It was actually more nerve-wracking than he'd anticipated to fight with so many eyes on you, Shikamaru thought distractedly as he leisurely made his way down the stairs on his way to the centre of the large tiled room. A great statue looked down upon them from one end of it while genin and jōnin observed from above. The most annoying fact about it was that Minato, Kakashi and even Shizune were there too, and they'd probably get pissed if he didn't make an effort. Troublesome.

Neji was already present when he finally arrived, looking mildly impatient. Shikamaru wasn't fooled – his opponent was already focused on the battle – his stance was impeccable and would likely lead directly into a devastating Gentle Fist combo if given half the chance. Shikamaru sighed as he took positions opposite the Hyūga, nodding to the referee.

"You will lose, Nara." Neji said with narrowed eyes. He glanced briefly up to the second level, his gaze swerving back almost immediately to his adversary.

Shikamaru snorted, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. "Well, Neji – it seems that one of us will be disappointed today. Though it's a drag, I'll have to be serious with this fight."

Neji smiled – actually smiled – and Shikamaru briefly considered if he'd entered a mirror universe in which the Hyūga had emotions. He'd heard about an alleged change of heart, but he'd never expected it to be true. Next he'd find out that the Uchiha had stopped being a condescending prick – well, at least things seemed right with the world there.

Neji's fist shot out quickly – simple Taijutsu, the boy hadn't even activated his Byakugan yet. Shikamaru set aside his errant thoughts; he had a battle to win, and the Hyūga would not be an easy opponent. A straight Taijutsu fight would be impossible – Shikamaru might've held up with the normal academy stuff, but the moment that Neji's dōjutsu activated it'd be over- it was a fool's gambit. Neji would likely not allow long-range combat – he was far too quick to make that feasible – so it'd have to be close- to mid-range, avoiding those chakra-soaked hits of his and hoping he could use a few of his new tricks. Unlike Sasuke's bastardization, Neji's strikes would be all about precision and if given reason to, probably very painful.

"Bored?" Neji asked mockingly; Shikamaru hadn't even attempted a counterblow yet, simply stopping the Taijutsu assault with his arms while backing away slowly. His contemplative expression while considering his options probably hadn't been very different from the one he usually used in class – he'd already learned everything taught there, anyway. "Let's make it more interesting, then." Neji continued, narrowing his eyes. "Byakugan!"

Veins appeared around Neji's temples as the pale-white gaze of the Hyūga Clan focused on its target - Shikamaru shivered as he circled his opponent with care. Neji's words were much less formal and dismissive than he remembered from the Academy – what had happened while he was away? First Sasuke used a technique from the Hyūga Clan, now Neji was taking a page out of Sasuke's book in attitude? How much had the Uchiha shared with Neji?

"Forfeit, Shikamaru – you know you won't beat me."

He quickly took stock of his equipment – plenty of kunai and shuriken, a small stack of explosive seal tags courtesy of Minato and his own experimental ones – granted, simple modifications based on an existing seal, but they would do in a pinch, if they didn't blow up in his face. He grimaced at the faintly smirking Neji. "Don't speak if you've got nothing to say."

Neji's hand suddenly struck out far more quickly than before, tapping him deceptively lightly on the shoulder – a numbness immediately spread from the position, quickly followed by a painful throbbing, muscles jerking in response to the sudden stimulus. This was the Juken, the Gentle Fist – injecting chakra into another body upon touch, his body rejected the intrusion and internal damage was the result. Worse still was the Gentle Fist's ability to close tenketsu points, the nodes from which the body released chakra; it was quite capable of stopping even a very strong shinobi in his tracks, given that one could have all the chakra in the world but it would be useless without releasing it in some fashion – and only medical-nin could safely repair the damage.

Shikamaru scraped his foot over the floor – he'd have to time this right; he quickly ducked under another one of Neji's fists, idly wondering what on earth was holding the other boy back – he was doing so himself, but he was playing a defensive strategy – the Hyūga definitely wasn't the type to do that without a good reason. The only conclusion he could come to was both somewhat insulting and particularly helpful of him.

