Shikamaru Nara

**Shikamaru Nara** is a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village's Nara Clan. Though lazy by nature, Shikamaru has a rare intellect that consistently allows him to prevail in combat. The responsibilities that these successes leave him with cause him frequent annoyance, but he gladly accepts them so that he may be of service to his fellow members of Team Asuma, and to prove himself to generations of the past and future.

## Statistics

* **Name**: Shikamaru Nara
* **Origin**: Naruto
* **Gender**: Male
* **Age**: 17
* **Birthday**: September 22
* **Classification**: Human, Konohagakure Shinobi, Chunin, Chunin Exams Proctor
* **Blood Type**: AB
* **Height**: 170 cm (5'7")
* **Weight**: 53.4 kg (118 lbs)
* **Skin Color**: Light
* **Eye Color**: Brown
* **Hair Color**: Black
* **Relatives**: Shikaku Nara (Father), Yoshino Nara (Mother)
* **Alignment**: Good
* **Status**: Active
* **Class**: **A-Class**
* **Powers and Abilities**: Ninjutsu Expert, Genius Intellect, Master Strategist and Tactician
* **Standard Equipment**: Standard Ninja Tools, Chakra Blades
* **Weaknesses**: Currently lacks powerful attacks. His shadows can be cut off if the target breaks them.
* **Notable Attacks/Techniques**: Shadow Possession Jutsu, Shadow Possession Shuriken Jutsu, Shadow Stitching Jutsu, Shadow Strangle Jutsu, Shadow Grab Jutsu, Shadow Pull Jutsu
* **Voice Actor**: Showtaro Morikubo

### Power Stats

* **Attack Potency**:
* **Speed**:
* **Lifting Strength**:
* **Striking Strength**:
* **Durability**:
* **Stamina**:
* **Range**:
* **Intelligence**:
* **Key**:

## Appearance

Shikamaru is a fairly tall, slim young man with shoulder-length black hair tied in a spiky ponytail, narrow brown eyes and a typical expression suggesting he is either bored or irritated. He also wears a pair of stud earrings given by Asuma Sarutobi, which acts as a symbol of Team Asuma.

Shikamaru wears the standard Konohagakure flak jacket, a black long-sleeved shirt paired with matching pants and sandals, and green lined mesh armor on his wrists and ankles. The placement of his forehead protector can be seen on his left arm, but only the metal part is visible, seemingly sewn onto the shirt itself. He is sometimes equipped with a chūnin's tantō, horizontally strapped onto the back of his jacket via a brown strap and a light-brown utility belt for special occasions.

## Personality

Shikamaru is naturally a lazy and unenthusiastic person and his inclination is to do as little work as possible. As an Academy student and even during his early career as a genin, Shikamaru is able to get away with this, spending his days sleeping, watching the clouds, or playing games of shōgi and Go. His goal is to live unremarkably, free of anything of noticeably good or bad, and then to die just as unremarkably as he lived. When he is faced with the potential for conflict or commitment, he responds first by saying, "*What a Drag*," and then by trying to find some way out of it, either by pretending to be indisposed or even outright saying that he doesn't want to do whatever it is.

Although Shikamaru describes himself as "the number one coward", he has a strong moral compass and dedication to his friends. It is these qualities that earned Choji Akimichi's friendship, as Shikamaru was one of the first people to look past his weight and find value in who he naturally was. It is also these qualities that force Shikamaru to move away from his lazy pursuits, as he finds himself volunteering to do work or to sacrifice himself if it will in some way benefit his allies. Such selflessness, once displayed during the Konoha Crush incident, exacerbates his "troublesome" situations: he is given the responsibility of leading his friends into battle, for which reason he does everything that he can to keep them safe, for which reason he is given even more responsibility over even more of his friends, and so on. He still clings to his lazy origins as much as he can; even if he can't spend his entire day being idle, he at least avoids having long-term goals or confessing any particular pleasure in the duties he's assigned.

Shikamaru undergoes a rapid maturity after the death of his teacher, Asuma Sarutobi, whose loss forces Shikamaru to recognize that the world is not safe that he cannot be kept protected from it forever. After avenging Asuma, Shikamaru takes it upon himself to do all that he can to make things better for future Konoha generations, especially Asuma's then-unborn daughter, Mirai; such is the Will of Fire. He may still balk at the prospect of the work he must do, but he no longer runs from it, even going so far as to argue in favor of difficult choices if it will guarantee his friends' and village's survival.

One of the more "troublesome" things that runs throughout Shikamaru's life are the women he knows: his mother, Yoshino, his teammate, Ino Yamanaka, and his frequent companion, Temari. He describes each of them as aggressive, demanding, and sometimes even scary. Shikamaru tries to treat women delicately, being non-confrontational or at least polite to them and never asking anything of them that he believes he can do himself. During Part I, he generally believes he can do anything himself, and as such is mortified if and when a woman needs to assist him in any way; his frustrations are similar when he repeatedly finds himself facing female opponents. Because his father, Shikaku, has similar views and experiences with women, Shikamaru asks him for help in understanding them. Shikaku explains that men destroy themselves without a woman's influence and that women, despite how they may act, are kind to the men they love.

