Everyone in the arena was stunned to hear that.
"What accident?"
"Hey, I already said it was beyond his control. Stop asking. If we could tell you, we would've told you already."
"Fine, then. Who's up next?"
Most of the spectators didn't dwell on it and wanted to watch the next match.
Confusion crossed Luo Mang's face.
Special circumstances?
This was a little outside his expectations.
Even if Shikamaru wanted to concede, shouldn't he have waited until the end of the fight? That would have shown off his strength while also demonstrating his laid-back, uncompetitive nature.
But...
"What the hell is Shikamaru up to? What accident?"
Yamanaka Jingye didn't understand either. True to his boisterous nature, he slapped the stool he'd just been sitting on, jumped up, and demanded an explanation.
But in all the noise, no matter how loudly he shouted, his voice couldn't carry far.
Only the acquaintances around him could hear him.
Choji Akimichi might have understood if he were here, since the two knew each other best. But Choji Akimichi had already gone off to have his injuries treated, leaving no one who could explain.
Luo Mang frowned, wondering whether Shikamaru was playing some kind of game. He certainly didn't believe Shikamaru Nara had suddenly suffered an injury serious enough to keep him from showing up.
The only possibility was that he didn't want to participate.
Maybe he thought it was a waste of time, and losing to someone from his own village wasn't a big deal?
In the original story, his opponent had been from Sunagakure. Refusing to fight would have disgraced his village.
That was probably Shikamaru Nara's reasoning. Luo Mang couldn't guess exactly what was going through his mind and could only infer it from the original story. If he didn't want to