"Shikamaru..." Naruto whispers in disbelief.
"You...would leave us?" He asks, glancing back towards me and the others to ensure that he had heard Shikamaru correctly.
Kiba bares his teeth as he teeters on his feet.
"Jerk." Kiba spits, furious that his friend would be so ready to abandon him.
The enemy's booming laughter echoes through the dome.
"You!" The enemy chuckles.
"You, the leader, are begging for mercy?" The dome shakes this time as the enemy laughs once more.
"A fool like you doesn't deserve to be called a leader. What a loser." The enemy chuckles.
"Giving up on Sasuke, selling out your comrades? You deserve to die here like the scum you are."
Neji stands firm beside me, but I can recognize uncertainty in even his eyes.
I glance towards Shikamaru, deciding to take a risk and play along with what I believe to be a ruse.
"You're a traitor, Shikamaru," I say, not believing the words.
Naruto angrily punches the ground. "Shikamaru, you jerk!"
He stands, not daring to approach his friend. "Come back over here and forget that nonsense! Don't you reali--"
"--SHUT UP!" Choji shouts, interrupting Naruto as well as Kiba who appears to have been preparing to spring at Shikamaru.
I'd almost forgotten the boy.
I turn to see Choji squatting on the ground in a concentrating position.
His position seems to be familiar, and I glance behind me to see that Shikamaru...is in the same pose.
"Ready, Choji?" Shikamaru whispers, folding his hands into a meditative triangle.
Choji nods firmly from his position as he folds his hands into the same shape.
I'm grateful that my friends around me are such good actors--well unless their reactions were genuine.
I could see straight through Shikamaru's plan, and I'm relieved that he's finally moving on it.
The ground trembles as Choji's body begins to expand.
More shadows begin to slither out from Shikamaru's feet to wrap around Choji.
The shadows grasp his feet, but Choji continues to expand.
As Choji reaches maximum size, Shikamaru stands with a confident smirk, causing Choji to stand as well.
Shikamaru raises his fists, still controlling Choji, and begins to punch the wall opposite of where he stands.
As the wall begins to crumble, Neji smiles next to me.
"Shikamaru is smart. By controlling Choji, all of Choji's energy can be dedicated to increasing in size rather than moving." Neji notes.
"That makes sense but what about the rest of what just happened?" I ask tersely, still rather annoyed that Shikamaru had just tried to sell us guys out.
Naruto scratches his head in confusion.
"Yeah," Naruto agrees with me, probably wondering the same thing. "And Kiba already tried using force? The wall will just close back up."
"That's why Shikamaru needed to speak to the enemy, and the only way to get him to respond was to say something shocking and infuriating," Neji explains as if he had known this all along.
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The Life of Ki (Naruto Fanfic)
أدب الهواةKi is a girl who grew up in Konoha. She has low chakra reserves but is very fast. Her best friends are Kiba and Shikamaru. When Ki ends up getting put in a team with: Naruto(the silly goof) Sasuke(the emo duckbutt) and Sakura(the pinky airhead) She...
