How should one describe the second quarterfinal match?
Shikamaru had racked his brains and exerted every ounce of strength to evade Gaara's sand attacks again and again.
At last, while Gaara had not moved so much as a muscle, Shikamaru successfully used the Shadow Binding Jutsu to restrain him.
Then Shikamaru was wrapped in countless grains of fine sand and, wearing the posture of someone who had given up struggling, was sent soaring into the air by Gaara for a little "lift up"...
With that, Gaara easily won his battle against Shikamaru.
There was nothing to be done about it.
After all, Shikamaru had already foreseen this outcome before the match began.
To be honest, with Shikamaru's intelligence, even if he faced Naruto, Sasuke, Chiyo, or Neji, he could have tangled with them for a while.
Though it was unlikely that he could defeat any of those four, he definitely would not have lost as completely and without suspense as he had against Gaara.
Gaara was also Shikamaru's natural counter!
Gaara surely understood that himself.
That was why he had not even bothered to dodge Shikamaru's Shadow Binding Jutsu.
Because he knew clearly that this was already the limit of what Shikamaru could do.
Sand could not be restrained by Shikamaru!
And as long as he could not deal with Gaara's sand, Shikamaru's chances of winning were zero!
It was precisely because he understood this that Shikamaru had planned to surrender outright before the match began.
But who would have thought that he would run into a troublesome friend like Naruto? Just as he had been about to shout his surrender, Naruto had slapped him right out of the waiting area.
After that, even if he did not want to compete, he had to grit his teeth and hold on