</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Delirium &#064; Jan 24 2004, 01:59 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Insomniac &#064; Jan 23 2004, 09:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>He&#39;s gonna win, he&#39;s the main character. Get used to it.
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is that why he beat Orochimaru in the forest of death and stopped him from putting the seal on Sasuke, oh wait... he didnt
geez i thought he was the main character and would win&#33; lol
main characters DO have you to lose sometimes to keep the plot interesting, all narutos been doing lately is winning. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Naruto lost in the forest of death, as did Sasuke for two reasons. 1) It was to establish how bad-ass Orochimaru was, he took out Kyube Naruto with very little effort, and then took out Sasuke (Who we know, working together, were able to exhaust and take out someone said to be far beyond Jounin level). 2) It was to introduce the main bad guy and antagonist for the next while.

Now, Kimimaro works for Orochimaru, so he won&#39;t win to show he&#39;s the next big baddy. Also, it&#39;s been told to us several times that Kimimaro is an incredibly bad-ass ninja, as he was only bypassed as a body for Oro because 1) no sharingan and 2) sick, we know he must be incredibly uber.

So now what we have is this. 1) Barring this fight ending with Naruto dying and calling out to Sasuke for help (doubt that&#39;ll happen) or more likely, Naruto losing and getting up saying he promised Sakura-chan he&#39;d bring Sasuke-kun back which causes Sasuke to remember whats truly important and wake up (Again, I doubt that, as it would make this whole arc fairly pointless) there is no reason for Naruto to lose to Kimimaro.

My call is that Naruto beats Kimimaro, maybe barely, he is an uber ninja after all. Then, after he beats Kimimaro, Sasuke comes out of the barrel and tells Naruto to piss off before he vanishes to go and do his thing alone. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
Remember that naruto also had that five element seal that restricted his chakra stream. He probably could have done a better match right now, because of rasengan and gamabunta.

Edit:
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> think Itachi is a cool character, but he falls into the &quot;ultra super strong&quot; character type. This character type appears in most manga, they are the type that are so strong, that they can&#39;t do a whole lot with them until the main characters get more towards that level. Seijuro Hiko in Rurouni Kenshin is a good example of this, but there are more such as Tawara Bunischi in Tenjo Tenge</td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>

Seijuro Hiko isn&#39;t as strong as kenshin when kenshin have learned amakkaru ryou sen or what it&#39;s called, the ultimate attack within the hiten mitsugiri style