"You are merely delaying the inevitable, Nara," Neji said lightly as his hands snapped out again with an elegant and fluid movement – two fingers found Shikamaru's side and upper leg, numbness spreading there as well after mere moments, stinging pine immediately spreading across his lower body as he hissed in pain. Neji shrugged unapologetically. "Soon, you will not be able to channel chakra."

"Don't count me out just yet, Hyūga." Shikamaru growled as his shadow suddenly spread out and converged ahead of him like a spear – Neji sidestepped them easily as the tendril briefly searched for a target before it returned to its user. "Stay still!" Shikamaru barked angrily. Scrape.

Neji didn't respond to the jibe, his hands flashing out again: Shikamaru blocked with his right arm and flashes of pain erupted as the strike hit home. The Nara gritted his teeth, circling Neji carefully while nursing his arm and shaking it slightly to get the muscles to ease up – he'd have quite a bit of damage control this evening, it seemed. It wasn't exactly healthy, these techniques. Scrape.

Shikamaru turned once more – another Gentle Fist strike was blocked, barely in time, his entire arm now throbbing as Neji's chakra wreaked havoc on it – soon it'd be limp and beyond use. Still, no sense in whining when the same person gave him such a golden opportunity... "You really should have finished me off before now." Scrape.

"Why is that?" Neji wondered with a sneer, slipping into another stance with ease, the movement seeming as natural as breathing; he approached Shikamaru carefully, hands raised and ready to strike. "I admit, your Taijutsu is acceptable – though incapable of stopping the true power of my strikes, most genin would not be able to divert them at all."

Shikamaru smirked, suddenly smiling broadly. "This is why you should've stopped me," Quite suddenly he dropped to the ground, left hand slamming on the tiles with a sharp sound.

Neji didn't understand the Nara – something was most definitely off about the image he'd built up while sharing classes with him. Where was the lazy, disinterested layabout who much preferred watching clouds and muttering about people being annoyingly active? Unlike what he recalled so clearly, Shikamaru's eyes were alert and clear, his defences focused, even if the Gentle Fist was rather out of his league as far as Taijutsu went. He was outmatched.

The fact that he'd still not given up – hadn't forfeited, even after he'd explicitly stated the option to the Nara, as an opening. He'd given the boy plenty of opportunities to simply leave without trouble –instead he still stood, ready for more. It was the most immutable thing he thought he'd known about Shikamaru – he didn't fight when he believed it too troublesome. His Byakugan active, Neji didn't need to turn his head to know that man was watching: his Kaeru mask was clearly visible to him. A chilling conclusion crept up on him as he recalled that time he'd seen Shikamaru and Kaeru, together – the day he'd found out the Fourth Hokage was alive again. He'd never really thought about the reason that the two had met – he himself had plenty of things to rethink that day, it didn't really occur to him again.

What if Shikamaru – lazy, uninterested, boring Nara that he was – had somehow managed…

"You really should have finished me off before now," Shikamaru stated, making a futile effort to adjust his footwork. Neji shook his head sadly -the boy wasn't going to be standing for much longer. Neji was pulled from his thoughts, focusing once more on the fight – he really shouldn't have been distracted in the first place, he chided himself.

"Why is that?" Neji asked finally as he held his arms extended into the Proud Swan positions – if he could get a good hit in on the Nara's neck, it'd be over right there with a knock-out, saving his most effective techniques for the final round. He made a meaningless compliment about the boy's very basic Academy-style Taijutsu – if competently used - concentrating chakra into his fingers for the finishing blow.

"This is why you should've stopped me," Shikamaru stated finally and Neji paled at the boy's sudden triumphant expression; his flat hand slammed onto the ground – onto some figure he'd placed there, some- Neji paled, his body reacting far too late to the sudden shock. "Fūinjutsu: Shikōnā Mahi!" cried Shikamaru. Four shapes around Neji alighted with chakra, pouring out a great amount of energy in a moment – enough that the Byakugan protested and Neji deactivated his dōjutsu briefly to get rid of the spots that were dancing in his eyes after the onslaught.

Suddenly, Neji found that he couldn't move – for a long moment his entire body felt frozen, the chakra vanishing from his fingers and even from his senses as he stumbled, blinking slowly. Shikamaru was upon him in an instant; he was several feet away, then suddenly the boy was right in front of him, kunai pressed to his throat – the sickening feeling of powerlessness faded away slowly.

