Chapter 8 up! Read & Review plz :)


"WE'RE DA FIRST ONES HERE!" Rock Lee cheered happily. "THE FLAMES OF YOUTH IS BURNING SO STRONGLY IN MY BODY THAT I'M PROBABLY GOING TO GET BURNT INTO ASHES IN A WEEK! AH, THE YOUTHFULNESS OF IT ALL! GAI-SENSEI, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Um..." Shikamaru tried to interrupt Rock Lee's speech, but the taijutsu expert did not hear Shikamaru due to his cheering and constant-teeth flashing. Shikamaru had put on his newly-bought shades, which had cost a hefty amount. However his Chunin salary was enough to pay for it, and he was due for a big raise after he volunteered to play as the proctor for this year's Chunin Exams, in which his companions are entering in. He did not expect to wear his shades until now, since the lens were easily smudged by even the tiniest drop of liquid water; Rock Lee's flashes still soared through the blackness of the shades and embedded themselves in Shikamaru's eyeballs. It was devastating; Lee was a human flashlight, in fact. The lights in the tower room wasn't even turned on, as Tsunade had ordered the proctors to preserve some of the light expenses; Shikamaru himself had laid in the dark for over six hours. He had even ignored Anko's order of "It's Illegal to Enter the Tower Before the Third Day Because We Want More Bloodshed", just for the simple reason of keeping his friends as healthy as possible for the upcoming round of Preliminaries.

The pineapple-headed Chunin walked towards the screaming Lee again, disgustedly holding a tattered t-shirt, which owned several holes on the most inappropriate parts. The ancient t-shirt, from the looks of it, was large enough to fit Choza Akimichi, Choji's overweight father, perfectly. It also used to adorn the color red, but it now resembled something along the lines of brown dung, caused by reasons that no one had figured out yet. Shikamaru had found this shirt lying behind a crate in the tower; it was the only clothing in the tower besides the ones he was wearing right now, and no way was he going to give up his clothes, especially the valued Chunin Vest, for Rock Lee. He had learned from past experiences that if you lent something of value to Lee, it would not come back in its original form. Neji had once lent Lee his best shuriken, capable of slicing through a beast handily, for training. When Lee returned it to Neji, his face was filled with shame and he had apologized deeply to the Hyuga prodigy, using the word "youthful" in his apology for a record three hundred times. The shuriken resembled a circle when it was returned; its razor sharp edges were cut off, and the whole thing looked like something coming out of a vomit; Lee had helpfully suggested that it could be used instead for "Frisbee." To sum it up, no way was Shikamaru going to lend Lee any of his clothing.

Approaching the Green Beast warily, Shikamaru reached out a trembling hand, tapped Lee lightly on the bare shoulder, and the taijutsu expert turned around. Lee opened his mouth and flashed a grin so bright that the shades weren't of much use; Shikamaru's world went pure white. After Shikamaru regained his sight, he continued his speech to the still-cheering Lee.

"What is it that you want, oh youthful Nara?" Lee demanded in a youthful tone as he noticed Shikamaru trying to say something. The Nara genius was secretly pleased that Lee had stopped his youthful cheering for once; it was extremely rare, unless it was a time of grave danger.

"Umm...," Shikamaru stated, scratching his head as he hurled the t-shirt onto Lee's bowl-shaped head. The Green Beast of Konoha grabbed the shirt quickly and placed it directly in front of his wide eyes, observing the garment for any signs of likely traps, such as poison, a hidden camera, or kunai-shooter. When he found none of those hidden in the t-shirt, he sighed in relief and glanced back at Shikamaru again. This time, the Nara spun around in time to dodge the flash.

Shikamaru was fed up by all the flashes; the tan that he had gotten after spending hours at the beach was steadily fading due to being constantly shined upon by Lee's bright teeth. Couldn't Lee skip brushing his teeth for one day? Probably not, since Lee stated that his teeth were his "treasures."

"Lee, you're too youthful," Shikamaru complained angrily. "It ain't a compliment, by the way."

Lee's eyes shined with sudden anger. His joyful face lost its youthfulness, and a wave of darkness swept over the taijutsu expert's body like a tsunami crashing down on land. His fists clenched up tightly, then unclenched softly. Lee's face rose up and faced Shikamaru determindedly, hiding disappointment, although he wasn't hiding it very well. Being a genius, Shikamaru noticed Lee's sudden change of reaction as soon as it happened; he just didn't know what caused it. Was it his remark earlier?

