eimii wrote:

But, except for the arrogance, a lot of your arguments don't make sense.
Assuming Sakura is a good enough actor to fool the Byakugan in the heat
of battle, she had to act like she thought she wouldn't get hit, which
means she couldn't be ready to defend herself (that would be very
obvious), which just makes it even more suicidal. 

Um... exactly. And it's explicitly not suicidal because Neji has stated that he does not want to hurt her, so he will not be using killing blows when his opponent is _obviously_ too pathetic to even defend herself. 

Neji, of all the people in the tournament, is easily capable of 
disabling without real harm. Lots of pain, but not actual damage.

Sakura is not a good enough body actor to completely fool the byakugan, so her attacks and (lack of) defenses must be real; this does not mean she's not good enough to hide a few little things behind what Neji is expecting to see. It all comes down to what Neji is expecting: he expects Sakura to be defenseless, so she gives him 'defenseless.' He expects Sakura's attacks to be inneffectual, so she gives him 'innefectual.' When everything goes exactly how you expect it to, and you're as flat-out arrogant as Hyuuga Neji, you might tend to miss things that you're _not_ expecting to see...

It seems a really flimsy hope for the certainty of taking severe damage 
in the meantime. Neji had the Byakugan activated. I still can not 
understand how he could have missed her placing the explosive notes.

Hmm... Sakura's enhanced speed might make closing to striking distance
faster than the 'draw time' on the Hidden Snake Hands; one _does_ get
the impression that she is now possibly the second-fastest genin in the
leaf, with how she's described as moving right here... 

The idea of running being faster than handsigns bothers me on a basic
level. I concede, however, that it IS in genre. 

It's not simply the speed of the seals; one must also take into account the flight time of the snakes...

Hmm, true.

This would be true if it weren't for the fact that she's described as
almost completely drained at this point, while Neji is still mostly
fresh; her poison does not seem to be fast-acting, so he might have had
enough time to run her to ground before it really kicked in... 

Sure. 
But is that any worse than fighting him now? He's only going to get more
tired, while she isn't going to get any more exhausted than she is after
that massive combo. This is a classic example of only having to fight not
to lose, not to win. 

Er... that makes no sense. She _is_ going to get more tired after using that massive combo, probably even faster than Neji would chasing her, since Neji is both physically fresh and has better base endurance, and her poison impairs chakra control but he has to have at least enough basic taijutsu to beat up an exhausted opponent without the gentle fist. If she fled, right after utilizing the hidden snake hands, she doesn't really have enough chakra left to do anything so it just takes Neji a little longer to beat her. 

By using everything she has at once, she risks all for a chance at victory that she will not see again. The Claw of the Fire Dragon probably _would_ have landed too, perhaps ending the fight in her favor, if she hadn't retracted the snakes first, thus allowing him a moment to perform the kawarimi. 

No, it didn't work that way. She was at range when she hit Neji with the 
snakes. She needed to retract them to draw him back to her, or release 
them on her end (is that even possible?) and charge herself. Either way, 
he got a moment to react.

Plus, fighting not to lose would not impress the person she wants to impress. She wants to make it absolutely clear in Tsunade's mind that she has become stronger, and if that means fighting to win, then that is what she is going to do. 

Tsunade's a medinin. She is perfectly aware of the idea of avoiding risk 
when all you need to win is time.

- Wearing the weights.

She didn't lose anything for it in this case, though; her fights with
Ami and Ino would have been resolved more quickly if she'd simply
blitzed them with her superior speed, but neither fight really wore her
down much at all, and she didn't really show _any_ of her new cards
until the Neji fight because of this (even if Neji was prepared for the
speed specifically). 

It still showed arrogance. It was justified against Ami, but Ino put her
on the ropes. 

Ino put her on the ropes with strategy, though, not physical prowess. I also disagree that its arrogance on Sakura's part; i think it's more akin to Lee's weakness, the desire to test how strong she has become...

Well, doing so in the Chuunin exam is either arrogance or not taking the 
exams seriously. Neither reflects well. Though I admit, if taking the 
exam seriously was very important, Shikamaru wouldn't have passed.

That is not what being a chuunin is about. A chuunin is a _command_ level ninja. A chuunin must make decisions that will determine the fate of entire squads of ninja, not just himself or herself. Though combat prowess is valued, clear thinking is far more important. That is why Shikamaru was promoted and nobody else was. 

I can't think of a single mission except the attempted retrieval of 
Sasuke that a chuunin commanded. It's always been Jounin.

William

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