Chapter 35

As Hinata and Lee made steady progress with their training, for once the incredible hyperactive blonde didn't seem to be gaining ground. The entire Nara family was quickly getting tired of pulverizing him in chess. They had been tutoring him in simple tactics for weeks and didn't seem to last any longer than before. Today was the last day they were obliged to help the child in his training. Progress hadn't been made, time was up, the test was here, and the old hag was present for final judgement upon his skills.

"Hello Shikamaru. Well, let's get to it then. How do you feel he has progressed?" The Hokage seemed to be examining him as the chuunin briefed over the torturous month.

"He stinks…" The lazy Nara summed. "Dad stopped even trying to get him to play a real game." Tsunade raised an eyebrow, but Shikamaru went on. "If he can change the rules, he's actually pretty good for a ramen junkie." He sighed and covered his face with a hand. "It'll just be easier to show you." They entered the living room to find the hyperactive blonde looking at the chess pieces like a bored monkey.

"Oi, we'll have two games Naruto." The child's shoulders slumped a little. "One with normal rules that account for how normal people play chess…" Naruto's shoulders slumped a little lower. "…And one with the rules you made up." Naruto began cheering and pumping his hand up and down as he got the extra chess pieces and got them ready. This was when Tsunade knew it would be an interesting game.

The first game was very predictable. Shikamaru allowed Naruto to show that he had at least learned the most basic strategies by toying around with him then giving Naruto's king a quick entrapment and death by bishop.

Tsunade was clearly not impressed. "Please tell me the next game will not be a repeat performance." Shikamaru just smiled in return.

The game started the same way. Knights came out, paths were cleared, and all the pieces were getting closer to the battle. The weirdest part of it all though, was that Naruto's king was leading all his other pieces. Shikamaru's king seemed to be protected by his other pieces though.

Naruto's pieces were the first to attack. His pawn attacked Shikamaru's knight. "Mind Swap" Naruto grinned at Shikamaru and replaced the knight with one of the pawns from the extra chess pieces, laying the pawn on its side, filling the chess space like a shell of a body. Tsunade was getting very interested, very quickly. Shikamaru retaliated by having one of his castles use a meat tank through one of Naruto's pawns and crashing into a knight. Shikamaru grinned when Naruto didn't stop smiling.

Tsunade interrupted Naruto's move. "Shouldn't he be yelling in indignation?"

Shikamaru shook his head lazily. "Since he didn't, that means that those were shadow clones. That means the real pieces are put into play the next round at their real starting spots… which is anywhere within the 2 rows starting pieces are played."

This new version of chess went on for an hour with Shikamaru against the ropes twice. Tsunade laughed harder than she ever had in her life when Shikamaru took mind-swapped into what he thought was Amane, but turned out to be a shadow clone. The penalty for possessing a clone is that your piece is captured. The rules basically followed that you could use ninjas both people knew. It had 1 ability which would be usable and that both knew was an actual technique the ninja was known for. Penalties were predecided by what would probably happen in a real fight. Also, the king is the only known piece. It is always represents the player.

It was by far the most unusual chess exhibition the hokage had ever seen. In the end, Naruto lost when his king tried to protect several of his pieces, and Shikamaru used Sasuke to capture it. Tsunade nodded at Shikamaru. "Well, it wasn't what I asked for but I saw what I needed to see. Mission successful." Shikamaru's mouth dropped for a second and he heard his father drop some mysterious object that was definitely breakable judging from the noise. An unenthusiastic curse followed by sweeping noises filled the empty silence. "I wanted him to be taught basic military tactics. But it seems that he just sucks at cheap copies of the real deal, like comparing an illusionary clone to a shadow clone. However when the game was more suited towards ninjas, as opposed to soldiers, he brought out suitable, and amusing, tactics. Oh, and congratulations on a game well played. Pick up your payment tomorrow, same as usual." All Tsunade could hear as she was leaving was chants of how the ramen restriction had been lifted.

A mischievous grin crossed her face when she finally made it back to her office. Her little nest egg was hatching along very well. They were definitely ready. The exams were coming up. Her progress reports on her genin were better than she had expected. Konoha was going to reestablish itself. She hoped the Sound would be prepared for the exam… after all the sound was hosting it.

A/N:

My theory is that all villages support the exams and therefore provide protection to all that participate. I also feel that endangering the show of power(exams) by having the genins directly attack or be attacked outside exam objectives would cause direct retaliation by all villages. The sand genins would have crossed the line attacking the leaf like they did, but I feel that hokage intervention on behalf of the leaf stopped the other villages from destroying the sand village. Chuunin exams are approaching FINALLY. Still looking for a job so check back in another week or two for another chapter.