Shikamaru was lazy by nature. He hated trouble and change, and longed for a peaceful life.
On top of that, his family and his team leader, Asuma, had shaped him into a staunch defender of tradition.
The antagonist in Shikamaru's secret storyline was someone who asked why ninja should obey corrupt daimyō and wealthy merchants.
It was exactly the same question Shirozumi had asked Kurotsuchi.
The difference was that this antagonist was a frog in a well, unaware of Naruto and Sasuke's strength or that of the Five Great Nations. And though his argument was sound, he used jutsu to brainwash and control people.
Shikamaru pointed out these problems and defeated him.
This approach could convince most people, but left little room for anyone to think things through.
Because it wasn't really a clash of ideals at all. It was more like an online argument.
When someone couldn't win an argument, they started digging through the other person's profile and old posts, then tried to slap a label on them.
The antagonist had used Genjutsu. He had ambitions, too. Therefore, everything he said was wrong. That was the kind of black-and-white thinking used to dismiss his ideas.
Nagato hadn't known about Kaguya or the Ōtsutsuki, or that he was a pawn in someone else's game.
You could say his actions were wrong, but you couldn't prove his ideals were.
It was like posting, "The sun rises in the east," on QQ and taking a screenshot.
Then someone arguing that "People believe QQ screenshots?" was somehow supposed to disprove that the sun rose in the east. It was absurd.
Shikamaru was smart enough to understand the problem.
But as mentioned earlier, he was a defender of traditional rules. He didn't need to consider whether opposing viewpoints were reasonable. He only needed