Team 8
Preliminary Mayhem
By Viridian
Reviews
Crazy posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 2:13pm for Preliminary Mayhem
"I’m going to ask the Hokage if he can give me any more information on the seal, or a means to contact someone who can tell us more. I want you to be equally cautious when dealing with your… prisoner. Don’t take anything it says at face value."
This seems to be a perfect way to get Jiraiya in contact with Team 8, if you were planning to do so. I can just imagine the problems that would come up between Kurenai and Jiraiya though.
Seeing Shino fight against Kiba was cool. He doesn't get enough show time in almost any fanfiction.
Naruto Vs. Sasuke.... Damn near perfect.... I laughed so much... I don't like Sasuke.
Hinata vs. Neji was also another refreshing change from canon and fanfic. Having her fight well against a superior Hyuuga fighter, and using Goken was just very nice, and still having the determination to stand up after those hits... :). I imagine Kawarimi would be something that Naruto will start to get very good at, if it has no major effects to the person it is transferring with. Naruto would do anything to protect H,S and K, so that may be something he tries to get to a fine art.
Chouji winning was COOL! I know that he didn't take it (the injuring) well, but so many people just discard Chouji as a secondary character and just make him lose because they can't be bothered to put the effort in.
Shikamaru, well, same as always, eh? And he may start to pick up on Naruto's secret soon. He does have a high IQ, but I was always a little surprised that nothing was said in canon after Shika and Naruto stop Gaara from killing Lee in the hospital. "I've got a monster inside me" and my birthday is on record. Either Shika doesn't care, or worked it out and just didn't say anything.
Liking all your fanfics as normal
See ya,
Crazy
inDe_eD posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 1:30pm for Preliminary Mayhem
Few things are as satisfying as seeing one as arrogant as the Uchiha being laid out in one blow. Naruto certainly was channeling Lee and Gai there, green blur and all.
It struck me as weird how Kurenai automatically assumed Naruto lost against Sasuke. One would think she would have more faith in her student by now, even against a so-called prodigy. Naruto's phrasing does help that misconception though: "I fought Sasuke" as opposed to "I beat Sasuke". It did serve to emphasize how Naruto was more concerned for Hinata than about himself though, relegating his own victory to that of a mere afterfought.
I'm curious as to what, if any, repurcussions may arise from Kyuubi flooding Naruto with his own chakra in order to get rid of the cursed seal. If he sprouts foxy ears/tails I'm going to cry tears of bitterness though.
Thanks for another excellent, lengthy chapter. A wonderful Christmas present to us unworthy readers.
Happy Holidays.
jgkitarel posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 12:47pm for Preliminary Mayhem
You know, I was so hoping that Hinata would give Neji a lesson in humility. Oh well, I'll settle for Naruto giving him a lesson in pain instead.
Having Choji flatten Yoroi was nice, and Shino's question on what flowers to send to Neji's funeral was a definite plus.
As for Naruto taking Sasuke out in one shot, well, that serves the bastard right.
Jeremy DuCharme posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 12:38pm for Preliminary Mayhem
Hmm, acid clones, nasty idea. Is that canon or something of your own? And it speaks well at how trained, and how far above their 'weight class' Team 8 is used to punching if they find dueling with a chuunin candidate gennin team a light work out. :)
And Naruto's pranking days come back for the final run into the tower. Who cares how LOUD the entry is if no one can tell where exactly you are till after you are 'safe'.
Did that medic find something 'off' about Naruto's chakra coils? Evidence of strain like finding healed breaks on an X-ray?
On to The Matches. ISTM that the loss of the sound Nins (by my count, 15 Leaf, 3 Sand to start the party, less Kabuto) shook the order up.
Chouji got a favorable match up, though I guess that this was his first time in a serious fight, as in if in the field it would kill or be killed? He seemed to be taking how badly he hurt Mr. Chakra Leach hard.
Temari-Tenten. Did this completely follow canon? Because I missed the mention of Temari trying to dump an unconscious Tenten onto her own scattered arsenal.
Shino-Kiba. Shino is the master of the bored insult. "My Teammate gives me a harder time in sparing matches." And I guess all that time working in the basement included blindfighting skills, or is his bug scent tracking good enough to follow the still bugtaged Kiba in the smoke? He didn't get off scott free, but it's a toss up if Kiba or Sakura did better. Sakura managed a draw, but Kiba almost certainly drew a harder opponent.
