AN

Dragonrider666: Figures you post that review just as I get the next chapter in xD. HAHA! Well, with luck my muse will stay with me a bit longer and more will be soon.

DarkRavie: yeah he beat both the girls, now he gets to face whoever wins in Lyle vs. Sakura…

WOOT! Crossed 25K hits!!

End AN

Lyle and Sakura faced against each other on the field. Water was still all over in the field, but by now it was starting to pool into dips in the field, as well as some of it being soaked back into the ground, making it muddy and slick.

"So, why haven't you unleashed any of these wondrous elemental attacks like your teammates?"

"Well for one because my element isn't one of the five, and for two, coming in I picked up on something odd about Matsuri's behavior. So I held back, because she seemed to be too." Lyle took a step back, alert, but calm, if she wanted to talk through the first few minutes, so be it. "So, I hear Gaara threw a bit of a tiff at what I did, looking back at her pattern of defending her lower abdomen more than the rest of her combine, and adding that, well, if I'd have known she was pregnant I'd have been more gentle and ended it faster, mostly to avoid any potential maternal wrath."

Sakura smirked, "She'd have probably beaten you if you did that."

"Maybe," Lyle took an aggressive stance as Sakura seemed to be satisfied in his answers. Lyle flipped over his tonfas holding them with the longer side hanging down over his elbow. Sakura came fast with a bulldozer fist which Lyle blocked with both Tonfas, "but I doubt it."

Sakura felt the pull on her chakara as she came in contact with Lyle and his tonfas. He pulled one arm back and flicked his wrist to swing with the tonfa straight at her skull. Sakura jumped back and avoided the attack, swinging one of her legs to kick with similar force to her punch. Lyle gave only a slight grunt as the force of her blow was buffered by a small burst of chakara from his side. Sakura pushed off with her other foot while trying not to look shocked.

'He can control the chakara from all of his points!'Sakura realized in shock. 'I thought that took being able to see them?' She scolded herself as soon as she thought that to herself, dodging another swing from one of Lyle's tonfas. 'Well then I guess studying the paths will have been worthwhile.'

Lyle slowed down for a moment when he realized Sakura was smirking. Either she was crazy or she had a plan- neither were good signs…

Lyle watched Sakura's eyes as she seemed to trace lines along his body. Reaching into her bag she pulled out eight needles, four in each hand. She threw them and Lyle batted them away with his tonfas- in time to only see the other four needles hiding behind the first eight as they landed in his side.

Lyle chocked as he immediately felt the result, she'd clipped off one of his chakara openings. Not even bothering to pull the needles from his body he shifted back to the aggressor coming in a twirl and blur of tonfas, in almost every direction, and yet she seemed to match his speed, however narrowly. One Lyle had Sakura's attention wholly and completely on his tonfas, and guessing his next strike, he stuck, he swung at her back and watched her duck her head forward- into his oncoming knee. He immediately tapped into her chakara, but before she could recover he followed by striking her head with his other tonfa, letting her drop after that, which she did.

He took a step back and finally pulled the needles from his side with a wince, "Well that's gonna take a couple hours to heal- finesse damage." Lyle sighed and waited as the medic-nins carried off Sakura…

tsTStsTSts

"You taught her chakara points," one of the leader stated in shock.

"I just gave her the material, she learned it herself," Tsunade said smugly. "Actually I'm surprised she was able to apply them in combat so quickly, without actually seeing them, even when you know where they are, they're hard to find."

"Jeaz, if he hadn't immediately realize what she was doing, she could stopped him good."

"I doubt it, she got a couple of his points on the side because he seemed to be using them, but to apply that to say, hands- or feet, it would take a lot more than a few shadow needles, it's be easier for her to get in close and hit his wrists with the needles, that way even if she didn't numb anything, it'd be painful for him to use his hands…"

shSHshSHsh

Shikamaru sighed as they got a corner booth- with him stuck in the corner. 'I wonder if this is how Sasuke used to feel?'

"I feel we should clarify, at the moment we're not forcing anything- other than dinner. Right now we're just in the middle of a- well, as friendly as these things ever are, kind of competition."

"I think I'm all sighed out right now, this is just too troublesome." Shikamaru had time to plan his words, because it was then that the server came to take orders, he ordered cheaply, he wasn't actually hungry at the moment, and the situation was doing nothing to help. "You realize this wasn't my idea, so I'm not buying," he eyed them both, gauging reactions. They both just smiled, and proceeded to order the most expensive things on the menu… "Troublesome," he muttered.

A few moments after the server left Shikamaru started to speak again, "I'd like you both to know, there's little to no point in this. Ino I've known how you felt about me for longer than you have I imagine, and I'm sure if things had gone differently eventually you would have came to me anyway, and like my father, I would have succumb. I do feel for you, I really do. I'd always hoped you'd calm down a little and be less troublesome, and I would have came to you in time." Shikamaru stopped so he wouldn't have to use the dreaded word 'but'. "Temari, you're trouble on legs, and everything I prayed to never meet in a woman, a deadly combination."

Shikamaru stopped and looked from Temari to Ino. No matter how he put this, he wasn't getting away without one or both of these girls coming out hurt. 'Love is so troublesome. But we as humans fall in it all the time, logic cannot dissuade a heart over head '

Shikamaru took too long to figure out what to say next, and both girls were looking about ready to say something-

"Wait… Both of you, just wait. Please, I don't want to hurt either of you, but you have to realize there's no way of that not happening." He turned to Ino first, "I'm sorry Ino, I love you both -" he stopped himself less than a second from saying 'but', and gulped, "But- you didn't act fast enough, and I fell in love- without realizing it- with Temari."

Ino stared in disbelief just as the food came out. Temari looked cautiously over at Ino, she would gloat- but even she wasn't that mean. She knew it could have just as easily gone the other way. All three of them looked down at the food in front of them with a little disgust…

One of the servers came over, "Is something wrong with the food?"

"No," Shikamaru said with a sigh- "but I think all of us have lost our appetite- the food looks great, but none of us are as hungry as we were when we came in…"

The server looked at Ino who was doing her best just to not look devastated, Temari was carefully neutral, and Shikamaru looked sad but resolved…

"I'll bring you the ah- check, some to-go boxes- and I'll see if I can get you a discount coupon for when you all feel like coming back," the quick thinking Server rushed off to find a manager to get the coupons…

lyLYlyLYly

Lyle barely had time to leave the stage when Naruto came bounding out…

"Well, you certainly don't look like you went a round with both my teammates," Lyle mused.

"Thanks, wish I could say the same," Naruto joked back.

"Sorry, unlike the last time you saw me and mine team fight, we didn't have the grace of five days to heal up…"