Nara Shikamaru; 2 Years Later

Age 14

-My Sad Existence-

I woke up the morning of the Chuunin Selection Exam, thinking I was late. After all, I'm always incredibly tired whenever I'm late for something. But then I realized I was incredibly tired not because it was late, but because it was early.

There was a ninja outside my window. I climbed out of bed, accustomed to the early morning visits.

"What is it?" I said in a half yawn as I opened the window.

"The Hokage wants to see you." Said the ninja.

"This early?" I said.

"Shikamaru, it's almost ten." Said the ninja.

And…

"Like I said." I said.

"She says it's important." The ninja said as he hopped away. I rolled my eyes. As much as I wanted to climb back into bed and go to sleep, I knew I couldn't blow off the Hokage.

The Hokage always seemed to want to speak to me. Whether she wanted me to go on a mission for her or devise some sort of strategy for other missions, I never seemed to have any time to myself anymore. It made me regret that day I entered the jounin exam.

And became a jounin.

I put on my vest and went downstairs.

"Dad, I'm going to the Hokage's place." I said, walking past him.

"Uuuh." Was all he said.

"Hold it right there, young man!" came my mother's voice. I turned around and looked at her. "What about breakfast?"

"Mom…I have to go." I said.

"Well…oh all right…" she said with a sigh.

I went to the Hokage's office. When I got there, there were two ninjas waiting instead.

"Where's the Hokage?" I asked.

"She went to the tournament and wished that you'd meet her there." One of them replied.

I wish she had told her messenger that. The tournament stadium was in the opposite direction so I had to actually pass by my house again on my way there.

I approached the Hokage.

"Oh, good morning, Shikamaru, I hope I didn't wake you." She said.

I had promised Chouji that I'd watch the tournament with him so whatever the Hokage had to say had better not be about me watching the tournament with her in order to help her decide who deserved to be a chuunin.

"I was hoping you'd be able to watch the tournament with me in order to help me decide who was worthy of becoming a chuunin." She said.

I had to keep myself from slapping my forehead.

"Is it all right if I watch part of the tournament with my friend?" I said.

She thought. "Very well." She said, but sounded reluctant. "You can watch the first four fights with him since those are rarely the important ones but then come straight back."

"Yes ma'am." I said with a bow of my head.

I went where I had said I'd meet Chouji the day before. He was sitting there staring blankly into space so I called out his name to get his attention.

"Shikamaru!" he said in response as he moved so I could sit next to him. I sat down with a sigh.

"Sorry I'm late." I said. "The Hokage wanted to talk to me about things. I have to leave after the first set of fights."

"Why?" he asked.

"The Hokage." I answered simply. He didn't need to know the specifics because then he'd want to… I don't know. Talk about it.

"Oh that's okay, Shikamaru." Chouji said. "I don't mind."

I knew he did mind. He had no one else to watch the tournament once I left. But he'd be fine because I'd meet up with him after the tournament.

"Who's up first?" I asked so there wouldn't be awkward silence anymore.

"Sasuke and that kid from the Mist village." Chouji replied. "I don't think it'll be much competition for Sasuke, though."

"That's for sure." I agreed. "It kinda makes me feel sorry for him. Then again, you have to feel sorry for anyone who's up against Sasuke." I knew Otoko Demakase. Well, not personally, but I knew he wasn't that good of a ninja. After reviewing the profiles of all the contestants with the Hokage the night before, I felt like I knew a lot of them personally, though.

"Shikamaru, Ino's going to have to fight Sasuke if she wins her fight." Chouji said.

I sighed. "If Ino gets beaten by someone, I'm sure she'd rather it be by Sasuke than someone else." I said finally.

I know how hardcore Ino had gotten recently. I was very impressed with her skill but I got the feeling that I didn't even know the half of it. In fact, I had even pulled a few strings to get the Hokage to agree to send Ino on a low-key B-rank mission here and there. You know, just to make Ino happy.

I almost completely missed the entire fight between Demakase and Sasuke. The Hokage and I had already come to the conclusion the night before that Sasuke was going to become a chuunin and he was only in the tournament for show.

"Now it's Ino's fight!" Chouji said happily.

"She's only up against Hinata." I said. "She should be fine."

"I don't know, Shikamaru!" I said. "Hinata's the one who beat ME to get into the tournament after all!"

