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number_one_cowardPLAYER
Name/Handle: Ningi
Contact:
AIM: Sanguine Ningi
EMAIL: amandaleewilliams@gmail.com
PLURK: areyouokaypanda
Personal Journal:ningi
CHARACTER
Name: Nara Shikamaru
Series: Naruto
Canon: OU
Age: 12
Timeline: Around chapter 140, after Sandaime’s death.
History:
Shikamaru was born to the Nara clan in the village of Konohagakure (the village hidden in the leaves) on September twenty-second, son to Shikaku and Yoshino. The Nara clan is known for their intelligence, their deer-tending, and for their manipulation of shadows. They’ve always held a special relationship with the Yamanaka and Akimichi clans, and Shikamaru spent most of his childhood in the company of Akimichi Chouji, his best friend (it’s revealed retroactively that Shikamaru and Chouji actually spent a lot of their youth with Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba, making a little “dead-last” group of rejects that spent their time failing at school by doing more interesting things. Like sleeping and pranking. Go figure). He had a fairly normal childhood (or as normal as a ninja childhood can be), graduating from the Academy at twelve years old (with less than stellar grades, to be honest) to be placed on a genin team with, wouldn’t you know it, Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino. Under the tutelage of Sarutobi Asuma, they form genin Team 10.
Alright, basic overview: successful! Application history: BEGIN.
Shikamaru’s actual canon introduction doesn’t come until chapter thirty-nine of the manga when genin from all the ninja villages are gathering for the chuunin promotion exams (genin being the rank lowest shinobi rank, and chuunin being akin to the rank of Captain). He’s introduced along with the rest of the initial main characters, but none of them are terribly important just yet. Trash-talking and peacocking is had all around until the nature of the first test is revealed.
The first test is written and comprised of ten nearly impossible to answer questions, overseen by Morino Ibiki (torture/interrogation specialist and the scariest man in Konoha). Shikamaru doesn’t bother trying to answer the first nine, instead letting Ino use her Mind Body Switch Technique to copy answers from Sakura and pass them off to the rest of team 10. Cheating is rampant, some of it more sneaky than others, and those that are too obvious get booted from the test. The final question is a choice: give up now (also failing your teammates out in the process) and take the exam again next year, or continue and risk remaining a genin forever should you fail. There’s a little nervous sway in the room, but most genin choose to stay after Naruto gives a rousing speech, and his idiotic determination proves to be the right course. The last question was the test, and anyone who chose to stay automatically passed. Team 10: 1, Chuunin exam: 0.
Seems like a lot of shit to go through for so little, but what’s more fun than making nervous twelve-year-olds piss themselves over decisions that could affect the rest of their lives? NOT MUCH.
Time for the second test! The examiner this time around is Mitarashi Anko, the scariest woman in Konoha. Test number two is a combination survival/scavenger hunt challenge. Each team is given one scroll (labeled either “Heaven” or “Earth”) and given five days to steal the opposite scroll from another team and make it to the tower in the center of the forest. Sounds simple, right? Not when you’re literally (and admittedly) the weakest team in competition.
For their first attempt at nabbing a scroll, they sneak up on... Hyuuga Neji, one of the strongest genin Konoha has to offer. Naturally, they’re caught. Shika’s ready to bolt, but Ino makes another attempt at winning Neji over with her sexiness~..... This also fails, and team 10 books it out of their with their tails between their legs.
The next time team 10 is spotted, they’re hiding in some bushes while Rock Lee and Haruno Sakura face off with some pretty nasty shinobi from the Sound village while her teammates (Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke) are unconscious and injured. Shikamaru’s spent most of the exam so far deferring to Ino (i.e. letting her have her way), but this time doing so drags their entire team into the fight to assist their fellow Leaf nin. They do their best to help for a while until Neji and Tenten (Lee’s teammates) also arrive on the scene. Sasuke picks a fine time to wake up and Shikamaru finally puts his foot down, making the executive decision that it’s time to run and hide. So... hide they do. The Sound nin are defeated and run off to regroup, and Sasuke (who received a nasty curse seal earlier in the test) is kept from going too batship crazy by the power of Sakura-hugs
The day saved, team 10 emerges again to take stock of the situation and help rouse Naruto from unconsciousness. And by “help rouse”, I mean that Shikamaru and Chouji bonked him on the head with a stick until he woke up. I wish I was kidding.
So, then... everyone stands around for a while before parting ways to finish the test. We aren’t shown how team 10 managed to nab their second scroll and pass, but somehow they did. Team 10: 2, Chuunin exam: 0.
The second test eliminated about half of the remaining genin teams, but there are still too many to head right into the third test (intended to be a tournament of one-on-one battles), so instead preliminaries for the third test begin! Right after the second test ends! It’s cool. Not like anyone needed some time to recover from five days of exposure and fighting for their lives or anything.
