"Tsurugi Misumi, huh?" Shikamaru absently mused. He watched as the shinobi stepped onto the arena floor, his lower mouth completely hidden with a mask. Likely left-handed since he continued to flex the fingers on his left hand. He knew next to nothing about the guy he was slated to fight, which appealed to him. He liked solving puzzles. Not the jigsaw variety, where the challenge was simply locating the correct pieces to match. Rather, he liked games like Go, where not only the pieces, but also their positions and the people themselves where variables in play. The complexity involved. He played for the joy of the game.
And that, of course, was the main reason he didn't want to fight. Who wanted a bunch of people looking to him with all of their expectations? Troublesome. Messy. Besides, he had just gotten back with Ino from seeing Choji stretchered out for medical attention. It seemed that the team would be able to help him recover despite the damage he took from Gaara's onslaught of sand pressure, but the point was, who wanted to switch from worrying about a friend to "playing ninja?"
"Hey, Shikamaru!" Just reaching the top of the staircase leading from the lower level, he looked up to see Kiba waving him over to chat, his teammates huddling beside him. The Hyuuga princess faced him with her arms draped behind her back, eyes downcast. She had never talked much when Shikamaru had encountered her before. Looked like now wouldn't be the exception. He did briefly think about the Byakugan that the Hyuuga family was renowned for. That's one thing he knew he wasn't currently prepared for. If it came down to facing a Hyuuga, that'd be a challenge worthy of his attention.
The Aburame kid, Shino, seemed to be a bit aloof. Sunglasses on indoors, high-necked jacket, and crossed arms – he didn't seem the party type. Actually, had he every seen him without those sunglasses?
"How's Choji?" Kiba asked, clapping his arm around Shikamaru and pulling him into the Team 8 circle. Shino acknowledged Kiba's friend with a nod, then turned his gaze out to the arena. The princess gifted him with a smile.
"He put up one hell of a fight, huh?" Kiba said, laughing with an open mouth. Out of the two of them, Kiba definitely took more joy in the whole "battle" part of ninja life. Not that Shikamaru was scared of a fight. They were just troublesome things. Sort it out as quick as possible so that he could get back to just being.
"Ah, he's alright. Nothing hurt that can't be un-hurt by the medical staff."
"Good to hear." Kiba laughed again. "And now it's on you," he said clapping Shikamaru's back again.
Shikamaru smiled, shaking his head. "Well, three out of four isn't too bad."
Kiba's laugh shrank down into a smaller smile. "You must mean 'one in three.' So far, I've got the only win for the —"
"Please stop. That is the worst name for any team, ever —"
"Za Fan-tasu-teiku Fooru!" Kiba emphasized in English. He used his arm to turn Shikamaru around to face the arena. Tsurugi Misumi was already in position, waiting for his opponent to show. "C'mon, Fantasteiku Fooru will never be the stuff of legend if we don't act now! Right, Shikamaru?"
"There's more than one way to skin a cat —" Shikamaru began, before he felt something crash just between his shoulder blades. The momentum pushed him into, and then over, the balcony railing. He was a ninja of the Leaf, and he had never felt more like a leaf as he unexpectedly fell to the arena floor below.
Luckily the ground broke his fall.
Shikamaru landed on his back in a way that gave him an upside-down, but otherwise great view of that traitor Kiba. Kiba floated, topsy-turvy right above the railing he'd been pushed over, waving at him pleasantly. Akamaru rested underneath his shoulder, looking rather proud of himself. He made a mental note to thank Kiba's pleasant little canine partner later. That little prank would've even made Naruto jealous. He scowled at the two as their faces disappeared behind the railing above.
"Nara Shikamaru, please approach the center," said the proctor, interrupting beginnings of a revenge plot unfolding in the young Leaf ninja's head. He sighed and complied. He'd fight after all. With a victory, Kiba wouldn't suspect that Shikamaru had a revenge plot. On the Go board of life, advantages were how games were won.
"Go, Shikamaru! Win this for Team 10!"
He sighed as he heard Ino's cry from above. As if Kiba's mischievous mutt wasn't enough, now his high-strung teammate was cheering him on. Women and their precious emotions were exhausting.
He took a look around the arena. It was still heavily damaged from the earlier fights, particularly Naruto's and Choji's. Leftover sand debris, craters here and there, chunks of the arena wall blown out from impact. If it wasn't for Kiba's decisive win, the Fantasteiku Fooru would've built a solid reputation for wrecking arenas.
"Needed a little push from your friend there," Tsurugi said, as Shikamaru approached. "He won't be here to hold your hand."
The young member of the Nara clan smiled. "No need to worry, I won't need him for this."
He took a closer look at his opponent. Shikamaru couldn't uncover anything significant about his abilities or fighting style from his stance. One of this Tsurugi's teammates had forfeited the preliminaries before they'd even begun. Another lost to Kiba earlier. Unfortunately, none of the information on his opponent's teammates told any secrets about the ninja currently standing in front of him, though.
