"Should I just forfeit? But bowing out in the very first match would be a pain in its own way…"
Nara Shikamaru wanted to quit.
There were way too many powerhouses in this lineup. Could someone as weak as him really survive this?
But his was the opening match.
The atmosphere was already built up. If he surrendered now, things might get even worse.
"Then again, nobody's here to watch my fight anyway…"
Hyuga versus Uchiha—that was the matchup the crowd had come for.
Ordinary civilians didn't know much about the affairs of the shinobi world, but the nobles and dignitaries were eating it up.
Since nobody had any expectations of him—
"Shikamaru, you got this!"
Naruto slapped Shikamaru on the shoulder, sending him stumbling.
He looked back. Everyone else had already left the arena floor.
"Crap…"
Shikamaru's face fell.
He'd missed the optimal window to forfeit.
On the other side, Temari had already unslung her three-star giant iron fan.
"Let's go."
Temari fixed Shikamaru with a hard stare.
"Uh… this person's eyes are really scary."
Shikamaru broke into a cold sweat.
"How interesting."
Hanabi stood at the contestants' viewing area, taking in the scene.
This was different from the original story.
In canon, Shikamaru had exploited a hole left in the arena from Naruto's earlier fight to trap Temari with his shadow. But the arena here was pristine—which complicated things.
That said, Shikamaru's clan secret technique hadn't been exposed yet, so the intelligence advantage was his.
"Since you won't come to me, I'll come to you!"
Seeing Shikamaru spacing out, Temari's temper flared. She hefted her fan and charged.
"Tch—why does my opponent have to be a girl? And a battle maniac at that."
Shikamaru could only fling a pair of kunai before retreating.
"Not a chance!"
Temari immediately snapped open her fan and blasted out a hurricane.
[All smoke, no damage]
[Zero motivation versus pure violence. …Actually, they'd make a great couple]
[I hate you shippers so much]
Sure enough, Shikamaru had already scrambled up a nearby tree.
"Whether I make Chūnin or not doesn't really matter. But a man can't afford to lose to a woman. Well—guess I've got no choice."
"Ninja Art: Sickle Weasel!"
Temari wasted no words, immediately launching a Sickle Weasel at Shikamaru on his branch.
Temari hadn't seen Shikamaru fight before, but Shikamaru had watched Temari kite her opponent to death in the preliminaries.
"Lucky for me, this isn't an open arena with no cover like the prelims."
Shikamaru ducked behind the tree cover.
"Ugh—on top of everything, a man shouldn't hit a woman. What a drag."
"Hiding behind obstacles to dodge my Wind Style? If you think that's all I've got, you're sorely mistaken!"
Temari charged in.
Shikamaru's eyes sharpened.
"Something's off!"
But Temari halted mid-charge.
"You're trying to lure me over to those trees. You're up to something."
This Nara Shikamaru had put up virtually zero resistance.
But Temari's tactical instincts told her something was wrong.
—He's doing this on purpose!
"Ninja Art: Sickle Weasel!"
Temari decided to kite again.
Boom!
The blast swept across the entire field.
But the dust cloud also obscured Shikamaru's position.
And in that moment, a black shadow darted out from the side.
"What's that…?!"
The shadow shot straight toward Temari.
"I don't know what it is, but I can't let it catch me!"
Temari leaped back, dodging Shikamaru's Shadow Imitation Technique.
"That Sand shinobi—it's the first time she's seen Shikamaru's technique, and she reacted instantly." Up in the spectator seats, Ino watched in surprise.
"Shikamaru's technique?" Sakura asked from beside her.
"Ah—Shadow Imitation Technique. It uses shadows to control your opponent, but if it doesn't connect, it's useless." Ino fell into thought.
"Hah… Boring."
Elsewhere, Uchiha Hikari yawned.
Karin hadn't come today. As a former Kusagakure shinobi, it wasn't convenient for her to show her face here just yet.
"You're Hanabi's friend, right?" Kakashi had appeared at some point and plopped himself down right next to Hikari with zero ceremony.
"You're that Kakashi of the Sharingan?" Hikari glanced at him.
"Oh? I'm that famous? Even a non-shinobi knows my name?" Kakashi said.
"Well, befriending someone with a screw loose and the Uchiha clan—you really are a rare breed."
Hikari yawned.
"…" Kakashi broke into a cold sweat.
—How was Hanabi's friend just as sharp-tongued as she was?
[There goes Old Kaka again]
[Double damage, basically]
[Uchiha Hikari: If someone badmouths the Uchiha, I'll cheer them on. But if someone says something nice about the Uchiha, I'll personally shut it down]
Kakashi scratched his head. "Do you have some kind of grudge against the Uchiha?"
"The inherently wicked Uchiha and Senju clans—I've got no grudge whatsoever."
Kakashi scratched his head again. "You don't have some kind of warped view of shinobi, do you?"
"Nope." Hikari didn't see the problem.
"Are you bored?"
Down in the arena, Shikamaru and Temari had gone through several rounds of attack and counter-attack.
Temari was gradually calculating the range of the Shadow Imitation Technique while pressuring Shikamaru to reveal himself. Shikamaru, in turn, was inch by inch forcing Temari to shift her position.
"Any fight that isn't Hanabi's is boring. Fighting in general isn't interesting at all. Seriously, who goes around thinking about fighting all day?" Hikari didn't like combat.
"Hanabi's the exception?"
"Hanabi is special!"
[Double standards]
[Double standards, and I'm here for it]
[This is exactly what I want. Exactly this]
[If she wasn't biased, I wouldn't even watch]
[Old Kaka is completely lost]
"Besides—one side has zero motivation, and the other is holding back. What's there to watch in a fight like this?"
Hikari stifled another yawn.
"No motivation? Holding back?"
Kakashi looked at Shikamaru, then at Temari.
The unmotivated one was obviously Shikamaru. And the one holding back was Temari.
"Now that you mention it—aside from the Sickle Weasel, that Sand shinobi really hasn't used a single other technique."
To Kakashi's eye, both fighters were actually putting on a respectable show.
Their battle wasn't flashy, but it was sharp.
Shadow Imitation Techniques struck from every direction, yet Temari seemed to calculate the exact distance between them with surgical precision.
"…Do we really have to go through with this?"
On the other side of the stands, Kankuro had sunk into silence.
"It's that man who's the problem. I may be a shinobi, but more than that, I'm a member of Sunagakure." Jōnin Baki sat beside him, eyes closed.
Hanabi may have been spouting seditious nonsense, but from Baki's perspective, he'd immediately recognized that something was off about Hidden Sand's plan.
Setting aside everything else—
Right now, in this very arena, sat a host of Daimyō. If Sand launched an attack at this moment, whether they could destroy Konoha or not, it would be a disaster for Sunagakure either way.
The Daimyō were no fools. They weren't going to look the other way.
—You stab my hired hand right in front of me, and then say you want to be my hired hand?
Are you the fool here, or am I?
Baki had relayed his analysis to the Fourth Kazekage, but the man had brushed it off entirely. And worse still—they'd already passed the point of no return.
"So it all comes down to what Gaara decides…"