The preliminaries consist of ten matches and are... pretty rough. Legs are crushed, arms are blown off, and Naruto wins his match by a fart. Chouji loses his match to one of the remaining Sound nin and Ino and Sakura’s match ends with a double-knockout. Shikamaru faces off with Kin Tsuchi (one of the Sound nin) in round six. He whines for a while about having to fight a girl, even as said girl seems to be soundly kicking his ass with a combination of senbon, bells, and wire. Fortunately, he manages to distract her long enough to catch her in his shadow jutsu, controlling her body and defeating her by... making her whack her head into a wall. It’s much cooler than I’m making it sound, I swear. Very strategic and stuff. Team 10: 2.333, Chuunin exam: .666.
The preliminaries end and lots are drawn to decide the fight pairings for the finals, with one month given for competitors to rest and prepare. Shikamaru ends up with an extra match due to the odd number of entrants. He’s supposed to face Dosu (the Sound nin that beat Chouji) and then Temari (Sand nin and sister to Gaara, the scariest bitch to ever come out of the desert)... though that doesn’t end up working out. During the month of downtime Dosu goes and picks a fight with Gaara early and gets himself murdered, evening out the finals participants again. We also find out during this time that the Sand and Sound villages are working together to attempt to overthrow Konoha.
While everyone is preparing for finals, Naruto does some training with Jiraiya (old-ish guy/toad sage of AWESOME) and lands himself in the hospital. He sleeps for three days in the hospital and wakes up to find Shikamaru reading a book at his bedside. The Nara was in visiting Chouji (who ate himself sick) originally and decided to drop by when he heard Naruto was laid up as well.
Later, Naruto and Shikamaru catch Gaara in Lee’s hospital room. Lee gave Gaara one hell of a run for his money during the preliminaries, and the Sand nin tracked him down in the hospital to finish the job. Shikamaru catches Gaara in his shadow jutsu and Naruto delivers a shonen punch to the creeper’s face, because killing people isn’t cool. Especially unconscious, bedridden cripples.
Both Shikamaru and Naruto are understandably freaked out by the homicidal Sand nin, especially after strategic bluffing fails (because Gaara is nucking futs) and they learn of his “possession issues”. Gai (Lee’s jounin sensei) steps in in time to keep actual murder from happening, Naruto and Shika go off somewhere to change their pants, and everything is relatively calm until the finals actually begin.
The finals are held in a huge stadium with a full audience of spectators and a collection of VIPs from the various ninja villages (including the Kages of the Leaf and Sand villages). The chuunin exams are important not only in that they prove which genin are ready for promotion, but in that they show the mettle of each village. Stronger genin means a stronger village. Stronger villages get more clients, and therefore, more money.
The first match is between Naruto and Neji, and Naruto pulls out a win with the help of some shonen speech and clever shadow clone usage. Sasuke doesn’t show for his match with Gaara, so his match is pushed back. Kankuro (another Sand nin and sibling of Gaara) forfeits his match with Aburame Shino, and suddenly it’s Shikamaru’s turn in the ring! Shikamaru... is not pleased and fully intends to forfeit his own match. Too bad Naruto claps him on the back so hard that he falls into the ring. The crowd isn’t too happy either. After all, they were set to watch Sasuke and Gaara, the most badass genin in the bunch, duke it out, but now they’re stuck watching some girl and a spiky-haired loser.
Oddy enough, their match ends up being pretty captivating. Shikamaru spends most of the match baiting Temari with his shadows, forcing her to measure and re-measure the limit of his jutsu, slowly using the setting sun and even a parachute made of his own jacket to move her just where he wants to. In the end he catches her in his shadow bind by sneaking his shadow through a tunnel in the ground (left over from Naruto and Neji’s match). The end near, Shika walks the both of them to the middle of the ring...
… and forfeits the match. He could have beaten her any number of ways, but he used up all of his chakra over the course of the match and opted to get out while the getting was good. Baffled? Yeah, so was the crowd, but that match and Shikamaru’s critical thinking during it are why he ends up being the only genin to be promoted to chuunin during after the exams (this application won’t go that far, but that’s pretty impressive, yes?).
ANYWAYS, Sasuke finally shows up for his match, so Shikamaru heads back into the stands (using the stairs this time), accompanied by Naruto. As they’re going up, Gaara is coming down, and Mister Crazy Pants is approached by two men who try to convince him to throw his match. Instead, he splatters them all over the hallway while Naruto and Shikamaru silently piss their pants. Gaara passes the both of them as if he didn’t just repaint a hallway with blood, and eventually the two of them manage to get their collective shit together and run to Kakashi and company to try and get the match stopped. Because dayum.
But noooo, Kakashi’s not having that. We get to see Sasuke be badass for a while, but then Kabuto (evil minion to Orochimaru, the man behind the Sound village and the attempted overthrow of Konoha) springs a trap. A special technique puts most of the stadium to sleep, and we find out that Orochimaru was disguised as the visiting Kazekage the entire time. You’d think that someone would have caught that. Whoops~ Fighting breaks out between the remaining Konoha shinobi and the attacking Sound and Sand nin. Gaara and his siblings flee the scene with Sasuke hot on their tail.
