Shikamaru Nara

Shikamaru's narrow brown eyes usually settle into a look of boredom or mild irritation, set beneath black hair pulled up into a spiky ponytail. Through Part I he wears a grey short-sleeved jacket edged in green with the Nara crest on the back, over green-lined mesh armour and brown trousers, his blue forehead protector wrapped around one arm and his clan's silver hoops in his ears. Promotion to chunin adds a flak jacket to the outfit.

Part II sees him give up most of that personal touch for the standard Konoha uniform, keeping only mesh guards at the wrists and ankles and swapping the hoops for stud earrings given to him by Asuma. As an adult he abandons the infantry look entirely for a cream coat and black trousers much like his father Shikaku once wore, growing a short goatee, and as the Eighth Hokage he dons a pale collared cape trimmed with a dark flame pattern.

Shikamaru is naturally idle, forever looking to do as little as possible; as a young genin he passes his days napping, cloud-watching, and playing shogi and Go. His stated ambition is to live an unremarkable life and die just as quietly, and his first response to any looming duty is to sigh that it is a bother and try to wriggle out of it. Yet for all his self-styled cowardice, he holds a firm moral compass and deep loyalty to his friends, qualities that first won him Choji's friendship and that keep dragging him back into the very responsibilities he dreads.

Losing his teacher Asuma forces a sudden maturity on him, teaching him that he cannot stay sheltered from the world and pushing him to make things better for the next generation, especially Asuma's daughter Mirai. Women, meanwhile, are a running source of grief given his mother, Ino, and Temari, though he eventually recognises Temari as one of the most precious things in his life, marries her, and has a son, Shikadai. In adulthood he devotes himself to supporting Naruto as adviser, taking on much of the Hokage's workload while adopting a guarded, security-first mindset that sometimes clashes with Naruto's gentler outlook. After Ada's power scrambles his memories, he comes to resent Boruto for the false crime of killing Naruto, softening only once evidence emerges that his recollections were altered.

Despite dismal Academy grades born of sheer laziness, Shikamaru alone out of his graduating year reached chunin during Part I, and he could stand firm against jonin-level foes such as Tayuya. In Part II he outmaneuvered and destroyed the immortal Hidan by luring him into a trap. His gifts won him a string of postings: deputy commander over the Fourth Division, chief strategist for the whole Allied Shinobi Forces, then right-hand man to the Seventh Hokage, and finally recognition as the Eighth Hokage.

As a Nara he manipulates his own shadow, his signature Shadow Imitation Technique tethering an enemy's shadow to his own to freeze or puppet their movements, with the Shadow-Neck Binding letting him strangle a bound target. In Part II he lifts his shadow off surfaces to sew through and seize opponents, and can channel chakra into Asuma's old blades to pin a shadow from range. By adulthood he performs these without hand seals, and his speed grew enough to snare the Five Kage at once and even bind Ada and Kara's Code.

Above all he is famed for his intellect. Asuma discovered his IQ exceeds 200, and by fifteen he was reckoned the smartest person in Konoha. Tracking every detail of a fight with his eyes closed and fingers cupped, he thinks many moves ahead and sifts through hundreds of strategies to pick the sharpest, often winning through layers of misdirection. In later years he proves a fine teacher as well, personally shaping Mirai into a capable kunoichi.