Shikamaru woke up and felt his hand around. Good, he thought to himself, I still have the deck. Reaching out to the simple white box he pulled out the cards and shuffled through them, making sure they were all still there. Reaching into his deck he pulled out three cards. It was an interesting day when he got them he mused to himself. He slipped two of them back into the deck, slipped the deck back into the box and put the box in his pocket. He put the third card in a tin containing all his other cards and all his previous decks. Deciding to get up from the bed he stretched his arms, the blanket sliding down to his waist, immediately he recoiled at the cold air. Thinking for a moment he let out a grin and raced to the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Moments later another sleepy boy came wondering to the bathroom. The rubbed his eyes before slamming into the door. The boy blinked and walked forward again. After slamming in to the door a third time he finally was roused from his drowsiness.
In panic he yelled "Shika come on come out, you know I get jitters!"
Shikamaru in response was to fart loudly and let out a sigh of relief.
Half an hour later both boys were dressed and were on ground floor eating breakfast.
Shikamaru mused while slowly eating an apple, "I'm gonna miss this place."
The place he had been referring to was the orphanage that they had grown up in. Now that they were 18 they had to leave as they were no longer allowed to stay.
"This place is a shithole," the other boy replied. In contrast to Shikamaru he was crunching through his apples, that's right apples, the boy had 10 other apples lined up waiting to be devoured.
"Hey, you bitches complaining about mum's caretaking skills? Wanna be pounded into the floor?" a voice screamed. Normally the two brothers would take such a threat very seriously, they had grown up in a rather shifty district after all, however when it came from the mouth of the six-year-old Sakura it was more cute than anything.
"Which bitches are bm-ing me?!" another voice screamed out. On the other hand, the boys balked and quickly shuffled back lest they get beaten into the floor.
"Nothing aunty, we weren't saying anything!" Shikamaru wisely stuttered out, waving his hands around in a pseudo placatory manner.
The other boy on the other hand proceeded to shove his foot so far down in his mouth he could probably lick his own balls.
"Granny this place is a shithole! Look at the wall, we haven't fixed it from the last time that street gang tried to rob us."
The wall indeed had a massive wall in it and Shikamaru often wondered how the hell the massive building hadn't collapsed yet. Better yet he knew Aunt Tsunade was a millionaire, he didn't know why she hadn't fixed it yet.
Tsunade responded "it saves me a heating bill, with that hole there's now point switching the heater on." She stopped and glared at him. "And Naruto, just last week you were telling me how you loved the hole in the wall because it allowed you to escape from me easier!"
Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, and chuckled "O-oh yeah."
Tsunade continued "It also toughens you bitches up!" The orphanage was set up so that the oldest kids slept on the bottom floors, Tsunade herself slept on the middle floors just below the area where her medical practice was set up.
Before the two blondes could fight for any longer Shikamaru said hastily "Look at the time, we better get going!"
He grabbed Naruto's arm and then tried to drag him out of the room.
Before anything could happen the shorter Tsunade wrapped both her arms around the boys and then proceed to tearfully serenade how her babies were leaving. By this time the rest of the orphanage had gathered around them and were giving their tearful good byes.
Half an hour later the boys finally stumbled out of the house and managed to regain their balance. Looking at the time they both immediately began sprinting to the battle dome. The thing about growing up with Naruto, Shikamaru mused, was that Naruto was a fitness nut and had forced some of these properties into Shikamaru.
While they ran they split up the stuff that the kids in the orphanage had wanted. To their amusement the kids had written up a list of the stuff they wanted, and as Tsunade was too busy to leave the building between her medical practice and taking care of the young kids, and as they were the first kids to ever leave the orphanage the list has substantially long.
Naruto grabbed the list from Shikamaru and searched "I can get Sakura her doll." Naruto volunteered, Shikamaru let him as he knew that Naruto had a soft spot for her.
Before they could continue further in the list they crashed heavily into a peddler sitting on the sidewalk.
They both cursed as their cards spilt out on the path. As they hurriedly gathered their cards they belted out apologies to the man. Shikamaru looked up and his mouth fell wide open. Staring back at them in bemusement was the handsome face of Marik. Noticing his friend's sudden stoppage of apologetic vomit, Naruto also looked up.
