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who wins?...

It depends on the setting for the match. Neji wins the large majority if Shikamaru doesn't have prep time. His usual "hide in a bush for ten minutes whilst thinking of a strategy" plan won't work against Neji with his byakugan.

I wonder if 8 trigrams can throw off shadow possession. I would think it could but I'm not sure.

Shika. Negi's whole deal is CQC. Shika nabs with a shadow or two and wins. Barely even needs a plan.

He's fast enough and good enough at observation to be really hard to snag with a shadow though. Neji can see whereever a shadow is moving and if he even briefly gets close it's easier, and he's totally proof against shuriken and kunai.

Assumedly the shadow will come from the blind spot...

that depends if Shikamaru knows of the blind spot. if he doesn't, then he'll have to figure that out during the fight and he'll have to do it quickly.

if the area is large enough, he could probably find a way to stall Neji long enough to discover the blind spot and work out a plan, but if it isn't then Shikamaru is not going to win this.

Tough...Neji should have every advantage to win, and Neji's eyes have gotten stronger, and can see farther than when he fought Kidomaru. And Shikamaru doesn't have the spiders or ranged attacks to test Neji with. But Neji has to get close to attack also...Which makes him easy pickings for Shadow Possession, without Shikamaru having the hassle of getting it close to a long ranged fighter he usually fights.

Originally posted by khazra
Assumedly the shadow will come from the blind spot...

A small cone up and behind? A very hard place to fit a shadow.

Maybe one of those shadow-stabs, but not the catching kind of shadow.

Neji has the clear advantage, but I'd like to think Shikamaru. Just because you can see shit happening doesn't mean you can do anything about. Planning is top tier.

Originally posted by LLLLLink
Neji has the clear advantage, but I'd like to think Shikamaru. Just because you can see shit happening doesn't mean you can do anything about. Planning is top tier.


It does make it a lot trickier, and gives a pretty strict time limit before he faces the gentle fist.


If Shikamaru prepped the battlefield, ala what he did in the Hidan fight, he could win, but I don't think in a strait showdown. There's a reason Neji's the jonin.

Originally posted by Q99
IThere's a reason Neji's the jonin. Cause he a Hyuuga.

Perhaps, but Neji is prideful, and a guy like Shikamaru can use that.

It's really whoever gets off first. Neji being a close range fighter makes Shikamaru easily grab him with Shadow Possession, and then strangle him... But Neji really just needs one hit to stop Shikamaru, and Neji does have one mid-range move, but don't know if it can actually do what Gentle Fist attacks do or if it'll just knock Shikamaru back.

If hand to hand fighters are at such a disadvantage against kagemane you'd think Shikamaru would have had an easier time fighting Hidan and CS2 Tayuya. Besides, as the entire Sasuke retrieval arc showed, jyuuken can break through chakra constraints, and Kagemane can be overriden by the victim if he/she has superior chakra output to the user. Shikamaru's got the weakest endurance and chakra stamina in the series, and Nejis got one of the best chakra outputs in the series.

Shikamaru surrenders because its the logical thing to do.

If he's emitting chakra for Kaiten, would his shadow even be there to grab? I'd think it'd either be the chakra's shadow (useless), or no shadow (chakra's light eliminating it).

Yeah, no prep Neji beats the shit out of Shikamaru.

Shika even with prep might not be enough, sure he beat Hidan with it, but Hidan is... A moron.

Originally posted by NemeBro
Yeah, no prep Neji beats the shit out of Shikamaru.

Shika even with prep might not be enough, sure he beat Hidan with it, but Hidan is... A moron.

Though much greater familiarity can probably make up for greater intelligence of the target.

Neji's bloodline trait pretty much nullifies Shikamaru's ability.
I still like Shikamaru more, though.

Originally posted by RE: Blaxican
If hand to hand fighters are at such a disadvantage against kagemane you'd think Shikamaru would have had an easier time fighting Hidan and CS2 Tayuya. Besides, as the entire Sasuke retrieval arc showed, jyuuken can break through chakra constraints, and Kagemane can be overriden by the victim if he/she has superior chakra output to the user. Shikamaru's got the weakest endurance and chakra stamina in the series, and Nejis got one of the best chakra outputs in the series. Eh Tayuya wasn't a taijutsu fighter, and Shikamaru had wasted most of his chakra on her other forms, and breaking out of her genjutsu to try and trap her in the shadow choke. And against Hidan, none of his attacks would be effective at all even if he hadn't just been used for support the first time they met., and even then he was able to get him out of the circle for Asuma to cut his head off iirc.
Shika won't be wasting chakra just to try and get them, only to have nothing left after using it five times or so to trick them either.
Neji's speed is probably the biggest issue though.

Part of this fight also depends on the tools each one has on hand and the terrain.

A great deal of the fight with Tayuya had to do with the weapons Shika had on hand, and he was able to predict what Tayuya would do. Although i'm not sure if he can predict Negi as well as he did Tayuya.