## Main Skills and Equipment

**Nara Clan Techniques**: Shikamaru's primary battle tactics involves using his clan's secret techniques of shadow manipulation. His signature move is the Shadow Possession Jutsu. Even while child who just started in the Academy, he was already proficient enough in this technique to subdue three Anbu, a considered a prodigy by Ino (although he was noted too inexperienced to consider its weakness). Later, he learned the various more advanced techniques including to physically harm enemies by means of shadow hands and tendrils. Similarly, he can use his shadow to pick up and throw objects like explosive tags, and attach them to a trapped opponent. He can also use the shadows, which, proportionate to the amount of chakra used, is strong enough to grab and manipulate massive objects, capable of even lifting them in the air. After Asuma's death, Shikamaru inherited his master's Chakra Blades, learning how to flow his chakra into them and use them in tandem with his clan's abilities. This allows him to "pin" his opponent's shadow to the ground, without connecting his own shadow, giving him greater range, flexibility, and freedom of movement.

* **Shadow Possession Jutsu**: Known as the Nara Clan's signature technique, it allows Shikamaru to extend his shadow. Once it comes into contact with the opponent's shadow they are forced to imitate Shikamaru's movements. Can work on multiple targets. However, this technique can only work for a limited amount of time.
	+ **Shadow Possession Shuriken Jutsu**: Taking advantage of Asuma's chakra knives, Shikamaru will store his shadow chakra in the blades. He will target his opponent's shadow with the knives and can "capture" them similar to Shadow Possession Jutsu.
* **Shadow Stitching Jutsu**: Shikamaru creates multiple shadow tendrils that are no longer bound to the ground like his other techniques. The tendrils have a piercing effect and can be used to restrain an opponent and even pick up objects and throw objects.
* **Shadow Strangle Jutsu**: Shikamaru's extended shadow takes the shape of a hand and can restrain the opponent or snap their neck. It is possible for stronger opponents to overpower this technique.
* **Shadow Grab Jutsu**: Using his shadows that are strong enough to grab and manipulate massive objects, capable of even lifting them in the air.
* **Shadow Pull Jutsu**: Using materialized shadows, but compared to the Shadow Stitching Jutsu from the same line, this technique places emphasis on the minute control of the shadow's movements. It is accurate enough to even make the tentacles go through tiny holes. Basically, this technique takes the user's own shadow and transforms and stretches it into countless thin tentacles, which are then used to grab objects and pull them in. Also, one can skilfully make use of the tentacle-shaped shadow tendrils by using them to lift up and throw weapons like kunai and such. This technique has many possible applications and uses. There are no hand seals used for this technique, but the hand movements resemble that of Gaara's Sand Coffin.

**Chakra Blades**:

**Genius Intellect**: After Shikamaru was assigned to Team 10, Asuma noticed that Shikamaru was much sharper than his Academy scores indicated. By disguising a number of intelligence tests as games and puzzles – the only way Asuma could get Shikamaru to be interested – Asuma discovered that Shikamaru has an IQ of over 200; his poor grades were because he was too lazy to take any of the written exams. It is chiefly because of his intelligence that Shikamaru receives as many responsibilities as he does, with the Fifth Hokage routinely pushing Shikamaru to use his intellect for his allies' and village's benefit. Indeed, the Hokage's faith in him is well-founded, as Shikamaru remains acutely aware of his own and others' limitations, allowing him to avoid surprise and unnecessary risk.

* **Master Strategist and Tactician**: Whether he is about to go into combat, issuing orders to those who are in combat, or is personally involved in combat himself, Shikamaru's general approach is the same: he remains aware of all actions that allies and opponents make, even things that seem insignificant at the time or that he doesn't yet understand; he keeps track of where everything is located in relation to everything else, even features that lack obvious practical use; he studies the behavior of all combatants, gradually learning how they react in any given situation. By then focusing on this vast amount of information – which he usually does by closing his eyes and cupping his fingers – Shikamaru can quickly think ten moves ahead of his opponent(s) and devise over a hundred strategies, from which he instantly picks the most effective. Such strategies are often highly elaborate and use multiple layers of misdirection, where he takes small victories just to eliminate extraneous factors, pretends defeat in order to re-position opponents, and engineers conditions that will lead opponents to defeating themselves. Tobi regrets that Shikamaru's ability to see through deception and correctly put together seemingly unrelated pieces of information is "wasted" in service to the Allied Shinobi Forces.

## Relationships

* Shikaku Nara
* Yoshino Nara
* Asuma Sarutobi
* Ino Yamanaka
* Choji Akimichi
* Temari
* Naruto Uzumaki
* Sasuke Uchiha
* Sakura Haruno
* Sai
* Kakashi Hatake
* Hinata Hyuga
* Kiba Inuzuka
* Shino Aburame
* Neji Hyuga
* Rock Lee
* Tenten
* Iruka Umino
* Gaara
* Kankuro
* Hiruzen Sarutobi
* Konohamaru Sarutobi
* Tsunade
* Jiraiya
* Darui
* Chojuro
* Kurotsuchi