I didn't know if he meant that to be an impressive thing or not. While Chouji's a great guy and everything…I wouldn't say his ninja abilities were really… top notch. "Yeah, but didn't Ino beat that guy from the Sound Village?" I said, not entirely speaking my thoughts. "She'll be fine."

Chouji squinted to get a good look at Ino and Hinata as they walked out on the fieldn.

"Oh…Ino cut her hair again." Chouji concluded finally.

I squinted as well. Sure enough, Ino's hair was shorter than a lot of guys that I knew, including myself. She also wasn't wearing anything that would show off her figure like she used to. Instead, she was clad in respectable and sensible clothing for fighting.

"She looks like a boy." I decided finally.

"Ino's really focused on becoming a ninja." Chouji explained. "I mean, if she's willing to cut all her hair off for it, you know she's serious."

"I guess so." I agreed. I guess it had been too long since I had checked up on Ino and Chouji's training. But there really was no time. I'd like to make time though.

I was surprised when Ino attacked Hinata as intensely as she did.

"Ino's gotten better than I thought." I observed.

"I bet she could beat YOU, Shikamaru!" Chouji laughed.

I knew he was only joking, but I couldn't even PRETEND to laugh around with a comment like that.

"You know," Chouji said after clearing his throat and realizing that that comment didn't fly with me. "She might actually give Sasuke a run for his money."

I evaluated Ino's fighting. I had to pay attention to the fights if I was going to have a hand in deciding who was to become a chuunin.

"I think she might be able to beat Sasuke." Chouji continued.

Now that was a thought. "This might be a little mean, but I'd love to see that just so Sasuke could be devastated." I said.

Chouji laughed.

He didn't say anything more and allowed me to concentrate on the fight. I probably wouldn't have any influence over the Hokage in Ino's fate just in case there was any favoritism because Ino had been on my team, but if it were up to me, I'd make her a chuunin.

Because in only a few minutes, Ino had won.

"Who do you think will be in the finals in the other bracket?" Chouji said, looking at the program.

"Why don't we just take one fight at a time?" I tried.

"It'll probably be Lee…" Chouji said as if I hadn't said anything. "Or Naruto… maybe…"

"Keep in mind we don't know what to expect from that girl from the Sand." I reminded him.

"That's right!" Chouji said with a snap of his fingers. "For all we know, she could win the whole thing!"

"I wouldn't go that far." I said. Jiyuu Yatara was not the pride of her village. She had made it in by chance, in my opinion. But she would prove as a good advisory to Kiba.

"Yatara from the Sand Village…" Chouji said. "She's fighting against Kiba."

At about that time, Kiba and Yatara came out to begin their fight.

I could tell that Kiba was having and off day because he was arguing with his dog. The only reason I knew this was because I had seen him fight before and I knew that he didn't usually argue this much. Still, even if he had been on his game, he would not be promoted.

Yatara was no better. She allowed herself to get annoyed by Kiba, a mistake that a chuunin could not make. She had to fix problems like that with more training. She would not be promoted either.

"Neither of these two will become chuunins." I said, though I sort of regretted it a minute later. I didn't need to be sharing that sort of information with Chouji even if he was my friend.

"What do you mean?" Chouji asked. "How do you know?"

"They need more training." I said simply.

In the end, it was a double knockout. However, Yatara was declared the winner, but that was nothing to be proud of when it came to a double knockout. All you can say about that is that you were good enough to win, but not good enough to beat your opponent.

Next up were Naruto and Lee. This match was going to prove to be an exciting one. "I think people have been anticipating this next fight the most." I told Chouji. "They all remember Naruto beating Neji two tournaments ago. And Lee did incredible work last time."

"How come Lee didn't become a chuunin last time anyway?" Chouji questioned.

Even though I didn't have any part in it last year, the Hokage and I had discussed her reasoning for it last night.

"It's that ninjutsu genjutsu thing." I told him even there was NO reason why he should be enlightened as to the reasoning. "It's hard to overcome something like that."

"Well, Lee is a good fighter." Chouji said. He stopped talking as Lee and Naruto came onto the field and struck their battle poses.

"Lee will win." I said.

Chouji looked at me, but didn't say anything.