Kaksahi charges with Sakura with waking up Naruto and Shikamaru... but it turns out Shikamaru was able to deflect the technique entirely. He was just faking so he could stay out of trouble. Too bad Shikamaru never gets what he wants. Their mission assignment (‘they’ being Shikamaru, Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi’s summoned dog-nin, Pakkun) is to chase after Sasuke, stop him, and take him away to a safe location. So off they go, with Pakkun’s nose leading the way! That nose informs them pretty quickly that they’re being pursued by nine men.
They discuss just what to do about the situation as they travel. Shikamaru concludes that an ambush will be ineffective against a group of enemies prepared by Orochimaru, a former Leaf nin, so the best course of action is to have one person stay behind and delay them by faking an ambush. A decoy. Doing this means the enemy won’t find the remaining three, but the one who stays behind will probably die. As the only person capable of using kagemane, originally developed as a delaying tactic, Shikamaru elects himself and the other three continue on their mission.
It really does seem like Shikamaru runs away at first, but he makes good on his plan to delay their pursuers, distracting them with fake tracks before catching eight of them in the shadow bind. He even discovers the hiding place of the ninth, but after his match he’s just too low on chakra to finish the job. His hold quickly gives out and the enemy is about to attack, but then Asuma (who followed the group from the arena, thankfully) jumps in and single-handedly takes out all nine of them, saving Shikamaru’s ass and looking pretty badass while doing it.
After that we lose track of Shikamaru for a while, but in the end Naruto and Sakura catch up to find Gaara and Sasuke fighting. Naruto beats Gaara with the power of headbutt and friendship. The third hokage fights with Orochimaru. He dies, but not before sealing away that jerk’s arms in the stomach of the death god. Two days later a funeral is held for him with the whole village in attendance.
Personality:
Shikamaru’s first canon appearance comes with a pretty accurate description from Naruto:
“Nara Shikamaru: A lazy bum who's always complaining about something. Big mouth idiot."
Naruto’s not exactly the best source of information on most days, but he was pretty spot on with that one. Anyone who knows Shikamaru will tell you that he’s... kind of a lazy bastard. Unenthusiastic in nearly everything he does, he labels most people and things as “troublesome”. He gripes and complains constantly, avoiding responsibility whenever he can. He a part of the weakest genin team and graduated from the Academy near the bottom of his class, his grades only slightly better than Naruto’s.
So, yes. “A lazy bum who’s always complaining about something.” But here’s where Mister FoxMonster McNinja’s description goes awry. Shikamaru is a certified genius with an IQ somewhere above 200. So why were his test scores so low? Because he slept through the tests. Lifting his pencil to answer the questions was too much of a hassle.
His test scores might not say so, but he’s oddly mature for his age. Shikamaru likes to take his time. He enjoys games like Shogi and Go, behaving more like an old man than a twelve-year-old boy. Hell, he even has plans as to what kind of woman he’s going to marry, how many kids he’ll have, and when he’s going to die. He doesn’t seem to have any motivation, but he’s driven when he needs to be. He’s aware of his own strengths and skills, as well as the strengths and skills of those around him, keeping his cool in the midst of battle. Even in the worst conditions, he can keep a level head, balancing risks and sacrifices and thinking with the lives of his team as the top priority. He has all the qualities of a good leader wrapped up in a frowny face and a pineapple hairstyle.
And when duty calls? He actually does make a good leader. He doesn’t have any real leadership experience at his current pull point, but he’s logical and has a strong moral code (believe it or not). He freely admits that he’s a coward (he even labels himself as the “number one coward” or the “best at running away”) and would rather avoid confrontation whenever possible, but he’s willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his friends or his village in spite of this. If something is worth doing, then it’s worth doing right, and Shikamaru is shockingly good at getting the job done.
Shikamaru is an only child, and one of the few characters in the series depicted with a two-parent household. His father... is Shikamaru plus twenty-five years. They’re nearly identical physically and seem to share similar views on life, getting along fairly well for the most part. Shikaku, however, carries far more experience and drive than his young son, and won’t hesitate to call Shikamaru out on mistakes or cowardice.
Yoshino, his mother, is an entirely different story. Abrasive and demanding of both the men in her life, she’s the origin of Shikamaru’s less-than-favorable view on women. Women in general are troublesome, bossy, and sometimes frightening creatures. Now don’t get it wrong, he’ll be very polite to women in general. Subservient, really, if he can get away with it, doing them favors and avoiding fights with them. He’s been described as misogynistic, believing that women are supposed to be protected by men (like him). Too bad he ends up with more screentime fighting against women than any other character.
The final influence to Shikamaru’s personality comes from his genin team. He and Chouji became friends around age five or six, both of them drawn by the other’s kindness (though they showed it in rather different ways). They both accepted each other for who they are (a soft-hearted fatty and a lazy jerk), and they eventually came to be quite dependant on one another. They’ve been best friends ever since and are rarely seen apart.
Ino is the female member of their team, and troublesome woman number two in Shikamaru’s life, second only to his mother. The Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara clans have shared a close bond for generations, fitting their various strengths and weaknesses together to form rather formidable fighting teams. While their team isn’t particularly strong yet and Ino can sometimes seem to be more trouble than she’s worth, she’s the one who keeps her two less motivated teammates moving.
