Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: The Men

Round One

Kankuro was ready to give Sasuke the beating of his life. He was going to beat him up dead.

Sasuke was already thinking about which victory smirk he should use.

Finally, Kankuro grabbed one of the bandages on Karasu and unraveled him. Using his mad puppeteer skills, he attached chakra to the strings and had Karasu attack.

Sasuke wasn't fooled for even a moment. He gracefully leapt up into the air and landed behind Kankuro in a matter of seconds. Then Sasuke whirled around and kicked Kankuro in the back of the head. He made a strange… hollow sound.

Which immediately clued Sasuke in that Kankuro was actually Karasu. WOW!! Karasu spun around to grab Sasuke and hold him in place, but Sasuke was able to jump away just in time.

Sasuke knew that Karasu was a puppet and puppets are made out of wood. You know what burns wood? Well think about it. What burns period? FIRE does! Guess who has some fire moves? Sasuke does! And, even though his fire moves tend to never work, he also tends to use them as often as he can in vain hope that maybe they'll work this time around.

After spewing the fire at Karasu and standing there looking satisfied at a job well done, Sasuke suddenly found that Karasu was behind him.

He rolled his eyes slightly and then kicked Karasu across the room, not bothering to be fancy anymore. This, of course, pulled Kankuro out of his hiding place so Sasuke ran up to him and got ready to pummel him into oblivion. And then he did. And, since we don't really like Kankuro all that much, he ended up being just a steaming heap on the ground.

"All right…" said Shikamaru. "I think…I think we're done with that."

Shino was rather disappointed because he wanted to fight Kankuro. That's the whole reason he had tricked him into coming. But now that plan was SHOT! The only good that could come out of this tournament now that Kankuro was eliminated would be a chance to fight Sasuke. Even though Shino doesn't really let on, he actually wants to fight Sasuke just like the rest of the world.

"Sasuke wins." Shikamaru said, advancing Sasuke's name to the next round.

"What a surprise." Said Sasuke. Everyone was THINKING it, but he was the only one who said it.

The four girls' services had been employed to carry off the steaming heaps. So they threw Kankuro onto a stretcher and took him away to be hospitalized.

"Now we have a fight between Kiba and Lee." Said Shikamaru.

We forgot to mention that the girls had ALSO been employed as cheerleaders and they had been cheering for Sasuke throughout the first fight.

"Go Lee!!" cheered Tenten.

"I'm going to cheer for Lee too!" said Sakura cheerfully.

"I will too because I want him to win so you'll fall in love with him so I'll have less competition for Sasuke!!" said Ino. Then she paused. "Did I just say that out loud?"

"Yay Kiba…" Hinata said quietly. Kiba was on her team, he was extra nice to her, and besides, she didn't really know Lee all that well. She didn't like being contradictory, though, so that's why her cheers were quiet enough to go unheard by everyone except Kiba.

…Who was very giddy inside. Even though he knew he couldn't really beat Lee, he felt like he had already won because Hinata was cheering for him. He wanted to win again so that she could cheer for him in the NEXT round!

"Friendly spar or real fight?" Shikamaru asked Lee and Kiba.

"Friendly spar!!" said Lee, holding out his hand for Kiba to shake.

"AT LEAST let me keep my dignity!" said Kiba, looking offended as he instinctively put his hand in Lee's. "We're fighting for REAL!!"

"Okay." Said Lee with a shrug.

Kiba secretly cursed his dignity as the two separated to begin their fight.

"This will be a good match!" said Tenten to the other girls. "Lee and Kiba are both good taijutsu users! But, of course, Lee's better."

"Um…" Hinata felt obligated to say something even though she knew it was true. They all seemed to forget that he had Akamaru on his side! Right??

"Go." Shikamaru said, signaling for the fight to begin.

"Let's go, Akamaru!" said Kiba, looking down at Akamaru who barked in response. The two could be serious and get along when it MATTERED. And this tournament mattered about as much as a kickball game in gym in eighth grade. Translation? It mattered A LOT.

Kiba WOULD have used his move that turned Akamaru into an exact copy of himself but Lee was already on the offensive and moved in for the attack. So Kiba had to block in order to protect himself. He got flung against a tree.

"…Oh…!" Hinata said, sounding nervous.

"Don't worry about them!" said Sakura. "Guys are like… ten times more tough than girls. They make them with thicker skin so they hardly feel a thing when that sort of stuff happens to them."

"Really?" said Hinata naïvely.

"Yeah!" said Sakura, acting like Hinata was silly for not knowing.

Lee jumped over to deliver the final blow on Kiba just like Sasuke had done to Kankuro. But he hit Kiba who only poofed and disappeared. Then he looked down to see Akamaru standing there barking at him and, as he stood there in a stupefied state, Kiba came up behind him and hit him with a nice, hard punch. Yay for Kiba!!

"OH WOW!!" Lee exclaimed, slapping his cheeks after regaining his balance. "You're trickery is beyond anything I've ever seen before!!"

"It was just some Kawarimi and Henge." Said Kiba.

"IT WAS AMAZING!!!" Lee yelled.

"Keep in mind that ANY ninjutsu or genjutsu is amazing to Lee." Neji said.

"Your trickery is incredible!!" said Lee as he got down on his knees and started bowing. "I'm not worthy!! I'm not worthy!!"

Kiba got a big head. "Well, what can I say?" he said, brushing himself off in a cocky fashion.

"…WHAT is he doing?" Sakura said, looking slightly annoyed.

"I couldn't tell you." Tenten sighed.

"I think I'm rooting for Kiba now." Ino said.

As Kiba continued to stand there looking proud of himself, he dropped his guard. That's when Lee sprung up and hit Kiba back!!

