Checkmate
Shikamaru always knew that chess would be his undoing.
He's never admitted it, but he always views battles as extremely dangerous versions of chess, with each soldier acting as a different piece. It is part of the reason that he is so good at strategizing.
Chouji is the pawn, the piece viewed as generally useless and expendable. He has always been the weakest of their group, with the most limited moves. Every chess player worth his salt, though, knows that pawns can sometimes be your most important and powerful piece.
He is not sure what Neji is. Neji is a bishop, perhaps, locked into only one form of movement, one path forward in life. To peg him as such a restricted piece seems unfair, though, because he is the strongest of them and therefore deserves the title of queen. However, the queen always falls in battle, so perhaps Neji is better off as the bishop after all.
Kiba is easy to peg as the knight. Wild and unpredictable, he moves erratically across the board, powerful in his role as the wild card, coming from directions no one expects. He is also as loyal and brave as a knight, ill-suited to the deceit and lies that define the life of a ninja.
In the end, they all revolve around Naruto, their king. He is the most important piece in their game, because if he is defeated, their mission is over, and so he must be protected at all costs. The king stands alone as the victor at the end, and in his heart Shikamaru can tell that Naruto is headed along that path. Does this make Sasuke a king too, he wonders, because he is the objective, the piece they need to topple to win their battle. If both Naruto and Sasuke are kings, and only one can stand alone at the end, which will it be? However hard Shikamaru tries to ignore what his mind is telling him, it's impossible.
Shikamaru himself is not a piece, but the player. He directs all the pieces and his mind has to move along all their paths to use them efficiently. Until now, he was perfect at that due to long practice. He had promised himself he would never lose the game when he was little, after all, so he played and played until he was the best.
Shikamaru has never lost a game of chess, but for once the checkmate isn't is his favor.
As he watches Tayuya raise her hand, he thinks that perhaps chess should be his undoing, because the irony is all too fitting.