Naruto fights that would be fun to see

[FriendlyEL]

I actually asked myself that alot, as I agree with you it's quite the inconsistancy. I don't think it's so much because he thought he thought Jaria could defeat him as much as the fact that Itachi had currently used the Mangenkyo twice in a row (on Kakashi and Sasuke) which evidently strains him quite alot. Plus, he mentioned as he and Kisame ran off later that he didn't feel it was neccicary to do much with Naruto now since he didn't feel he was going to be skilled enough to be a threat any time soon.

Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that if they so wanted to Itachi and Kisame(who I just stated why I find him no slouch himself) would have wiped the floor with Jaria.

I suppose you've mostly been watching the show

Correct.

[FriendlyEL]

Actually, I kind of wonder exactly how Haku would have done against the other contestants should he have joined the Chuunin Exams. Although, before anyone mentions that they think he'd completely pulverize everyone, keep in mind that Nine Tailed Fox Naruto defeated him very easily, whereas both Neji and Gaara proved to stand their ground slightly better.

[bissek]

Haku wouldn't stand a chance against Gaara. Senbon needles just wouldn't penetrate Gaara's defense, and Gaara would cork the ice mirrors in sand and take away Haku's speed advantage.

Haku v Neji would be interesting. Neji's bloodline would enable him to keep track of where Haku is when using the mirror trick, but he may or may not be fast enough to react to that knowledge. Kaiten could block Haku's attacks, but that can't be kept up indefinitely. I'd say that if Neji can land a couple good hits early in the match, he'd slow Haku down to the point where he could be beaten. But if Haku can keep his distance, then he can keep peppering Neji with attacks that will force him to waste chakra on defensive techs, and outlast him.

[claymade]

Since it's imbued with chakra, it probably masks where the tenketsu are to begin with.

Would it? People, supposedly, are also imbued with chakra, and the Byakugan can see straight through them without a problem.

But I don't think it matters much. It's only a little short of impossible to hit Gaara with taijutsu to begin with; his main defensive sand moves to intercept anything that might harm him. It takes extraordinary methods to get to the point where you can strike the sand armor, much less penetrate it.

Well, it's a little difficult to peg Neji's speed exactly, but considering that Lee considers Neji stronger than him, it seems pretty clear that Lee can't just speed-blitz him, which suggests that they're on at least relatively even footing in that respect, even if Lee is, to an extent faster.

But neither of the above abilities is as damning as the ones Neji showed off in the most recently published set of graphic novels--namely the "Gentle" Fist's overwhelming potency against chakra-constructed physical attacks. Neji is seen to be able to use any part of his body to casually shred, slice, and simply blast away Kidomaru's webs.

Not to mention that--even exhausted and shot full of holes!--he's still able to channel enough chakra back through the material to seriously injure his foe, even in his second form.

Given that knowledge, if he'd fought Gaara in the Chuunin Exams, IMHO he'd have crushed him. I don't think it matters if he could have gotten around the sand shield (although he might have been able to) since he can probably pierce it easily. And I don't think it matters if he can target the tenketsu through the sand armor (although he almost certainly can) because all he really needs to do is touch the sand armor in order to fry Gaara where he stands.

Otherwise, I'm pretty sure that if they so wanted to Itachi and Kisame(who I just stated why I find him no slouch himself) would have wiped the floor with Jaria.

Actually, Itachi specifically states that he anticipates the outcome of such a battle would be mutual death or serious injury.

In other words, he's smart enough not to make the same mistake that Orochimaru made regarding the Hokage. Just because you're "stronger" than someone doesn't mean defeating them can't be extremely costly, especially when they've got a lifetime of dirty little tricks that they can surprise you with.

No, Sasuke hurt Gaara, which is what drove him into releasing Shukaku. He never even came close to taking him down and out of the fight. Sasuke had the honor of being the first person to make Gaara bleed, which I admit was an accomplishment. But it would have been the last thing he ever accomplished if other events hadn't intervened and saved his life.

How's that? Gaara seemed pretty incapacitated to me, and the Chidori proved enough to knock him out of the early stages of his transformation.

I don't see how Gaara could realistically have transformed enough in a one-on-one before Sasuke killed him--not without the aid of his allies to buy him time.

When the Sand Siblings carried Gaara away, it was to save him from Sasuke, not Sasuke from him.

[FriendlyEL]

Something I wondered about. After the time skip Sakura seems to improve her skills quite a bit as I'm sure anyone who watched her fight with Sasori knows. Does anyone think at that point in her training Temari would still be a bit too much for her?

[claymade]

I'd really be interested in seeing Neji vs. Sasuke--and how it might or might not shift over the course of time. During the exam semifinals, for example, Kakashi mentions how he doubts Sasuke would be able to pull out a victory. Then, however, Sasuke goes and trains to the point where he's exceeding Lee in taijutsu alone, not to mention his already-impressive array of other abilities--which would seem to combine to make it a much more in-question fight than before.

More generally, I'd be interested in seeing how the Byakugan stacks up against the Sharingan long-term, especially since it's hinted that the two might be related. For instance, might the Byakugan "see through" Sharingan-based illusion attacks? Or would a possible defense be to close one's eyelids, and watch one's foe solely through Byakugan-vision? Would that be a sufficient shield against its effects?

[lwf58]

That discounts the fact that at the time of the chuunin exam story arc, Lee had never come close to beating Neji. And even though after training, Sasuke was as fast as Lee, that was compared to a Lee who was wearing his training weights. The fact was, Sasuke was a one-trick pony at that point; he'd been off with Kakashi for a month learning what Kakashi thought he'd need to beat Gaara, and no one else.

