The Legendary Ino-Shika-Chō

Ino fumes at her father for barging in while she is dressing and then teasing that she might be dating Shikamaru or Chōji. As the two try to settle her, they spot three boys brawling, and Shikamaru pins them with his shadow technique while Chōji and Ino talk them down, Ino leaving the trio smitten.

The wanderer Kosuke Maruboshi watches and praises Team Asuma's coordination. Shikamaru recalls meeting him during a genin mission, when their Ino-Shika-Chō formation rescued him from bandits, and Kosuke had remarked it was the second time the trio saved him. The first, he reveals, came at the hands of their fathers.

During the Konoha Crush, the elder Ino-Shika-Chō turned back the invading Sound ninja by chaining their techniques together: Chōza's size-multiplying jutsu, Shikaku's shadow sewing, and Inoichi's mind-body disturbance. Shikaku then dragged foes into range with his Black Spider Lily so Inoichi's mind disturbance dance could turn the enemy against one another. Kosuke had been struck by their teamwork, while Shikaku predicted their children would outdo them within a few years.

His tale finished, Kosuke moves on, leaving the three deflated that they have yet to surpass their fathers. Shikamaru lifts their spirits, noting their strength lies in intellect and strategy, and that they will hold their own in the coming Fourth Shinobi World War because they will never fight alone.

Team Asuma breaks up a children's fight, drawing Kosuke Maruboshi's praise. Kosuke recounts being saved twice by the Ino-Shika-Chō, first by the fathers and later by the current trio. A flashback shows the elder generation combining their clan techniques to repel the Sound invasion during the Konoha Crush. Shikamaru reassures his teammates that their strategic minds will carry them through the coming war.

Episode two-hundred-thirty-nine of Naruto: Shippūden is part of the filler Paradise Life on a Boat arc. It premiered in Japan on December 8, 2011, and in English on April 26, 2014. The opening theme is Newsong and the ending is Place to Try. The animation erroneously draws the Yamanaka and Akimichi clan symbols, and briefly shows Shikaku without his goatee.