"How?"

Shikamaru smiled, pointing downwards. "When I was heading down to the lower floor, you didn't pay attention to me, as I was walking slowly – I had attached seals to the bottom of my sandals at that time, made of material closest to the floor's colour. I had to keep my movements limited or they'd fall off. During the fight-"

"You weren't adjusting your footwork," Neji observed in consternation, looking nervously at the kunai that was still pressed to his jugular. "I was too focused on your tenketsu points, I didn't even expect an attack from other directions – you let me hit so that I believed that I could win easily, then used that focus to slip these seals past the Byakugan's gaze!"

Shikamaru nodded shortly. "The seals are my own creation, actually – a stun seal combined with a slight ranged effect – very short-lived and not terribly practical, but…"

"Effective," Neji noted dispassionately, tensing. "Unfortunately… Jūkenpō Ichigekishin!" The Hyūga suddenly burst out with a great lash of chakra. Shikamaru's kunai was ripped away and its owner was forced to tumble backwards, landing heavily on his backside, several shuriken scattering from his pockets. Neji had briefly been enclosed in a bright glowing sphere of chakra, it seemed – it took Shikamaru a moment to realize that he'd let this chance go - he should have forced an immediate surrender.

Neji distractedly wiped away a thin trail of blood on his neck where the kunai had nicked it. He smirked at Shikamaru who hadn't even picked himself up yet. "That was the 'One Blow Body'; a very effective technique for dislodging attackers by expelling a burst of chakra from all tenketsu points - its principle is core to several of the Clan's strongest techniques."

"You've mastered such techniques?" Shikamaru wondered – from what he knew, Hyūga techniques were stringently controlled by Hyūga Hiashi's closest family, with Neji's getting mere scraps – for him to have obtained powerful moves like this, he must've been taught by a Main House member, despite the ban. "How?"

"Give up, Nara – I won't be lenient for much longer. You, with average grades cannot hope to stop a genius from the Hyūga Clan." Neji smiled thinly, his milk-white eyes staring straight ahead; he was clearly using the 360 degrees sight that the dōjutsu was known for, to avoid being caught once more in a sealing trap. "How I learn my techniques is not your concern."

Shikamaru shrugged, sending his shadow around himself in a circular pattern – though the Hyūga likely wouldn't step into it, he was forced to keep his distance given that a close-range hit would probably lead to his immediate capture in the shadow possession jutsu. Shikamaru's eyes briefly found his masked teacher, gazing down from the higher level; unlike his expectations, both he and Kakashi watched solemnly as they spoke; Shizune was chatting excitedly with Anko who had claimed the spot next to her; on the other side of Minato sat none other than the Third Hokage with two of his personal guards and they looked decidedly more nervous than he remembered them, likely still reeling from the recent near-death of their charge. He hadn't spotted his father yet – but he was probably watching anyway.

Neji's attacks were easily diverted; far more careful than before, the Hyūga was lightning-quick on his feet, avoiding the trap of Shikamaru's shadows with ease. Unfortunately, those shadows were still fairly slow which severely hampered their trapping potential when the enemy was aware of their position, such as in this open room (granted, the fact that he even had shadows to use was a small boon.) A single Gentle Fist strike made it through, impacting just under Shikamaru's right shoulder – by this point, the arm was almost entirely numb, even if his hand was just responsive enough to form hand seals. Still, almost none of the strikes actually reached their target - the Gentle Fist didn't allow for any attacks of longer range so this would be the perfect time to think of another strategy – he already had a few dozen in mind, quickly discounting the most ridiculous ones.

"Shock, divert and capture, then." Shikamaru muttered, eyes narrowing in contemplation.

Minato gazed down with poorly hidden pride, thankful for his mask, as Shikamaru flawlessly executed a sealing trap that the former Hokage could've invented himself. He'd certainly never taught the boy how to make a stunning seal have an effect over a larger area, which meant he probably got it from one of the sealing books he'd been voraciously devouring on their trip; clearly he'd understood more than he'd let on.

"Didn't you start with something like this?" Kakashi asked, smirking slightly as he leaned back against the wall. "I remember Jiraiya-sama saying something about a shocking array?"

