Naruto Shadow King Ch 21 : Land Of Snow Arc 7

"Please explain what you did again, I am confused," Choji and Ino both asked with confused faces.

This was much after the fight between Todo and Shikamaru. It took them some time to come to the Kazahana Castle but by the time they came, Shikamaru had already taken control of the castle and even saved the princess. Upon asking how he did it, he only said.

"Troublesome, I will explain later,"

After that of course Shikamaru with the help of his cannon knowledge, somehow use of the very precious necklace the princess's father gave her to bring spring to the eternal snow-filled land. Somehow he pulled that out of his ass and played the card of "I am A Nara and don't ask again, it's troublesome,".

Needless to say, from that point onwards it pretty much went like canon. Shikamaru even got a kiss on the cheek from the princess herself. Right in front of the entire team.

Was that a drag, a little when considering the number of problems this one small action of hers would bring upon him by his team, but totally worth it.

"Come on, tell us already how you do it," Ino again shouted in annoyance.

Sigh, "Such a drag, okay I will explain again but this is the last time," Shikamaru replied with a sign.

"I use shadow clone and enter into that clone's shadow. Upon entering I created a situation of panic and then later immediately attacked the room with another shadow clone jutsu.

I especially used fire jutsu to enlarge my shadow, connecting my clone's shadow where I was hiding to enter into Doto's shadow.

Then the fight started between his lackey and my other spirits. While the fight was happening, I slowly started to come out of Doto's shadow and stab him while his guard was down with a poisoned kunai.

Then release my grey wolf on both of them.

Pretty much assassination from the shadow," Shikamaru shrugged and explained his plan with a short explanation.

"What, how many shadow are there, shadow this shadow that,"

It took some time for them to fully understand the tactic Shikamaru used to kill Doto without actually entering into combat.

Asuma was quite impressed with Shikamaru on this mission. He has the making of the greatest assassin out there, in simple terms the perfect shinobi. He lacks attack power but that can be cultivated in the future, the biggest reason why Asuma thinks that Shikamaru can be such a great assassin is his shadow technique and ability to hide in others' shadows. Not one can find him, and this news is even more of a shocker than him being able to summon spirits.

If this is not the making of the greatest assassin then what is?

"You all did good, but there are still many things which all of you can learn and improve on," Asuma finally said, making his team shut up and listen to him.

"Ino, I know that even though you realized by now that you are currently the weakest link in the team, your taijutsu and ninjutsu are both lacking, your body is getting better with regular exercise but that needs to improve faster and above all, your clan jutsu, although powerful it also renders you defenceless. We need to fix this," Asuma although didn't want to say this straightforwardly had to, to put Ino into working mode.

Ino after listening to Asuma just lower her head, she already knew that she was holding others back. At first, she didn't care but after seeing so many people die in front of her, she wants to get stronger now.

"Choji, you are improving, I notice that you fight well and didn't hold back this time but according to your fighting style, currently you lack much power. You are supposed to be the heavy hitter of the team and thus you need to get stronger." Asuma then said this as he looked at Choji. Choji was not like Ino right now, he already recognised his weakness and was also working hard to get stronger. Thus Asuma got a confident response from Choji, unlike Ino.

"And you Shikamaru," Asuma said and took some time to form his sentence, he was not sure what exactly to tell him, the boy is already at chunin level if his personal attack power is not considered, but again that is totally covered with his spirits.

In fact, if Shikamaru just gets only a little stronger, the position of special Jonin is also not impossible to get as his cheat-like technique really puts him in that kind of situation.

"You need some powerful jutsu and need to work with your team more, I know that you did what you did because you were confident that it would work but still neglecting teamwork is not the right call, remember there is a reason why we put young genin in a 4 man team. " Asuma said and finally put the cigarette in his mouth which he had been waiting for quite a long time.

"Kay Kay," Shikamaru just shrugged, not like he had any problem with teamwork but right now his team will just hold him back. Right now he can't work with them correctly, rather he spends his time training himself and training his team to get stronger.

But again he won't say this, and again put on his mask of indifference and lazy attitude. But unknown to him, he was currently getting stared at by both Choji and Ino. Especially Ino.

Ino never thought that Shikamaru was this good, she remembered him always lazying around and napping in class, but now, today what she saw was much different. Pursing her lips, unknowingly she ended up being her teammate with her dear Sasuke Kun.

"Can Sasuke do that ?".

But again she didn't say it out loud and before she could think anything more about it, Asuma and Shikamaru both saw a bird from a distinct Konoha mark coming with a message.

All of them stop and after Asuma gives something to eat to the bird, read the letter. And this facial expression changed quite a bit.

"Guys, there is a change in plan, we are not going back to Konoha,"