𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 | 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐨 [HEAVY EDITING]

𝟑𝟐 | 𝐀 𝐖𝐞𝐢𝐫𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠

ONE DAY TO FINAL CHŪNIN EXAMS

I slide the door to Naruto's room open, dragging the rolling medical pole inside it behind me. Today, the medicine in this one is supposed to reduce how much pain I'm in as I recover from my final surgery I'd had earlier in the week. I'm grateful that I've recovered and healed enough to be able to be up and walking, but I still use this pole as a crutch, just to keep my balance. Sitting in a wheelchair or in my bed all day long... In the wise words of Shikamaru, "what a drag" that'd been.

And speaking of Shikamaru!

"Oh! You're here, too?" I realize, sliding the door shut again. Shikamaru raises his hand in greeting.

"Hey, how you feelin'?" He stands up out of his chair. "Do you want to sit here?"

"No, thank you," I say quietly, realizing Naruto to still be asleep. "The chairs here aren't exactly comfortable for my condition." He nods, seeming to understand when he settles back into it with a bit of a scowl sent down at it. In front of him, I realize, sits a table with a strange board and flat pieces on its adorned squares. "What's this?"

"It's shogi," he answers. "Wanna play?"

"I... don't know how," I admit, feeling embarrassed. "If you teach me, I'd give it a go."

Shikamaru shoves the table, and then his chair, closer to me. I roll the machine to my other side and shimmy myself to the edge.

The game is simpler than I thought it'd be.

The board has eighty-one squares – Shikamaru says they're rectangles, but they look like squares – and eight game pieces, each with their own names: one King, two Gold Generals, two Silver Generals, two Knights, two Lances, one Bishop, one Rook, and nine Pawns— a total of fourty pieces on the board.

A two-player game, each player has twenty pieces. For some pieces, initially, they allow a certain number of moves-forward, backward, or diagonal. Some can only move forward, some can only move diagonal, and some can only move one space at a time, namely the King and its Pawns. When you move a piece to the third last row of the other player's side, it gets "promoted", so you flip the piece over, and it gets a new set of moves.