However, it was also true that Tsurugi himself didn't know anything about Shikamaru's jutsu. Short-term plan would be to keep a short distance, allowing him to analyze and attack when an opportunity presented itself.
"Then, let the fifth match begin," the proctor said.
With that, Shikamaru's opponent rushed toward him, attacking with a wild swing of his left arm. Ha! Earlier hunch confirmed, he concluded: his opponent was, in fact, left-handed. Probably.
Shikamaru hopped backward, avoiding the attack. He opened his shuriken holster, but hopped quickly to the side to avoid a second attack, a right cross. He couldn't help but notice the high level of energy put into this opening attack by Tsurugi. Either this guy was a melee fighter by preference or this was some sort of strategic opening move for him. Maybe he needed to punch me to begin the match.
"What's wrong? Having second thoughts?" Tsurugi asked.
As predicted, Tsurugi advanced a third time, looking for a melee strike. Maybe he had insane strength or something? This time, though, Shikamaru leapt more vertically than before, just in time to miss a third attempted cross punch. He tossed two shuriken towards his opponent's head, which he easily dodged. Then, finally, he saw his opponent's eyes widen as he recognized the hissing sound of the little present Shikamaru had left waiting for him.
"Aaaaa —" he cried before the paper bomb exploded. Dark smoke and debris immediately flew into the air around the area. Shikamaru landed a few meters away. He'd have to thank Naruto in person for inspiring that last attack.
As the smoke slowly dissipated, he continued to observe the fallout from his position. He thought he'd saw a bit of movement before the blast, meaning that Tsurugi had more than likely got hit, but not necessarily enough to incapacitate him. The only way to know for sure was to find out. Trust, but verify.
He maneuvered to a point around the blast radius that maximized the length of his shadow, then: "Kage Mane no Jutsu (Shadow Imitation Technique)!" Activating the secret jutsu of the Nara clan, his shadow began pooling on the ground between his feet. Keeping both his hands locked in the hand sign, he directed his shadow to enter the blast radius. He had never used his abilities to capture something that he couldn't already see. Since he was a good distance away from his opponent now, though, he wanted to explore this hunch. Even with this most basic application of Kage Mane no Jutsu, he assumed there were applications his father either hadn't taught him or hadn't explored himself. Reset the Go board and you'd get a million different scenarios.
Though the shadow cover from the smoke and debris would extend his shadow range, he would still need to search within that extended range with his own shadow energy in order to detect his opponent's position, if it worked at all. And quickly, so he didn't leave himself vulnerable.
His shadow reached its destination. Shikamaru's eyes narrowed in concentration as he began the delicate balance of remaining sensitive to the feeling of his chakra while also remaining alert for physical movement outside of the blast radius.
Not even a few seconds later, Shikamaru saw something shoot out from cloud of smoke. A projectile, no, rather, some type of weapon being extended from the inside of the blast? It came to a stop 5-6 meters away and began scanning the environment – like a human face!?
Time seemed to enter flux. The realizations seemed to happen in slow motion: Shikamaru, realizing that Tsurugi was some sort of rubber man, and that he was using his extended neck and head like a fleshly version of an underwater periscope. The head turning toward Shikamaru, finally discovering his opponent's position. Shikamaru concluding that the angle of the extended neck would tell him where in the still-dissipating dust cloud Rubberman's main body would be.
Like a predator preparing to pounce on his prey, Rubberman's extended head made a beeline for Shikamaru. Shikamaru, though, became a moving target. While continuing to cast his shadow, he began to sprint away from the roaming head and around the dust cloud. Hopefully, he'd be able to maintain his distance from the main body while keep his chakra flow steady and avoiding an encounter with this ghastly floating head. If he couldn't connect with the main body, it was over.
Finally, he felt it. "Kage Mane no Jutsu, seikou," he said, his whole body coming to a stop. He'd connected to the main body. Just in front of him, a threatening hand had appeared, connected to an extended arm, just seconds away from striking his intended prey. Intended.
It'd be troublesome, for sure, to look behind him, but a strategy for success required one to accept being a pawn in their own game. He swallowed and slowly twisted his neck to look at his opponent.
Facing him, half a meter away, was the face of the Rubberman – veins bulging, eyes angrily narrowed, lips twisted into a menacing snarl. Well, technically, Tsurugi wasn't "facing" him. When Shikamaru's jutsu made connection with the main body, it froze the entire body in the direction it was facing at that time. Since the head was chasing Shikamaru at the time, Rubberman's face was frozen facing the back of Shikamaru's head.
So, as Shikamaru turned, he saw his opponent's profile. His opponent could no longer see him.
The head was still attached to an impossibly long neck that ran an extended curve that ended atop shoulders on a body that was about 13 meters away. Though in a different location, the body was likely angled toward Shikamaru as well.