"I jumped into the deep end," Minato answered, keeping an eye on the fight. "Shikamaru took existing seals and I believe he appended them with a second or even third one to modify their function – crude and highly inefficient, but I don't think that was a concern here. It's a far quicker method than creating one from scratch – believe me, I know – but it'll lead to highly unstable results."

"Do you suppose that the split-second paralysis is exactly what he was going for in designing it? Perhaps he just stumbled across a functional design when experimenting?" Kakashi rubbed his chin, frowning "I'm not sure which of those options he'd consider more work…"

"He probably designed them in the last two or three days," Minato observed. "He asked me for a specific book on sealing – it was about chakra-intensive seals – not really about the topic of nested seals in particular, but something in there must've demonstrated the principle. He was already planning something like this…"

Kakashi nodded, wincing as Neji struck out against Shikamaru's arm; the boy's chakra flow there would likely be quite messed up when this was over; at least he had Shizune to fix up such annoyances. "Sometimes I wonder how much of that lazy attitude is real – a Nara actually designing a sealing array? Who ever heard of something like that?"

"Tutoring someone on the art of sealing, Kaeru? I thought you wanted it to remain an obscure art?" Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled fondly, setting himself down next to Minato with a sigh; he'd left his two bodyguards behind and they looked rather more than just uncomfortable about it. "I'd not imagined a Nara could have the patience for such a thing either, Hatake-san."

Minato smirked as he noted that Neji and his student circled each other slowly, neither making particularly much headway – the Hyūga was too far away to perform any of his Taijutsu combos that would likely take down Shikamaru in one quick move, while the Nara's techniques that would actually be helpful here were gambles, at best; still, knowing the boy he'd probably been setting up one or two traps already, just waiting for an opening.

"I offered basic sealing," Minato finally said. "I hadn't really anticipated Shikamaru to use it – a fair degree of competence is needed to make even the basic fūinjutsu we use here for explosive tags. In any case, Shikamaru's gambit with his custom-made seals was well done but rather inefficient, as there are Ninjutsu that would have filled in for the brief paralysis that cost far less preparation."

"Ah, you haven't noticed yet?" Hiruzen asked in amusement as he followed Shikamaru's slow circling of the Hyūga, kunai flying with some regularity, though Neji easily deflected them; no projectiles came in return as he simply waited. "I'd thought you who have spent more than a month in his presence would've picked up on the way he fights…"

Kakashi frowned, gaze snapping back to Shikamaru. "What…?"

Minato suddenly nodded in appreciation. "Clever – very clever. I hadn't even considered that he'd nest his plans that far... Now, I wonder how he'll use that knowledge?"

Neji was getting tired – finally. The last few minutes had been getting pretty annoying – even though his shadows were keeping the Hyūga at a fairly safe distance he still occasionally managed to get at his arm and legs, each of which now throbbed nastily. He continued throwing kunai at regular intervals, his eyes sharply following every movement the Hyūga made – too aggressive a move would likely invite retaliation; if the boy really wanted, he could probably get past the shadow in time - it'd simply come at the cost of that untouchable decorum he appeared to prefer.

Shikamaru had another seal – one that he'd shamelessly copied from one of his teacher's books. It was complicated but not beyond his calligraphy skill, and he'd inscribed it on the best seal paper he could find. He only had the one – it would have to do as he really didn't have anything else, aside from his best tricks – and he'd rather not use those if he didn't need to. Not the very best ones.

Keeping up a steady rhythm, Shikamaru tensed slightly as he prepared himself – in a moment, he'd have to be quick and in control, if his plan had to have any chance of success. He grimaced slightly at the thought of giving up one of his secrets – he hoped dearly that Kakashi was keeping an eye on Sasuke, as he'd rather not have it copied so soon by someone off his team.

He slipped explosive tags on the next set of kunai as he was running out of the short throwing blades, now; he'd packed as many as he could, at least three dozen. Explosions blasted around Neji who jumped back, his white eyes glaring eerily at Shikamaru. Jerking his wounded right hand upwards, thin filament-like wires snapped taut from the end of the Nara's fingers and half a dozen shuriken rocketed towards Neji - he'd dropped them when he'd been thrown back by the boy's defensive jutsu; Neji was briefly distracted by them.