Raising a fist, Lee started to grunt at the stunned Shikamaru. "Shikamaru-kun, I respect you and all, especially since you are a Chunin, but why did you call me youthful? I'm not youthful at all, Shikamaru! How dare you!"

Shikamaru sweat-dropped and practically staggered over onto the ground upon hearing Lee's sudden response. What did he mean, saying he wasn't youthful? Did the world go nuts right here? A feeling of dread crept up Shikamaru's spine as the Chunin thought over all the possible scenarios which might've caused Lee's brain to malfunction. If Lee ever said the phrase "I'm not youthful", the world probably went mad. Spinning a finger inside of each ear, Shikamaru made sure that he did not hear wrong. After feeling pain radiating from his ears, he confirmed it: he heard right. What the hell just happened to Lee?

The lazy Shikamaru was so lazy that he did not hear Lee continuing on his words. Lee finished his sentence, and the world went right again. "Why did you call me youthful? I'm SUPER-YOUTHFUL, not youthful!" Shikamaru fell over onto the ground. He should've known that was coming. Thankful that the world had been righted again onto its usual self, Shikamaru threw himself onto his two feet and glanced straight into Lee's deeply hurt eyes. The Nara genius raised a hand in the form of a peace sign as he shrugged apologetically, and Lee's eyes flared up again in the flames of youth.

"THE PEACE SIGN! THAT"S SUPER YOUTHFUL, THAT IS!" Lee exclaimed, slapping Shikamaru on the head. "ATTA BOY, SHIKA!"

Shikamaru decided to ignore him and get on with what he was going to say.

"Glad you thought so, but this is something else. Rock Lee, this is nothing personal, but you need to put some clothes on," Shikamaru explained, keeping his eyes off Lee's private part, which was actually quite hairy. Even though the shirt had holes in it, at least it'll cover most of the skin. Shikamaru was a lazy genius who had no intention of becoming a pervert; he merely caught clear sight of Lee's body by sheer accident when Team Gai entered the tower surprisingly, beating Sabaku No Gaara's previous record of an hour. Team Gai had reached the tower in precisely fifty-nine minutes, but Shikamaru had tried to list their time as an hour, therefore tying Gaara's record. Lee had complained viciously about this, stating that his toe had stepped on the tower door when the clock reached fifty-nine minutes, fifty-nine seconds, counting as a record. Shikamaru had finally given in after Lee flashed him multiple times, but it still did not change the fact that Lee was refusing to wear clothes. He had left his green-colored Gai-sensei adorned clothing in the Forest of Death somewhere, and Lee had stubbornly insisted on staying naked if it reflected one's youthful body. Shikamaru sent Neji and Tenten back into the Forest to search for Lee's clothes, while Lee himself stayed in the tower to keep Shikamaru company; the lazy genius was now regretting his decision.

"NO NEED FOR CLOTHES!" Lee screamed enthusiastically at Shikamaru's face, sending spit flying out and splattering onto the Nara's cheeks like a sludge bomb. "MY BODY IS SO YOUTHFUL THAT CLOTHES MERELY ADVANCE MY MODESTY! I HAVE NO USE FOR MODEST SINCE I AM A ROLE MODEL FOR FUTURE YOUTHS!" He jabbed a finger at Shikamaru, hurling the t-shirt onto the floor at the same time. "NO CLOTHES, SHIKA! SORRY!" His eyes instantly turned dreamy again as Lee turned to face the wide open doorway, in which he quickly glanced out of. At the same time, people could glance in and admire his body. It was ingenious.

Lee clasped his non-bandaged hands and knelt onto the cold floor, his eyes brimming with tears of gratitude as he thought of the scythe-wielder who had confronted him in the Forest. "I gotta thank that youthful dirty-mouthed scythe-wielder; if it wasn't for his appearance, I would never have thought of running around naked! The flames of youth certainly burn brightly in his chest; perhaps even more than me! Gai-sensei would be proud of that swearer!" He continued to babble nonstop about playing "Skins" with a fellow youthful Beast of Konoha.

Behind Lee, Shikamaru had fallen asleep. His dreams were filled with the bright flames of youth, as his ever-hearing ears absorbed every word zooming out of Lee's never-closing mouth...oh why did his ears have to hear everything, even in a deep sleep? Couldn't he do a Choji Akimichi for once and be safe from the threats of youthfulness?