The last of the debris from the earlier paper bomb had finally settled. Shikamaru could tell by the chakra pull needed to keep his shadow attached that this was near the limit of his shadow's length. Or maybe he was closer and the sheer length of his opponent's body was what caused the strain on his chakra.
It looked to be a deadlock. Shikamaru couldn't afford to release his jutsu lest Rubberman release all un-skeletal rage he'd been holding back. It wasn't very likely he'd be able to match his taijutsu. On the other hand, even with a disadvantage in taijutsu and offensive attack, he still maintained control of the match with his Kage Mane no Jutsu.
"Gaahhhrrrrrrr!" his opponent yelled, struggling to will himself free.
"You're pretty proud of yourself, huh?" he spat. "You've got me caught in the Nara clan's shadow binding jutsu. Congratulations! You've done everything, but you've done absolutely nothing."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "I don't know where you learned trash talk, but I could give you some pointers. Besides, I've got you trapped in my jutsu right now. What could you possibly mean by 'I've done absolutely nothing?'" Shikamaru took note that Rubberman's main body was, in fact, angled toward his position.
He grimaced under the chakra strain, but continued to maintain his chakra flow, keeping the jutsu in place. Details were coming in – he'd just need to stall a bit while he thought of a way to actually win the fight. Unlike Go matches, so far he'd had no time to actually sit and think about the entirety of the board. It was a bit weird talking to the back of someone's head, but hey, some games looked better than others.
"Kage Mane no Jutsu? Yours? Ha! You've only succeeded in this match thanks to the privileges you were handed you by the Nara clan. You haven't done anything on your own! I, on the other hand, had to claw my way as a nobody all the way to the Academy – all just to get to this point! I didn't have a high and mighty clan of Konoha behind me."
Right. Not from a clan. Which meant his family were ordinary citizens of Konoha. He'd never really thought before about whether people were from clans or not. Or how different the path of a ninja who was not from a Konoha clan might be. Clearly all this was a big part of the guy's story.
Woah. He felt it slip. In an instant he tightened up the jitsu's hold, refocusing his concentration. In that instant, Tsurugi had managed to rotate his face. He was now directly facing Shikamaru. As before, Shikamaru had view of him by shifting his gaze slightly behind his own position. Shikamaru returned his gaze to the front of his body only to find that Tsurugi's hand, rather fist, was now just about a meter from landing a direct hit.
He rotated only his head around once again, maintaining his current position while facing Tsurugi directly.
"You seem a bit winded, you spoiled trash. Maybe you're not ready for that precious family technique after all." Shikamaru was, in fact, winded. His shoulders bobbed up and down in time to deep inhales and exhales. Maintaining this position was draining his chakra reserves.
"It looks like I could say the same thing for you. You're a bit stretched beyond your normal limits, aren't you?" Though it was strange sight to see, his opponent's head almost moved up and down in rhythm with the heavy breathing his distant body was carrying out.
In the instant his control had slipped from the jutsu, his opponent had managed to face Shikamara. Which meant that when Shikamaru swiveled his head forward, Tsurugi's also swiveled counterclockwise.
Hmm.
Shikamaru again reset his gaze and rotated his body 45 degrees counterclockwise. He also took his right hand and grabbed the top of his head with it. "Take a good look at your view.
"This entire arena is in the shape of a rectangle. After turning, I can now see the far side of the wall surrounding us. For you, though, the side of the wall is much closer. I wonder what would happen if we both ran forward, as fast as we could."
Tsurugi's eyes widened, then narrowed, as he processed his new situation and what it meant for his odds of winning this battle. "Now would be the time to forfeit," Shikamaru added.
Tsurugi remained silent.
Shikamaru sighed. As soon as he pinpointed the outcome of the match all the fun of it was gone. But, might as well see it through to the finish.
Shikamaru took the first leap forward and had leg in the air before hearing:
"Stop! I forfeit!"
Shikamaru breathed a sigh of relief. With the chakra strain he was under, as well as the increased distance running would've put between them, his end strategy was mostly bluff. But, of course, effective bluffs are strategic. He could've played a few moves differently, but the game had been won. Time to reset the board.
Hands in his pocket, Shikamaru headed toward the staircase to rejoin Ino and attempt to avoid Kiba – who'd probably mention something about Shikamaru taking sooo long to finally win his match. Oh, it was horrible, Shikamaru. Me and Akamaru felt like we were back in Iruka-sensei's class, fighting to stay awake. Actually, we had a tougher fight than you, haha!
The comments from Tsurugi Misumi stuck with him as he climbed the stairs, though. He was emotionally invested in what he was saying, for sure. That was probably the reason why his trash talk during the match was so poor. He seemed to know a lot about the Nara clan in general, but Shikamaru had never heard anything about this person.
Tsurugi Misumi, huh? Shikamaru shook his head. How troublesome. If there was one thing he hated, it was sitting with open questions.