ANSWER: SAKURA caught the criminal with her KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU at the KONOHA HOSPITAL.
Huge congrats for solving this confusing mystery goes to: Rawr the Raptor, and JesterSage (after changing your guess)
The extra credit question:
1) Tenten with the Senbon
2) Neji (item unknown, I would have taken the Exploding Note by process of elimination)
3) Lee with his Special Jutsu, Konoha Senpuu
4) Naruto with the Shuriken
5) Sasuke with the Kunai
6) Sakura with the Kuchiyose no Jutsu
Congrats to: JesterSage, Rawr the Raptor (of course, you two figured out the whole mystery), mention given to encyser and Smoking Panda (although there is no Shikamaru) for getting the order correct, and finally, i aM taMi xPp for almost getting the entire answer right but didn't put the place.
Well this was one doozy of a mystery…anyway, let's get to it!
Early on in the story, when Tsunade is talking with the six, we get indications to what weapons three of the characters have. First is Tenten with her dart-throwing Senbon. And then, when Naruto jumps up, Sakura flinches when she hears a clinking noise, meaning he has either the Shuriken or the Kunai. But later, Sasuke grabs the Kunai in his pocket so Naruto has none other than the Shuriken.
Now it's the matter of taking down places that are accounted for. First, Tenten is shown in an area where there are trees. This can only be outside at the Memorial Block or at the Hokage Monument. She reveals her motive for winning the prize.
Then, Naruto is slurping up ramen at Ichiraku. He also reveals his own motives for winning the prize; paying off his debt to Teuchi.
Elsewhere, Lee had followed Sakura. He wanted to work with her in catching the criminal, and in exchange, he would even split the money 25/75 just to work with her. However, Inner Sakura took over and wanted the money all to herself. So Sakura's motive is shown. Lee's motive is revealed a bit later. They are located in a place where there are trees, and after Lee leaves, Sakura looks over the town. So that means she can only be in one place: the Hokage Monuments. And that means that Tenten was at the Memorial Block.
At the Uchiha Complex, Sasuke walks around, looking for the criminal. He throws a Kunai at someone he senses, but the person blocks it with a "clink." There could only be two weapons other than a Kunai that make the clinking sound, and those are the Senbon and Shuriken, so he's either talking with Tenten or Naruto. During the conversation, Sasuke's motives are not shown as to why he would want the prize money. In fact, he went in the opposite direction, saying he doesn't care at all about the prize money. In the end, Sasuke calls the other person an "idiot"…which can still be referred to as anybody.
Finally, Tenten decided to stop the criminal after inspecting his moves. It was mentioned that they already passed through all the places that were previously mentioned, so that rules out: the Memorial Block, Ichiraku Ramen, the Hokage Monuments, and the Uchiha Complex. It also rules out the Hokage's Office since that's where the mission was given out and so it was already mentioned. This means that they are at the Konoha Hospital.
Tenten backs the man into a corner; a dead end in the hospital corridors. Then, all of a sudden, someone else appears. Tenten realizes who it is by the sound of the person's voice. They banter for a few seconds about poking. Tenten makes a remark about the person poking her to death. And then the person talks back, saying that it's not merely poking…then is interrupted. But who would poke someone to death?
That's right. Tenten was making a joke about Neji's Gentle Fist.
When Neji was interrupted, Lee comes crashing down on Tenten with his Special Jutsu, Konoha Senpuu. Tenten is immediately knocked out, and Lee reveals his own motives for capturing the criminal. Then, when Neji threatens to fight him, Lee is ecstatic that Neji would want to have a fight.
Then Naruto comes bursting into the scene with his Shuriken, hitting Neji and rendering him immobile. Lee makes a statement about Naruto playing dirty, but Naruto fights back by telling him what he did to Tenten.
Someone else comes in by hitting Naruto with a weapon. The person calls Naruto an "idiot." This means that the person is none other than Sasuke, who called Naruto an idiot earlier at the Uchiha Complex. Naruto falls.
While the man at the corner whimpers, a voice is heard around the corner, but neither Sasuke nor Lee could tell who it was or what it was the person said. All of a sudden, they cannot move; they are both stuck to the floor.
By process of elimination, the last person is Sakura. The voice they heard was her summoning her slimy slugs, and they used their slug goop to stick Sasuke and Lee to the ground. She mutters an apology to both Sasuke and Lee; Sasuke because he's Sasuke, and Lee again because she refused to work with him earlier. Sakura rendered the criminal unconscious, and carried him over to the Hokage's Office to collect the reward.
BUT she didn't get a reward. When she showed up at the Hokage's Office, Tsunade revealed that Shizune had caught the culprit back at the scene of the crime. It seemed that he was so scared of the wrath of the Hokage that he decided to turn himself in. Sakura looked in shock at the poor man whom she held in her arms. So that's why he kept complaining back at the Hospital; Tenten had spotted the wrong guy.
The poor man was scared to death when he noticed that Tenten was following him, and even more scared when six people started to threaten each other over him. Tsunade glared at Sakura, who merely grinned back, embarrassed. When the six genin confronted each other again, they all apologized to each other and had a good laugh about it afterwards.
By the way…Sasuke and Neji's motives were never revealed as to why they wanted the prize money. When asked about it, they shrugged it off.
But to them, their reasons were clear: Sasuke wanted to be on good terms with the Hokage.
And Neji?
To him, getting the prize money was his fate. Unfortunately, fate apparently didn't work for him this time around. He decided that fate changed it's course during the time of the mission.
When he thought about it to himself, he merely laughed at how stupid that excuse sounded. He wanted the money after all.
The Fourth Mystery: The Mysterious Maniacal Murder
Coming in three weeks…after my vacation. I decided to post this before I left so I wouldn't leave anyone hanging about the answer. Sorry I didn't give you all as much time as I wanted.
Response to Hatsukoi no Mamouri: Yeah, I know they're supposed to be suspects and all, but I'm basing this more on the books and not the board game. In the books, they had these crazy competitions for money, where they kept trying to kill each other off just to get the prize. I guess you can say these last two mysteries were a warm up for the next one, because the next chapter's a murder mystery, featuring the sand siblings, so everything should be Clue-ish enough. But thanks for inquiring about it, I love getting feedback from my readers.