"HA!!" laughed Lee, pointing at Kiba. "I can be trickful too!!"

"I'm re-rooting for Lee." Ino said.

"RRRG!!" said Kiba, jumping to his feet and rubbing his face. "How dare you hit me!! Now we're really going to fight for real!!"

"This is the stupidest match I have ever witnessed." Said Sasuke. "And it's hardly started."

"You better win all your matches, Sasuke, so I can fight you in the finals!!" said Naruto randomly, pointing at Sasuke's name on the easel.

"What makes you think that you're going to defeat me?" said Shino, pointing to his own name.

"Come on, Shino, work with me here!" said Naruto. "You know how much I want to fight Sasuke so do you think you could throw your fight so I can fight against him in the final?"

"You mean…forfeit?" Shino said.

"No, just throwing the fight." Said Naruto with a shrug.

"I, Aburame Shino, do not FORFEIT." Shino said.

"It wouldn't be forfeiting, it would be throwing your fight!" Naruto tried.

"I don't forfeit." Said Shino.

"You wouldn't be forfeiting!!" said Naruto.

"'Forfeit' is not in my dictionary." Shino said.

"STOP THAT!!!" Naruto yelled.

Shino felt like his point was made and just turned around to watch the rest of the fight only to see Kiba fly by overhead. Upon landing, he skid across the ground and hit a tree.

Hinata gasped, grabbed her little jar of medical ointment and ran over to where he had landed.

"I guess Lee's the winner." Said Shikamaru, advancing Lee's name forward.

"YAAAAAAAAY!!" cheered Lee, jumping around and cheering. His happiness was not from beating Kiba, but for the future in which he got to fight Sasuke and potentially Neji.

"Now we have Chouji and Neji." Shikamaru said. "Friendly spar or real fighting?"

"Friendly spar!!" said Chouji immediately. Then he looked at Neji pleadingly. "Friendly spar?"

"I don't do 'friendly'." Neji said, crossing his arms and scoffing.

"Um…never mind then!" said Chouji. "I forfeit!"

"You sure, Chouji?" said Shikamaru.

"Definitely." Chouji said. "I know I'm not as strong as Neji which means I'm not the strongest which means I don't have to be in this tournament that the only purpose is to figure out who is the strongest!"

"That was a well developed answer, Chouji." Shikamaru complimented, moving Neji's name forward.

"CHOUJI!!" yelled Ino. "YOU'RE LAME!!" She frowned and slumped. "No one from my team participated."

Tenten coughed slightly. "Both of my teammates advanced." She said.

"You two sound like our teachers." Sakura said.

Then Hinata came back over with Kiba.

"Hinata, I really could have fought some more." Kiba said to Hinata.

"I was worried about you." Hinata said, sitting down next to the other girls.

"Okay." Said Kiba with a shrug as he sat down next to Hinata.

"It's all right that you didn't win, Kiba." Said Tenten. "Lee is a strong opponent."

"Yeah." Said Sakura. "He beat Naruto who beat you."

"Naruto's win over me doesn't REALLY count." Said Kiba. "I had the upper hand the entire fight but he did something dirty to win that I feel stupid even mentioning!!"

"But he still beat you." Sakura reminded him.

Kiba sighed. "Yes." He said. "I know."

"The last fight of Round One is between Naruto and Shino." Shikamaru said.

"Real fight." Said Shino before Shikamaru could even ask.

"I was thinking the same thing!!" said Naruto.

"Okay." Said Shikamaru. "Real fight then. Go."

"Now, because you insulted me by suggesting I forfeit, I will make sure your defeat is a humiliating one." Said Shino.

"I was just about to say that!" Naruto said.

"…Why?" said Shino. "You saying that would make absolutely no sense whatsoever."

"LIKEWISE!!" Naruto yelled.

Shino was confused.

Naruto was going for that. He hoped to confuse Shino enough to make him drop his guard.

Yeah…like THAT was going to work.

Meanwhile, Hinata was once again torn between cheering for Naruto and cheering for one of her teammates. She knew she couldn't cheer for Naruto, especially since Kiba was sitting right next to her.

"I don't know who to cheer for." Said Ino to the other girls. And Kiba.

"Let's all unconditionally cheer for Naruto!!" said Tenten.

"I have a better idea!" said Sakura. "Let's all unconditionally cheer for SASUKE!"

"But Sasuke's not even fighting." Said Kiba.

"SO?" said the girls but not Hinata.

"Okay…" said Kiba. He knew that the girls couldn't possibly be an intelligent lot if they cheered for LEE over HIM.

Anyway, Shino and Naruto were fighting. Naruto was using his Kage Bunshins and Shino was using his bugs. It was an intense battle.

"You know, you're not going to defeat me the same way you defeated Kiba." Said Shino. "Which I still think was pretty…dumb."

"You wanna make something of it?" said Naruto. "What, you wanna fight?"

"We ARE fighting." Shino reminded him.

"I know that!" said Naruto.

"Just hurry it up already!!" Sakura yelled at the two fighters because she wanted to see Sasuke and Lee fight.

Now…it's okay for Kankuro to end up as a steaming heap on the ground but that would never happen to our twelve favorites. So we'll just tell you hear and now that the battle was very intense and Shino had all his bugs running around while Naruto had all his clones running around but in the end, Shino was just way awesomer than Naruto and beat him… to a NEAR steaming heap on the ground. And he was taken off to be hospitalized. Sorry folks.

"So Shino advances to the next round." Shikamaru narrated.

"Let's start Round Two!!" said Lee.

"Sure." Said Shikamaru. "Sounds like a plan."