Asuma, team 10’s jounin captain, is something of a hero to Shikamaru. He was one of the first to uncover the boy’s brilliance (using an IQ test disguised as a game) and truly believe in him. Generally laid back and carefree, he managed to form a close relationship with his team, Shikamaru especially, but he’s not the sort to pull punches either. He has no problem with bribing the three of them into doing things, or even using outright trickery, but that clever mind and devotion to his students are what earned him Shikamaru’s eternal respect.
Abilities/Additional Notes:
Appearance: Shikamaru stands at juuuust under five feet tall and boasts a very manly ninety-three pounds, so... yeah. He could stand to put on a few pounds. He has long dark hair that’s nearly always tied up in a high, spiky ponytail. His eyes are small and dark, adding some droopiness to a rather plain face. He has an almost dopey sort of look to him overall, his pierced ears too big for the rest of his head and his body held in a near-constant slouch.
He dresses fairly plainly in dark pants, sandals, and a green-trimmed mesh shirt. He wears a short, gray jacket on top. Both the sleeves and the back of the jacket bear a circle with a vertical line through it, and he wears his forehead protector tied around his upper left arm.
Abilities: Shikamaru’s most formidable ability is his intelligence. Measured at over 200 (which is apparently possible in manga-land), he is, in later canon, declared to be the most intelligent person in Fire Country. He can analyze an opponents abilities, think ten moves ahead in a fight and prepare hundreds of strategies ahead of time, but his real skill comes in choosing the best option in order to complete his mission and spare his teammates as much damage as possible. The down side to this? He’s something of a control freak, not that he (or anyone else who knows him) would say so. He’s smart and competent and he knows it, but that also means (in his mind) that he should always be able to get things right. The reason he goes so far out of his way to avoid responsibility is because if you aren’t in charge, you can’t screw things up. He’ll step up to the plate to help his friends and his village, but when it comes right down to it? He’s terrified of failure and the costs that come with it.
He’s had the same basic physical training and lessons in chakra control as every other genin, of course, but all ninja come with fancy ninja moves to back them up. The Nara clan exercises control over shadows, merging their own with their opponents to freeze them in their tracks.
The only Nara technique Shikamaru is capable of using at his pull point is the Shadow Imitation Technique. Originally created as a way to capture deer for their antlers, it evolved over time into a secret technique possessed exclusively by the Nara clan. By merging their shadow with that of their opponent, the user forces the opponent to mimic their movements. Shadows can also be split to capture more than one opponent, or can be attached to a shadow without actually binding them.
The technique has several downsides. The first is that while the victim is forced to mimic the movements of the user, if the victim is moved by an independent force (i.e. if they’re punched in the face by another teammate), the user will be forced to mimic that same movement. The second downside is that the technique grows weaker with each use. It can be held for a max of five minutes before it must be cast again, the jutsu growing less effective the more chakra is used up. Dim lighting also weakens the technique, and opponents of highly superior strength can resist the effects of the bind.
Third-Person Sample:
Shikamaru blinked warily at his surroundings, crouched nervously inside the entrance of a crumbling building, fingers gripping tight to the odd device he’d found stowed away in his pocket. He figured it had to be some sort of communication device, taking the buttons and hole-placements into account, but there was no way he was going to fiddle with unfamiliar equipment just yet. Not when he had no idea who might answer his call.
Because this wasn’t right. This wasn’t Konoha. Not by a long shot.
He’d been walking through the the village, intent on what promised to be an impressive lunch at the Akimichi compound, and then suddenly he was here. Stranded in a decimated city, the ruins of which didn’t resemble Konoha (or any other place he could think of) in the slightest... which he supposed should have been something of a comfort, but the abrupt change in location was doing little to help along such reasonable thinking. Clenched fingers and the quiet mutter of “Kai!” had done nothing to set his situation right, and now he was left with only the desolate landscape stretching out before him and the panicked flurry of his own thoughts.
What was this? Just a dream? It seemed so real, the sharp wind against his skin and the sound of gravel crunching beneath his sandals. Was he... going crazy? No, there was no need for that. He had to calm down. He wasn’t dreaming and he wasn’t in Konoha, but as long as he kept thinking rationally, he could find an explanation.
Poking his head out from his impromptu hiding place, he carefully started to edge his way outside, eyes wide and taking in everything even as he reached out hesitantly with his chakra, feeling for any signs of life. Part of him was tempted to try and wait this out. To keep out of sight until he could get his bearings, but if someone had meant to get the drop on him? They would have already.
First-Person Sample Journal Post:
[The video clicks on to reveal a fairly grouchy face. Too grouchy, really, especially on one so young. With those big ears, droopy eyes, and that fairly explosive ponytail, he’s kind of a goofy looking kid. Sure isn’t acting like one, though.
He’s been watching the network for a few days, and he’s decided he’s got enough of a handle on his PDA to finally “go public”.]
So I’ve gotten the basics on this place. [And boy is he unhappy about that, but he’s not freaking out. That’s something.] Does anybody have more than what’s in the video? ‘Cause I’m sick of trying to pry information out of Sasuke.
