And its a double chapter day for the end of the year! Yay! So here's the next chapter...also a note to you guys who seem desperate for me to put Tsunade into the Harem. Again, not doing it. Besides, do you really want a 50 or so year old after him?...anyhow I need to run now before Tsunade realizes I made a shot at her age! Naruto you got it from here! *Runs away*

Naruto: Okay Dattebayo! Ehem, WVH does not own the Naruto franchise or any part of it. Those belong to their respective owners. He does own this story, the super cool moves he comes up with for this story, and any OCs he puts in. There I got it Datteba-

Tsunade enters the room with flames in her eyes

Tsunade: Where is he?

Naruto points to where WVH left as he shivers from fear, to which Tsunade nods and walks in the direction of

Naruto: ...anyways...ENJOY THE CHAPTER DATTEBAYO!


Chapter 14: A Bit of Strategy

"What a drag." Shikamaru thought as he looked at the scoreboard.

He couldn't help but feel that he mentally jinxed himself in this situation. He knew the specialty of Shino's clan and like him, fought in a more strategic matter. And that was a problem. Shikamaru could only control so many shadows at once with his shadow possession jutsu, and shino also had methods to absorb chakra.

"C'mon Lazy ass! Get in there or I will make you!" Ino barked at him, to which he let out a sigh.

He looked at the Aburame who had already made his way down the stage...and Kiba was yelling "Kick that Lazy Butt's ass! You got this!"

He then felt a hand on his shoulder, to which he saw it was his best friend Choji doing so.

"You got this buddy." Choji said.

Shikamaru looked at his friend, the crowd, and the stage below, and decided.

Guess I got no choice. Ino and mom will probably kick my ass if I lose. Choji thinks I got this, and some of the people here look interested...guess I can't be lazy for once.

However, he was brought out of it as a harder smack on his shoulder sent him over the railing, though he landed safely on his feet like a cat.

"C'mon man. You can kick his ass!" Naruto yelled with his grin.

Shikamaru sighed "This is gonna be a drag…" before he then walked to where his opponent and the proctor were.

"Are you two ready yet?" Hayate asked them after a cough. They both nodded and looked at each other.

"I've always wanted to compete in a battle of wits with you, Shikamaru-san. I could tell you only slept in our classes just because you grasped things that quickly." Shino spoke.

Shikamaru let a smirk come to his face as he replied "Is that so? Guess for once, I can't be lazy about this."

Those who heard him had different reactions.

Orochimaru's eyebrow cocked up in confusion. Hiruzen let a sweatdrop come down his face. Hayate looked at Shikamaru with a bit of surprise before he put on a pokerface. And Naruto looked confused.

"What's him not being lazy going to do?" Naruto asked out loud.

Both Minato and Kakashi answered him at once.

"When a Nara decides not to be lazy...it means they're going to pull something drastic."

Hayate then spoke "Match 2: Shikamaru Nara vs Shino Aburame. BEGIN!" as he swiped his hand down, and then jumped away from the battlefield.

Despite the go ahead having been given, neither fighter made a move, staring each other down. They then started to walk in a circle, neither beginning their attack just yet.

"What the heck! Kick his ass already!" Naruto and Ino yelled with annoyance.

Minato chuckled a bit and said "Son, they already are fighting."

"Huh?" Naruto replied out loud.

"They're battling it out in their minds. Trying to guess what each of them will do, figuring out how to counter each others counters." Minato explained.

Uuummm...you mean like what they might do if the other throws a punch? Naruto spoke mentally.

"Correct." Minato nodded in approval.

However, the Kyuubi simply tapped her foot and commented "Still...I'm with the boy on this, they should do something already!"

And right as the Kyuubi made her statement, Shino then raised his hand and summoned the swarm of beetles from his body, and had them fly at Shikamaru.

"I keep forgetting he can do that. And I still don't get where they come from." Naruto commented.

Kakashi nodded and explained to the boy "Well, the bugs in fact live inside his body. Aburame clan ninja essentially have a mutual agreement with the insects."

Haku then finished the explanation "The agreement being that they help in fighting enemies, and the insects having a place to live and chakra to feed off of. The ones they use normally are chakra eating ones, making them quite useful in combat. Only downside is that some people think it is creepy and shun them for it, thus they can be a bit distant with others."

Naruto simply just gave a nod, which surprised Sakura, only for her to remember that Naruto himself knows just what it is like to shunned. Asuka wasn't surprised by this though, she knew it was just like Naruto to think on things like that.

As the insects flew at Shikamaru though, he shunshinned to the side, throwing several kunai towards Shino, who blocked them with his bugs...only for one to have an explosive tag and get set off on impact.

Ino then yelled "What the heck? I've never seen the lazy ass move that quick!"

Asuma was equally surprised, but then grinned. He then told Ino "Well...it looks like he's actually taking things seriously for once. He's choosing to not be lazy for once."

Ino then retorted "If he could do that he could have done so in our missions dammit!"