"I hereby allow you to carry out this act, Zetsu," Itachi Uchiha confirmed. "You may eat Deidara when we track him down again."

"Yummy."

"Urgh, yuck! Who would want to eat a gaylord?" Black Zetsu snorted in disgust, glaring at the white half in shame and disappointment. His other self was plain weird!

"You."

"No, you!"

Itachi intervened, breaking the two halves of Zetsu's argument up. "Calm down, guys. Let's just head for the tower first, I need to rest from using the Mangekyo Sharingan, and who knows, Deidara might just be there. I had my suspicions right after he flew away on his stupid clay owl. We should record his voice shouting the command word "Katsu" sometime later, and play it out loudly when he's riding on one of his clay birds. The bird will explode upon hearing the command word, and the world shall be swung into its rightfulness once more."

"Genius, 'Tachi."

"I want to eat Deidara!" white Zetsu piped up before being assaulted verbally by his black counterpart. The argument started once more.

"Let's just go." Itachi sighed as he lead the bickering Zetsu deeper into the forest, towards the very center in which the tower was looming out from. The Uchiha stepped over a corpse of a Sunagakure ninja, and made a mental note to himself as he tried to block out the sounds of Zetsu's bickering. Zetsu had stopped several inches behind the thinking Uchiha, apparently arguing just for the sake of it.

"Son of a whore."

"Deidara's mother!"

Black Zetsu was flared up. He quickly raced through a bunch of names in his mind, and came up with one. "Orochimaru's wife!"

"You mean his husband! Let's face the facts, you're his husband!" White Zetsu retorted valiantly as he grinned slyly. "Admit it, dude! Stop cheating on Orochimaru; think of all the poor men that you've savaged physically! What would Orochi say when he finds out?"

A look of pure pissed-offness crossed Black Zetsu's normally grim face. His section of the mouth curled into a vicious snarl. "What did you just say?"

I need to have a word with Orochimaru sooner or later, Itachi thought grimly. He needs to stop influencing Akatsuki members from the outside. Perhaps part of his scheme is to convert our members into gaylords. What a sly dog he is...

Itachi turned around and charged at the cloaked cannibal in time to stop Black Zetsu from digging his sharp fingernails into White Zetsu's nostril, perhaps aiming to dig all the way through and pull out the brain one at a time, piece by piece. Cannibals were dangerous, and most of all, unpredictable.

"Can't you two settle it calmly for once?" Itachi sighed wearily. "I'm tired of your constant disagreements."

"Fine!" White Zetsu yelled. "Let's settle this once and for all, blackie!"

"Racist pig!" Black Zetsu snarled, glaring at Itachi with a "Why-did-you-stop-me" look. "Fine, whitey, let's do it!"

Itachi's eyes widened as he pondered on a decision: should he stop the two cannibals from savaging each other, or should he lean back, grab a pack of popcorn, and enjoy the show? Probably the latter. A full-scaled fight between two man eaters was about to start, even though they were sharing a body. Plenty of punches, attempted bites, violent slashes, and more actions should be expected from a fight of this caliber. Itachi leaned back against a tall tree, squinting at Zetsu in an attempt to catch every part of the upcoming fight. Would it be kunai and shuriken, or claws and teeth? Only time will tell, and Itachi was feeling quite excited.

Itachi was greatly disappointed a moment later, however, when the two halves of Zetsu raised their respective hands and shot them forward at each other in a rapid motion, without holding a weapon or extending a fingernail in the process. In fact, Black Zetsu's hand was curled in a fist, and White Zetsu's hand was spread out in a high five position. There was a brief silence.

"I WIN!" White Zetsu cheered. "Paper owns Rock, so you lose, Blackie!"

"No way, I refuse to admit it!" Black Zetsu refused. "How can paper own rock? That's just impossible! So, you're saying that a piece of paper can own a large, falling rock from the top of a deep canyon, eh? How come I don't see paper towels suffocating boulders? Answer me, sucker!"

Rock Paper Scissors? Z-O-M-G. Itachi shook his head. His companion was immature. Perhaps he should be listed in the "retard" category, a honor handed over to only Hidan, and Deidara. Was Orochimaru behind teaching Zetsu, their efficient spy agent, about this pathetic game? Most likely.


