'Normal thought…'
"Kyuubi/Bijuu speech…"
'Kyuubi communicating with Naruko inside her head…'
"Normal speech…"
Jutsu name…
Chapter 54- Shikamaru vs. Temari
Shikamaru sighed and walked away from his hiding place. He looked up to Naruko, who was looking at him in annoyance. He smirked. 'I guess things don't go so easily.'
Temari narrowed her eyes as she spotted him. 'What's with that dumb look on his face? Is he underestimating me?!' She opened her fan and glared at Shikamaru. "Ninpou: Kamaitachi!" She threw a really strong wind attack at him.
Shikamaru shielded himself with his arms from the attack, that could even cut through the tree right next to him. A huge dust cloud was whirled up.
Temari's eyes widened as suddenly a shadow shot out of the dust cloud. She tsked and jumped away, as the shadow wriggled its way towards her. Just as the shadow was about to reach her, it stopped and went back. Temari drew a line in the sand on the ground. "I see." She looked seriously at Shikamaru. "Kage Mane no Jutsu, I've figured out its nature." She smirked cheekily. "Looks like there's a limit to how you can stretch, shrink and transform your shadow. No matter how much you transform or stretch your shadow… You can only stretch it as much as its surface area. Isn't that right?"
"Correct." Shikamaru admitted.
Naruko narrowed her eyes. 'She has a great analytical mind. It took me forever to figure that out and she knows it after just seeing this technique a few times. Looks like Shika really is getting a worthy opponent for his genius mind.'
'Even if I assume that he used the stage wall's shadow to increase his shadow's range…' Temari concluded and rammed her closed fan into the ground, where she drew the line earlier. 'This is as far as the shadow stretches. His attack range goes not further than this line. 15 meters and 32 centimeters.'
'She used her fan to measure the shadow's range… Temari is better with long-range combat than close combat.' Kankuro thought seriously. 'The outcome of this match is clear now.'
Shikamaru sat down on the ground and looked at the clouds in the sky. He sighed and looked at Temari. Then, he closed his eyes and positioned his fingertips together.
"What's that?! What seal did he form?" Kurenai asked in surprise as she didn't recognize this seal.
Asuma smirked. "That's not a seal. It's a habit of his."
"A habit?" Kurenai looked at him curiously.
"He knows how to enjoy boring times. He's like an old man. That's why he likes shougi and makes me play with him all the time. And when he's stuck with a move, he assumes that position." Asuma smiled in fondness.
"Why?" Kurenai asked in confusion.
"To come up with a strategy. And I've never beat him." Asuma shook his head. "Shikamaru's like a clever strategist."
"Wait a minute…" Kurenai interrupted him. "When we were forming Genin teams, I looked at his grades… They were about the same as Naruko's."
"He said it was too troublesome to move his pencil in the academy written tests. He always slept during tests… And besides that, the academy grades aren't speaking the truth all of the time. As I met Naruko at the Nara compound one time, she was actually closer to beating Shikamaru in shougi than me. Her moves are so unpredictable and crazy that you can't know what she will do next. And somehow those unbelievable plans were working. This was the first time I saw Shikamaru having a hard time playing shougi." He smiled in fondness at Kurenai's utterly surprised expression. "But back to Shikamaru, since he was so good at strategy games, I made him take a IQ test which looked like a game."
"And how did he do?" Kurenai asked him seriously.
"He was a clever guy, all right…He is a super genius with an IQ over 200."
"200?" Kurenai said utterly shocked and looked back to the fight.
Naruko smiled cheerily as she saw that Shikamaru was getting in his thinking-pose, how she liked to call it. 'Shika is finally getting serious! I hate it when he forces me to play shougi with him, every time I come over to the Nara compound… I could never win against him in that stupid game, even when he did seem confused sometimes…' She giggled as she remembered his expression as she did an unbelievable dumb looking move in shougi and then it ended up working and she almost beat him because of that. But then, he had pulled out his thinking-pose and ended up winning in the last moment. She shook her head in fondness and concentrated back on the fight.
Shikamaru's eyes shot open as he succeeded in finding a good strategy.
Temari looked at him cheekily. "Looks like you're a bit more motivate to fight now." She opened her fan and threw a wind attack at him.
Shikamaru protected himself with one arm from the wind and began to run towards the trees.
"There's no use in hiding!" Temari shouted at him.
Shikamaru hid behind a tree and pulled out a kunai, as well as taking off his shirt as he slowly began to set his plan into motion.
"Does he really have a strategy?" Kurenai asked in disbelief.
"P-Probably…" Asuma said as sweat ran down his face.
More and more empty chips packages landed on the ground by Choji as he ate all the chips in high-speed.
"He can't get near her like this…" Ino noticed. "Shikamaru! Get her!" She cheered him on.