Name/Handle: Ningi
Contact:
AIM: Sanguine Ningi
EMAIL: amandaleewilliams@gmail.com
PLURK: areyouokaypanda
Personal Journal:
ningiCHARACTER
Name: Nara Shikamaru
Series: Naruto
Canon: OU
Age: 12
Timeline: Around chapter 140, after Sandaime’s death.
History:
Shikamaru was born to the Nara clan in the village of Konohagakure (the village hidden in the leaves) on September twenty-second, son to Shikaku and Yoshino. The Nara clan is known for their intelligence, their deer-tending, and for their manipulation of shadows. They’ve always held a special relationship with the Yamanaka and Akimichi clans, and Shikamaru spent most of his childhood in the company of Akimichi Chouji, his best friend (it’s revealed retroactively that Shikamaru and Chouji actually spent a lot of their youth with Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba, making a little “dead-last” group of rejects that spent their time failing at school by doing more interesting things. Like sleeping and pranking. Go figure). He had a fairly normal childhood (or as normal as a ninja childhood can be), graduating from the Academy at twelve years old (with less than stellar grades, to be honest) to be placed on a genin team with, wouldn’t you know it, Akimichi Chouji and Yamanaka Ino. Under the tutelage of Sarutobi Asuma, they form genin Team 10.
Alright, basic overview: successful! Application history: BEGIN.
Shikamaru’s actual canon introduction doesn’t come until chapter thirty-nine of the manga when genin from all the ninja villages are gathering for the chuunin promotion exams (genin being the rank lowest shinobi rank, and chuunin being akin to the rank of Captain). He’s introduced along with the rest of the initial main characters, but none of them are terribly important just yet. Trash-talking and peacocking is had all around until the nature of the first test is revealed.
The first test is written and comprised of ten nearly impossible to answer questions, overseen by Morino Ibiki (torture/interrogation specialist and the scariest man in Konoha). Shikamaru doesn’t bother trying to answer the first nine, instead letting Ino use her Mind Body Switch Technique to copy answers from Sakura and pass them off to the rest of team 10. Cheating is rampant, some of it more sneaky than others, and those that are too obvious get booted from the test. The final question is a choice: give up now (also failing your teammates out in the process) and take the exam again next year, or continue and risk remaining a genin forever should you fail. There’s a little nervous sway in the room, but most genin choose to stay after Naruto gives a rousing speech, and his idiotic determination proves to be the right course. The last question was the test, and anyone who chose to stay automatically passed. Team 10: 1, Chuunin exam: 0.
Seems like a lot of shit to go through for so little, but what’s more fun than making nervous twelve-year-olds piss themselves over decisions that could affect the rest of their lives? NOT MUCH.
Time for the second test! The examiner this time around is Mitarashi Anko, the scariest woman in Konoha. Test number two is a combination survival/scavenger hunt challenge. Each team is given one scroll (labeled either “Heaven” or “Earth”) and given five days to steal the opposite scroll from another team and make it to the tower in the center of the forest. Sounds simple, right? Not when you’re literally (and admittedly) the weakest team in competition.
For their first attempt at nabbing a scroll, they sneak up on... Hyuuga Neji, one of the strongest genin Konoha has to offer. Naturally, they’re caught. Shika’s ready to bolt, but Ino makes another attempt at winning Neji over with her sexiness~..... This also fails, and team 10 books it out of their with their tails between their legs.
The next time team 10 is spotted, they’re hiding in some bushes while Rock Lee and Haruno Sakura face off with some pretty nasty shinobi from the Sound village while her teammates (Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke) are unconscious and injured. Shikamaru’s spent most of the exam so far deferring to Ino (i.e. letting her have her way), but this time doing so drags their entire team into the fight to assist their fellow Leaf nin. They do their best to help for a while until Neji and Tenten (Lee’s teammates) also arrive on the scene. Sasuke picks a fine time to wake up and Shikamaru finally puts his foot down, making the executive decision that it’s time to run and hide. So... hide they do. The Sound nin are defeated and run off to regroup, and Sasuke (who received a nasty curse seal earlier in the test) is kept from going too batship crazy by the power of Sakura-hugs
The day saved, team 10 emerges again to take stock of the situation and help rouse Naruto from unconsciousness. And by “help rouse”, I mean that Shikamaru and Chouji bonked him on the head with a stick until he woke up. I wish I was kidding.
So, then... everyone stands around for a while before parting ways to finish the test. We aren’t shown how team 10 managed to nab their second scroll and pass, but somehow they did. Team 10: 2, Chuunin exam: 0.
The second test eliminated about half of the remaining genin teams, but there are still too many to head right into the third test (intended to be a tournament of one-on-one battles), so instead preliminaries for the third test begin! Right after the second test ends! It’s cool. Not like anyone needed some time to recover from five days of exposure and fighting for their lives or anything.