Shikamaru vs. Rubbernin. Different opponent, same strategy. He lazy because he does it right the FIRST time. :)
The Hyuuga grudge match. Same eventual outcome but Hinata came off better looking during it, and Neji looked more brutal about his beating his cousin. I suspect this Naruto will only agree to leave Neji breathing, maybe. Shino asking what flowers to send to Neji's near future funeral was a nice touch.
Kurenai showed that a Genjustu mistress must have a good grounding in psychology as she pushes all of Naruto's buttons to get him back to fight his round. And somehow I doubt Kakashi and Sasuke would thank her for pressing them that hard. (Want to legally kill Neji for what he did, Naruto? Get into the finals.)
Sakura vs. Ino. I'm guessing that it went mostly to canon, with the slightly tougher, more self confidant Sakura breaking Ino's hold without Naruto's support? Hmm, who on Team 7 can say they did better? Kiba drew a tougher opponent, but he's more battle oriented as well, and Sakura at least made sure her opponent didn't pass either.
Naruto vs. Sasuke. Where in the Uchiha learns an important lesson, do not taunt the Happy Fun Kyuubi Jinchuuriki! :)
Now Ibiki to sum up the match...
"This is Konoha's Number One Prankster" *picture of academy graduation Naruto, orange jumpsuit and all* "This is Konoha's Number One Prankster pissed off and not fooling around" *picture of Team 8 Naruto, his fist extended in a punch. Around that fist is the deforming face of Sasuke Uchiha, his feet off the ground as he briefly experiences manned flight*
"Any Questions?!"
Man, Kakashi is gonna have plenty of Icha Icha reading time over the next month, in between bouts of torturing, er training his gennin to correct their mistakes during the exam prelims. And Orchimaru is gonna have to rejiggle his plans with Sasuke not advancing, for starters no late arrival of Sasuke (and the favoritism that was shown when anyone else *cough*Naruto*cough* who wasn't in the arena when the match was called would have immediately forfeited) then the invasion happens quicker.
And how will Konoha react at their precious Uchiha being eliminated so fast and brutally? He seemed to be a big draw for the locals during the finals in the canon. Will Naruto take his place as the Great Rookie Hope, or as the villain they want to see defeated for 'taking' Sasuke's place?
Kurenai however must be looking golden as a Jounin sensi, both she and Asuma put two of their gennin into the finals, a total only exceeded by the Sand Siblings, and she arguably did it with lower grade materials. Or at least it looks that way on paper and from academy scores. Though it is interesting that she assumed Naruto lost, was it just the words he chose and his worry for Hinata that made her assume he did, or did he surprise even her? And her (and Iruka's) response to how he defeated the former number one Academy Rookie should be good, something about 'there's the classroom, and then there's field work, and the later scores are the ones that really matter'.
Hmm, Kurenai isn't likely to pawn off either gennin for the month training for the finals, though with Shino's family training I can see her letting Jiraya(sp?) in to supplement Naruto's training, especially since the questions about the Kyuubi's seal give him a perfect opening. Since she already taught him water walking the bath house meeting isn't likely to be.
And what are the other final matchups? If we keep close to the canon then besides Naruto-Neji, that would make it Kankuro (who no one's seen in action) vs. Shino, Shikamaru vs. Temari, and Chouji as the poor sap that drew Gaara first. From the best matchup to the worse, unless some other poor bastard got the psycho-coon first. If it's either of his siblings they'd drop out in a heartbeat, but OTOH it's three Leaf to two Sand once Naruto and Neji are taken out. And which winners pair off for round two, ie which side of the bracket is Gaara on? To face off against Naruto (if we get that far) in the second round, or would both have to go to the final match to meet?
Jon posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 11:49am for Preliminary Mayhem
I wonder if Kurenai's surprised expression lies from the fact that Naruto won the match or the fact that he was fighting Neji the next round.... All the same, kudos for making Shikamaru's match a super sneaky and not-so-troublesome match =p
Trscroggs posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 11:47am for Preliminary Mayhem
Thank you very much, this is a lovely Xmas present. I enjoyed this chapter very much. I espetially enjoyed Naruto's teamates recations to his strategic thinking. AND you managed to save Lee, more or less, his intervention may change how the invasion battles play out. As if having Sauske out of the fight wouldn't do that already.
Jon posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 11:21am for Preliminary Mayhem
Great! Really entertaining chapter.... I wonder if Jiraiya will turn up next... I hope he learns the summoning technique again...
