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Chapter 96: Hidden Strategies
🕑 Added 2025-09-15 15:13:37 +0000 UTC"That's it, Shikamaru! Move it! You can't win a fight by taking a nap out there!"
Naruto's voice boomed through their small section of the stands, earning him a disapproving glare from an old man sitting in front of them. Naruto ignored him completely, his elbows on his knees and his eyes locked on the arena. Down below, the battle had begun, and "battle" seemed like too generous a word.
"Come on, Shikamaru, do something," Ino muttered beside him, clenching her fists in her lap. "Anything. Throw a kunai at her. Throw a rock! Yawn in her direction with more energy!"
In the arena, Temari, the kunoichi from the Sand, was unleashing blasts of cutting wind with her enormous fan. Each attack was a violent gale, powerful enough to strip the bark from a tree or carve grooves into the packed earth. And Shikamaru, for his part, was just dodging. He did it with an infuriating lack of haste, sometimes taking a single step to the side, other times ducking with a barely concealed yawn, letting the hurricane of chakra whistle over his head.
"He's going to get blown away any second now!" Naruto complained, leaning even further forward. "Why won't he fight back? He's just running! Well, he's not even running, he's just… stepping aside."
"He's not being lazy, Naruto," Sakura said, her green eyes analyzing the battlefield like a problem on a test. Her tone was calm, analytical. "Well, he is, but it's not just that. Look at his position."
Ino snorted. "I'm looking, believe me. And what I see is the same slacker who falls asleep during training. What am I supposed to be seeing, Forehead?"
"He's not dodging randomly," Sakura continued. "Watch. Every time she attacks, he moves left or right, but always a little farther back. He's luring her to a specific part of the arena."
Naruto narrowed his eyes, trying to see what Sakura saw. "Luring her? It looks like he's trying to find the shortest way out of the stadium!"
"Exactly," Ino cut in, smacking the armrest in frustration. As Shikamaru's teammate, her exasperation was far more personal. "Look at him! He's yawning! I swear he's yawning in the middle of a fight! It drives me crazy. But…" She paused, her expression shifting slightly. "Watch his feet. Sakura's right. He never steps in the same place twice. He's always moving to a new shadow."
It was true. Once it was pointed out, it was impossible to miss. Shikamaru moved with an almost insulting economy of motion, but every step was deliberate. He moved across the arena like a piece on a three-dimensional chessboard, using the long shadows cast by the stadium's high walls as his temporary refuge.
Karin, sitting between Naruto and Hinata, watched the fight with her eyes slightly unfocused, her head tilted. "It's strange," she whispered, her voice barely audible over the crowd's roar.
Naruto turned to her. "What is it, Karin? Do you sense something?"
She nodded slowly, not taking her eyes off the arena. "That girl's chakra is immense and violent. Every time she swings that fan, it's an explosion of energy." She shivered slightly. "But his… it's quiet."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, leaning in to hear better.
"It's spreading," Karin explained, frowning with concentration. "Very slowly, beneath the surface of the sand."
"Then it's a trap," Hinata added softly, her tone barely a whisper but loaded with certainty. Her pale eyes, sharper than the others' thanks to her Byakugan, saw the origin of those shadows.
"He keeps looking at the sun," she said.
They all fell silent for a second, processing the information.
"The sun?" Naruto repeated, confused. "Why would he be looking at the sun?"
"To see how the shadows are moving," Hinata answered. "He's measuring the speed at which they change position. He's practically predicting where the shadows will be in the next few minutes."
The revelation struck the group.
"That damn…," Ino muttered, but this time, there was an unmistakable note of awe in her voice. She looked at Sakura. "He's going to make us win the bet, isn't he?"
Sakura grinned, a genuine, competitive smile. "Looks like it."
"Come on, Shikamaru, you slacker!" Ino suddenly yelled, jumping to her feet and cupping her hands around her mouth. Her voice, now, was a mix of frustration and pride. "Stop thinking and attack already!"
