Tomodo wasted no time in springing forward at Naruto with a flying round house kick to the head.
Naruto's arm shot up parrying the kick but still managing to break through the block and knocking him slightly off balance.
Tomodo followed up his kick with punch to Naruto's stomach making solid contact and causing Naruto to grunt in pain at the hit.
Naruto quickly counter with a stomp kick to Tomodo's shin causing the boy to drop to one knee. Seeing his opponent down, Naruto attacked with a knee strike, missing Tomodo's face but still hitting his shoulder hard enough to knock the boy out of the ring.
"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto," called Iruka.
Naruto wanted to celebrate his first win in a while but instead bowed as was proper and stepped out of the ring.
[Beginner Academy Taijutsu]'s level has risen by one.
[Beginner Academy Taijutsu]'s level has risen by one.
Naruto finally did celebrate. "Yatta!" Not only did he win the fight against one of the better taijutsu users he also leveled his [Beginner Academy Taijutsu] twice. It was a triple win if you asked Naruto's opinion.
Naruto had two more fights that day, one against another civilian student named Ito Momo and another against Inuzuka Kiba. He beat the civilian like a drum but lost to Kiba if just barely. Either way he gained another level in taijutsu.
Class for the day ended with the last match in which Sasuke mercilessly destroyed Tomodo. It made Naruto respect Sasuke's skill a little but still detest him as a person.
"Yo, Naruto, you ready?" asked Shikamaru.
"Yeah, let's go," said Naruto. He was excited to hang out with Shikamaru for a bit.
"Yeah, yeah," said Shikamaru, yawning lazily.
Together they walked to a hilltop park a kilometer from the KSA. There were a bunch of Shogi tables spread around, some of them occupied but mostly empty.
Shikamaru guided him to one of the larger tables with a canopy over top of it. He sat down and pulled out a scroll and unsealed a small box containing the game pieces. He then set up the table for the game.
"Do you know anything about the game, Naruto?" asked Shikamaru.
"I know nothing about it," answered Naruto honestly. "Never played before and never have been shown how to play before."
"Troublesome," complained Shikamaru. Then he launched into a long and drawn out explanation of each piece and how each piece moves and how to promote each piece before finally explaining captured pieces. Then he showed Naruto a couple examples before finally allowing Naruto to play a game with him.
"You lose," said Shikamaru, it took less than twenty moves.
"What? Already?" asked Naruto, not fully understanding. "Damn it, again."
"You lose," said Shikamaru, twenty minutes later. This time the game took about thirty moves. "You did better but you're still learning."
"No kidding," said Naruto, groaning in defeat. "Another game?"
"Sure," said Shikamaru.
And so another game started and about halfway through Naruto got his first pop up message.
[Beginner Academy Tactics]'s level has risen by one.
You worked smarter not harder causing your WIS to go up by 1
Naruto would have cheered if not for him trying to focus on the game. He was losing, quite badly but it was still better than the previous game.
"You lose," said Shikamaru, smirking a little. "That's it for me today. I've got get home or my mom will nag at me. But if you want, we could play again another day."
"I'd like that."
"Cool, make sure you buy your own pieces for next time," said Shikamaru. "I know you're new to the game but it is good etiquette to provide your own pieces."
"Where can I buy a set?"
"Konoha General Store should sell them," said Shikamaru, shrugging as he wasn't very sure.
Naruto couldn't help cringing. "Um, they don't really like me there."
"Troublesome, I'll pick up a cheap set for you. You can pay me back," offered Shikamaru.
"Thank you again," said Naruto. "I really appreciate it, Shikamaru."
"Maybe next time you won't prank them so much," he suggested, then walked away at a lazy gate.
"Now, it's time for me to get to work. I need one more point of DEX and STR," said Naruto to himself, feeling the excitement and enthusiasm building.
Meanwhile, Shikamaru's walk away from the blonde enigma was all but enthusiastic. He was glad his pseudo-friend was taking an interest shogi but it was definitely unusual for the blonde prankster. Something had changed in Naruto and it seemed to be a recent change. The question was, what caused the change and how troublesome was it going to be in the future. "Troublesome," he grumbled, yet again.
Shikamaru's walk home was as sedate as usual. Upon entering the house he was nagged immediately by his mother, first for coming home late, then for not taking the trash out that morning before he left for school, and then to do his homework and go out and feed the deer followed by training in the family hijutsu.
Two hours later, his chores were done and his homework was ready to turn in. Shikamaru found himself sitting at his family's dinner table.
"So why were you late coming home from Academy today?" demanded Yoshino.
"A friend from school wanted me to teach him how to play shogi," answered Shikamaru, lazily pushing his tofu with his hashi (chopsticks).
"What friend?" asked his father.
"Naruto wanted to learn. I didn't really see the problem with it," answered Shikamaru.
"Hmm, interesting," said Shikaku, while Yoshino just frown.
"You'd better not pick up any of his bad habits," stated Yoshino strictly.
"Troublesome," complained Shikamaru.
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