"My, my duelists these days are so polite! Back in my day you bump into someone and you duel them till their pants fall of!" He said with a bellowing laughter. His eyes sharpened and he saw the obvious definition of Naruto's biceps through his orange jacket. "Well it seems that you guys aren't pansies! People seem to forget that they have bodies, and that there is a life other than dueling."
As if coming to a decision he pulled out two pendants from his pocket.
"Take these." he said as he pressed them into their hands and suddenly started walking away.
Shikamaru looked at the pendant in his hand, the entire think looked rather cheap, the cord was black and the jewel part of the chain was literally a giant hunk of black rock which had been shaped into a polyhedron.
He turned to Naruto and his mind stopped. Hours earlier Tsunade had given Naruto the necklace that had belonged to her grandfather, sadly the necklace had been spilt vertically in two. Marik had given Naruto the other half.
Balling up the cord of the necklace he dumped it in the pocket with his deck. He called out to Naruto, inwardly vowing that the next chance he got he would look at the jewel.
They both tore off to the battle dome.
Battle Dome
"Shesh, Shika lay off me we were five minutes early!" Naruto exclaimed, his hands behind his head.
Shikamaru spat out a leaf. "No thanks to you! I told you I didn't want to take the high route!"
"Whatever," drawled Naruto as he walked to the sign in desk. "Naruto and Shikamaru reporting for duty!" he exclaimed. The tired clerk barely gave him a second glance before ticking their names of. She shoved a bag into their hands before gesturing to go into the hall.
Shikamaru pulled out the duel sheet, "According to this your duel is starting now."
Naruto rubbed his head "See I told you we would have taken the high route." He started to walk off.
"Do you even know where the duel is?" Shikamaru asked.
Naruto sheepishly walked back.
Shikamaru sighed as he took a seat on the bleachers in a relatively quiet area. Naruto was finally on his duel arena and was shuffling his deck. His opponent seemed to be a professor from the academy, he wore a blue coat was relatively tall and his blonde hair was cut into a mohawk.
Naruto was in the middle of the three arenas, the arena on the left had a rather fat boy dueling a short man who was wearing a blue jacket. The one on the right had a man with a black ponytail dueling a lady wearing a red jacket.
"Welcome applicant," He spoke in a strong deep voice, "I am Professor Crowler, and for today's test you will be facing off against me. Would you like to go first?"
Naruto shuffled his deck and nodded and grinned.
"I set three facedown cards. Then I end my turn."
"No monsters," Crowler mused "Are you sure you didn't make a mistake? Whatever if you did this early in the duel then you don't deserve to go to Duel Academy."
"I activate Geartown! This allows me to summon Ancient Gear Beast in attack mode without sacrifice!"
A large mechanical hound appeared on the field and let out a bark.
"Now using Ancient Gear Beast, I attack you directly! And better yet you can't activate any trap cards!"
Naruto stood through the pain of the beast leaping on him.
Crowler (8000)
Geartown
Ancient Gear Beast (2000/2000)
No face downs.
Hand 4
Naruto (6000)
3 Facedowns
Hand 3.
Naruto quickly spoke "I just took 2000 life points of damage, so I can activate, from my hand, Gorz the Emissionary of Darkness!
He allows me to summon a token with attack and defense equal to the damage I took as well as summoning himself."
Crowler (8000)
Geartown
Ancient Gear Beast (2000/2000)
No face downs.
Hand 4
Naruto (6000)
Gorz token (2000/2000)
Gorz (2700/2500)
3 Facedowns
Hand 2.
"Hm, very good," Crowler said, "I set 4 cards face down and end my turn."
Naruto drew a card. Shikamaru knew it was a good one due to the fact that somehow the large grin on his face had grown larger.
Shikamaru was shaken form his thoughts when a beautiful blonde girl sat next to him. She held out a hand and introduced herself, "I'm Ino Yamanaka, what's your name?"
Shikamaru stared at her for a second before his manners took over. Grasping he hand, he noticed it was rather soft and small, just like her he inwardly mused. "I'm Shikamaru."
She let loose a small giggle which inwardly made Shikamaru's heart stop, "You know the dream boat over there?" she said pointing to Naruto.
Inwardly Shikamaru let out a sigh. It always went like this. Shikamaru likes a girl, boom the girl like Naruto. In a resigned tone he answered "Yeah that's my brother Naruto." he then turned back to the duel in anticipation for Naruto's move.