*****
In an upper corridor that offered a panoramic view of the arena, the perspective was different. The battle below was simple entertainment, the final tick of a clock before the alarm sounded. Kakashi was leaning on the railing, but his eye wasn't following the back-and-forth of the fight. He was scanning methodically—the roofs, the exits, the faces in the crowd.
"KAKASHI! MY ETERNAL RIVAL!"
The thundering voice preceded the impact. Might Guy landed beside him in a pose so dynamic that several nearby spectators turned to stare.
"Enjoying the explosion of youth from our brave students?" he exclaimed, clapping Kakashi on the back with enough force to knock down a lesser man. "The flame of Shikamaru's strategy burns in a curiously languid manner, but his mind is as sharp as one of my hurricane kicks!"
"They're in position," was Kakashi's only reply, his voice a low, tense murmur, his eye never wavering from its methodical sweep.
Guy's smile vanished instantly. His exuberance receded, replaced by the cold, sharp gaze of one of Konoha's most powerful Jōnin. He leaned on the railing next to Kakashi, his own eyes now scanning with the same intensity.
"Already?" he asked quietly. "Where?"
"North exit," Kakashi said, with a subtle nod. "The two guards. They're wearing our chūnin uniforms, but look at their posture. Too rigid. They're from the Sand. I recognize the training style in how they distribute their weight."
Guy followed his gaze. They were details a civilian would never notice, but to him, they were obvious. "I see. Their hands never leave their weapon pouches," Guy murmured. "They're already preparing for the attack."
"The dango seller at gate twelve," Kakashi continued. "He's been smiling for ten minutes without serving a single customer."
"And the two roofers on the western roof," Guy added, his eyes narrowing. "They haven't hammered a single nail. They're watching the Kage's box."
A silence settled between them, a stark contrast to the cheers of the crowd below. It was confirmation. The invasion they had secretly been preparing to counter was about to begin. These weren't Konoha reinforcements; they were the enemy's first wave, hidden in plain sight.
"So it's time," Guy said, his voice now a low grumble. "They've moved into their final positions. They're waiting for the signal."
"Yes," Kakashi confirmed, his visible eye shifting to the Kage's box, where the Third Hokage watched the fight next to a Kazekage who was not who he claimed to be.
"This was never an exam, was it?" Guy murmured, more a statement than a question. "This whole thing… this entire event… it's just the battlefield they chose."
Kakashi finally turned to look at his rival, his expression cold.
"Exactly," he said quietly. "And Sasuke's match is the start of it all. Get ready, Guy. The real fight is about to begin."
*****
"You're out of shadows, Leaf boy!" Temari shouted with confidence. She raised her fan, preparing it for a final, devastating attack that would sweep the entire arena. "No more running! This is the end!"
"You're right," Shikamaru said, and for the first time since the match began, he smiled. It was a faint, almost imperceptible smile, but it was there.
He threw a kunai.
The gesture was so simple, so anticlimactic, that Temari almost laughed. She deflected the weapon with a casual flick of her closed fan, the metal meeting with a sharp sound. The kunai spun and embedded itself in the wall behind Temari. The small paper tag tied to its hilt fluttered in the wind, casting a thin, lonely line of a shadow on the ground. It wasn't enough to connect. Not even close.
"Is that it?" she mocked, opening her fan completely. "One kunai? After all that running? You're pathetic."
"No," Shikamaru said, his voice calm. "I just needed to keep you busy for a second."
Temari frowned, confused. Busy? With that? It was then that she noticed it. A strange feeling, a sluggishness in her limbs. She looked down. Shikamaru's shadow was stretching toward her. But not from the front, where he stood, but from behind.
She spun around and saw the dark tunnel the combatants had walked out of at the start of the match. Shikamaru had positioned himself perfectly. The deep shadow cast by the tunnel connected with the thin line from the kunai's tag, which in turn connected with her own shadow, creating a dark bridge across the sunlit arena.
"Impossible!" she gasped.