The preliminaries consist of ten matches and are... pretty rough. Legs are crushed, arms are blown off, and Naruto wins his match by a fart. Chouji loses his match to one of the remaining Sound nin and Ino and Sakura’s match ends with a double-knockout. Shikamaru faces off with Kin Tsuchi (one of the Sound nin) in round six. He whines for a while about having to fight a girl, even as said girl seems to be soundly kicking his ass with a combination of senbon, bells, and wire. Fortunately, he manages to distract her long enough to catch her in his shadow jutsu, controlling her body and defeating her by... making her whack her head into a wall. It’s much cooler than I’m making it sound, I swear. Very strategic and stuff. Team 10: 2.333, Chuunin exam: .666.
The preliminaries end and lots are drawn to decide the fight pairings for the finals, with one month given for competitors to rest and prepare. Shikamaru ends up with an extra match due to the odd number of entrants. He’s supposed to face Dosu (the Sound nin that beat Chouji) and then Temari (Sand nin and sister to Gaara, the scariest bitch to ever come out of the desert)... though that doesn’t end up working out. During the month of downtime Dosu goes and picks a fight with Gaara early and gets himself murdered, evening out the finals participants again. We also find out during this time that the Sand and Sound villages are working together to attempt to overthrow Konoha.
While everyone is preparing for finals, Naruto does some training with Jiraiya (old-ish guy/toad sage of AWESOME) and lands himself in the hospital. He sleeps for three days in the hospital and wakes up to find Shikamaru reading a book at his bedside. The Nara was in visiting Chouji (who ate himself sick) originally and decided to drop by when he heard Naruto was laid up as well.
Later, Naruto and Shikamaru catch Gaara in Lee’s hospital room. Lee gave Gaara one hell of a run for his money during the preliminaries, and the Sand nin tracked him down in the hospital to finish the job. Shikamaru catches Gaara in his shadow jutsu and Naruto delivers a shonen punch to the creeper’s face, because killing people isn’t cool. Especially unconscious, bedridden cripples.
Both Shikamaru and Naruto are understandably freaked out by the homicidal Sand nin, especially after strategic bluffing fails (because Gaara is nucking futs) and they learn of his “possession issues”. Gai (Lee’s jounin sensei) steps in in time to keep actual murder from happening, Naruto and Shika go off somewhere to change their pants, and everything is relatively calm until the finals actually begin.
The finals are held in a huge stadium with a full audience of spectators and a collection of VIPs from the various ninja villages (including the Kages of the Leaf and Sand villages). The chuunin exams are important not only in that they prove which genin are ready for promotion, but in that they show the mettle of each village. Stronger genin means a stronger village. Stronger villages get more clients, and therefore, more money.
The first match is between Naruto and Neji, and Naruto pulls out a win with the help of some shonen speech and clever shadow clone usage. Sasuke doesn’t show for his match with Gaara, so his match is pushed back. Kankuro (another Sand nin and sibling of Gaara) forfeits his match with Aburame Shino, and suddenly it’s Shikamaru’s turn in the ring! Shikamaru... is not pleased and fully intends to forfeit his own match. Too bad Naruto claps him on the back so hard that he falls into the ring. The crowd isn’t too happy either. After all, they were set to watch Sasuke and Gaara, the most badass genin in the bunch, duke it out, but now they’re stuck watching some girl and a spiky-haired loser.
Oddy enough, their match ends up being pretty captivating. Shikamaru spends most of the match baiting Temari with his shadows, forcing her to measure and re-measure the limit of his jutsu, slowly using the setting sun and even a parachute made of his own jacket to move her just where he wants to. In the end he catches her in his shadow bind by sneaking his shadow through a tunnel in the ground (left over from Naruto and Neji’s match). The end near, Shika walks the both of them to the middle of the ring...
… and forfeits the match. He could have beaten her any number of ways, but he used up all of his chakra over the course of the match and opted to get out while the getting was good. Baffled? Yeah, so was the crowd, but that match and Shikamaru’s critical thinking during it are why he ends up being the only genin to be promoted to chuunin during after the exams (this application won’t go that far, but that’s pretty impressive, yes?).
ANYWAYS, Sasuke finally shows up for his match, so Shikamaru heads back into the stands (using the stairs this time), accompanied by Naruto. As they’re going up, Gaara is coming down, and Mister Crazy Pants is approached by two men who try to convince him to throw his match. Instead, he splatters them all over the hallway while Naruto and Shikamaru silently piss their pants. Gaara passes the both of them as if he didn’t just repaint a hallway with blood, and eventually the two of them manage to get their collective shit together and run to Kakashi and company to try and get the match stopped. Because dayum.
But noooo, Kakashi’s not having that. We get to see Sasuke be badass for a while, but then Kabuto (evil minion to Orochimaru, the man behind the Sound village and the attempted overthrow of Konoha) springs a trap. A special technique puts most of the stadium to sleep, and we find out that Orochimaru was disguised as the visiting Kazekage the entire time. You’d think that someone would have caught that. Whoops~ Fighting breaks out between the remaining Konoha shinobi and the attacking Sound and Sand nin. Gaara and his siblings flee the scene with Sasuke hot on their tail.