Somewhere else in the Forest, near the very center of the second test site, a raven-haired body leaned against a tree, panting repeatedly in pain. The tower entrance was just a few yards away, but somehow he could not reach it. Wicked hands were sliding all over his body, and waves of agony were still flashing through every part of his internal organs. It was dreadful; Jugo and that traitorous Suigetsu who had helped beat up Sasuke had already entered the tower! Instead of going in after them like a proud leader, he was being harassed by two former fangirls! Naturally, the pink-haired one's touches were more rough and daring, while the blonde-haired one was more tender and shy. Sasuke sighed; he wasn't sure if he should feel anger or pleasure. In the end, he decide to experience both, a remarkable feat for someone who had been trained under the super gay-pervert Orochimaru.

The pinked hair girl stopped her movements as Choji entered the tower, munching on a fresh bag of potato chips. "Feels good, eh, Sasuke-kun?"

"Fuck you," Sasuke curtly replied. "I'm practically crippled, and if I ever get a chance to start a family, it might go down the drain, since I probably can't PRODUCE BABIES ANYMORE! ALL BECAUSE OF YOUR STUPID KICK TO MY BALLS!"

Sakura's face went dark, and Ino relinquished her hold on Sasuke; she hurried away to a safe distance. Sasuke waited for the inevitable punch. BAMMMMMM!

A second later, Shikamaru Nara glanced up, after greeting his old friend Choji on entering the tower. He saw a former comrade sailing through the air and crashing onto the wall at the far end, sliding down smoothly and slumping onto the floor in style. The boy staggered up in vain, but collapsed again and threw up everything in his stomach in a world-record time of 0.00000000000000000000000000000001 seconds flat. Shikamaru groaned; he had just polished the floor tiles, and now it was ruined again, by the traitor Sasuke Uchiha. Troublesome...


A few hours later....

Shikamaru Nara surveyed the large room from his throne in the center. Chunin Exam proctors had been recently blessed with the comfort of a throne; however, the throne was made out of a collection of sturdy poker cards. It was barely enough to support Shikamaru's weight, but a throne was a throne. It made people feel regal and royal like a king, whenever they stand near one or actually sit on one. In this case, Shikamaru chose to sit because of his laziness; his whole body felt tired and his bones felt like they were made out of paper dunked in water; weak, floppy and about to break. As Shikamaru sighed and sat on the throne, the poker cards gave way and his butt hit the cement floor. So much for a throne.

Luckily, none of the Genin noticed his hilarious act, and Shikamaru instantly straightened himself, forcing the burn of shame to extinguish completely. He resumed surveying the remaining competitors: Team Gai was there, with Lee finally accepting his green clothes which Neji had found buried meters under the ground by an apparent prankster. Team Kurenai was there as well, but only Hinata looked alert and ready; Kiba and Shino, two favorites of this year's Exam, were out of focus, their eyes reflecting inappropriate thoughts. Shikamaru chuckled slightly as he noticed Kiba's eyes widen horribly; the sort that an average person would do when observing some sexual activities of others. Clearly, something had happened in the forest which damaged Shino and Kiba's battle-set minds. Ah, that was bad luck, that was. Shikamaru wasn't looking forward to disqualifying any of his comrades.

Team Asuma, with the addition of Sakura Haruno now that Shikamaru was a Chunin proctor, sat next to Team Kurenai. Sakura was deep in conversation with Ino, and Choji was---you guessed it, eating chips, his 20th bag of the day, to be exact. From lip-reading, Shikamaru knew that Sakura and Ino were discussing "Sasuke Uchiha." Shikamaru had been surprised when he first caught sight of the Uchiha's presence, when Sasuke had been thrown against the wall of the tower by Sakura's beastly strength. Shikamaru, being lazy, did not question or wonder thoroughly about Sasuke's appearance, and he had guessed that Orochimaru had sent him to compete in the Exams to become a Chunin, something to rank him with. Sasuke's companions did not look that dangerous--but again, you never know. One look at Shino Aburame by a total stranger would immediately make the stanger jump to the conclusion that Shino was a no-good, gangster-type drug dealer with suspcious shades; in truth, Shino was a dangerous bug-controller. Don't judge a book by its cover.

Now Shikamaru's eyes set sight upon several heavily cloaked figures. These guys looked exceptionally powerful; from the looks of it, they weren't your typical Genin. One of them had red hair, and Shikamaru's awesome eyesight revealed that there were near-invisible chakra strings on the guy's fingertips, which meant he was a puppet master. Beside him sat a fat, ugly guy who did not look like a living human at all; in fact he looked more like a corpse brought back to life. A dark-eyed, masked man stood behind the red-haired puppet master, his eyes clearly showing cash symbols. Perhaps he was a bounty hunter or something similar; maybe he was an ex-banker. From looks alone, though, he looked more like a money-obssessed criminal on the run from the cops.