His Shadow Possession Jutsu slid across that bridge with incredible speed. Before Temari could react, before she could take a single step to break the connection, the shadow seized her, freezing her in place.
"What…?" she panted, fighting against the invisible control that paralyzed her. Her muscles tensed, but they wouldn't respond.
"Checkmate," Shikamaru said with a sigh that sounded more of relief at being able to stop moving than of the exhilaration of victory. He raised his right hand, and Temari, against her will, raised hers as well, her face a mask of disbelief and fury.
The crowd erupted.
"YES! I TOLD YOU! HE DID IT!" Naruto shouted, leaping from his seat and pumping his fist in the air. "I KNEW HE HAD A PLAN!"
"HA! PAY UP, FOREHEAD!" Ino exclaimed, shaking Sakura by the shoulders so hard she nearly fell out of her seat. "I TOLD YOU THAT SLACKER COULD DO IT WHEN HE WANTED TO! TWENTY RYŌ! NOW!"
Sakura was laughing, trying to push Ino off. "Alright, alright, you win! That was amazing!"
Even Hinata had a small smile on her face, while Karin just shook her head, a smile of amazement on her lips.
In the midst of the celebration, at the moment of his total victory, with his opponent completely immobilized and at his mercy, Shikamaru slowly raised his other hand, the one that was free.
"Proctor," he said, his lazy but clear voice echoing in the sudden silence his gesture had created. "I forfeit."
The silence that followed was total and absolute. Ten thousand people simultaneously processing an absurd statement. The cheers died, conversations cut off mid-sentence. The only sound was the wind whistling softly across the arena.
Temari stared at him, her expression shifting from disbelief to absolute fury and then back to even deeper disbelief. Naruto and the girls stood with their mouths open, their smiles frozen.
"SHIKAMARU, YOU IDIOT!" Ino screamed, her face red with rage. The pride for her teammate was instantly replaced by murderous anger. "HE OWES ME TWENTY RYŌ! I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU ALIVE WHEN YOU GET DOWN HERE!"
Sakura just covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe it. I really can't believe it. Why?"
Shikamaru, oblivious to the chaos he had created or simply indifferent to it, turned and started walking back toward the tunnel, his hands in his pockets, as his jutsu dissipated and released Temari. As he walked, he muttered to himself, just loud enough for the proctor to hear, "I used up too much chakra, and I only have about ten seconds left before the jutsu runs out anyway. Figuring out all the moves to beat her from here on out would be too troublesome… Besides, with the tense atmosphere, it's better to save my strength for whatever comes next."
Genma, the proctor, who had seen countless matches, just stared at the boy walking away. Then, a slow smile spread beneath his senbon, and he let out a choked laugh. After a moment, he cleared his throat and addressed the silent crowd. "Due to the forfeiture… the winner is… Temari of the Sand!"
The crowd reacted with a strange mix of boos, confused applause, and laughter. As a furious and humiliated Temari exited the arena, the large stadium screen flickered. Shikamaru and Temari's names disappeared, and two new ones appeared in their place, written in large, bold letters.
Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara of the Sand
The atmosphere in the stadium changed in an instant.
In the stands, the jokes and shouts from Naruto's group ceased immediately.
"Sasuke…" Sakura whispered, leaning forward, her hands clasped so tightly her knuckles were white. All her frustration with Shikamaru had vanished, replaced by a biting anxiety.
*****
In the corridors, Kakashi straightened up, pushing away from the railing. His single eye narrowed. Guy, beside him, lost his entire carefree facade.
"So this is the moment," Guy said, his voice a low rumble. "The Uchiha. They knew he would draw every eye."
"It's the perfect time," Kakashi replied, his hand already moving slowly toward the pouch on his vest. "The signal."
The moment had arrived.
Every eye in the stadium turned toward the two dark entrances, waiting for the two combatants who, unknowingly, were about to decide the fate of Konoha. The silence before the duel stretched on. An entire village holding its breath.
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