Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: The Men
Round Two
Finally, the battle between Sasuke and Lee was set. There was no stopping it now. The two finally had an excuse to fight and neither was about to back down. EVER.
"Bring it on, knave!!" said Lee. "I'll show you what taijutsu is made out of!"
Sasuke looked momentarily speechless. "Can't say I've ever been called a knave before." He said finally.
"Okay, I know I don't have to ask but I don't want people telling me that I didn't ask." Shikamaru said. "Friendly spar or real fight?"
"REAL FIGHT!!!" Lee yelled dramatically.
"Agreed." Said Sasuke, striking his fighter's pose. Lee did the same thing.
"Okay then…go ahead." Shikamaru said.
Both of them would have preferred to hit the other person first. But, since they both charged at each other at the same time, it was like a game of chicken deciding who would throw the punch first.
Finally, Sasuke did and Lee ducked down to avoid it. While he was down there, he supported his weight on his hands and swung his legs to knock Sasuke over. But Sasuke was ready and leapt over Lee's legs, high into the air and then landed gracefully on the other side of the decided fighting arena.
"FIGHT ME!!" Lee yelled.
"I AM fighting you." Sasuke said, sounding annoyed.
"Fight me MORE!!" Lee commanded.
Sasuke rolled his eyes and then promptly Sharingan-ified them. He needed to be able to read Lee's moves better. He hadn't fought Lee since way back before the chuunin exam, but he had improved a lot in his speed since then so he was going to beat him this time. That's right. The last time they fought, Lee had been the victor, but only because Sasuke LET him win. Right Sasuke?
"Right." Sasuke said.
But this time it would be different. There would be no LETTING Lee win because he had a tournament to win in order to prove that he was better than everyone else there. After all, after he beat Lee, he'd be in the finals and be up against his boyhood rival from the academy, Shino, or the Number One Rookie from the year previous to his, Neji. Either way, they were going down. Man, they were going down SO fast that he had practically already won even though he hadn't even beat Lee yet.
Kicks, punches and a variety of other attacks were thrown as the two fighters engaged in an all-out brawl to arise triumphant.
As Sasuke went flying across the arena, he suddenly had a realization. "HEY!" said his subconscious. "You could LOSE this thing if you don't pick it up!!"
Sasuke fehed at his subconscious as he hit a tree. "Fat chance." He said.
"No, seriously. You have to be more intense."
"I am being intense." Said Sasuke, standing up and leaping into the trees.
"MORE intense. Do you honestly think you could beat Itachi with this intensity level or lack thereof?"
"I don't need to think about that right now." Sasuke muttered, shaking his head.
"THEN FIGHT HARDER!!!" screamed his subconscious.
"FINE!!" Sasuke yelled as he punched the air as hard as he could to get himself pumped up. Then he opened his eyes to see that he had just punched Lee in the stomach.
"Owwwww…" groaned Lee as he toppled to the ground. He had currently been flying through the air and was about to land a blow on Sasuke while he was battling with himself internally. Sasuke paused for a moment and then looked down just as Lee landed with a THUNK.
He jumped down and landed next to his adversary. Lee curled up into the fetal position and continued to cry softly to himself.
"Hey, Sasuke won!" came Sakura's voice behind him. Sasuke turned around to see all the people who were still conscious to watch the tournament.
"Of course." Sasuke said, looking pompous. Shikamaru shrugged and they all went back to the main area where the easel and Shikamaru's chair was. He advanced Sasuke's name as Lee went over to where the girls, Kiba and Chouji were.
"My STOMACH!!" wailed Lee, tears streaming down his face.
"Lee, stop." Ordered Tenten.
"YEE-AH SHINO!!" yelled Kiba as Neji and Shino got in the fighting area. "GO SHINO, GO!!"
"Yay!" Hinata cheered. She couldn't lose this time by cheering for Shino because no one expected her to cheer for Neji and BESIDES, Shino was on her team and everything. "We believe in you, Shino!"
"You better win, Shino, or we're going to call you a pussy!" said Kiba.
"I can't have THAT." Said Shino.
"Lee, come on, cheer for Neji!" said Tenten. "We have to out cheer the other team!"
"You?" said Kiba. "Out cheer US?!"
"Well YEAH." Said Tenten.
Kiba only made her talk to the hand.
"This is…a real fight I'll assume?" said Shikamaru to Neji and Shino.
"I only fight real fights." Said Shino and Neji at the same time. They both slightly got offended that the other spoke for him, so they glared at each other simultaneously.
"Okay, so let's get this over with then." Shikamaru said. "Start."
Neji opened his fight the same way he opens ALL fights. A brief rant on fate…strike that, make it a rant bordering on long and REALLY long, and then an even longer rant on the Main House.
Shino's a pretty patient guy so he only waited for Neji to finish.
But…there's only so much even someone like Shino can take.
"And then, when I was only four—" Neji continued.