Near the group sat a long blonde haired dude; Shikamaru wasn't sure if the dude was a man or a woman. Deciding that he was a gender bender and should not pose much of a threat, Shikamaru observed a particularly weird person with venus flytrap plants sprouting out from his shoulders. A heavily hooded man stood beside him, the darkness of his hood covering most of his face. He was naturally a suspicious figure, and Shikamaru made a mental note to keep an eye on the hooded man. Perhaps he was merely too shy to show his face around the presence of so many handsome men. Shikamaru told himself that he, the pride of the Nara, was considered one of those handsome men.

A shark-nin, a half-robed scythe wielder, and a orange-masked man slouched at the opposite corner. Shikamaru took careful note of the heavily banadaged sword clutched in the shark-nin's hands, and guessed that he was a member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, a bunch of no-good goody goodies. The scythe wielder must be the youthful guy Lee babbled about earlier; from looks alone, Shikamaru could not figure out anything youthful about the scythe-wielder. On the contrary, he looked ancient and...well...inappropriate. The masked man was just someone wearing a mask, so nothing special.

Seven Teams in total: Team Gai, Team Kurenai, Team Asuma, Sasuke Uchiha's Team, Team Cloaked Guys #1, Team Cloaked Guys #2, and Team Cloaked Guys #3. Not a bad group, I must say. It'll be interesting, but still....troublesome now that I haven't got a throne to sit on.


"Congrats on beating the Forest of Death!" Shikamaru Nara announced a few minutes later, when all the teams were lined up neatly, facing him and his two Chunin assistants, Kotetsu and Izumo. "You are now subject to more bloodshed: the PRELIMINARIES! Matchups will be determined randomly, and rules...well.....there's no rules, except that I reserve the right to stop a fight whenever I feel like it. Now go up to the balcony, and pray that you aren't going first! This year's group looks dense!"

It wasn't like Shikamaru to say a lot of things, but it was his job; he could be fired, he reminded himself everytime he decided to slack off and hand the microphone to Kotetsu. The Genin filed up the stairs to stand on the upper level, and Izumo quickly prepared the fighting arena while Kotetsu made last-minute fixes to the wide-screened, digital HD scoreboard. The money used for it had come directly out of Shikamaru's pocket, but he was due for a big pay raise, so no harm done.

Tension in the immense room was tight as the scoreboard ran through a bunch of names and suddenly stopped. Shikamaru squinted at it and read the names of the first two battlers out loud. "All right, the first match has been determined. Kiba Inuzuka, against....Choji Akimichi!" What a drag...two of my friends in the first match....still, I can't take sides, can I? Too bad...I would've declared Choji the winner if that's the case.

Kiba staggered down the stairs, still shaken after his encounter with Itachi Uchiha's Tsukuyomi. Choji stored his 22nd bag of chips under a nearby wooden bench, and after receiving words of encouragement from Sakura and Ino, proceeded to lumber down the stone steps with great dignity, taking as long as possible to reach the arena; he was trying to stall time. Kiba was already standing in the middle of the arena, eyes unfocused and body slightly shaking. He glanced at Choji as the Akimichi ninja stepped up to face the Beast-nin. Shikamaru strode forward and raised his hand high in the air.

"Ready, guys? Begin!" Shikamaru mumbled, stepping back as he tried to predict who would win the fight. It could go either way since Kiba was unnaturally disturbed by something. Choji, though, didn't feel like fighting at all.

Kiba glanced over at Choji grimly. "Uhh...Choji, I don't really wanna harm you, so what do you say, give up and let me advance? I got subjected to scenes way off our age group, and probably have grown older by a full ten years due to my sights. C'mon please, do this for me, Choji, I'll buy you a bag of chips if you do. Seriously, I mean it. Just do it, don't you feel sorry for me?"

Choji thought Kiba's proposal over. An extra bag of chips would be nice; it's a small price to pay for forfeiting. He was running out of stock; last week, before the start of the Exams, he had a full 500 bags of chips stuffed safely in his closet door. Now, though, he only had 5 left. One more wouldn't hurt. However, there was the case of glory and honor; the feeling of gaining Chunin level at last. It could wait, though, the Exams were every year. Kiba experienced matters much worse than what he felt in the Forest of Death; he felt sympathy for the Beast-nin. He started to think the proposal over even harder, so hard that veins were starting to show up on his face. "Hmm..."