On the floor below, the smoke vanished to reveal Shino was no longer there. Shikamaru looked right and left, and then jumped back. As he did so, two hands came out of the ground, missing their chance to grab Shikamaru.

"Isn't that what you used on me before?" Asuka asked Kakashi, still in a 'Sasuke' tone since they were in public.

Kakashi nodded and explained "Yes, it's a combination of two jutsus. The first lets the user move through the ground as if though through sand, and the second one lets them drag the user into the ground and then solidify it in order to trap them."

As he explained it, Shino also sent a swarm of the chakra eating bugs at Shikamaru, who used the substitution jutsu with one of the floor tiles to get out of harm's way.

Shikamaru watched as Shino brought himself out of the ground, to which he responded to by sending his shadow out in an attempt to capture him as he came back to the ground. But as the shadow connected, he grimaced and disabled the technique as the Shino that stood there dissolved into a swarm of bugs.

"He can make clones with bugs too? Damn that's actually kinda cool!" Naruto said. He was now actually starting to get into the fight, which led to a few chuckles from Kakashi and Minato. Of course, Haku simply giggled.

Sakura in shock spoke "Wait, was he really this strong!?"

'Sasuke' then replied to her "He is. It's one of the reasons why out of all the genin in our class, minus the 'dobe', he's the one I respect the most."

Kakashi then added "Well, there is a saying amongst the Jonin...Don't fuck with the guy who can instant summon a horde of chakra devouring insects."

The team 7 genin simply nodded.

The horde of bugs then reached Shikamaru, only for them to pass through him. The real Shino then pulled himself out of the ground and looked at the scene.

"Hmm, a clone?" Shino spoke quietly.

"Well it doesn't use as much chakra as your bug one." Shikamaru spoke from behind him, surprising Shino as he then had his shadow capture Shino.

"How the heck did he do that?" Ino said in surprise.

Asuma put his hand on his chin as he said "Well...from what I can tell, he used one of the rarely used techniques of his clan. I don't know too much about it, except it allows them to quite literally travel through shadows."

Shikamaru held a kunai at the bug user's neck, of course Shino copied the action, but he didn't have a pouch where the shadow user had one, thus he held up nothing in front of him.

"Surrender. It'll be easier for both of us." Shikamaru spoke.

Shino calculated his odds at this. While he could easily have his insects attack him, he wasn't sure how fast the Nara would react. He was moving and reacting much faster than in their academy days. And if this was an actual fight, Shino already knew that at this point it would be over unless he wanted to take his opponent out with him.

He then spoke "I Shino Aburame, wish to withdraw from the match."

Hayate then asked "Are you certain?"

Shino nodded.

Hayate then announced "The winner of the second match is Shikamaru Nara!"

Shikamaru then released his jutsu and pulled the kunai away from Shino and put it away.

He sighed "Man, that was too much work…"

Shino pulled his insects back in before he held a hand out to the Nara.

"That was an excellent match. I have learned much in this fight. I hope we can compete again someday." Shino said.

Shikamaru shrugged before he gave him a handshake and said "Of course. Though next time perhaps something less troublesome, like Shogi?"

Shino simply nodded and then moved back up to the stands.

Kiba had the bottom of his mouth on the floor, in complete shock that Shikamaru, the laziest person in the class, beat his teammate that he knew well enough could kick his ass.

"What the heck!?" He yelled.

Kurenai was also shocked, but not as much. Hinata however had been listening to Kakashi, so she had a feeling that it would be much more even than most people would think.

She went over to Shino and told him "I-it's o-okay Shino-san. Y-you did well."

He nodded and replied "Do not worry Hinata. I actually enjoyed myself. It's interesting to fight opponents of similar mindsets. Plus it also means our comrades are simply getting stronger."

To that Hinata smiled…though then Kiba ruined it.

"Don't worry Shino! I'll be certain to avenge your loss as I go out there and kick ass! Yahoo!" he yelled.

Of course though, everyone, including Akamaru, thought Kiba was getting ahead of himself.

Over with Shikamaru though…

"Why the heck have you never pulled that with us!?" Ino screeched at him.

"How did you sneak up behind him at the end? That was cool!" Naruto asked.

Shikamaru sighed and explained "Essentially Ino, its called I don't like to exert myself. I prefer to be lazy. But since Shino is also a decent strategist, I had to play it a bit differently. And that one jutsu in particular I used took a lot of chakra out of me. Heck, I probably would have only been able to hold him in that last shadow possession for a few seconds longer, so I had to bluff it like I was still in control."

"Well damn. Guess when you aren't lazy you're kinda badass." Naruto told him.

To that, the blonde kunoichi simply sighed "Now if only you weren't lazy most of the time."

"That's Shikamaru for ya!" Choji said before he pulled out a bag of chips and snacked on it.

On the other side of the room, Temari was looking right at the shadow user and spoke out loud "Not bad…not bad at all."

Kankuro looked over at her and asked "What now?"