Time to put his plan into action.

Shikamaru's fighting style was infuriating – he kept his distance constantly, disallowing any of Neji's more powerful multi-hit Gentle Fist strikes, shadowy tendrils lashing out when he even got close – the fact that he could get caught and defeated by even touching them was on the forefront of his mind, and when projectiles suddenly headed his way, it took him but a moment to realize the problem.

Many things had shadows – right now his Byakugan picked up the nigh-insignificant shadows of the wires to which Shikamaru's shuriken were attached – If even one hit him they'd connect his shadow to his foe, which would likely mean the end of the match. He focused his Byakugan on the twirling weapons while keeping in mind Shikamaru's movements – quick flicks with a kunai diverted three of the shuriken, the other three going far from their mark. He focused fully back on Shikamaru to realize he'd made the same mistake twice; the boy was flashing through hand seals, something small and square clenched between his fingers.

"Fūinjutsu: Furasshu Bakudan."

The flash was mind-numbingly bright and loud; Neji cried out as he cringed back from an enormous explosion of chakra immediately in front of him; the seal hadn't done anything physical, instead simply acting like a monstrously powerful beacon – he deactivated his Byakugan and cautiously kept vigil until the white spots slowly vanished from his eyes and his ears ceased ringing so loudly – to his surprise Shikamaru hadn't moved, his brief advantage through the distraction passing … unused?

Shikamaru smiled playfully, demonstratively rolling his shoulders and stretching his arms – both arms. That was impossible. Neji reactivated his dōjutsu, sighing slightly due to fatigue - an effect of repeated activations, though not yet crippling. What he saw made him blink, then look again – it was manifestly impossible.

"How? How did you reopen your tenketsu points? You can't just – blast them open!" Neji cried incredulously. Indeed, not a single tenketsu point was still closed – his arm was completely intact and judging from his movements, it was even back to full function. "What kind of jutsu could do this?"

Shikamaru shrugged with a smile. "If you'd looked when you should've, you might've noticed."

Neji frowned, narrowing his eyes. Shikamaru was standing there awfully self-assured; he'd even retracted his shadow technique; he was wide open. There was only one tactic here that could end the match quickly - he would use brute force, dispelling any hope from the boy reacting to his blows. Stepping forward he frowned as the Nara kept looking on with a disinterested expression.

"You are within range of my field of divination," Neji spoke solemnly. "Hakke Hyaku Nijūhachi Shō!" His fists struck out simultaneously, impacting solidly and forcing his opponent back as the following attacks came ever more quickly. "Two palms -" His hands rocketed at the Nara again, faster and more precise than before. "Four palms –" His victim stumbled back and Neji followed quickly – "Eight palms! Sixteen palms! Thirty-Two palms! Sixty-Four palms!" finally he slammed forward with the highest speed he could reach, his hands a mere blur, the thundering rhythm of hits crashing into the boy's torso. "One-Hundred and Twenty-Eight palms!"

Shikamaru collapsed to the floor without a sound, and the entire room had gone dead silent – Neji trembled slightly, realizing that in his onslaught, he might well have actually permanently injured his opponent – he'd not expected the boy to offer no defence, to take the blows head-on like a suicidal moron. For a brief moment, his breath hitched in remorse.

"Kagemane Complete."

Neji's eyes widened incredulously; his Byakugan was still activated and the only Shikamaru he could see was there right in front of him, utterly unconscious with his shadow where it should be. How could he still be caught? Cheers and clapping erupted from the upper level – did they notice something he didn't? Neji nervously attempted to move, finding that he might as well have been made of stone.

The prone Shikamaru vanished, then – he dissolved into shadows and disappeared from view, a hair-thin tendril of shadow snaking across the floor towards Neji and passing him by. A clone jutsu – he'd been decimating an utterly convincing clone jutsu, one that actually managed to fool his Byakugan - how in Kami's name…?

"Give up, Neji – this time, there is no escape – you cannot move nor access your chakra." Shikamaru's voice came from behind him, sounding decidedly relieved. "It was a good fight, though – perhaps we'll have a rematch sometime in which we can both go all-out, eh? I'd like to experiment with everything my decoy clone can do."

"Decoy clone?"

