Sasuke vs Gaara is scheduled next. Since the emo boy hasn’t showed, the rules are crystal clear. However…

“What is he doing? Is he not coming?” Shikamaru says.

“Tch. Wasting everyone’s time so he can make a dramatic entrance…” I grumble.

“What are you guys talking about, dattebayo? Of course he’ll come, no doubt about it!”

Then, just as the Hokage is about to disqualify Sasuke, the ‘Kazekage’ pipes up with some fucking special treatment bullshit. The Uchiha fight gets postponed. Sigh, as expected…

“Eh, my match has been moved up?!?” Shikamaru says.

“Yes!!! Alright, let’s go!” Ino shouts as she jumps into the area with her black cloak billowing.

Shikamaru seems to hesitate upon seeing Ino’s enthusiasm. He leans upon the railing while clenching his teeth in an internal debate.

“Go get em’ Shikamaru-kun!” Naruto says. Then he slaps the Nara boy on the ass so hard it knocks Shikamaru over the edge of the railing and into the arena.

“Naruto-kun… what the fuck?” the black-haired boy says from his prone position on the ground.

The audience starts calling for the match to hurry up. They’re pissed they have to wait longer for Sasuke’s bout, of course.

“Shikamaru-kun, get the fuck up! I need to beat your sorry ass so I can impress my girlfriend!”

“Tch, first Choji-kun, now Ino-chan. The examiners sure have a twisted sense of humor.” Shikamaru stands and dusts himself off. “I don’t really care whether I become a Chunin or not, but I guess I shouldn’t hold back against a teammate.”

“Match Two, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino. Begin!”

Shikamaru and Ino both raise their arms with their signature hand seals.

“Mind Body Switch Technique!”

“Shadow Possess—Fuck!”

Shikamaru almost commits to the jutsu before realizing the problem and diving away. Theoretically, if Ino and Shikamaru both hit each other with their techniques, Ino’s immobilization wouldn’t matter. She’d already have ‘fainted’ while in control of Shikamaru’s body. At that point, she could cancel his jutsu and announce his surrender. To win, he has to touch her with his shadow without giving her a line-of-sight to counterattack.

This is a bad matchup for Shikamaru in terms of their techniques’ rock-paper-scissors interaction. The peanut gallery notices Shikamaru’s intelligence and judgment, making comments on his decision. Meanwhile, the Nara boy runs for cover.

“That was a feint to establish dominance,” Ino says. “I knew you’d dodge. Now, Shadow Senbon!” Ino reaches into her cloak and four needles with bells shoot from beneath the billowing fabric. Shikamaru ducks behind a tree as the projectiles lodge in the bark.

“Sheesh, you can double your throws like Tenten-chan, huh? What have you girls been learning?” he says from his hiding spot. “But, really, Ino-chan, you think I’ll fall for the old bell trick? Get me used to senbon with bells so you can sneak the silent ones under my guard?”

“Not quite. Genjutsu: Bell Sound Clone!”

Ino uses threads tied to the bells to ring them in a hypnotic pattern. Shikamaru clutches his head as the sound makes him dizzy enough to see double, triple, or even quintuple Ino’s as he succumbs.

“I don’t need to find the true you when I have a path to follow…” he mumbles.

“Shit!” Ino says as she realizes what he’s doing. Shikamaru’s shadow stealthily follows the string across the arena to strike at the real kunoichi!

Her quick thinking and experience training with him allows Ino to realize her mistake in time. She severs the string with a kunai and dodges away. However, the shadow continues to aim for her feet even as she retreats to what she thought was a safe distance.

“You’re using the arena’s shadow to extend your range, you bastard!”

“Finally figured it out, huh?”

The moment Ino lands, a fraction of a second before Shikamaru’s shadow touches her, Ino’s cloak billows, and she dodges aside. Anyone paying attention can see she didn’t bend her legs properly to spring away in that direction. She somehow reacted when she should’ve been caught flat-footed.

“Damn, not even her movements make sense…” Shikamaru complains.

“I’ll have to flush you out of hiding!” Ino shouts as she runs about throwing senbon and flashing her Mind Body Switch hand seal. Shikamaru dashes from cover to cover while threatening her in turn with a tendril of shadow.

While both have skills to be proud of, the shogi player inevitably and subtly maneuvers them into their final positions. Shikamaru leaves cover to kneel in the shadows with his signature hand seal. Ino sees he’s too far away to reach her and doesn’t make the mental leap in logic. She pauses to counterattack without realizing she’s allowed herself to be caught.

The instant before Ino brings her hands together to use her jutsu, she freezes.

“W-what? How?”

Her eyes find the tendril of darkness touching her shadow from behind. She follows the trail to the tunnel Naruto dug to win his match, the tunnel leading suspiciously close to Shikamaru’s position. The Nara scion used that dark underground pathway to extend his range.

Shikamaru raises his hand, and Ino’s with him. “That’s it; I give up. I used too much chakra, so I can only hold you for about ten seconds. Which means I’m out of time.”

“The winner is Yamanaka Ino!”

“Eh???”