"I activate metal reflect slime. This gives me a monster with 3000 defense! Next, I summon goblin attack force and switch Gorz into defense mode. I attack your beast with goblin attack force. " Naruto pointed his finger at the hound.
Before the goblins could make a move Crowler interjected, "Let me stop you right there. I activate mirror force, but I guess you already figured that out. You know what it does."
Crowler (8000)
Geartown
Ancient Gear Beast (2000/2000)
Three facedowns
Hand 0
Naruto (6000)
Gorz (2700/2500)
Metal token (0/3000)
2 Facedowns
Hand 2.
Naruto let out a tsk noise before setting one card and ending his turn.
Crowler drew a card and smiled. "I summon Ancient Gear Golem in attack mode by sacrificing my Beast!" a robotic colossus rose from the ground, with a whining, metallic screech it stood with its arms by its sides.
All around the battle dome people stopped and stared at the monster as it gave out a massive roar.
From next to Shikamaru, Ino whistled "He actually called out that monster?" she asked
Confused Shikamaru asked her "What do you mean what else would he do? Throw the duel?"
Ino giggled once again and crossed her legs, Shikamaru's eyes were immediately drawn to them. "Crowler is meant to be testing people, so he has to take it easy. He's been dueling all morning and depending on your performance in the duel he tells you what dorm your in." Shikamaru's eyes snapped up from her legs, if she noticed she didn't react. She must have been part of the earlier group he thought to himself.
Crowler (8000)
Geartown
Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000)
Three facedowns
Hand 0
Naruto (6000)
Gorz (2700/2500)
Metal token (0/3000)
3 Facedowns
Hand 1.
Before Crowler could declare his battle phase Naruto quickly flipped over a facedown trap. Threatening Roar revealed its self and Naruto was safe for a turn. With that Crowler ended his turn
"So, you win your duel?" He asked.
"Against Crowler? No way in hell!" she replied laughing, Shikamaru frowned seeing his frown she clarified, "Oh, I'm still in duel academy, Ra by the way, but no one has beaten Crowler, and he tests you on how well you do against him, I lasted 7 turns then he completely annihilated me."
"What are you still doing here?" Shikamaru asked. The duels were staggered to prevent the arena from getting completely filled with applicants.
"When you win you get the choice to stay and watch more duels or go on the boat. My friends duel is after that one" she replied while pointing at the black ponytailed guy.
Shikamaru focused on the duel. The guy seemed to have a complete control of the game. He turned to Ino, "you won't have to wait long. Why is Crowler dueling with his deck but those other guys using random test decks?"
Ino turned to him and put a finger on her plump lip in thought, "Well I heard from last year's group that he did use the test decks last year, and they had to redo the exams because he didn't lose once."
Shikamaru turned and looked at her in shock. "What about that kid, Zale or something?"
"Zane and he got destroyed by the practice lockdown deck."
"Woah, I didn't know Crowler was that good." Shikamaru stated. "I hope I get lucky and don't have to duel him."
Naruto called out "I chain you ending your turn by activating two copies of Reckless Greed! I'm sure you know what this does Prof, so you know I don't draw this turn and next turn." Putting his hand on his deck Naruto drew 4 cards.
Ino turned to Shikamaru, "Why didn't he activate them after he drew?"
Shikamaru replied, "He wants to get the effect over and done with, he doesn't want to deny card draw later when he burns through the cards he has in his hand right now."
Crowler (8000)
Geartown
Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000)
Three facedowns
Hand 0
Naruto (6000)
Gorz (2700/2500)
Metal token (0/3000)
1 Facedowns
Hand 5.
Naruto then took a card from his left hand and placed it in the spell trap card zone. He followed up by shouting "I activate Axe of Despair and equip it to Gorz!"
Crowler just smirked and flipped over a card revealing Dust Tornado. Agitated, Naruto slipped the card into his discard pile. He then summoned Copycat and copied Ancient Gear Golem.
"I attack your Ancient Gear Golem with Copycat!" he said
"No, you don't," responded Crowler, "I activate Negate Attack!" Once again Naruto looked agitated. He ended his turn.
Ino turned back to Shikamaru and asked "Why is he looking so pissed off? He's doing pretty good, there really isn't a clear winner right now."
Shikamaru sighed and thought for a moment, "Naruto runs a beatdown deck that focuses on summoning high-level monsters quickly, to win he needs to feel like he is in control. I don't think I have ever seen someone summon a big monster that quickly against him."