"Just do it, Akimichi, " Kiba urged, pumping his fist in half-celebration. He could feel victory coming already; he could even smell the sweet scent of it through his powerful nose! Having Choji as an opponent was the same thing as winning a one-way ticket to the next round! Meanwhile, Choji Akimichi decided his decision fully, without any regrets.

"Yeah, why not. Proctor Nara, I forfeit." Kiba jumped up and down in joy as he pumped his fists fully, excited that he had reached the finals for the first time in his shinobi life. Choji, meanwhile, started to lumber up the stairs to resume eating his chips. What a waste of time and energy walking up and down those stairs.

"THANKS, CHOJI, I'LL BUY YOU A BAG OF CHIPS AFTER THE MATCHES ARE COMPLETED!" Kiba promised as he headed up the stairs after Choji. The Beast-nin saluted Choji, who mouthed the words "Chips", and hurried over to celebrate with Shino and Hinata. The fat Akimichi was now crunching on his potato chips; he finished the bag and reached for another one just as Ino and Sakura advanced on him, their faces angered and disappointed that Choji had given up so easily. He could've at least put up a fight; even if it was a second long in length, it was still worth it! Fat people don't like to move, do they....!

Typical Choji, Shikamaru thought, amused. He glanced up at Kotetsu, who prepared to make the scoreboard select the next pair. Always falling for the food trick. Whatever, can't say I'm not amused. "Winner of this match, if you can even call it one, Kiba Inuzuka."


The scoreboard finished selecting, and the next matchup was shown. Kisame Hoshigaki against Ino Yamanaka.

"All right, so, Kisame Hoshigaki, whoever you are, and Ino, please proceed down to the arena for your fight," Shikamaru called out, a bit grimly. Things were looking dangerously bad for Ino; since she was bad at close combat and any sort of offensive fighting styles, that big sword could easily slice her into two meat halves. Kisame, his sharklike face widening in a leer of mockiness, raised Samehada high and stepped forward on the arena. Ino slowly walked towards her taller opponent, slightly nervous about that bandaged sword.

"Begin!"

Kisame instantly walloped Samehada in an arc, and the flat side of the sword slammed into Ino's face, causing her delicate nose to break loudly; gushes of blood zoomed out of her two flattened nostrils as Ino flew through the air, slamming into the opposite wall. Kisame slowly lumbered forward, preparing to cast a jutsu to end the match right there. Sakura was watching through pain and sympathy for her pathetic excuse of a friend, while Choji took no heed of his comrade's upcoming doom; he was already very occupied with eating his 25th bag of chips. He was running out of stock, but Kiba was going to give him one sooner of later, so Choji did not care about his feasting amounts.

Ino lay with her back against the wall, wondering what the hell she was still doing here on the floor, being embarrassed in front of everyone, especially Sasuke Uchiha. She should just forfeit and get over with it.

"Are we gonna have to have some broken ribs?" Kisame demanded devillishly, about to use a jutsu. "Or are you gonna forfeit and get the hell outta here like Chicken Little's pathetic running style?"

Ino had no reply. She would never become a Chunin at this rate.

Sasuke, Suigetsu and Jugo watched with approval at Kisame's actions. Sasuke in particular rooted for Kisame to lop Ino's head off; one less fangirl it would mean.

"Kisame's playin' it rough, it seems," Itachi commented as he glanced at Kisame performing rapid hand signs. Itachi recognized the sequence of hand signs for Kisame's trademark Suiton: Suikodan No Jutsu, in which a great maneating shark would zoom out of nowhere and brutally gobble up the helpless opponent with enthusiasm. The fight was decided, and Itachi privately wished that he would get to go next; he needed to refine his rusty hand-to-hand combat skills, preferbly with a powerful taijutsu expert like Maito Gai or one of his heavily-trained pupils. It was always fun going up against someone who only knew how to use his hands and legs to fight.

"Suiton: Suikodan No Jutsu!" Ino's eyes widened as the shark rocketed towards her helpless form, opening its monstrous jaws wide, revealing rows of razor-sharp teeth...

Even Shikamaru himself knew the outcome. He quickly raised a hand and signaled to Kotetsu and Izumo to stop the fight. "Fight's over."


More prelim fights comin up, but sadly, no Sasuke vs. Itachi just yet... Read and review, they encourage me to write mor :D Thankz!