"Yes, well – Shadow Clone was taken." Shikamaru answered sheepishly.

Neji fought against the shadow possession jutsu briefly, realizing that his opponent hadn't been lying about his chakra - it was there but uncontrollable, and he couldn't form hand seals in any case; only his activated Byakugan still functioned and it was of no use in getting out of this. He still couldn't see the Nara – which could only mean one thing - there was only one position he could be that would bypass his sight entirely. He'd been utterly outwitted by the class slob. "Fine, Nara-san." He sighed deeply – there was no fixing it, now. "I forfeit."

"Are you sure?" Gekkō Hayate asked, appearing by their side in an instant – where he'd been, Neji didn't know. "That decision would be final."

"I forfeit," Neji repeated, ignoring the referee in favour of his adversary. "How did you manage… this?"

Neji took a step sideways – still under control of Shikamaru's technique, he was imitating the Nara's movement. Shikamaru smirked. "You didn't think I threw all those kunai just for fun, did you? I took extra care to see whether or not you actually moved your head in response to any of them – a tell-tale clue that the tales of your dōjutsu's weaknesses were correct."

Neji's gasped in recognition. "That flashing seal – you blinded me momentarily to switch out with a clone, of course!"

"Yes, well, it was a drag," Shikamaru said with a scowl up to the second level. "I hid my clone on the side-lines of the match - since it's got a similar chakra pathways system to a human – even if far less malleable – I figured you wouldn't identify it as different. When the Flash Bomb seal went off, I quickly switched out with it, manoeuvring my real self into position behind you as you recovered – your surprise at my apparent spontaneous healing was a sufficiently large opening that I could finish the fight."

"You're a lot smarter than you ever let on in the Academy, it seems." Neji observed. "I begin to see the reasoning behind your placement on that team." Both briefly glanced in the direction of the second level - Minato, Kakashi and Shizune were still there, the former two waving and sticking up a thumb while Shizune looked on worriedly – for good reason, Shikamaru's arm was thoroughly roughed up.

"Whatever."

"What a concept – defeated by you in the preliminaries, before I could even use my newest techniques – how preposterous." Neji said dispassionately. "I suppose that's one more point for the contention that fate does not control us, wouldn't you say?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, releasing his shadow jutsu and turning to leave.

Neji slumped little as Shikamaru did so, stretching his arms which had getting a little numb for their extended stay in the same position. He sought and found Hiashi among the spectators – the disappointed frown said enough, really. Neji merely smiled at the man, much to the latter's confusion.

"We should leave the first level - referee Hayate's been trying to get our attention for a few minutes now." Neji commented lightly. More than a few baffled looks met the two of them from other genin and even a few jōnin when they made their way up the stairs to the second level – whether it was about Shikamaru's victory, Neji's demure acceptance of such, or the fact that they were speaking to each other, neither knew. Shikamaru winced as he felt his arm and side - his first stop would have to be Shizune.

"Fantastic," Minato muttered warmly, glancing at the Third with undisguised shock. "He actually finished it – he actually got it to work… Marvellous!"

"I don't – I don't follow," Shizune muttered confusedly. "How did he win?"

Minato smirked, leaning over and whispering softly. "Kakashi wasn't the only one to impart some lessons to little Nara, you know – this was something that he actually asked me about – seeing as I designed the Rasengan, he wondered how difficult it would be to make a jutsu of his own."

"He made a jutsu in six weeks?" Kakashi asked, looking from one to the other, and then finally at Shikamaru who was conversing softly with Neji – he was limping to the side-lines, his arm hanging lifelessly by his side. "It took ages to get Chidori right –"

Minato nodded. "Actually, the reason he got it done so quickly is that it's – well – a very simple jutsu. If not for a few of the … oddities about it, it'd probably be classified no higher than a D-rank. It's a variant on the Academy Clone Jutsu – an insubstantial copy of the user. In the hands of Shikamaru, though…"

Hiruzen smirked knowingly at Minato, leaning over. Minato had to strain to hear it, as several other jōnin were talking animatedly about the fight – it'd been quite the spectacle, and few had expected the Hyūga to lose. Shizune gave a quick bow and left - off to heal, he supposed. "It was quite an ingenious plan, worthy of his father," the old man began. "I'd noticed something about the initial seal trap – when it detonated, the immediate output was far too bright for a jutsu of such limited strength – more than half the chakra went into generating that wild chakra rather than the stunning it was meant for. I believe it was a test – an experiment on whether a sudden intense use of chakra could blind the Byakugan. Indeed, much of what the boy was doing involved figuring out the dōjutsu, as it's Neji-san's central advantage."

