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[— Manga Scene —]
Temari suddenly stopped.
She looked at the vest still descending from the sky, then at Shikamaru standing before her, and finally realized what had happened.
'The parachute… was nothing more than another trick.'
'He used it to maneuver me into this spot!'
Her eyes widened.
Shikamaru's shadow had already reached her.
"You jerk…"
In the stands, the spectators began to understand what had happened, and voices rose from every direction. Even those who had paid little attention to Shikamaru at the beginning of the match were now waiting for his next move.
Naruto and Ino were cheering him on excitedly.
"Come on, Shikamaru!"
"Finish her!"
Shikamaru clenched his hand, and Temari's body moved against her will along with his.
But…
He stopped.
Then slowly raised his hand.
"All right… I'm done."
"What?!"
Shikamaru looked at Temari and said without the slightest enthusiasm:
"I used too much chakra with all those Shadow Possession Techniques. Even though I caught you, I probably can't keep you like this for more than another ten seconds."
He fell silent for a moment.
"I had about two hundred more moves planned… but I'm out of time."
Then he sighed.
"And this fight is starting to become a drag… one match was enough for me."
He raised his hand.
"I give up."
"Whaaaaaat?!"
Temari froze, and so did the entire audience.
Moments later, the result no one had expected was announced.
"The winner… Temari!"
[— End Scene —]
…
Konoha:
Silence filled the Art Store for two full seconds.
Not because anyone had failed to understand the words.
But because everyone had understood them.
The boy who had spent the entire match searching for a way to reach his opponent, who had turned a hole, a vest, a wall, and even the direction of the sun into pieces of a single plan, had finally reached the exact position he had been aiming for from the beginning…
And then he surrendered.
"Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!"
Dozens of voices erupted at once.
"He caught her!"
"He was about to win!"
"Two hundred more moves?! What does he mean, two hundred more moves?!"
"Then why did you surrender, you idiot?!"
While nearly the entire store exploded in protest, two men in the Nara clan's section remained so calm that their composure irritated the people around them even more than Shikamaru's surrender itself.
Hiketsu was smiling.
As for Shikaku…
He laughed.
It wasn't loud, just a short sound that escaped him before he could stop it.
His father looked at him.
"What's so funny?"
"Everything."
Shikaku lifted the volume slightly.
"He maneuvered her exactly where he wanted her. He caught her shadow. He made the entire audience think he'd won… and then announced that he didn't have enough chakra to finish the fight."
He paused.
"And lost."
Hiketsu shook his head.
"Did he lose?"
Shikaku's smile faded slightly.
He looked at his father.
"The result says he did."
"I didn't ask about the result."
Silence settled between them.
Hiketsu tapped a finger against Shikamaru's image.
"Tell me what the purpose of this match was."
"To win."
"Wrong."
The answer came so quickly that Shikaku frowned.
Hiketsu gestured toward the stands drawn on the page, toward the Hokage and the shinobi observing the participants.
"These are the Chūnin Exams."
Shikaku's eyes paused.
"Winning the match isn't the only thing being tested."
This time, Shikaku slowly returned to the final page.
Shikamaru was standing before an opponent he could only restrain for another ten seconds. His chakra was nearly exhausted. Temari was neither unconscious nor injured badly enough to prevent her from continuing the fight.
And he…
He knew that.
"He could have tried," Shikaku said.
"Yes."
"Maybe he would've found a way."
"Maybe."
"But he decided the possibility was no longer worth pursuing."
Hiketsu smiled.
"Now you're reading."
…
Shikaku looked back through the previous pages.
Only minutes earlier, he had praised the boy for never allowing Temari to solve the same problem twice.
Now he understood something else.
Shikamaru wasn't attached to his plan.
He had spent the entire match building it one step at a time, but once he reached its end and realized the resources he had left were no longer enough to execute what came afterward…
He abandoned it.
"Two hundred moves…"
Shikaku muttered.
Hiketsu raised an eyebrow.
"What about them?"
"That part is more annoying than the surrender."
"Why?"
Shikaku raised the page.
"Because he didn't say he didn't know what to do."
He pointed at Shikamaru.
"He said he had about two hundred more moves planned."
He paused.
"The problem wasn't ideas. It was time and chakra."
Hiketsu's smile widened.
"Exactly."
Then he added calmly:
"The mind can keep going after the body has stopped."
Shikaku stared at Shikamaru for a long moment.
"But a Chūnin doesn't lead only himself."
This time, he spoke without looking at his father.
Hiketsu's smile stopped.
Shikaku continued:
"If this were a mission and he had a team with him, the chakra he wasted chasing a slim chance of victory wouldn't be the only thing he'd be risking."
He raised his eyes.
"Other people's lives could become part of the cost as well."
Hiketsu did not answer immediately.
Then a different smile appeared on his face.
Not the smile of a father pleased by his son's answer.
But the smile of a man who had just watched his son reach, on his own, the point he had wanted to guide him toward.
"Now…"
Hiketsu said.
"You understand why I didn't give you the answer."
…
Hatake Sakumo:
"The right decision."
Kakashi quickly turned toward his father.
"What?"
Sakumo was looking at the final page.
"Surrendering."
Kakashi frowned.
"But he caught her."
"He did."
"And he had two hundred more moves."
"He had planned them."
"Then he could have won."
Sakumo looked at his son.
"You added that sentence yourself."
Kakashi fell silent.
Sakumo pointed toward Shikamaru's words.
"He told you himself that his chakra was nearly exhausted and that he wouldn't be able to keep his opponent restrained for more than another ten seconds. Having two hundred ideas in your head doesn't mean your body has the resources to execute even one of them."
