Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: The Men

The Finals

"I wanted to fight Neji in the finals!!" whined Lee, throwing a temper tantrum since he was now over his poor little stomach.

"How would that fight be any different from all the other fights in which Neji easily pummels you in five seconds?" Tenten said, laying it on kind of harshly.

"BECAUSE IT'S A TOURNAMENT!!" wailed Lee, burying his face in his hands. He was very sad that he had failed to defeat Sasuke, which meant he didn't get a chance to defeat Neji.

"Um…should we really have left Shino in the woods like that?" Hinata asked, looking back at where they had irresponsibly left Shino.

"I doubt he'll really care, Hinata!" said Kiba.

"I don't know…" said Chouji. "I know I would care."

"Well Shino's different." Said Kiba. "He's weird and tends to like things that we wouldn't and vise versa. I think the biggest thing he'll be upset about is losing to Neji in such a stupid way!"

"Yeah…poor Shino…" sighed Hinata.

"GO SASUKE!!!" cheered Sakura. "YAAAAAY!!"

"Let's do the wave, everyone!" said Lee, throwing his arms up in the air. Upon the starting of a wave, everyone can't help but join in. "Um…just so you all know, that wave was for Neji." Lee said after the wave was complete.

"Then I withdraw my participation from that wave." Said Sakura.

"Me too!" said Ino. "I'M cheering for Sasuke!"

"You're so predictable, Ino." Said Sakura.

"YOU'RE cheering for Sasuke too!" Ino reminded her.

"Yeah, but Sasuke's on my team so it's expected." Sakura said. "Sasuke's not on YOUR team."

"I know." Said Ino painfully.

"All right, this is the last fight and then we can all go home." Said Shikamaru. "And I think we should make it a requirement that this fight is a REAL fight since it's the final round. But I doubt you two would have it any other way."

"Right." Said Neji and Sasuke as they Byakuganed and Sharinganed respectively.

"I've been waiting a really long time to be able to fight you." Neji said to Sasuke.

"Really?" said Sasuke. "I haven't been waiting at all to fight YOU."

Neji, at first, looked puzzled. He thought that maybe someone was standing behind him for Sasuke to say something like that. EVERYONE wanted to fight Neji. He was the Number One Rookie from his year and he had mad Hyuuga skills among many other things!

"Were you addressing that comment towards me?" Neji asked.

"What comment?" Sasuke responded.

"The comment you just made." Said Neji.

"I can't be expected to remember every snide comment I make to my opponent." Sasuke said as if Neji's inquiry was totally out of line.

"You know, you said that you haven't been waiting to fight ME." Neji explained.

"Yeah?" Sasuke said. "And?"

"I was wondering if that response was directed towards me." Neji said.

"Well of course it was directed towards you." Said Sasuke. "Who else would I be speaking to? Especially since it was in response to your comment you had made previous to it."

"What is it that I said?" Neji said, trying to remember.

"Something about how you didn't think my comment was directed towards you." Sasuke replied.

"No, before that." Neji said. "I mean the comment that sparked your reply that you haven't been wanting to fight me."

"Um…I don't know…" Sasuke said truthfully.

"It had to be something about me fighting you." Said Neji.

"It was probably that you wanted to fight me so I spitefully answered that I didn't want to fight you to psyche you out." Sasuke concluded.

"Oh." Neji said. "Right. I remember."

Then they paused.

"Are you two going to start this fight or something?" Shikamaru asked.

No one could have put it in a better way. The two charged at each other. Neji raised a leg to kick and Sasuke threw a fist out to punch and their auras clashed and just before contact was made between the two number one rookies of their years, someone appeared in between them and grabbed their respected appendage that was rushing forward.

"What are you two crazy kids up to?" Kakashi asked.

"We're in the middle of a fight." Sasuke said, trying to get his fist out of Kakashi's palm but failing miserably. Neji was in a similar situation except it was far more awkward considering he was practically upside down.

"What are you all doing out here?" said Asuma, coming along with Kurenai, Gai and Iruka.

"No doubt this is a tournament designed to figure out who is the best among you." Said Iruka, taking note of the easel Shikamaru had set up.

Kurenai laughed. "That's no way to figure out who is the best!" she said.

"Yes!" said Gai. "Stop this foolish nonsense and come with us! We have already set up a competition to figure out who TRULY is the best!"

"We're in the last round." Shikamaru said.

"Don't be silly you gooses." Said Kurenai. "Come with us and don't make us use force."

The students all groaned and complained a little bit that they were about to witness the clash of the century but the teachers would have none of it.

"Now…where's Naruto?" Kakashi asked, looking around. "…And…"

"Tenten?" suggested Asuma.

"No, I'm here." Said Tenten.

"…Um…" stuttered Gai, continuing to look.

"Shino!" said Iruka.

"That's right." Said Kakashi. "Where's Shino and Naruto?"

"Shino's off somewhere in the woods over there." Kiba replied, pointing vaguely in the woods. "A branch fell on his head and he's unconscious. Naruto's in the hospital because Shino beat him within an inch of his life to the point in which he was ALMOST a steaming heap unlike Kankuro who is ACTUALLY a steaming heap. But Shino beating him up had nothing to do with the branch falling on his head. Shino didn't beat up Kankuro, though. Sasuke did."

"Oh." Said Kakashi, nodding his head even though he wasn't quite sure what exactly had transpired.

"So everyone come on!" said Kurenai. "We'll make sure Shino and Naruto are A-OKAY to join the heated competition!! Iruka?"

"Right!" said Iruka as he ran off to work his magic.

With that, Kakashi dropped Neji and Sasuke on their arses. The two glared at each other as they stood up and brushed off their rumps so they wouldn't be caught with a dirty bum.