"Why does it matter? He's got more monsters so he's got an advantage, doesn't he?"
"Normally that would be fine but when I said high level monster I meant high level monsters. You see when we were young and picking up duel monsters Naruto blew all his money on buying the most powerful cards he could, then he lost half of them at school in ante duels as his deck couldn't support itself. After that he made some trades had a shit ton of practice duels with me and finally got a deck working. He one all his cards back after that."
Ino bit her lip in thought, rather kissable lips Shikamaru thought, he shook his head and turned back to the duel.
Crowler (8000)
Geartown
Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000)
2 facedowns
Hand 0
Naruto (6000)
Gorz (2700/2500)
Metal token (0/3000)
Copycat (3000/3000)
1 Facedowns
Hand 3.
Crowler drew a card and then immediately used Gear Town to summon Ancient gear Beast in face up defense.
'Smart,' Shikamaru thought, 'He's figured out that Naruto is running a beat down so he's avoiding cards that can destroy facedown defense monsters which are abundant in beatdown decks.'
Crowler then attacked and destroyed Gorz with his Ancient Gear Golem. Naruto used the 300 damage done to him to special summon Tragoedia from his hand.
"I've never seen swarm like that before," remarked Ino.
Crowler (8000)
Geartown
Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000)
Ancient Gear Beast (2000/2000)
2 facedowns
Hand 0
Naruto (5700)
Metal token (0/3000)
Tragoedia (1200/1200)
1 Facedowns
Hand 2.
Naruto looked at his hand and took a card into his right hand. "Since you have two face-up monsters with the same attribute I can special summon from my hand Alector, Sovereign of Birds!"
A metallic, humanoid bird swooped in from the sky and did a super-hero landing before settling into a strongman pose.
Crowler (8000)
Geartown
Ancient Gear Golem (3000/3000)
Ancient Gear Beast
2 facedowns
Hand 0
Naruto (5700)
Tragoedia (600/600)
Metal token (0/3000)
Alector (2400/2000)
1 Facedowns
Hand 1.
"Since I have three monsters on the field, I can sacrifice all three of them to summon Beast King Barbaros!" There was a roar and a lion headed man flickered before appearing on the field. "Since I used three tributes he destroys all cards on your side of the field!"
All around the arena gasps were heard, mutterings began and next to him, Ino shifted.
"Is he going to actually do it? Is he actually going to beat Crowler?" she asked in wonderment.
Shikamaru shook his head "It looks like Crowler has something to say about it," he commented.
Crowler let out a laugh and cried out, "This is one of the best duels I have had in a while! But before you can destroy all my cards I activate trap hole! This means that your Beast King Barbaros is destroyed too! And my other facedown card was Statue of the Wicked. So, I get to special summon a Wicked Token."
Crowler (8000)
Wicked Token (1000/1000)
Hand 0
Naruto (5700)
1 Facedowns
Hand 1.
"Let's stop there," Crowler continued, "I believe that's a good enough demonstration, so we can call it a draw."
Naruto stood awkwardly, his emotions a mess after being so pumped up after summoning Beast King Barbaros and his subsequent destruction.
"Now son, what's your name?" Crowler asked.
"Naruto Senju." Naruto responded
"Ah from the Senju Orphanage," Crowler absently remarked. Naruto stiffened and Shikamaru's fists tightened into balls. "Well one hell of a way to represent them. Congratulations, I have put you in Ra, here's your jacket, now you can go that way to the docks to get on the boat."
Naruto whooped in joy before turning to Shikamaru and shouting "Look at it Shikamaru, I did it!"
Shikamaru just stuck his thumbs up at Naruto before looking through the sheet for his time.
"Yo, professor you mind if I wait here for my brother's duel?" Naruto loudly asked.
Shikamaru facepalmed "He knows he could just wait, he doesn't have to go straight away."
Crowler whirled around, and delightedly asked "You have a brother? Who's he dueling? Don't answer that!" he belted out, "Hm, he's scheduled to go against Banner, no that won't do, if he's anything like you he'll trounce that sack of shit!"
He ignored the said professor's protesting whine.
"Well send him down here, I have to see if he's anything like you!"
Naruto turned to Shikamaru who was repeatedly slamming his head into the seat in front of him.
"You heard the man, get up here!"
From next to him Ino giggled. Shikamaru sighed. Unknown to anyone the pendant in his pocket glowed.