Touki posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 11:01am for Preliminary Mayhem
whoo-hoo! Flawless victory on every level in this story particularly Shino's death threat/joke. I'm a little sad Hinata still lost but it was a better showing this time...and now Naruto is going to pound him worse *uber happy*. Poor Lee he still got thrashed though maybe not as bad? Nice to see some new matches while keeping with story important such as hyuuga vs hyuuga and Sakura vs Ino. Can't wait for the next chapter merry whatever to you all and a happy new year.
Finbar posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 10:43am for Preliminary Mayhem
HOLY CRAP!!
One Hit and Sasuke was out!!!
Thats.... just holy crap!! I cant think of a better way to show howmuch Naruto has grown and how spoilt Sasuke was!
Thats worth ten Ramen points AND a catgirl!
Cheers
Finbar
ShadeHawk posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 10:21am for Preliminary Mayhem
Another very nice chapter. Thanks!
By the way, could you please write for those of us that didn't read or watch "Naruto" what were the results (and techniques used) in the fights which only Shino watched (perhaps in author notes)? Thanks in advance.
Darkfiretiger posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 10:16am for Preliminary Mayhem
One hit KO
Flawless victory
Great work, love the Naruto V Saskue
although that does mean that there will be a more Emo, Emo boy... not sure if thats a good thing
Rubel posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 10:04am for Preliminary Mayhem
Once again a great chapter. Thank you very much for the great read.
Treecat posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 9:54am for Preliminary Mayhem
Woah, anticlimax for Sasuke, he'll take that hard, will this drive him closer to Orochicoughbastardcoughmaru, or further from him, thinking there is still stuff that Konoha could teach him?
Neji's a bastard, but we knew that already, at least pre-chuunin exam. Do you have a plan for dealing with his dramatic character turnaround in canon?
Shino rocks, as always. I love the way you inject a little more personality (or at least visible personality) into each consecutive chapter. You're building him up into a fascinating character.
Is Naruto finally cluing into the fact that he may like Hinata (gasp!)? Once he realizes, will he have the guts to do something that, to him, could potentially jeapordise his relationship with one of his precious people?
Thanks for a chapter that I didn't want to read, because then something I'd been waiting for for a while would be over too soon, I couldn't resist the call, in the end. It lived up to and outstripped the (impressively high) expectations of your quality of writing.
You write so involvingly that it's hard to regulate how much I read at a time, I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
Thank you, merry christmas!
Reluctant posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 9:45am for Preliminary Mayhem
The awesomeness of that Sasuke/Naruto fight defies words.
Jamey posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 8:42am for Preliminary Mayhem
Damn, and I didn't get *YOU* anything for Christmas! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I do have to feel sorry for Neji - Naruto is going to make it hurt - a *LOT*.
MrRigger posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 8:15am for Preliminary Mayhem
Excellent chapter. A great Christmas present if I've ever seen one. I think my favorite part of the chapter was where Naruto knocked Sasuke out before he could react. That was great, and Sasuke probably should have known that it was a bad idea taunting Naruto about Hinata. Though I really liked Shino's comment about what kind of flowers to get Neji. And with Shino's dry delivery, it's even better.
MrRigger
Exarikun posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 8:09am for Preliminary Mayhem
wow, nice chapter. personally, i hope that naruto grinds neji into dust, without giving him the time to set of his spiel about destiny and whatnot. perhaps with a bit of extra training from jiraya, he could consciously start to pull out a bit of the foxes chakra, as in canon, and he could just summon that as a shield against all jyuuken strikes from neji, making him completely look like an idiot before completely finishing him off. anyway, we'll just have to see what you have in store for us next... hope you update soon
Cuey posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 8:08am for Preliminary Mayhem
Excellent. Initially I thought that Naruto taunted Kiba to secretly swipe the scroll from him, but I guess sending sasuke to the infirmary makes more sense. Good fight scenes.
Euphemism posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 7:49am for Preliminary Mayhem
Yay, Christmas present! I liked the chapter - a little bit different from Canon, yet so many things remained the same. It is curious that five of the match-ups remained the same (four from the prelims, Naruto vs. Neji) - maybe they're not so random after all?
Interesting that Sasuke went out with a whimper, not a bang. More than anything else, this will have the most interesting consequences (we already 'know' that Naruto is going to defeat Neji, most likely).
Although, Gai's words don't indicate that Lee was as damaged as he was in canon. That could be interesting as well.
I want to say something about the double KO - the fact that with Naruto's presence swapped with Kiba, Sakura still turned out roughly the same so that it could have occurred... but then I suppose Naruto's contribution to Sakura's development at this stage was minimal in canon.
Prince Charon posted a comment on Tuesday 25th December 2007 4:32pm for Preliminary Mayhem