He calmly pulled his body back from the railing and stood there silently again, as if nothing had happened.
Below, in the middle of the arena, Shiranui Genma frowned deeply.
He stared at Kankuro on the upper balcony with a sharp and scrutinizing gaze for a few moments, then finally announced with a dissatisfied tone,
"Kankuro from the Hidden Sand Village is declared defeated due to forfeiture. The winner is Aburame Shino from Konoha Village! And next is the fourth match! From the Hidden Sand Village, Temari! Against... from Konoha Village, Nara Shikamaru! Both parties please proceed immediately to the center of the competition field!"
Above, on the contestant balcony, Shikamaru Nara, who had been leaning lazily against the wall with both hands behind his head, seemed to look towards Temari, whether intentionally or just by coincidence:
"Yo. So, are you going to forfeit like your brother did? So I don't have to bother going down there."
Temari's face, which had looked slightly tense, immediately turned a bit ugly, mainly due to anger and feeling underestimated by Shikamaru's lazy attitude.
"Hmph, you lazy pineapple-head! I'll be waiting for you down there and I'll make sure you regret underestimating me!"
As soon as her sharp voice fell, Temari immediately grabbed the giant iron fan that was always on her back.
She fully unfolded the fan, then with one strong movement, she first fanned it hard towards the competition field below.
As a strong wind suddenly blew from nowhere around the arena, she nimbly leaped onto the surface of her large fan and glided gracefully down towards the competition field below, as if she were flying on the wind.
Her entrance was quite flashy and attention-grabbing.
Shikamaru, who saw this spectacle, could only stare speechlessly with an increasingly lazy expression on his face:
"So troublesome. Isn't there a safer staircase over there?"
After saying that to himself, he shook his head slowly and turned to walk casually towards the stairs, completely unfazed by Temari's dramatic entrance.
What, jump from up there? You say she's a ninja, so if she jumps down from such a height nothing will happen to her, and she'll definitely look very cool in the eyes of the spectators?
Yes, maybe. But what does all that have to do with him, Nara Shikamaru?
There's a staircase that's clearly safer and less troublesome, yet you choose to jump down in such a style.
Isn't that just stupid and a waste of energy? Troublesome.
Shikamaru walked with lazy steps towards the stairs, but as he passed where Naruto was sitting, he happened to see a mischievous grin on Naruto's face.
When Hana saw this scene, she also smirked and whispered softly to Naruto.
"Naruto-kun, how about we give that slacker Shikamaru a little 'push of encouragement'? Just knock him down from up here. If he really doesn't want to look handsome and cool by jumping himself, then we'll 'help' him look more... dramatic, hehe~"
Naruto's eyes immediately lit up at Hana's 'brilliant' idea, and his smile unconsciously became very naughty and full of mischievous intent.
A moment before Shikamaru actually flew off the contestant stand and descended the stairs, he was actually about to greet Naruto.
But now, it seemed his good intentions had come to naught.
Not only would he not greet him, but he swore in his heart that when he saw Naruto again after this game ended, he would definitely beat this mischievous blond brat up to console his heart, which might be severely injured after being kicked down from such a height.
THUD!
"Ouch! My butt!"
Seeing the unfortunate Shikamaru fall to the arena ground with his butt landing first, everyone in the spectator stands couldn't help but wince and feel a little pity.
Especially those who happened to clearly see how Naruto casually 'kicked' Shikamaru's leg gently from the contestant preparation area earlier, they couldn't help but cover their foreheads with their palms.
That Uzumaki brat was truly mischievous and unpredictable.
Naruto then casually came to the balcony railing and shouted enthusiastically towards Shikamaru, who was still sitting in pain below:
"COME ON, SHIKAMARU! KEEP IT UP! DON'T BE SO LAZY! YOU CAN DEFINITELY WIN, DATTEBAYO!"
Shikamaru below could only stare blankly at Naruto: "..."
'I... I really just want to die right now,' Shikamaru thought to himself while enduring the shame and pain in his butt.
Thinking about all this troublesome stuff, Shikamaru's eyes became even more dazed and unenthusiastic:
"Really... all of this is so troublesome..."
Now, it wasn't just the spectators who were starting to feel sorry for and amused by Shikamaru, but even Temari, his opponent who was already waiting in the middle of the arena, couldn't stand his super lazy attitude anymore.
She held her giant iron fan tightly while looking at Shikamaru with a grim and annoyed face:
"HEY, YOU PINEAPPLE-HEAD! ARE YOU LOOKING DOWN ON ME BY ACTING LIKE THAT, HUH?!"
