Authors' note: hrm.. so most of the ideas for our stories sprout from some sort of discussion we have about some aspect of the newest episode or chapter or something... this one's no different. This idea came and WHACKED Artheph smack dab in the forehead a couple of days after the manga chapter where Neji and Chouji were brought back all safe and sound... except for a few gaping holes and such... We were very much disgruntled and disturbed and highly amused by the fact that they used a bundle of Neji's hair to fix this gaping hole... and the fact that the hair seemed to have a life of it's own and FLOAT in such an odd way. so Artheph came up with an explanation for it. And just having that one explanation as a single story just seemed way too short, so it sort of.. mutated into this. A collection of stories. All about chakra. and other such things. But mostly chakra.
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Each clan of Konoha is very unique. Each has its own physical markings…its own special jutsu…its own style of clothing…its own secret chakra supply. Woah. Wait a second. Secret chakra supply? Bet you didn't think of that. But in fact, each clan does have its own sacred possession that members can draw chakra from. Pretty convenient, eh?
Nara Clan
The men of the Nara clan seem to have an odd attachment. To their shirts. Their... MESH shirts. Ever wonder just why it is they choose to wear these mesh shirts? I mean, it can't possibly be because they think it looks good, because it so doesn't. Have you SEEN Shikataro's abnormally high turtleneck? And think about it: Mesh shirts aren't very practical. First off, it's mesh. Meaning there's little tiny holes everywhere. It probably gets pretty drafty and cold. It's amazing Shikamaru didn't freeze to death while Temari was WHOOSHING the wind at him with her HUGE FAN during the chuunin exam. Wearing a mesh shirt just defeats the purpose of wearing any shirt at all. Second: think of the HORRIFIC TANS they must undoubtedly have. Come on, they're ninjas… toiling under the sun for DAYS at a time. Normal shirt tans are bad enough… You've got these nicely tanned arms which give way to pasty whiteness… but MESH shirt tans?? Oh man. It probably wouldn't matter in the beginning… you'd just have a normal shirt tan… but after a while, all those little holes are going to catch up with you. Yeah, sad as it is, it's true: All the Nara men have tans, tans that make them LOOK as if they are wearing a mesh shirt… even when they really aren't. Yeah, it's THAT bad.
But anyways, the point of this whole discussion: The numerous drawbacks of wearing mesh shirts FAR outweigh the… non-existent benefits. So why, WHY do the men of the Nara clan insist on wearing them? Especially Shikamaru, being as logical as he is. There's only one POSSIBLE explanation. Yep, that's right. The Nara clan's mesh shirts are… the hiding place of the SECRET CHAKRA SUPPLY!!! AWK!!! Gosh, they are so sneaky.
It makes perfect sense, I swear. I'm sure if you thought it over, you'd come to the same conclusion. Throw in the fact that the Nara men tend to be lazy bums, and it just totally removes any doubt.
You see, long, long ago, some ancestor of Shikamaru's (complete with an AWESOME manly ponytail and that odd choppy hairline) just HAPPENED to be wearing a mesh shirt… just because it was the ONLY thing left in his closet, and of course, he could not be bothered to actually wash his clothes by himself, what with being a lazy bum and all. So, in typical Nara fashion, he was wandering around, doing nothing in particular. Now, this Nara fellow happened to be pretty smart (Duh, Shikamaru's got to get his super genius from SOMEONE…). As he was lazing around, he got to thinking about all the chakra he was producing, but not using. It seemed like such a waste to him. So this is where his genius tendencies overtook his lazy-bum-tendencies. He decided to SIPHON al his excess chakra into an object… just for safe-keeping. And what better place to put all this chakra than the very shirt on his back? It's your shirt. It's handy, convenient, and RIGHT THERE. Yeah, that's what this Nara fellow thought too. So that's what he did. Of course, this doesn't explain why they wear mesh shirts in particular…
So when this Nara fellow came up with his brilliant idea to store all his excess chakra in his shirt, he began storing chakra in ALL his shirts, mesh and otherwise. But, he soon discovered that wearing a normal shirt laden with chakra was rather irksome and uncomfortable. All that chakra flowing around in his shirt made it rather stuffy… sweating was induced. Heavy sweating. That was just not going to do. He couldn't go around sweating buckets of sweat. It was nasty and disgusting and a total turn-off. So, he started wearing mesh shirts. It was the perfect solution. All those little holes everywhere meant ventilation. And ventilation meant NO SWEAT. So yeah. After this Nara fellow, all the other Nara men started storing their chakra into their mesh shirts as well. And of COURSE, they have to actually WEAR the mesh shirts cause… well, yeah. There. Told you it made sense.
