Chapter 4 : Training

After dinner, both Shikaku and Shikamaru came out to the Nara clan grounds.

"Now tell me, why you are suddenly so determined to change yourself, to get stronger," Shikaku asked but this time around his tone was different. He no longer maintains his normal nonchalant mannerisms.

The moon hung high as the moonlight shone on Shikamaru's face. He was thinking about it, what to say to his father, there was no way that he could lie to the brightest mind in the Ninja world. 

So he just decided to stay honest.

"Because I want to get stronger. Why so suddenly? I can't explain. But I want to be stronger so that I can save my comrade when the need arises," Shikamaru said.

This was no answer but Shikaku knew that he won't be getting one from his son. He doesn't believe that he is just doing this for the reason as he explained but he does know that his son is serious.

"Since when have you become so Troublesome Shikamaru..." Shikaku sighs, finally retreating back to his lazy and casual self.

"Fine, I will train you," he said with a huff.

Shikamaru smiles, 'At least I don't have to explain how I know the future out of nowhere.'

"So what do you want to train in," Shikaku asked 

"Taijutsu and our clan speciality and something special, I will show you if you keep it hidden and help me train in it," Shikamaru immediately replied with a smile.

But Shikaku frowned, what was special, he wasn't sure but Shikamaru knew that he was going to blow some fuse after showcasing his Ten Shadow Technique.

"Okay show me then," Shikaku said.

"Alright here," Shikamaru said and made a hand sigh totally unknown to Shikaku, not knowing what his son was trying to do but then suddenly something happened.

His shadow started to move and out of the saw came out a Rabbit.

"..."

Shikaku thought that he saw things like a rabbit coming out of his son's shadow.

"No no, you are not seeing things, see this," Shikamaru said as his shadow extended and slowly a kunai was thrown out of the shadow which Shikamaru masterfully caught.

With wide eyes, Shikaku vanished from his place and appeared beside Shikamaru like a ghost, and looked at the extended shadow.

Words couldn't come out of his mouth while he was trying his hardest to process how his son did it. This might be one of the negative traits of smart people, they try to think and come up with an answer or solution to the problem in front of them while they can clearly asked and save time.

Shikaku also did the same, the only solution he could come up with was the bloodline limit.

"You have a Kekkei Genkai," Shikaku asked with unbelievable eyes to Shikamaru.

Now Shikamaru wasn't going to introduce the ten-shadow technique like that but this is also fine.

"Let me explain," Shikamaru said as he started to explain his technique / Kekkei Genkai.

From there on the training of the future Shadow King begins. 

Both father and son decided to hide this training from Shikamaru's mother and his newfound power from the world entirely. From that day onwards Shikamaru changes his daily routine greatly.

Doing hard physical exercise before going to the academy, in the academy he does not sleep but rather studies tactics and all the books his father gave him. After the academy, he usually spends most of his time either in the library or in the training ground where he can practice his ten shadows technique. And lastly, at night, he was training with his father in both Ninjutsu and Taijutsu.

----

(A few Days Later)

Shikamaru was standing alone in a training ground, for the last 2 weeks he was working hard to catch up with his peers when it comes to physical powers and speed. Even his skills lack quite a bit which he covered in the last half a month.

In fact, just catching up with others took him too much time, and now finally he was acting on his original plan which he decided on half a month ago.

Looking around, he noticed that there was no one around him, he took out a small piece of paper from his pocket. 

This was Chakra paper which he bought from his pocket money, this chakra paper was useful to find out the natural affinity of a person.

Shikamaru already knew that he had a high affinity for Yin chakra like many of the Nara clan members. But there should be more right. 

In the anime, Shikamaru is never shown using any elemental jutsu but what if he has the affinity, then it will be a waste not to develop that affinity, right?

So finally taking the paper in his hand, he poured his chakra on the paper and waited.

Soon the paper reacted to his chakra and started to show burns in the corner. Shikamaru waited, hoping that he might be one of those lucky one and have 2 affinities. Unfortunately for him, that was not the case.

"Alright, fire it is. I can delay learning this for the time being. I have no way to get my hands on a fire Jutsu currently. At least without letting it known to my father." Shikamaru knew that his father wouldn't give the Jutsu right now.

And he can't look for them in the Konoha Ninja Library until he is a full-fledged shinobi. And if he is not wrong then only Chunin is allowed to get an elementary jutsu from the library so it's pointless anyway.

"No, I can most likely get a fire Jutsu through Asuma so no point wasting time on that right now. For the time being, I need to focus on chakra control," Shikamaru muttered to himself and then took a leaf in his hand to stick on his forehead.

Even in his free time like in the academy, he used this training to master chakra control. But this not gonna cut it anymore. 

Taking out a kunai, Shikamaru started to walk toward the tree, he didn't run rather slowly put his own leg on the trunk of the tree and tested out many different chakra outputs.

Testing out at what output he is not sticking with the tree, and at what he will be thrown off. After 5 minutes of getting used to this, making sure that his feat stuck to the tree trunk, he slowly raised his other leg and firmly put it in the trunk.

"Okay, Okay this will do. " He smiled as he saw himself standing straight on the tree, it was hard to balance but he was doing it.

"Well I wasn't expecting it to be that hard, Sakura was too able to do it thanks to her excellent chakra control and smaller reserves". Although he might be not as good as Sakura when it comes to chakra control still he is good enough for tree walking.

The real problem here is his reserves, it's small. Not as small as Sakura but still a little smaller than average clan heirs and this is something which he has to change. 

He can never have big reserves like Naruto or Sasuke, he understands that but if puts in the right effort then he can have bigger reserves than others from the Konoha 12. 

"Walking on the tree is not the big deal here, what I need to do is to stay like this, on the tree for as long as I can. This is a simple way to increase his chakra. 

Use his Chakra as much as possible.

"Alright just standing here don't do, start moving," Shikamaru shouted to himself.

xxx

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