Inheritance

Naruto's Mask

Shikamaru wasn't nearly as stupid as his relatively poor grades at the Academy, and even his overall demeanour would suggest to someone who didn't actually know him. Outwardly, he was lazy and entirely unimpressive. He was the epitome of average, and he endeavoured to ensure that he stayed that way in the opinions of others. That way, he would never have to exert himself. He could just waste his days away, doing low risk, low effort missions, gazing at the clouds and playing shouji.

However, he was sure he had already managed to give away to his Jonin sensei - Sarutobi Asuma, a chain-smoking shinobi, who as well as possessing a fairly keen mind himself (as most Jonin surely did, of course), was also built like a fortress, meaning it was safe to assume he was also a combat expert - that he possessed the potential to be something other than ordinary.

His two team-mates, Akimichi Choji and Yamanaka, had surely already demonstrated enough in the few training exercises they had done, to indicate they had the promise to reach the heights that they're Fathers had before them. Choji was already apt in his family's taijutsu style, and could perform several of his family's personal justu with skill rarely equated with someone below the rank of Chunin. Ino too, had mastered a few of her clan's ninjutsu; which focused on the manipulation of the mind. The temperamental blonde combined this with extraordinary ability to psycho-analyse somebody, whilst holding a conversation with the person, simultaneously.

He had decided that he would try to make out that he had no real potential what so ever, by only ever doing what his sensei deemed as the bare minimum to get by. Unfortunately, Asuma had discovered enough to convince himself that Shikamaru had enough potential to be as successful as his father, by attacking his only weak spot. He had challenged him to a game of Shouji.

And thus ensued what could be described as an 'epic' match. It had lasted for three and a half hours, and eventually the Nara had won out. he had been so engaged in the game, that he had failed to realise his mistake until his sensei spoke.

'Not as average as you'd like to make out. Eh, Shikamaru?'

He was of course right. Nara Shikamaru, all forms of bragging aside, possessed an incredibly keen mind. Speaking from a Shougi perspective, his mind could work three or four steps ahead of most adults almost instantaneously; thoroughly analysing every possible move that could be made, constructing a counter-move for each, and working out the possible consequences of that particular move. And, as his father had drilled into him from an early age, this would translate to the battlefield. And much like his team-mates, he could demonstrate an impressive level of mastery over his clan's techniques as well.

And it was down to his impressive intellect, that when he received a cursory glance from Ino, he knew they were both on precisely the same wavelength. His team had taken one of the obligatory D-rank missions (Ino often referred to them, and rightly so, as slave labour) that all Genin completed before they took on more challenging C - rank missions. The exceptional thing about this particular mission, was that they were being accompanied by one, Uzumaki Naruto; a former Academy class-mate, who had not been appointed to a team.

Instead, he had been apprenticed to an unknown ninja. Which according to his Father, was not particularly unusual amongst graduates with exceptional potential. Indeed, the Yondaime Hokage was apprenticed to a student of the Saindaime, Jiraiya of the Sannin, shortly after graduating. The problem the Nara had, was that his classmate had shown absolutely no potential during his time at the Academy. In fact, Shikamaru had absolutely no idea how the blonde had managed to graduate at all, although he suspected it had something to do with the fact that the Team Assignments had been set back by four weeks.

That was not all. Naruto had always been a topic of heavy discussion between himself and his team-mate Ino. Despite public indifference towards Naruto, the pair had taken somewhat of a 'scientific' interest in him. He had confused the two of them from the moment they had met, Ino especially, as she prided herself on the ability to read people's intentions and emotions. Quite simply, they found him to be un-readable. He had an outward appearance of wearing his emotions on his sleeve, and was constantly loud, energetic and had a permanent grin plastered to his face.