"Maybe it's pointless. He'll give up soon. He's too lazy." Choji said nonchalant, with his mouth full of chips.
"That won't happen!" Ino shouted determined, before her determination was wavering. "I think…I hope…" She sweat dropped. "But maybe…"
A few minutes went by and the wind finally stopped blowing through the arena. Temari gritted her teeth and looked around while sweat ran down her face. "How much longer are you going to run? Come out already!" She shouted in annoyance and threw another wind attack at the group of trees. A huge dust cloud was whirled up. Suddenly, a kunai shot out of the dust cloud and flew towards Temari. Temari's eyes widened and she dodged the one kunai and blocked the other kunai that was flying towards her with her fan. Just then, Shikamaru's shadow made its way quickly towards her.
Temari smirked as she looked at the line she drew on the ground. 'It's useless. As long as I'm behind this line, I won't get caught.' Her eyes widened in realization. 'Wait, no, that's bad!' She jumped away in the last moment and the shadow stopped before her feet, just a centimeter more and she would have been caught. Temari breathed heavily and then glared at Shikamaru.
"Good insight." Shikamaru said lazily.
"So, you were killing time to wait for the sun to set and increase the wall shadow's line to increase your shadow's surface area. When the sun starts to set, shadows grow. Correct?"
Shikamaru just held his shadow in place, right before Temari's feet.
'Calculating the current height of the sun and the previous attack range limit… He cannot go further than this range.' Temari summed up and then looked cheekily at Shikamaru.
Shikamaru just looked at her with an unreadable expression.
"Huh?" Naruko said as she noticed something and looked up.
"Temari! Above you!" Kankuro shouted in warning.
Temari looked up in shock.
"I see." Shino said seriously.
'What is it?!' Temari squinted her eyes to see what it was. Just then, the shadow of Shikamaru's flying shirt weighted with a kunai connected with Shikamaru's shadow. 'Shoot!' Temari thought and jumped away in panic. She jumped up into the air, just as Shikamaru's shadow was about to get her.
"I won't let you get away!" Shikamaru shouted and followed her movement with his shadow.
'I didn't expect him to use his jacket as a parachute to create a shadow!' Temari thought in surprise as she still avoided the Kage Mane no Jutsu. 'What a guy. If I noticed the parachute above, my attention to my feet would lessen. What a sick way to catch a person off guard. But this makes one thing clear. The Kage Mane no Jutsu is like sticky dough that uses other shadows to capture the enemy.'
The parachute fell to the ground and Temari stopped before the hole, Naruko made earlier in the arena. Shikamaru's shadow stopped and couldn't reach Temari anymore. She smirked at him cheekily and opened her fan.
"So, you dodged this trick too, eh?" Shikamaru said lazily.
"He didn't think that one through thoroughly enough." Kurenai said seriously.
Asuma narrowed his eyes. "His opponent is a pretty good analyzer as well. She predicts future steps well."
Temari narrowed her eyes as she looked at the sun. 'If I take too long, the shadows within the stage will spread and his territory will increase.' She rammed her opened fan in the ground and concentrated. 'I'm going to finish this with the next move… I'll try a decoy tactic with a Bunshin.' Temari thought as she hid behind her fan. 'His shadow is currently…' She thought as she saw how it stretched back to Shikamaru. 'Yosh…!' Temari swiped through the hand signs. "Bunshin no-" But before she could finish, she froze in her movement and couldn't move anymore. "What…?"
Everyone's eyes widened in surprise and Naruko smiled, noticing what was going on.
'This can't be… my body…' Temari thought as she tried desperately to move but couldn't.
Shikamaru smirked. "The Kage Mane no Jutsu finally succeeded."
'Nani?!' Temari thought utterly shocked.
Kankuro gritted his teeth. "When did this happen?"
"H-How many steps ahead does he predict?" Kurenai said flabbergasted.
Asuma smirked. "That's Shikamaru's ability."
"Why… won't my body move?" Temari said in shock. "His shadow shouldn't reach up to here!"
Shikamaru smirked at that and turned his head, so Temari had to move with him. "I'll show you what's behind you."
Temari turned her head exactly like Shikamaru's and her eyes widened utterly shocked as she looked at the hole behind her, from which Shikamaru's shadow caught her. 'This hole is…?'
"You see it now. That's the hole Naruko made and shot out of. That's why it's connected with the little hole in front of you." Shikamaru told her.
"Did you use the shadow's inside the tunnel of the holes to…?" Temari asked him as she slowly realized what he did.
Shikamaru turned his head back to her, and Temari had to move like him. "Correct."
Asuma shook his head in fondness. "It was all part of his strategy." 'He made Temari calculate the shadow's range many times… to lead her into the final trap. Temari only went after the shadow that she could see, constantly calculating the limit range… and fighting behind that line. So, he ran her down with an unpredictable shadow that couldn't be seen and caught her from behind. There's no escaping that.'