"So he figured out how he could blind Neji – if only for a moment." Kakashi said. "Quite a clever gambit…"

"The kunai were another nice trick," Minato said. "Then there's the final element, a way to divert Neji's attention – the clone."

"The clone, though – it took a LOT of hits." Kakashi pointed out. "It's can't be a normal clone with tangibility and Shadow Clones would've popped in an instant; it certainly wasn't elemental… Did Shikamaru truly construct a new type of jutsu?"

"It's not that complicated," Minato said seriously. "When he first came to me with the concept, I thought him mad – the clone has absolutely no offensive capabilities – it is completely incapable of doing any damage, its movements severely restricted by the required constant shadow connection, and definitely not as clever as the person using it, plus it can be instructed to recite a few lines but beyond that it'll just say nonsense, if anything at all."

"That's a lot of downsides for a single technique," Kakashi observed.

Minato nodded. "I did say it would be a D-class jutsu… still, in exchange for those limits, the clone is very hard to distinguish from a real person – as Neji found out it even has a sort-of chakra circulatory system and tenketsu points, even if they're not real and as such do not reflect any damage on the user's body. That and it's solid, or as solid as Shikamaru can get his shadows at present, anyway. Hits sap strength from the user. Perhaps combinations with damaging jutsu are possible, but he'd have to find some way to get around the way it moves…" He nodded contentedly. "Still - for a first one, it's rather intricate - I've heard him call it his pawn - I wonder what other plans he has for the future?"

"So many things had to go right to use it effectively," Kakashi said with some awe. "They're not kidding when they call him a strategic genius, are they? Even when it's the middle of a fight he finds some insane way to even the odds… I figured he was just really good at shōgi. Even after a month on the same team, I'm still underestimating our genin, eh?"

"Yes, well, nothing less than greatness for the dream team, eh?" Minato joked. "I'd almost forgotten this, you know - it's been a long time since I had a student competing."

"Hmmm," Kakashi agreed with a nod. "Speaking of which - shouldn't you go congratulate him?"

Minato blinked, suddenly standing up. "Right - right away. Excuse me, Hokage-sama." He turned quickly to find out where Shizune had taken the boy; Hiruzen chuckled softly as he left.

"I think," the Hokage mused, glancing at Kakashi with a content smile, "He's going to be alright. Good, good."

Author's Note: well, that was quite the battle – we'll get the other fights and prelim aftermath next time, which should be interesting. We haven't seen all of Shikamaru's tricks, obviously – his amateur sealing tricks are sort of situational and his clone's even more so – he's also been working on canonical stuff which we'll be getting into at the finals.

I am still tinkering with some parts of this, particularly dialogue-related, so some stuff may change.

This is one of the few fairly positive chapters left in the arc, at least overall - we'll be getting to both more pissed-off-teens filled ones in the finals and the imminent attack has everyone on edge; that and Minato has to face his dreams once more, knowing that he can't let down his real-life commitments in their favour.

I just realized this is a ~6000 word fight scene with only a few cuts away; I really wonder what things will be like when the really bad-ass big fights with more than two contestants get here…

See you next chapter, which contains the aftermath of this fight from the team's perspective - e.g. we'll get a bit of Neji and how the inevitable run-in with Hiashi goes (and probably Hinata), Shikamaru slacking off now that he's done his job for the day, Kakashi's professional curiosity, etc. We'll also continue other stuff besides that.

Fūinjutsu: Shikōnā Mahi, Sealing Arts: Four-Corner Paralysis
Fūinjutsu: FurasshuBakudan, Sealing Arts: Flash Bomb
Dekoi Bunshin, Decoy Clone

Jūkenpō Ichigekishin, Gentle Fist Style: One Body Blow
Hakke Hyaku Nijūhachi Shō, Eight Trigrams: 128 palms