Game of Shadows by Adrian King1

Chapter 59

[Shino Aburame]

He shared a look with Chouji, who was sitting on one side, the Akimichi grinning back, clearly happy with his teammate's victory. Shino himself shared the sentiment, even if he was less obvious about expressing it. That was one of their friends that had just won her match in the Chuunin Exams, after all.

"Do you know what she did?" Shino asked then, frowning as he tried to decipher what Ino had done in her match. He hadn't witnessed her preliminary match, but from what he had been told it had gone like this one. Stalling while her opponent fell to pieces in front of her.

"Nope," Chouji shook his head. "She really didn't want us to know this time. Kind of annoying, really. I know she must have used the Poison Jutsu she used in her preliminary match, but there must have been something new there, because it worked much faster this time and her opponent looked out of it," He mused and Shino hummed to himself.

"Now's Shikamaru's turn, isn't it?" The Aburame asked, eyeing the entrances waiting for the next pair to appear. "Who was his opponent again?"

"The Suna girl, she fought Sakura in the preliminaries and..." Chouji grimaced. "It didn't go well for her."

Shino refrained from commenting how that outcome was hardly a surprise. The Haruno might have changed from the fangirl she had been initially, but she had hardly improved her work ethic regarding actual combat. If Shino had to guess, he expected her to drift off towards one of the shinobi branches that didn't specialize in combat, like the Cryptanalysis Team.

"And how do you think Shikamaru will do against her?" Shino asked then, just as the Nara and his opponent stepped into the arena. The bug user's eyes moved towards the girl's weapon of choice, a giant iron fan.

"He should have a good chance," Chouji replied without hesitation and the Aburame took a moment to appreciate the absolute confidence the Akimichi had in his teammate and best friend. After years of being friends, it still amazed him, if he was honest. "If he doesn't give up, that is."

There was the honest part though, Shino realized. After all, everyone that knew Shikamaru also knew that the boy couldn't care less for something such as this. The only way for the Nara to act with a modicum of seriousness was when there was something of actual importance on the line.

"Wait," Shino turned towards Chouji at that, only to see the other boy scowling at his best friend. "Something's up," He muttered, and the Aburame turned to regard his shadow-using friend.

Chouji was right, he found, there was something going on there, that was for sure. Shikamaru wasn't slumped forward, instead walking straight and with purpose. Shino had half expected the boy to have to be dragged by someone else into the arena, so this was a surprise to say the least.

For the long moment it took the participants to take their places, neither of them spoke, both of them wondering what was going on for their lazy friend to act like that. Shikamaru had told them of what he'd noticed from his parents and Eiji, naturally, but he'd continued acting like usual even then. So, for him to behave like this...

"Eiji confirmed something," Shino deduced, getting a nod from the other boy.

"Begin," They heard the proctor announce. It was a wonder the sound reached them, what with how dead the man had sounded during the preliminaries, or so he'd been told at least.

Both Genin snapped into action, which was another surprise, considering one of them was Shikamaru. While the girl opened her fan, the boy ran through a couple of hand seals. Then, they unleashed their attacks.

The Sand ninja's eyes widened when a ball of fire came her way, only getting stronger and growing in size as it passed through the wind current she had sent Shikamaru's way. That her attack lost pretty much all her strength only added to her problems, really. Now it was obvious why Chouji was so sure of his best friend's victory, he had the elemental advantage in this match up. Shino took a moment to think how weird it was for someone like Shikamaru to use that particular element. Of all the elements, it was one that one would least expect from someone like him.