The atmosphere in the classroom had reached a fever pitch.
Seeing that Naruto still looked utterly confident, Shikamaru personally took charge of setting up the board.
Before long, a new endgame position was laid out.
"Naruto, don't say I'm bullying you. I've played this endgame with my dad plenty of times, and I'm confident no one but him can beat me at it."
Naruto glanced down and immediately spotted something wrong with the setup. Not only did black have one fewer piece than red, but its starting defensive formation was wrong too.
Still, Naruto didn't mind. "Oh? Then let's wait and see. I picked red last time, so I'll take black this time. I'll let you go first."
Shikamaru frowned at that. "You're not letting me do anything. The rules say red goes first."
"Right, right, you're absolutely right. Then, Sister Little Deer, would you care to begin?"
Naruto made a gentlemanly gesture inviting him to proceed.
Click...
Having lost once already, Shikamaru didn't dare let his guard down, even though he had come prepared this time.
As soon as he placed a piece, Naruto responded without the slightest hesitation.
Click, click, click...
The placement and types of pieces in an endgame setup had to meet extremely strict requirements. Both sides needed advantages as well as fatal vulnerabilities.
As a ninth-dan master, Naruto had needed only a glance to see that black's position in Shikamaru's setup was flawed, while there was nothing wrong with red's.
Even so, Naruto had still chosen black.
Because he wanted Sister Little Deer, that wealthy young heiress, to become his devoted fan once and for all.
Then wouldn't he be able to... hehehe... charge Shikamaru for coaching him?
And collecting a little tuition would be perfectly reasonable, wouldn't it?
Faced with this familiar endgame, Shikamaru