Kaksahi charges with Sakura with waking up Naruto and Shikamaru... but it turns out Shikamaru was able to deflect the technique entirely. He was just faking so he could stay out of trouble. Too bad Shikamaru never gets what he wants. Their mission assignment (‘they’ being Shikamaru, Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi’s summoned dog-nin, Pakkun) is to chase after Sasuke, stop him, and take him away to a safe location. So off they go, with Pakkun’s nose leading the way! That nose informs them pretty quickly that they’re being pursued by nine men.
They discuss just what to do about the situation as they travel. Shikamaru concludes that an ambush will be ineffective against a group of enemies prepared by Orochimaru, a former Leaf nin, so the best course of action is to have one person stay behind and delay them by faking an ambush. A decoy. Doing this means the enemy won’t find the remaining three, but the one who stays behind will probably die. As the only person capable of using kagemane, originally developed as a delaying tactic, Shikamaru elects himself and the other three continue on their mission.
It really does seem like Shikamaru runs away at first, but he makes good on his plan to delay their pursuers, distracting them with fake tracks before catching eight of them in the shadow bind. He even discovers the hiding place of the ninth, but after his match he’s just too low on chakra to finish the job. His hold quickly gives out and the enemy is about to attack, but then Asuma (who followed the group from the arena, thankfully) jumps in and single-handedly takes out all nine of them, saving Shikamaru’s ass and looking pretty badass while doing it.
After that we lose track of Shikamaru for a while, but in the end Naruto and Sakura catch up to find Gaara and Sasuke fighting. Naruto beats Gaara with the power of headbutt and friendship. The third hokage fights with Orochimaru. He dies, but not before sealing away that jerk’s arms in the stomach of the death god. Two days later a funeral is held for him with the whole village in attendance.
Personality:
Shikamaru’s first canon appearance comes with a pretty accurate description from Naruto:
“Nara Shikamaru: A lazy bum who's always complaining about something. Big mouth idiot."
Naruto’s not exactly the best source of information on most days, but he was pretty spot on with that one. Anyone who knows Shikamaru will tell you that he’s... kind of a lazy bastard. Unenthusiastic in nearly everything he does, he labels most people and things as “troublesome”. He gripes and complains constantly, avoiding responsibility whenever he can. He a part of the weakest genin team and graduated from the Academy near the bottom of his class, his grades only slightly better than Naruto’s.
So, yes. “A lazy bum who’s always complaining about something.” But here’s where Mister FoxMonster McNinja’s description goes awry. Shikamaru is a certified genius with an IQ somewhere above 200. So why were his test scores so low? Because he slept through the tests. Lifting his pencil to answer the questions was too much of a hassle.
His test scores might not say so, but he’s oddly mature for his age. Shikamaru likes to take his time. He enjoys games like Shogi and Go, behaving more like an old man than a twelve-year-old boy. Hell, he even has plans as to what kind of woman he’s going to marry, how many kids he’ll have, and when he’s going to die. He doesn’t seem to have any motivation, but he’s driven when he needs to be. He’s aware of his own strengths and skills, as well as the strengths and skills of those around him, keeping his cool in the midst of battle. Even in the worst conditions, he can keep a level head, balancing risks and sacrifices and thinking with the lives of his team as the top priority. He has all the qualities of a good leader wrapped up in a frowny face and a pineapple hairstyle.
And when duty calls? He actually does make a good leader. He doesn’t have any real leadership experience at his current pull point, but he’s logical and has a strong moral code (believe it or not). He freely admits that he’s a coward (he even labels himself as the “number one coward” or the “best at running away”) and would rather avoid confrontation whenever possible, but he’s willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his friends or his village in spite of this. If something is worth doing, then it’s worth doing right, and Shikamaru is shockingly good at getting the job done.
Shikamaru is an only child, and one of the few characters in the series depicted with a two-parent household. His father... is Shikamaru plus twenty-five years. They’re nearly identical physically and seem to share similar views on life, getting along fairly well for the most part. Shikaku, however, carries far more experience and drive than his young son, and won’t hesitate to call Shikamaru out on mistakes or cowardice.
Yoshino, his mother, is an entirely different story. Abrasive and demanding of both the men in her life, she’s the origin of Shikamaru’s less-than-favorable view on women. Women in general are troublesome, bossy, and sometimes frightening creatures. Now don’t get it wrong, he’ll be very polite to women in general. Subservient, really, if he can get away with it, doing them favors and avoiding fights with them. He’s been described as misogynistic, believing that women are supposed to be protected by men (like him). Too bad he ends up with more screentime fighting against women than any other character.
The final influence to Shikamaru’s personality comes from his genin team. He and Chouji became friends around age five or six, both of them drawn by the other’s kindness (though they showed it in rather different ways). They both accepted each other for who they are (a soft-hearted fatty and a lazy jerk), and they eventually came to be quite dependant on one another. They’ve been best friends ever since and are rarely seen apart.
Ino is the female member of their team, and troublesome woman number two in Shikamaru’s life, second only to his mother. The Yamanaka, Akimichi, and Nara clans have shared a close bond for generations, fitting their various strengths and weaknesses together to form rather formidable fighting teams. While their team isn’t particularly strong yet and Ino can sometimes seem to be more trouble than she’s worth, she’s the one who keeps her two less motivated teammates moving.
