Highlights
- Asuma's death and Shikamaru's grief: Asuma's death deeply affects Shikamaru, leading him into a state of depression and despair. Shikaku encourages him to express his emotions and processes his grief healthily.
- Shikamaru's journey of revenge: Shikamaru joins his teammates to seek revenge on Hidan and Kakuzu. He cleverly defeats Hidan and avenges his sensei, showing the importance of dealing with emotions instead of suppressing them.
- The lesson of expressing emotions: Shikamaru's story teaches viewers the importance of feeling and expressing emotions rather than bottling them up. This lesson transcends Naruto's world and applies to the real world as well.
Naruto is one of the greatest anime ever created, and it's needless to say that the series has had countless iconic moments. One of those memorable moments was Asuma's death and Shikamaru's journey of grief and revenge.
Shikamaru is a favorite among the Naruto fandom because of his intelligence and unique shadow possession jutsu belonging to his family, the Nara clan. When Shikamaru first joined Team 10, he immediately became close to Asuma. It is no wonder that when Hidan murders his sensei, he becomes deeply distraught and eventually takes revenge with the help of his friends.
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Asuma's Death and Shikamaru's Despair
Asuma's death was one of the most gut-wrenching in the entire series. Asuma took the mission to hunt down the deadly Akatuski duo of Hidan and Kakuzu to avenge his old friend Chiriku. However, this mission would only lead to his demise. Hidan proved to be too much for Asuma and the team when they encountered his Death Possession Blood jutsu, which essentially turned Hidan into a voodoo doll that is able to inflict the damage he does to himself on the enemy.
Shikamaru understandably doesn't handle Asuma's death very well from the very start when he states that cigarette smoke always makes his eyes water, as opposed to actually admitting to crying. After Asuma's funeral, Shikamaru succumbs to crippling depression over the death of his sensei. As the time he spends in this state increases, his father, Shikaku Nara, notices his son's extreme state of depression. Shikaku decides to approach him to challenge him to one of their usual games of shogi.
The shogi game is arguably one of the most beautiful and raw scenes in all anime. As they play Shogi, Shikaku starts by talking to him about how his playstyle is reckless in this game and then transitions to talking about the Akatsuki and about being careful on missions. Shikaku then continues to talk about how he is proud of Shikamaru, about how proud he is to be able to call him his son, and how he will be very useful to the Leaf Village one day. As he is speaking, Shikamaru begins to slouch more and more, each word bringing him closer to shattering. Finally, Shikaku drops the bomb: "Asuma is dead."
Hearing these words, Shikamaru immediately flips the Shogi table in a fit of rage. He yells at him to get to the point because the conversation has made him sick to his stomach. Shikaku gets in his face and tells him to let out his emotions because they are eating him alive. Shikamaru immediately breaks down into uncontrollable sobbing, and Shikaku exits the room to leave him alone. This scene is so powerful, not only because Shikamaru finally breaks down his walls, but also because it goes against many of Naruto's societal norms up to that point.
Ninjas in Naruto face a world where anyone can die at any moment, and as such, shinobi have to bottle up emotions to carry on with their missions. In stark contrast, Shikaku asks his son to let it out, to let himself feel what he needs to feel. Shikaku understood that his son was beating himself up over something he couldn't control and encouraged him to process his grief healthily. This is a lesson that not only applies to the world of Naruto, but to the real world too. Shikaku taught his son and anyone viewing the scene that it is okay to feel and that it's normal to express emotions. It's something that surely touched the hearts of many and elevated Naruto to another level.
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Shikamaru's Long Journey of Revenge is Filled With Ups and Downs
After Shikamaru finally lets himself grieve, he joins his teammates in their mission to get revenge on the zombie duo of Hidan and Kakuzu. When they encounter the duo, they again almost prove to be too much to handle for Team 10 until Kakashi finally intervenes and levels the playing field. As Kakashi, Ino, and Choji deal with Kakuzu and his troublesome Earth Grudge jutsu, Shikamaru, who had already ensnared Hidan in his Shadow with a clean punch, disarms him of his three-headed scythe and takes him to the Nara clan forest to deal with his sensei's killer himself.
By the time they reach the woods, Shikamaru's technique weakens, and he is forced to release it. Hidan takes his ritual spear-like weapon and attacks an exhausted Shikamaru. Hidan then tastes his blood, stands in his ritual circle, and stabs himself through the chest. Shikamaru collapses to the ground, holding his chest, and it all seems to be over for him. However, it turns out he had a vial of Kakuzu's blood and had faked his injuries to fool Hidan into thinking it was his own blood on the weapon. Kakuzu loses one of his hearts, and Shikamaru uses his jutsu in a final successful attempt to lock Hidan into place.
Shikamaru throws a knife at a pre-marked spot on the floor, and a super-deep hole opens up under the trapped Hidan. Shikamaru then flicks Asuma's lighter to blow up Hidan, but as he struggles to light the faulty lighter, Asuma's ghost appears next to him. Asuma's ghost tells him that he entrusts his will of fire to him as Shikamaru turns the lighter on and lights him a cigarette. Shikamaru throws the lighter into the web of explosive kunai surrounding Hidan and blows him up. The immortal Hidan taunts Shikamaru from his pit, telling him that he'll be back. Shikamaru's response is to blow up the pit, burying Hidan in there forever.
Shikamaru's revenge is complete, and his grief has been processed instead of suppressed. Shikamaru's character grows an incredible amount throughout th story, and it's a lesson to all viewers to deal with their emotions instead of bottling them up. Shikamaru's story shows that feeling and expressing emotions is the healthy thing to do and that bottling up pain is a road to ruin. It is an important lesson both in the shinobi world and the real one.
Naruto is available to stream on Crunchyroll.
