The Other Jinchūriki - A Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 56

"Come on Shikamaru!" Ino cheered. "You can do it! You can do it, no problem!"

"Okay okay..." Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"All you gotta do is tell yourself, 'I cannot lose'!"

"Since when did you start becoming a cheerleader?" Sōma asked with a hint of irritation in his voice. Ino huffed at him, but ignored the question otherwise as she continued to cheer for her teammate.

"She's going to be next on my list," Rizaki grumbled under her breath.

"This is such a drag," Shikamaru sighed as he kept his hands in his pockets. "I have to go against a girl." His opponent, Kin, smirked slightly with some confidence.

"Yeah, you just keep thinking that, little man."

"Ready?" The proctor asked. "Eighth match between Shikamaru and Kin will now begin."

"It's all I got," Shikamaru said with a sigh as he made a hand sign.

"You're not trying to do that shadow-thing again, are you?" Kin teased with a cheeky smile.

"Shut your mouth! Ninja Art: Shadow Possession Jutsu!" His shadow began to quickly inch towards Kin, who just smirked.

"Is that all you know? If that's the one trick you got, this is going to be easier than I thought." The female suddenly shot a needle with a bell on it at him, to which the young Nara dodged.

"Bells?" Shikamaru snorted a little with amusement. "Oh please, not that old trick. Let me guess; next, you'll throw senbon with bells and senbon without bells at the same time. I'll react to the bells and, while I focus on dodging them, I won't notice the sailing needles coming at me." He smirked. "Am I right? Ha! Good luck."

"You sure talk a lot, don't you?" Kin asked rhetorically, throwing the needles at him once again. He dodged and they landed in the stone wall behind him, poking out.

Jingle.

"What?" Shikamaru's eyes widened in shock as he looked behind him. "Where?" Not only were there bells on both senbon, but they were attached to threads that almost aren't noticeable at first glance. "Threads?! Oh man—" he tried to turn around but the Sound Ninja smirked and quickly shot at him once again.

"Too late!"

"Augh!" One inch high and that would've been a fatal blow, he thought, wincing as he ripped out the senbon. "Alright, now I get a turn!"

"Sorry," Kin said unsympathetically. "You just had your turn." She pulled her thread and, suddenly, the ringing in Shikamaru's ears became a bit more disoriented, and he fell to his knees.

"W-What's going on?" He questioned, his vision getting unfocused.

"You see, you don't ever ask who the bell tolls, because it tolls for thee." Kin looked down at him with superiority. "This bell sends off a peculiar sound vibration that travels through the outer and inner ear and directly to the brain. First comes paralysis, and soon you'll start hallucinating." The Nara grunted and held his head in pain, while the kunoichi in front of him smirked in amusement. "It won't work, you can't block out the sound once it's inside your head. It's useless." Through Shikamaru's hallucination there seemed to be multiple clones of Kin next to each other.

"I...I can't tell which one of them is the real one..!" He said to himself.

"You can't move your arms or legs," Kin started. "And even if you could you wouldn't be able to tell which to throw your shadow at. Face it; you're cooked, little man. I'm going to cook you nice and slow over a hot fire."