Shikamaru didn't answer Temari's question.
Not because he was too lazy to answer or deliberately wanted to provoke, but because he simply didn't hear clearly what Temari said at all.
His mind was still wandering somewhere, perhaps counting clouds or thinking about a strategy for his afternoon nap.
Temari, feeling ignored, certainly became angrier now.
A vein started to throb on her temple.
Among the spectators, Asuma Sarutobi, Shikamaru's supervising Jōnin, could only cover his face with both hands, feeling extremely embarrassed and wanting to disappear right then and there, especially when he heard Kurenai Yuhi's low laughter, who was sitting beside him:
"Shikamaru... that kid really is..."
Genma, standing as the referee on the field, could only shake his head helplessly and sigh softly.
Really, if he didn't know very well the bad behavior and lazy nature of most Nara clan members, he would have definitely gotten angry and might have disqualified this kid right now.
Moreover, this particular kid, Nara Shikamaru, seemed far less enthusiastic and lazier than other people from the Nara clan he had ever known.
How could a kid like this become a reliable ninja?
Forget it, Shiranui Genma was too lazy to wait for Shikamaru any longer.
He just waved his right hand with a quick motion: "Match, begin!"
Temari had been waiting for this signal for a while! She was already itching to thrash that lazy pineapple-head!
She immediately grabbed the giant iron fan that was even taller than herself, opened it fully to reveal three large purple circles on its surface, and without the slightest hesitation, immediately waved it hard and with full force towards Shikamaru, who was still standing dazed:
"Kamaitachi no Jutsu!" (Cutting Whirlwind Technique!)
Shikamaru, who was still half-daydreaming: "!!!"
'Damn! Even though this is very troublesome, getting hit by a wind attack that big will definitely be very painful! And most likely I'll have to be taken to the hospital again after this, then everything will just become much more troublesome! I have to dodge!'
After thinking very quickly (out of necessity), Shikamaru finally managed to avoid the Kamaitachi wind ninjutsu by rolling to the side with a movement that didn't look cool at all, and then quickly hid behind the only small bush in the corner of the competition venue.
"Kamaitachi! Kamaitachi!! Kamaitachi!!!"
Temari, seeing her first attack miss its target, didn't give up easily.
She used her chakra as if it were free and would never run out, and again unleashed three consecutive Kamaitachi attacks towards the bush where Shikamaru was hiding.
The strong wind generated by her fan almost covered most of the area around the bush, and hidden within the swirling gusts of wind were invisible but very deadly sharp wind blades, which was her ultimate jutsu.
Seeing the small tree next to the bush instantly cut in two cleanly just by being slightly grazed by that wind attack, Shikamaru's mouth, hiding behind the bush, twitched in horror:
"Damn. If I get hit by that attack directly, I might not be able to go to the hospital anymore... but straight to the afterlife. This is really, really troublesome."
Wind-style ninjutsu like Kamaitachi was indeed very dangerous.
Its range was quite large and heavily depended on the user's chakra amount and strength to cause serious injury to the opponent, or its range could be made smaller but its lethality would become unexpectedly large.
Temari's Kamaitachi ninjutsu seemed to successfully combine both aspects into one effective attack.
Of course, its range might not be as wide as other large-scale wind-style ninjutsu, and its lethality might also not be as devastating as highly compressed small-scale wind-style ninjutsu.
But this was a limited competition venue!
There weren't many places to hide, and Kamaitachi ninjutsu was a very potent and deadly weapon in a small, confined, and enclosed area like this.
Moreover, Temari was clearly a mid-to-long-range ninjutsu attack type ninja, and he himself, Shikamaru, was a support type ninja specializing in short-to-mid-range attacks using shadows.
He was a relatively fragile support soldier with the main ability of full body control over the opponent, now having to fight against a wind mage with devastating attack power.
His arm's attack range (taijutsu) wouldn't even be able to reach his opponent, so he really had to use his head to be able to hit or defeat this opponent.
Shikamaru felt an excruciating headache and stomachache now. He really wanted to just raise his hand and admit defeat so all of this would end quickly.
But he remembered that Kankuro, Temari's teammate, had just admitted defeat in the previous round without fighting.
If he, as Konoha's representative, also admitted defeat again now, he would most likely be thoroughly scolded by the disappointed spectators, and worse, might be nagged by his own mother at home later.
That would be a very, very difficult and troublesome situation.
'Damn you, Kankuro! Why did you have to admit defeat of all things! You've done so many bad and troublesome things today!'
Shikamaru complained inwardly.