Kakashi continued staring at the page.
He didn't like that answer.
It showed clearly on his face.
"But he surrendered before he knew for certain that he would lose."
"Correct."
"I don't like that."
Sakumo smiled faintly.
"I know."
Kakashi raised his eyes toward him.
Sakumo continued:
"Because you see surrender as an admission that your opponent is stronger than you."
"Isn't it?"
"Not always."
He pointed at Shikamaru.
"Sometimes it's an admission that the cost of continuing has become greater than the value of the outcome."
Kakashi fell silent.
"A shinobi who doesn't know when to retreat may look very brave, Kakashi."
Sakumo's voice lowered slightly.
"Until he returns from the mission alone."
The boy's eyes stopped.
This time, he said nothing.
He simply returned to the final page in silence.
…
Might Duy and Guy:
Guy was trembling.
Not from excitement.
From shock.
"He… surrendered?"
Beside him, Duy stared at the page as though Shikamaru had personally committed some terrible offense against him.
"He surrendered…"
"Dad…"
"After all that…"
"Dad…"
"After his shadow finally reached her…"
"Dad!"
Duy turned toward his son, whose eyes were already beginning to fill with tears.
"That's not youthful at all!"
A brief silence followed.
Then…
"No."
Guy froze.
He looked at his father with nearly as much shock as he had shown at Shikamaru's surrender.
"What?!"
Duy rubbed his chin while looking at the page again.
"I would've kept fighting."
"Of course!"
"And you would've kept fighting."
"Of course!!"
"And we probably would've both collapsed ten seconds later."
Guy opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Duy raised a finger.
"Guy! Youth doesn't mean running forward until your head crashes into a wall!"
"…It doesn't?"
"No!"
Duy thrust his fist upward passionately.
"It means knowing why you're running in the first place!"
Guy stared at him.
Then his eyes began shining again.
"Dad…"
"Guy…"
"That's so profound!"
"Guy!!"
"Dad!!"
From the nearby seats, one shinobi covered his face with both hands.
"How did the two of you manage to turn someone else surrendering into a speech about youth?"
Neither of them heard him.
…
Sunagakure:
Inside the Art Store of the Village Hidden in the Sand, Karura had one hand over her mouth.
She wasn't trying to hide her shock.
She was trying to hide her laughter.
Rasa, meanwhile, stared at the final page with a rigid expression.
"She won."
Karura said it.
"He surrendered."
"So she won."
"That's not what I meant."
Karura could no longer suppress her smile.
"I know."
Rasa returned his gaze to Temari.
Only moments earlier, Temari had been convinced that she understood her opponent's technique. Then she discovered that the vest itself had never been the real attack, but merely a tool used to maneuver her into the position he wanted.
And after all that… she won.
Not because she broke his plan.
But because his plan ran out before she did.
"I think she's going to hate this result," Rasa said.
"Haha!" Karura laughed. "Definitely."
"Look at her face."
Temari was staring at Shikamaru as though she were seriously considering beating him up after the match ended.
"She spent the entire match trying not to let him catch her," Rasa said.
"And when he finally did, he told her he was tired of fighting."
This time, Karura laughed openly.
"When you put it that way, it sounds even worse."
"Because it is worse."
But Rasa wasn't looking only at Temari.
He looked at Shikamaru.
"Still… I understand him."
Karura's laughter subsided.
"Really?"
"If this were a match where victory was the only objective, I'd say he threw away his chance."
Rasa gestured toward Konoha's symbol in the stands.
"But they're testing Chūnin."
Karura understood.
"A leader."
"Yes."
Rasa looked at Shikamaru.
"A man capable of saying, 'My resources are exhausted, the odds are no longer in my favor, so I'll stop'… may be more useful on a mission than a man twice as strong who knows nothing but how to keep advancing."
Karura smiled.
"So you like him."
"I didn't say that."
"Lazy, annoying, made the girl look like she had lost and then surrendered to her… and yet you're defending him."
Rasa fell silent.
Karura leaned slightly toward him.
"You like him."
"…Close the volume, Karura."
She couldn't help letting out a small chuckle as she closed the volume, which had already reached its end.
…
Back at Konoha's Art Store, behind the counter:
Rob knew what was going to happen before the final page was turned.
Even so, he enjoyed the scene.
He enjoyed the readers' faces even more.
Some were angry.
Some were laughing.
Some still couldn't accept that an entire match of chases, calculations, and tricks had ended with a raised hand and two simple words.
I give up.
[+120 Art Coins…]
[+89 Art Coins…]
[+33 Art Coins…]
Art Coins flowed before his eyes, but Rob didn't look at them for long.
He looked at Volume Twelve.
Since its beginning, the readers had watched Naruto face the strongest genin in Konoha, discovered the truth behind the Hyūga seal and Hizashi's death, witnessed the Nine-Tails' chakra erupt in the arena, and then watched Naruto defeat Neji.
And in the end…
A lazy boy who hadn't wanted to fight in the first place had made everyone watch him until the very last page.
Rob reached for a copy of the volume and slowly closed it.
"A winner who loses…"
He looked at the cover.
"…and a loser who passes the test."
A small smile appeared on his face.
"A fitting ending."
Across the Art Stores throughout the world, thousands of volumes began closing one after another.
Volume Twelve had ended.
But inside Konoha, the discussions were far from over.
Because a name that had meant almost nothing to many readers before this match began…
Had now become the name with which they ended the volume.
Nara Shikamaru.
____________
Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
____________
Chapter 235: What We Know About the Future
Chapter 236: Heroes of the Manga!
Chapter 237: Episode 50 of the Anime!
Chapter 238: Volume Thirteen!
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