I'm proud of you kiddo."

"Thanks Tou-san," Naruto whispered while hearing Niko chuckled,

"Tou-san huh? That's fine with me, good luck Sochi I'll be watching and waiting for the day we meet again. When we meet again how about we spar?"

"I would like that Tou-san just be ready to lose."

"HAHAHAHA! That's funny son but its nice to dream no?" The ghost soon disappeared and Naruto cries tears of joy.

But the moment was ruined when he saw the fat girl from before leaping down into the arena and charging him. She laughed and slung a fist at him,

"With this the title of Strongest becomes mine!" Naruto growled but could feel even with Kurama's healing he couldn't move to counter or stop the attack.

That was until he saw someone holding her arm and it revealed it was a silver hair girl with green eyes and glaring,

"Attempt this disgraceful behavior again and I will remove your head personally."

After this Naruto passed out leaving the arena to run to his and Meru's aid.

Time Skip

Naruto awoken from his sleep groggy. He looked around and saw he was in the nurse's office and that he was covered in medical bandages. Apparently the hole in his shoulder was pretty bad and if he was honest it looked like the damage was still there even with Kurama healing it.

"Looks like I won't be able to fight with this arm for a while." Turning his head he was shocked to see someone sitting there with a smile on her face. The girl in question was pretty, he would not deny this, she was fairly developed to about a C-cup underneath her jacket while having on a back and white school uniform. This girl had long black hair going down her back and the most shocking feature was her eyes, being completely black with gray eye pupils.

"Uh hello?"

"Hello there!" She rushed up to him and touched his head, "Its good to see you awake Naruto-kun!"

"Um thanks who are you?" The girl nodded her head and bowed her head,

"My name is Karla Kure and I'm the woman planning on having your future children!"

"….. You know that is getting more common these days."

"So you'll do it!"

"Fuck no."

"Please let me have your kids." Naruto rolled his eyes at her pleading and just turned to his other side to see an old man with the same eyes looking at him.

"Glad to see your awake child I'm your future grandfather-in-law and the head of the Kure family-,"

"I never agreed to that."

"We have much to discuss in terms of your new engagement to my granddaughter." Naruto raised an eyebrow,

"Are you even listening to me?"

Nogi Corporation

A black hair man with brown eyes was watching the fight between the Tiger and this unknown teen and smiling. He was happy something so unique has just happened and at the same time he sees a video of a black hair man beating up their company's fighter.

"I think it is time, to start another tournament."

Chapter end

If you guys haven't figured it out there is going to be a huge crossover element with Kengan Ashura and for those that are interested I have something I want to hear from you the readers. As you can guess the Annihilation Tournament is going to happen soon due to the fact that from Dragon Rioting period at this time kinda takes a bit of a time skip for the testing procedures and then the festival arc. Naruto at this time, will be busy as this tournament in canon covers about 8-10 days so there is enough time for everything.

The big explanations on this chapter are:

Yes there is something hidden in Naruto not related to the Elemental Nations and he is starting to show signs of this rare skill.

Naruto is strong as Meru but in reality she would have won if not for the transformation at the last second.

Naruto is using the full set of the Niko Style while having his own version of it that will differ from other users.

The last thing is that for those that know the Annihilation Tournament and know the fights and how it goes I have a special request for you: I'm planning on reformatting the tournament. Basically this tournament will not be canon or have the exact same matches or the same people advancing at certain points. So I want to hear from you guys:

Who you want to see fight who in the tournament

Who you want to see advance more

Thanks for reading and hope to hear feedback as I'm planning on working on this story more frequently in the coming few weeks.