I sincerely apologise for the delay in this--I meant to have this out by
noon yesterday, but I have allowed myself to be distracted all over the
place. X_X

No need to apologize for that short a delay...

There is when there's absolutely no damn good excuse for it. >.>;;

fanfic is mine, and may not be used without permission.  Also,
panthercorns!

...panthercorns?

Yep, panthercorns.

In that case, pedovores.

        Uzumaki Naruto knew that he was not always as observant as a
ninja should be.  He'd heard that more than enough times from his
teachers back in the academy or from Kakashi and his teammates after
he'd screwed up in yet another training exercise.  This wasn't to say
that he was always unobservant, of course.  Were that the case, he

would

have already died far more than a dozen times.  It was just that,
sometimes, he didn't pay quite as much attention to things as he needed
to.

Like where to aim when he pees.

The latest filler episode was... unique, wasn't it?

That's a word for it. X_X

If ANYONE in the series is a "closet pervert", it's Naruto. :P

He's also a thirteen year old boy.  He's still a little vague on the
details.  :)

Point.

Man, poor Naruto...being forced to sit around while KNOWING Kakashi is

being

tortured...

Being told to sit around and having the safest (possibly even the
wisest) thing to do being to sit around does not necessarily imply that
sitting around will ensue.  Particularly when Naruto is involved... :)

Right, of course. Silly me.

        Not far away, Sakura had finished giving her condolences to

Fuki

and walked over to her rival.  "You're up next, Ino-pig," she said.
        "I know that, Forehead," Ino muttered.
        "Remember what I told you," Sakura said quietly, "and don't
lose."

"And watch out for flying pee attacks."

You may rest assured that that particular filler episode will _not_ be
getting a reference, subtle or otherwise, in this story.

And there was MUCH rejoicing.

[Ino] "Wow, all those blowjobs I gave Shikamaru and Chouji really paid

off!"

...

You know, slightly altered, that would have been a rather more
appropriate comment during a certain point in Ino vs. Sakura...

*snrk*

O_o;;

Well, we know from canon that Gai can summon at least one turtle.  He
can't pass it on to Lee, and Neji doesn't seem the type to be interested
(and is training more with his uncle than Gai nowadays).  So...

Makes sense.

        Anko appeared next to Chouji, briefly inspecting him.  Then she
raised her hand.  "The winner of the fifth match, Tenten!"

*APPLAUDS WILDLY*

Glad you liked.  :)

I'm a Tenten fan. I can't help it. ^_^

When I was planning the tournament out way back when I started the
story, it ultimately came down to the fact that Chouji gets to win a
fight in canon and Tenten doesn't.  So, I figured she deserved the
chance to shine.

Yay!

        Inuzuka Shinta let out a bark of laughter.

*groan*

...unintentional.  Honest.

Suuuuuuure.

And this is Neji's problem HOW, exactly?

It isn't, really.  Midori's just bought into the whole anti-bloodline
prejudice, so she projects her anger over her whole situation onto the
"freaks."  Subconsciously, it's probably because she wants what she
imagines Neji has.

...a wang the size of a cocktail weiner?

If Neji were Naruto, he would somehow use this fight to show her the
error of her ways, probably by finding some way to connect with Midori
using the whole branch family/cursed seal business.  Since Neji isn't
Naruto, he just beats her and forgets about the whole matter since it
isn't _his_ problem. :)

Heh. That works.

        Neji sprung into motion.  Devoid of all his usual grace, he
leapt upward, his fist striking Midori's jaw in a powerful uppercut.

Saw THAT coming, too.

No good?

Didn't say that, just said I saw it coming.

That beating Naruto gave him didn't near enough cure him of his

arrogance.

Neji is still Neji, after all.  He's now somewhat closer to "arrogant
asshole with a heart of gold" than plain old "arrogant asshole," but
he's still an arrogant asshole.

In other words, he's Vegeta with freaky eyes.

So even the mighty Hyuuga prodigy admits to needing help from time to

time.

Will miracles never cease.

He _is_ trying to be nicer.  He doesn't always succeed, but he is
trying.  :)

Hee.

Yeah, Tenten's not exactly anywhere near as durable as, oh...ANY of the

male

ninja. Hell, she's not as durable as *HINATA*.

But we love her anyway, because she's cute. ^_^

Well, to be fair, Tenten had one of the toughest match-ups of the first
round victors.  Chouji's no wimp, after all, and he forced her to pull
out her big guns early.

I could make a perverted comment here, but I've made enough of them already.
^_^

        Neji flew away from her but Sakura only snarled, "I'm not done
yet," thrusting one arm toward him.  Repressing a shudder at the
crawling sensation under her arm, she shouted, "Hidden Snake Hands!"

And Anko, too. What next, Kagebunshin?

Sakura probably has enough chakra now to make a single Kage Bunshin, but
not enough to be able to do anything useful with it.

A kagebunshin doesn't really need to be useful, though. Depending on how you
use it. For Naruto's purposes, then yes, they need to be durable and useful,
but for most other ninja, all they really need is to be stable enough to
make a nice, loud, solid THUD for about two seconds. The entire point of the
Kagebunshin no Jutsu is to be *slightly* more convincing than the regular
Bunshin no Jutsu by virtue of actually having substance. Naruto's (ab)use of
the technique is an aberration.

But I digress. ^_^

Well, I can't say I didn't see that coming. Still, it's a little bit of

a

letdown. ;_;

It is, but look at it this way: in seventy days, Sakura went from being
a sub-par genin to giving Hyuuga Neji a tough fight.  That's some
incredible growth there, and she's got nothing to be ashamed about.

Very, very true. ^_^

Well THAT was anticlimactic.

I didn't really want to have Lee beat Neji or vice versa, so it had to
end in a draw somehow.  I also didn't want to copy the ending of (the
canon) Sakura vs. Ino, and this was the best I was able to come up with.

*nod* Good call. Especially since, given their wildly different fighting
styles and tactics, a Neji vs Lee fight ending in a double KO would be
virtually impossible.

If it helps, Anko will probably argue that neither of them deserve to be
chuunin because they robbed her of an epic climatic fight... :)

Heh.

As always, thank you for commenting!

And thank YOU for writing something worth commenting on. ^_^

================================
Dude, stop wailing on my junk!
              ~~*~~
The Eternal Lost Lurker
www.lurkerdrome.com



             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'