Sasuke wasn't fast enough to take on Lee, if Lee dropped his weights. And since Lee was unable to beat Neji at that time, it follows that Sasuke couldn't either... not the way he was then, anyway, since his boost in taijutsu was accomplished by copying Lee's moves.

The fact that Naruto managed to beat Neji was due to his being a jinchuuriki, not because he was a match when it came to raw talent. If Naruto had not had the Kyuubi to bolster his chakra and healing, Neji would have won easily.

[FriendlyEL]

There's also the fact that Sasuke just didn't have the natural physical stanima Lee did, so using what little of it he did in his fight with Gaara tired him much quicker.

I think that's probably the reason why he didn't use Lee's taijitsu more after that fight.

Although, anyone have opinions on how Sasuke could have done against him after the time skip?

[claymade]

That discounts the fact that at the time of the chuunin exam story arc, Lee had never come close to beating Neji. And even though after training, Sasuke was as fast as Lee, that was compared to a Lee who was wearing his training weights.

Huh? That wasn't the impression I got from what I read... Sasuke starts out attacking at--to quote Guy's thoughts--"almost as fast as Lee's average speed" (and was, in fact, skilled enough to get around Gaara's sand shield even at that speed).

Then he kicks it up a notch, causing Guy to think that "That's practically the same speed as Lee without his weights." Then he kicks it up again when he breaks out the Chidori--causing Lee to reflect on how if it had been him, he wouldn't have been able to avoid Gaara's counter on a beeline attack like that, since he doesn't have the eye for it.

So, taking that all into account, the impression I got from the fight was that Sasuke pretty clearly passes Lee up in terms of taijutsu abilities during that month. (Not counting the Reverse Lotus, of course. Sasuke still would've been utterly toast against that, as far as I can see. But then, Lee'd never tried that on Neji either.)

Now--as you say--Lee's normal taijutsu alone wouldn't be enough to beat Neji. The question that makes it interesting would be how well an even stronger taijutsu than that, plus Sasuke's ninjutsu and genjutsu (which Lee obviously couldn't employ) would fare.

EDIT:

There's also the fact that Sasuke just didn't have the natural physical stanima Lee did, so using what little of it he did in his fight with Gaara tired him much quicker.

How do you figure? I never got that impression myself. If anything, Sasuke seemed to rack up even more damage before wearing out, considering that he gets Gaara breathing hard from the effort of keeping up his armor under the assault. When Lee fought him, he was doing the "huff-huff" thing well before Gaara was.

EDIT2:

Although I guess you could argue that, while Sasuke was merely holding back on his speed at first, Lee was being held back by his weights--meaning he'd have to expend far more energy to move at his average speed, whereas it was essentially a breather in Sasuke's case.

(Certainly, it certainly makes much more sense that Lee ought to have the bigger reserves of the two...)

[FriendlyEL]

Something I wondered about since they were teammates in Akatuki is how a fight between Orochimaru and Sasori would go. While he was clearly very powerful as his fight against Chiyo and Sakura has shown, I have to wonder if he'd quite have what it takes to take a legendary Sannin on. The only Akatsuki member Orochimaru has shown to be afraid of, not neccicarily less powerful than, is Itachi, arguably the most powerful Akatsuki member with the exception of the leader.

Anyone want to add thoughts on that?

[claymade]

One fight I'd be interested to see: Guy vs. Itachi--at various Gate levels for the former. Granted, at normal levels it'd be a walkover for Itachi. But considering that Guy has done extensive training to specifically be an anti-Sharingan fighter--and that the Eighth Gate, at least, is itself supposed to grant power that surpasses even the Hokage's--I have to wonder if Guy might actually be able to take Itachi down (although dying himself in the bargain).

[Shadell]

Something I wondered about since they were teammates in Akatuki is how a fight between Orochimaru and Sasori would go. While he was clearly very powerful as his fight against Chiyo and Sakura has shown, I have to wonder if he'd quite have what it takes to take a legendary Sannin on. The only Akatsuki member Orochimaru has shown to be afraid of, not neccicarily less powerful than, is Itachi, arguably the most powerful Akatsuki member with the exception of the leader.

Anyone want to add thoughts on that?

Once all's said and done, Orochimaru seems rather weak compared to the other sannin. Itachi didn't want to fight Jiraiya with back up, yet expressed no fear at all when confronting Orochimaru.

We know for a fact that Sasori beat at least one kage. Also, you have to consider that Sakura is one of the two or three people in the Naruto world who could counter the poison that he uses. IE: Orochimaru would only be able to take one hit before his death became assured.

Ultimately I'd say it would be an interesting fight; but Sasori would win.

Of course, I'm not figuring Orochimaru's best summoning into the equation, and his transformed state was beaten rather quickly, so we never got to see what exactly it was capable of.


Hmm...

Suigetsu vs. Kakashi

Kakashi already beat Zabuza who was most likely a better swordsman then Suigetsu, (At least with the kind of sword they use) but Suigetsu has other abilities and quite a different personality then Suigetsu.

[FriendlyEL]

After watching some of the later episodes of the Sasuke Retrieval arc I'm kind of wondering how Sakura (Post timeskip) would have fared against Yamato. Correct me if I'm right, but it seems that his two main attacks are the use of wood jutsu and taming Kyuubi Naruto. For obvious reasons, the latter really wouldn't be all that useful in this, but the wood probably could. I sort of wonder just exactly if Sakura would be able to punch through his wood attacks like she did before with a stone wall, but I'm figuring that it could be slightly harder for her since it would be encoded with chakra rather than just regular wood.