Shinobi Philosophy

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey there! As some of you know, I'm a philosophy student. Philosophy, while deemed by many as irrelevant, changes the way you look at the world, including art, media and entertainment. Some people might call that over-analyzing – and to some extent, it's true. However, when you find philosophy peeking in the most unexpected places, you don't necessarily have to attribute that to the author – it's just the way you look at it, the way you see it.

Since I've started watching Naruto (about a year ago, I was a late anime-bloomer) I've finished my freshman year at university. So I decided, equipped with the knowledge I have so far, to do a series of one-shots based on philosophies I picked out that fit into some characters' world view. I know this isn't the normal ubber-popular fanfiction, but what the hell, if there's a fanfiction niche for male-on-male incest, there must be one for this too.

Enjoy (and comment)!

Shikamaru's Ataraxia

Shikamaru doesn't see much point in fighting.

Sure, he'll still do it – he owes it to his village, to Asuma's memory, to his future pupil. But fighting isn't something he values by himself, rather, it seems to be the only way he can honor his bonds to others.

Shikamaru is a mind being, he doesn't care much for physical things. Even his trademark jutsu, shadows, aren't really physical, but immaterial projections of bodies. You aren't alive without a shadow, but shadows aren't life. Shikamaru wins by taking a hold of what people rarely remember exists – busy as they are with life and death, they forget the things beyond that.

Shikamaru feels more alive when his mind is working, when he's presented with an impossible dilemma, a catastrophic request for a strategy, an advice. It's about looking at reality's multiplicity with razor sharp eyes and finding the unity that binds everything. The way all things are connected and can be manipulated to positive results. He enjoys that. Though he isn't too keen on interfering with the way of things – only when doing so will bring considerably best consequences for the people he loves. Otherwise, he's fine with the world the way it is.

Death lurks everywhere for a shinobi. Most of them turn a little bit fanatic in order to deal with the constant threat. They hardly ever consider death, but its consequences to the village. If I die, the mission fails; if I die, my son will be left without a father; if I die, at least I'll die fighting, with honors. Shikamaru was never like this.

Ever since he was a boy, thoughts of death plagued him. Not thoughts of how he would die (and those give most shinobi plenty of nightmares), or how people would take his death (as most people fond of victimization often think), but thoughts about the nature of death. In the shinobi world, people talk about spirits and souls – certainly, there are those, for people are sealed in the strangest places and can even be reborn in different bodies.

"But even so, what happens to me, to my mind, when I die? "

A never ending sleep was atrocious. A paradise, incoherent – as was hell. He'd stay up some nights thinking about this, even though he didn't want to. The fact was that, in order to find the meaning of death, one must first find the meaning of life – and except for village and ninja propaganda of illusions of grandeur, Shikamaru was completely lost.

Strangely, it was clouds who gave him the answer. Clouds, and Chouji – actually, Chouji's appetite.

It was one of those long summer days. His body was a bit sore from training, so, by laying down in the grass, he could feel every bit of his muscle relaxing. Chouji was by his side, eating chips. He seemed happy. Chouji always seemed happy. He didn't think very hard about most things, therefore he was always happy. Seeing that most intellectual activities were the main source of pleasure for Shikamaru, he was always a bit fascinated by this. The pleasure Chouji could take from eating – it was astonishing. Shikamaru bet that, if someone asked Chouji what he thought of death, he'd probably say it was unavoidable (he was always a realist), but he would really miss food.

Shikamaru thought about his. What would he miss? Thinking. However, people didn't think when dead.

He repeated the statement again "People don't think when dead"

For the first time in years, he felt a sort of joy at saying that. At first, it was a prison of anguish; now, it was freedom. Dead don't think. Dead don't feel. Dead don't exist – and neither does death for the living.

He looked up at the clouds, which he envied for their eternal though changing nature, and felt united with the sky. He wouldn't be dead while he was living, and when he died, death would be meaningless. Death had no meaning – and for a second, Shikamaru thought to make the same statement about life.

But, as he layed there in the grass, looking at Chouji's smiling face stuffed with chips, he knew life had meaning. That meaning wasn't heroic or extreme, it wasn't sad or miserable.

No, life had meaning because life had pleasure. Pleasure keeps us alive, gives us a reason to get up in the morning. However, Shikamaru didn't think of pleasure as a physical, intense feeling – no, it was the everyday joys. Everything else was too much, therefore troublesome.

That epiphany wasn't the best one for a ninja. However, it did give Shikamaru a reason to fight and stay alive. He was doing it for the simple pleasure of laying down in the grass looking at the sky, without a single care in the world.

Shikamaru was a shinobi to ensure stability, the same tranquility he loved so much and was often threatened. For the simple pleasures of life, for the absence of pain, for friendship.

Or at least, that's what he liked to think.

Ehehe, I think it's pretty obvious what philosophy I drew upon for Shikamaru. But anyway, I'll post it here:

Epicureanismis a system ofphilosophybased upon the teachings ofEpicurus, founded around 307BC. Epicurus was anatomicmaterialist, following in the steps ofDemocritus. Hismaterialismled him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. FollowingAristippus—about whom very little is known—Epicurus believed that what he called "pleasure" is the greatest good, but the way to attain such pleasure is to live modestly and to gain knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of one's desires. This led one to attain a state of tranquility (ataraxia) and freedom from fear, as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia). The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form ofhedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure to be the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood.(Wikipedia)