"Neji, please." Shino said. "Could we just fight?"
"Apparently you don't know about the Main House and the Branch House and the horrible atrocities that occurred… and still are occurring to this very day!" Neji said.
"I DO know." Said Shino. "You just explained it all to me."
"I wasn't finished." Neji said.
"JUST START!!" yelled Kiba impatiently.
Neji frowned. "Fine." He said, turning on his Byakugan.
Shino got in his fighter's stance and started sending out his bugs towards Neji. Neji was all like… "Can't touch this!" and did the Heavenly Spin. Of course, he didn't actually SAY, "Can't touch this!" but you could tell that he was THINKING it. I would be anyway.
So the bugs got flung away. Shino realized that this was one opponent that his bugs couldn't sneak up on so he quickly had to change his tactics.
Neji was convinced he was cooler than Shino so he figured he'd use his famous 64 Hands thing and discourage him from using any chakra for the rest of the battle. Yeah, Shino, how about them apples?
No, he didn't say that either. But, yes, he was definitely thinking it.
Shino was thinking something VERY different. He was thinking, "Hey, the trees might be a good place to chill until I think up a good plan…"
So he decided to pretend like he was attacking Neji who was all ready with the Heavenly Spin, but he just ended up spinning around like a fool because when he finished, Shino had already jumped up into the trees. Neji followed right after him.
"Aw man, another tree fight." Moaned Kiba.
"Let's go!" said Tenten. "I don't want to miss the final blow this time!!"
Everyone who was willing and able sprung up and sprinted into the tree area so they could see the intense battle.
Neji was standing on one of the branches in the trees. He was looking around, but you couldn't tell. One doesn't have to move one's head to look around if one is a Hyuuga. Then he spotted Shino standing behind a tree and he was there thinking he was all better than Neji and everything. Well he wasn't.
Shino was actually not thinking that. He was KNOWING that. He was thinking about something completely different. For example, how he would go about defeat Neji. He hid some bugs in the trees to jump onto Neji if he even went near certain places, but somehow he just didn't think that would be enough. And, of course, it's not like that was the REAL Shino standing there. It was some kind of horrible bug clone that required some expensive computer animation.
Neji jumped up and swung around the tree, landing a Gentle Fist blow right on the clone Shino, making it disappear. All the bugs that came from the clone separated and then landed on Neji. Neji did the Heavenly Spin again but you'd be surprised how disoriented you could get after doing that as many times as he's done, especially up in a tree like that. He barely caught himself from falling off the branch and vowed never to do the Heavenly Spin while in a tree or any other high up distance again.
While he was standing there vowing, he spotted Shino coming down for the attack. He spun around and started his violent poking move on Shino until he hit the trunk of the tree.
All the spectators watched from the ground and ooed and aahed.
"Come on Shino!" said Hinata when they noticed that Shino wasn't moving.
"YEAH!!" said Kiba. "Don't let him beat you!"
"Go Neji!!" cheered Tenten.
Everyone else was indifferent. No one really liked/had a significant relationship with Neji OR Shino.
That's when what looked like an army of bugs appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Neji looked around briefly and was JUST about to do the Heavenly Spin again when he noticed that Shino was grabbing his arm, preventing him from doing such.
"I let you hit me on purpose." Said Shino since he likes explaining the cool stuff he did so the other person can be in awe. "So I'd be in this position and be able to hold you in place to keep you from doing that spinning…thing again."
"All right, it's called the Heavenly Spin, not the spinning thing." Neji said.
"Furthermore—" Shino began but he was suddenly interrupted because a tree branch above them suddenly came crashing down and landed right on Shino's head. The bugs immediately stopped and retracted as Shino and Neji just stood there for a moment. Then Shino toppled over like a lump and landed as a big heap on the ground.
Neji looked up at where the branch had broken off. Then he jumped down from the tree where everyone else was, lightly kicked Shino a little bit to make sure he was completely unresponsive, and then looked at Shikamaru.
Shikamaru sighed. "Well, we have two very unimpressive wins by our famous Number One Rookies." Said Shikamaru.
"SHINO!!" yelled Kiba. "YOU'RE A PUSSY!!"
"I don't think he can hear you, Kiba." Said Hinata nervously.
"Well, SOMEONE has to carry Shino back to the fighting area." Said Ino. "Because I know I'm not."
"Yeah…" agreed the other girls.
"I'm not carrying him." Said Kiba. "He's got…BUGS and stuff in him. Ew."
"Likewise." Said Chouji.
So everyone stood there silently for a moment and quietly slipped away, leaving Shino there to rot.
"Okay, anyway…" said Shikamaru, clearing his throat as he moved Neji's name up to the finals spot. "One more fight. The top ninjas in the class of their respective years. We can only expect the best. And I hope so too after those very disappointing rounds we just watched."
"YAAAAAAAAAAAY!!" cheered the people on the sidelines.