Temari replied "Oh, I was saying that Nara guy wasn't half bad. At least someone here fights with their brain rather than brawn…also by the way…"

She then pointed her finger over to the scoreboard to get Kankuro to look and see the names there.

Kankuro vs Misumi Tsurugi

"Alright then, here I go!" he said as he put he got himself up on the railing.

However, he paused his action as Gaara spoke to his brother.

"Do not embarrass us...or I'll kill you."

Kankuro made a short gulp and nodded, before he jumped down to the arena below. Meanwhile his opponent simply walked down the stairs like a normal person. He wore a similar outfit to Yoroi, except instead of shades he had a normal pair of glasses that showed his black irises behind them.

As they walked down Naruto looked and saw who was fighting.

"Hey, its the makeup guy!" He said with a grin.

Kankuro heard and swore that if he could, he would punch the little bastard. But right now, he had other things to deal with.

"While you may be a brat, I won't be letting my guard down like Yoroi did. So I suggest you forfeit now if you don't want to get hurt." Tsurugi said with an obvious sneer.

"Bitch, please." Kankuro said as he prepared himself by taking the bandage wrapped piece of luggage off his back.

Hayate sighed and then announced "Match 3: Kankuro vs Misumi Tsurugi. BEGIN!"

Just as the proctor stepped away, Tsurugi dashed in with a jab, which Kankuro easily blocked...however.

"Da fuck!?" Kankuro yelled as Misumi's arm stretched and moved like a snake across his body.

"That's just like Orochi-Pedo!" Naruto yelled.

Both Kakashi and Hiruzen spewed out spit in shock, most of the jonin looked at Naruto as if he had a death wish, and Anko was laughing her ass off. In the seal, Minato and the Kyuubi were both laughing their asses off since it fit the man to a T. As for Orochimaru…

Don't kill him yet. Don't kill him yet. Don't him yet. Let the sand brat do it. He repeated in his head.

"How the heck did you come up with that Naruto?" Kakashi said as he looked at the boy.

Haku ended up being the one to answer that.

"When we fought him before. Naruto asked him if he was one and even stated things that actually made the Sannin ponder enough to be distracted." Haku answered.

Kakashi looked at her, then back to him, and then to Sakura.

"Did that actually happen?" Kakashi asked, to which the cherry blossom girl gave him a nod. He couldn't tell whether he wanted to smack them for how stupid that was...or how proud he was that they could both distract and insult a Sannin to such a degree at the same time.

The comedic moment ended though when they heard a loud snapping sound, bringing their focus back to the arena below, where Tsurugi seemed to have broken Kankuro's bones by constricting him.

"He...he snapped his neck?" Lee said in surprise.

Tsurugi simply retorted "He wouldn't give up. So I simply killed him."

But then Kankuro spoke and turned his head...180 degrees, revealing a part of his face had...broken off.

"Is that right Stretchy? Let me return the favor!"

Wooden arms then popped out of the sides of his body and constricted 'Stretchy', and the rest of the face cracked away to reveal a puppet with three eyes and sharp teeth.

A bit away, the bandages over what everyone thought was a piece of luggage was none other than Kankuro himself.

"A p-puppet!?" 'Stretchy' yelled in shock.

"Felt like doing a bit of strategy after those last guys. Anywho, since you want to break my bones...I'll break every one of yours save for the neck...buh bye now Stretchy!" Kankuro said with a smirk.

"W-wait wait wai-" Stretchy tried to yell before with a flick of his fingers, the puppet went to break the poor man's bones.

After it was done, Hayate only had to take one, disgusted look before he stated "The winner of round 3 is Kankuro!"

As he went back up, Naruto couldn't help but say "Oh come on, two on one is unfair!"

Sakura then smacked him on the head and reminded him "And what does that make your shadow clone jutsu?"

Naruto let out a short "Gah!" as she basically blasted whatever argument he had. She even found it a bit funny as she had to stifle a laugh.

Meanwhile in the seal, the Kyuubi simply commented "Quick and brutal. Though the theatrics were unnecessary. 6 out of 10"

Minato simply sighed at this, as he knew it was just part of her nature.

Of course though, they both knew if anyone was going to be brutal, it would be Gaara.

They just hoped there wouldn't be a match between Naruto and Gaara anytime soon. Because anytime Jinchurikki fought each other, it tended to be quite chaotic. At least if it was the case of Fu she would probably not go for overkill.

Well, they hoped she wouldn't.


Shino: Well that was interesting

Shikamaru: But it was such a drag

Kakashi: I will admit though, Naruto has quite a pair of balls

Naruto: You mean for the Orochi-Pedo joke? Eheheh

Orochi-Pedo: ...I blame WVH for this...I will kill him if I get the chance

WVH with bruises all over his face: Oh get in line.

Stretchy: Also why the hell did I get called Stretchy!?

WVH: Because you are forgettable and it is hilarious. Anyhow, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Be sure to R&R and come back next year for the next chapter!

A guy in a red military uniform: I hope you update the Magician again soon and give me some screentime WVH.

WVH: Edan not now!