I had to leave after this fight, but I wanted to at least watch the fight between Sasuke and Ino with Chouji. Ino was our teammate and I wanted to see her through this as a team, even if she didn't even know we were supporting her.

I must admit that I'm impressed every time Lee removes his weights. It was obviously a gimmick in order to draw in the Hokage's interest and impress her, but it worked. Anyone who trains with that much weight on his legs and goes about his daily life carrying around that much weight all the time has to by worthy of wearing the vest that those with less ability than he wear every day.

"Naruto won't become a chuunin." Shikamaru said.

I really had to work out that whole inner monologue thing.

"Why not?" Chouji asked.

"Not enough." I replied.

He did nothing different and nothing impressive. Everything he did we had all seen before. Lee was original. Lee won.

"Ino and Sasuke's fight is next." Chouji said after the field was clear.

Who was going to win this fight? I wanted to assume it would be Sasuke, but Ino…she was getting very good. "Hm…" I said with a sigh.

Ino and Sasuke came out to fight.

"GO INO!!!" Chouji cheered.

Our seats were so far away from the fight that not even someone with an advanced bloodline that would aid them strongly in hearing would have been able to know that Chouji had just belted out a mindless cheer. "Chouji, she can't hear you from all the way up here." I told him just so he wouldn't get disappointed when she didn't spin around and wave to him.

"Maybe she can!" Chouji said.

Okay, there was no convincing Chouji otherwise…

The fight was closer than I had ever imagined.

Ino was putting up a spectacular fight, but it was quite obvious that Sasuke was only toying with her. He was letting up a bit on her at first, but then he started to get more serious.

In return, Ino ALSO got more serious.

They threw shuriken at each other as if they were playing catch.

They both certainly had very good taijutsu and ninjutsu, but we had yet to see any genjutsu yet.

The people in front of us stood up to start cheering.

I was going to let out an exasperated sigh in vain hope that it would occur to them that they were standing directly in my field of view, but Chouji turned to me at that exact moment and said, "Do you think Sasuke is going easy on her?"

I hoped he hadn't just realized that. "He looks like he is." I answered as the people sat back down. I watched Ino fend of Sasuke's attacks. I wished I could see their facial expressions from up here. "But that could just be because Ino's gotten good."

"Do you think she can win?" Chouji asked.

I watched the fight more. Ino was running out of stamina, something she couldn't help as being only a girl. Sasuke just naturally had more stamina than she did.

"No." I answered.

As soon as Sasuke returned the Shinranshin no Jutsu at her, I knew it was all over. Chouji was completely captivated by the battle so I figured that I should just slip out before he even noticed to save myself a few minute's worth of goodbyes. After all, I was already very late to meeting up with the Hokage.

The examiner was ending the match just as I reached the Hokage.

"Shikamaru!" she said, sounding angry. "You're late! I told you to be back before this fight began!"

"Um…I got lost." I said.

"Well, a lot of good this is going to do us!" said the Hokage. "I do hope you were watching the match carefully!"

"I was." I replied.

"Well?" she said. "I'm thinking Uchiha Sasuke…"

"We already decided that last night." I reminded her.

"Yes, of course." She said. "I was just getting that one out of the way."

"It's not my place to evaluate Ino—er, excuse me—Yamanaka Ino." I said, realizing I had accidentally lost formality.

"And why not?" the Hokage questioned.

"Because she was on my team when I was a genin." I said. "And that could sway my decision."

"Really, Shikamaru?" said the Hokage. "Will you HONESTLY let that sway your decision?"

"No." I answered. "But there's the chance that you might think it would."

"I know you better than THAT." Said the Hokage. "So what do you think of her—as a future chuunin?"

I evaluated my analysis of her fights.

"She is very skilled." I said. "She has also had a tremendous improvement over a short period of time so that means she's only going to get better. Her taijutsu and ninjutsu are better than some of the chuunins we have in our ranks… though I won't mention names…"

"So…" the Hokage led.

"I think she could be a chuunin." I said. "And a good chuunin at that."

The Hokage mulled over that one for a minute or so.

"Well…" she started. "Oh wait! The finals are starting! I've been excited about this match all day! I am DEFINITELY making both of these two kids chuunins. As for Yamanaka Ino? We'll talk about her later."

"Yes ma'am." I said with a sigh. What a sad existence I led.