Originally Posted by Abdula
oh come on, now you are the one smoking. That scene in the manga didn't really make sense either... it was shorter yes, but also boring and not really funny.
So if a scene makes no sense here, its the one in the manga because it failed to be amusing. A comedy scene which isn't amusing is pointless and useless....
I have to admit that I laughed when Naruto was starving and begging for food and moved to tears when he couldn't eat his "ramen-chan" in the anime.. Yamato rooting for Naruto saying that "tsukemen and ramen are totally different" with *that* kind of voice (the sound was funny because it was like he felt hurt or something like that by Kakashi's comment about it being the same ^^)
and Kakashi's trick to avoid paying was also nice :P
I agree with the rest of your post however. The Sakura + Sai was not necessary, but it didn't feel out of place (maybe because of the episode prior to this one)