Temari's eyes widened in realization. 'Could it be…? That attack with the jacket… Was intended to move me to this location? That was just a ploy?! …This guy.'
"The next move is checkmate." Asuma grinned.
Naruko giggled cheerily as she saw how Shikamaru walked towards Temari and she had to do the same. "Yatta! I knew it would be good to teach you how good unpredictable moves are, Shika." She cheered, but in the back of her head something was bugging her. 'Why do I have the feeling that it's not how it seems…' She shrugged, dismissing that feeling and looked excited back to Shikamaru and Temari who now stood directly in front of each other.
The crowd was silent in suspense. The Sandaime watched the fight seriously. Kankuro gritted his teeth.
"Everyone is being drawn into this match." Kotetsu noticed.
"A guy no one knew turned out to be a dark horse." Izumo added.
"Go Shikamaru!" Ino cheered loudly and Choji was eating his chips faster than ever.
"Checkmate!" Asuma said seriously.
Shikamaru stretched his arm into the air. Temari shivered in effort as she tried to struggle against this technique but couldn't cancel it and so had to raise her arm as well. The tension rose. Naruko leaned forward in excitement.
"I lose, I give up." Shikamaru said seriously.
Everyone gaped at that, utterly shock. "NANI?!"
"W-What did you say?!" Temari said utterly shocked and surprised.
Naruko pulled at her hair in frustration and annoyance. "SHIKA, YOU IDIOT!" She screamed at him.
Shikamaru flinched at that and began to sweat before he began with his explanation. "I used up too much chakra using the Kage Mane no Jutsu so many times. I can only hold you for an additional ten seconds. So, I've thought about 200 possible moves… But time's up." And with that he let his arm fall and Temari could move again as the Kage Mane no Jutsu was canceled.
Shikamaru shrugged nonchalant. "It's too troublesome to do more. One match is good enough for me."
Genma smirked at that in amusement. 'What a weird guy… But he really reminds me of a certain jounin commander…' "Winner, Temari." He announced casually.
Temari looked at Shikamaru in disbelief.
"Man, I'm tired…" Shikamaru said lazily as he massaged his shoulder.
"What a waste!" Ino screamed in annoyance and began to shake Choji. "Why?! Why?!"
Choji smirked amused. "He's just being himself."
Naruko grabbed tightly onto the railing and a tick mark appeared on her head while her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST TRIED, YOU LAZY ASS NARA!" She shouted enraged.
Shino began to sweat at that and slowly walked away from her.
"Really… I can't tell if he's serious about this or not…" Kurenai deadpanned.
Asuma sighed. "I don't understand either…"
Kurenai shook her head at that and looked back to the arena. 'But his intelligence and strategies aren't genin level. If a basic platoon carried out this mission, his victory would have been determined at the point Temari was captured. I guess he won the fight but lost the match.'
'It's unfortunate that he doesn't seem motivated… But in exchange, he didn't lose his head and panicked during the battle… That's why he was able to retreat calmly as he determined that the situation was bad. That comes from his calm decision-making ability.' Asuma smiled. 'If we look at the qualities expected from a Chunin… Shikamaru possesses the most important attribute, leadership.'
"If we look at his platoon leader attributes… he understands he needs to protect the platoon from danger over completing the mission." Izumo said seriously.
"Yes." Kotetsu said casually and leaned back. " 'I accomplished the mission but got my platoon killed' doesn't work. You need to be able to weigh the risks with the mission and think about survival first… or you're not worthy of becoming a Chunin."
"If we look at that point, Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruko fail. Neji is okay as Genin, though." Izumo said thoughtfully. "But with Naruko it's different. She seemed to be a lot smarter than everyone thinks she is. Besides that, she has a lot of determination and I'm sure she would make sure the mission doesn't fail until it's really necessary. And what's a major point that speaks for her becoming a Chunin is that she can make people believe in her and follow her and I'm guessing she can raise their fighting spirit too. That's qualities of a leadership as well; if the people in your squad don't believe in you, the mission is certainly going to fail. Well, what do you think?" He asked his friend.
Kotetsu looked down in the arena. "Why do you ask? Shikamaru has certainly a better chance than Naruko when it comes to becoming a Chunin. But Naruko hasn't bad chances either. To control the Kyuubi's chakra like that, without losing herself is a major plus for the village."
Izumo nodded in agreement. "We have to wait and see what will be decided."
Naruko watched how Shikamaru stretched himself. Her eyes were shadowed over as she jumped down in the arena.
Shikamaru sighed. "Man, this fight was so troublesome…"
"Shi-ka-ma-ru~" A pissed voice sounded from behind him.
Shikamaru froze in his movement and gulped as he turned his head around. Behind him stood an angry and annoyed Naruko who cracked her knuckles while smiling at him coldly.