Asuma, team 10’s jounin captain, is something of a hero to Shikamaru. He was one of the first to uncover the boy’s brilliance (using an IQ test disguised as a game) and truly believe in him. Generally laid back and carefree, he managed to form a close relationship with his team, Shikamaru especially, but he’s not the sort to pull punches either. He has no problem with bribing the three of them into doing things, or even using outright trickery, but that clever mind and devotion to his students are what earned him Shikamaru’s eternal respect.
Abilities/Additional Notes:
Appearance: Shikamaru stands at juuuust under five feet tall and boasts a very manly ninety-three pounds, so... yeah. He could stand to put on a few pounds. He has long dark hair that’s nearly always tied up in a high, spiky ponytail. His eyes are small and dark, adding some droopiness to a rather plain face. He has an almost dopey sort of look to him overall, his pierced ears too big for the rest of his head and his body held in a near-constant slouch.
He dresses fairly plainly in dark pants, sandals, and a green-trimmed mesh shirt. He wears a short, gray jacket on top. Both the sleeves and the back of the jacket bear a circle with a vertical line through it, and he wears his forehead protector tied around his upper left arm.
Abilities: Shikamaru’s most formidable ability is his intelligence. Measured at over 200 (which is apparently possible in manga-land), he is, in later canon, declared to be the most intelligent person in Fire Country. He can analyze an opponents abilities, think ten moves ahead in a fight and prepare hundreds of strategies ahead of time, but his real skill comes in choosing the best option in order to complete his mission and spare his teammates as much damage as possible. The down side to this? He’s something of a control freak, not that he (or anyone else who knows him) would say so. He’s smart and competent and he knows it, but that also means (in his mind) that he should always be able to get things right. The reason he goes so far out of his way to avoid responsibility is because if you aren’t in charge, you can’t screw things up. He’ll step up to the plate to help his friends and his village, but when it comes right down to it? He’s terrified of failure and the costs that come with it.
He’s had the same basic physical training and lessons in chakra control as every other genin, of course, but all ninja come with fancy ninja moves to back them up. The Nara clan exercises control over shadows, merging their own with their opponents to freeze them in their tracks.
The only Nara technique Shikamaru is capable of using at his pull point is the Shadow Imitation Technique. Originally created as a way to capture deer for their antlers, it evolved over time into a secret technique possessed exclusively by the Nara clan. By merging their shadow with that of their opponent, the user forces the opponent to mimic their movements. Shadows can also be split to capture more than one opponent, or can be attached to a shadow without actually binding them.
The technique has several downsides. The first is that while the victim is forced to mimic the movements of the user, if the victim is moved by an independent force (i.e. if they’re punched in the face by another teammate), the user will be forced to mimic that same movement. The second downside is that the technique grows weaker with each use. It can be held for a max of five minutes before it must be cast again, the jutsu growing less effective the more chakra is used up. Dim lighting also weakens the technique, and opponents of highly superior strength can resist the effects of the bind.
Third-Person Sample:
Shikamaru blinked warily at his surroundings, crouched nervously inside the entrance of a crumbling building, fingers gripping tight to the odd device he’d found stowed away in his pocket. He figured it had to be some sort of communication device, taking the buttons and hole-placements into account, but there was no way he was going to fiddle with unfamiliar equipment just yet. Not when he had no idea who might answer his call.
Because this wasn’t right. This wasn’t Konoha. Not by a long shot.
He’d been walking through the the village, intent on what promised to be an impressive lunch at the Akimichi compound, and then suddenly he was here. Stranded in a decimated city, the ruins of which didn’t resemble Konoha (or any other place he could think of) in the slightest... which he supposed should have been something of a comfort, but the abrupt change in location was doing little to help along such reasonable thinking. Clenched fingers and the quiet mutter of “Kai!” had done nothing to set his situation right, and now he was left with only the desolate landscape stretching out before him and the panicked flurry of his own thoughts.
What was this? Just a dream? It seemed so real, the sharp wind against his skin and the sound of gravel crunching beneath his sandals. Was he... going crazy? No, there was no need for that. He had to calm down. He wasn’t dreaming and he wasn’t in Konoha, but as long as he kept thinking rationally, he could find an explanation.
Poking his head out from his impromptu hiding place, he carefully started to edge his way outside, eyes wide and taking in everything even as he reached out hesitantly with his chakra, feeling for any signs of life. Part of him was tempted to try and wait this out. To keep out of sight until he could get his bearings, but if someone had meant to get the drop on him? They would have already.
First-Person Sample Journal Post:
[The video clicks on to reveal a fairly grouchy face. Too grouchy, really, especially on one so young. With those big ears, droopy eyes, and that fairly explosive ponytail, he’s kind of a goofy looking kid. Sure isn’t acting like one, though.
He’s been watching the network for a few days, and he’s decided he’s got enough of a handle on his PDA to finally “go public”.]
So I’ve gotten the basics on this place. [And boy is he unhappy about that, but he’s not freaking out. That’s something.] Does anybody have more than what’s in the video? ‘Cause I’m sick of trying to pry information out of Sasuke.