"What's your excuse this time?" She asked him in a dangerous voice.
Shikamaru began to sweat heavily and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "W-Well, you see Naru…"
"You have three seconds left…" Naruko said darkly while glaring at Shikamaru.
Shikamaru flinched at that and his thoughts raced as he searched for a valuable excuse.
"…Two…" Naruko counted and got ready to kick his butt to the Nara compound.
"P-Please, calm down Naru and let's enjoy the next match… You know, Sasuke's match." Shikamaru stuttered out.
Naruko blinked at that. "Sasuke's match?" Her eyes widened in realization at that and she smiled in excitement. "Ah, that's right! His opponent is the tanuki guy! This is going to be a good match." 'I just hope Sasuke-teme doesn't get killed because of a super crazy jinchuuriki…'
Shikamaru sighed in relief at that. 'I'm off the hook… for now. Troublesome.'
Genma chuckled amused as he watched their interaction. Then, he frowned as he noticed the upset shouts of the crowd. He looked at the waiting room and the entrance door to the arena, but there was still no sign of Uchiha Sasuke. 'If this continues, he's going to be disqualified.'
Naruko bit on her lip as she looked around. 'What is that idiot with a mask thinking?! Sasuke-teme will be disqualified if they don't hurry up!' She sighed and stamped impatiently with her foot on the ground.
Naruko narrowed her eyes as she saw how a jounin appeared next to Genma and whispered something in his ear. 'Sasuke is getting ten more minutes? That's good, but also…' She thought seriously and looked up to the Kazekage suspiciously. '…very suspicious. Jiji would have disqualified Sasuke already, so it has to be the Kazekage who set this all up.' She glared at the cloaked figure of the Kazekage. 'And I'm getting bad vibes from him!'
'Sasuke-kun…' Sakura thought in concern.
Naruko sighed and looked back at Genma, who was staring at his clock. She stamped onto the ground quicker as she grew more and more impatient. "Where are they?~" Naruko whined.
"Mendokuse…" Shikamaru sighed and looked at her. "Can you please stop being so troublesome, Naru?" He asked her.
Naruko just looked up to him and narrowed her eyes. "You should be more careful what you're saying, Shika… I haven't forgotten yet…" She said in a dark voice.
Shikamaru began to sweat at that. "Okay, fine. Forget what I said."
Naruko smiled at him foxily with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "See, that's how you do it. If you listen to me today, maybe I will forget what happened…"
Shikamaru sweat dropped at that. 'Wow, now you're blackmailing me…'
"Time is drawing near." Kankuro said while sweating nervously. "Is he really going to come?"
"He will." Gaara said utterly serious. "I am sure of it." That was all he said before he looked back at the impatient waiting Naruko.
Naruko flopped down on the ground. "Hurry up stupid sensei, Sasuke-teme! It's getting boring!"
Shikamaru sweat dropped at that but decided it would be better if he doesn't say a thing.
Hey guys! So, that was Chapter 54. How did you like it? :) Isn't it hilarious how Naru is now blackmailing Shika? XD However, if I had to chose between being blackmailed or getting beaten up by an angry Naruko, I would choose blackmail as well XXD. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Shikamaru's and Temari's fight as well as Naruko having a bigger chance to become a Chunin than canon Naruto. :3 I hope you're excited for next chapter! ;) See you and have a nice day! :D
Ninpou: Kamaitachi = Ninja Art: Wind Scythe Technique
Kage Mane no Jutsu = Shadow Possession Technique
Bunshin no Jutsu = Clone Technique
Reviews
'00-SilentObserver-13': another point for naru poor unfortunate shino being an innocent bystander but having to feel the angry aura of naru. Naru's probably the #2 person in shika's list of people never ever anger aka his self preservation list his mother being the #1 in the list keep up the awesome work :)
Thank you for commenting~ :3 Yeah, poor Shino is feeling the 'evil' aura of an angered Naruko XD. All his insects are probably like: "Nope, not going to mess with that one, flee while you still can!". And then Shino is there having trouble with controlling his insects because they want follow their instincts and flee from an angry kitsune... Anyway, Naru is definitely on Shika's self preservation list, if she's not the Number 1 on the list even above Shika's mom. XD.
'sultryvoice': I notice that you are just sticking to canon. Do you plan on having more of a twist to it in the future?
Interesting question. I will mostly stick to canon, because I want everything to turn out somehow the same as it did in canon. But there are also going to be some major twists and changes. (It's already a bit different to canon with Naruko communicating with Kyuubi inside her head and he trying to protect her as well as the slightly different modified seal she has that allows the Kyuubi to take over her body when she's in danger.)
'stamfordhighschool': I love it
Aww...thank you! :3 Glad you enjoy my story. :)
