Chapter 154: Mediocrity and Genius
Nara Shikamaru was asleep.
Or at least, that was what he told himself.
People, normal people, needed sleep. He was no exception.
For someone who called himself a genius, sleep was his last refuge. Only in that quiet darkness could he pull his mind away from the chaos outside, away from the reality that his friends were turning into something unrecognizable.
Three weeks.
Twenty one days since he had joined Aizen Sousuke's team. One week short of the agreed four.
In that time, he had read almost all the books and papers Aizen had assigned. On paper, his progress was impressive. In his own eyes, it was just passable.
He wanted to be an ordinary ninja.
Not some lunatic that belonged in a research horror story.
But clearly, his companions had already been possessed by something.
Even with his eyes closed, curled up alone in the rest room, Shikamaru could almost hear them outside. Three familiar presences, their chakra flaring with a constant, feverish intensity, bloodshot eyes fixed on their work as they pushed their Shadow Clone Technique further and further.
It felt like some demon lord from the depths of hell had taken over the training field.
No matter what the records said, Shikamaru refused to believe those three used to be his teammates and childhood friends.
Because changing clothes was troublesome, they had simply thrown away the idea altogether. They wore only the white laboratory robes Aizen provided, the single set that was endlessly cleaned and repaired, as if modesty no longer existed between men and women.
Over five hundred hours of continuous study and experiment, stacked on top of an infinite Shadow Clone cycle, had pushed them somewhere beyond what Shikamaru considered human.
At least, he had never seen human beings twist themselves like that in such a short time.
The two teenage girls paid no attention to their own image or to the dangers of clothing slipping out of place. With red rimmed eyes, they swallowed stamina pills and Awakening talismans, then buried themselves again in chakra theory, still in those thin white coats.
Aburame Shino was even stranger. The idea of boys and girls had completely fallen out of his field of view. The shy kid who used to stiffen up around girls no longer even spared two beautiful teammates a glance, no matter what angle their robes were showing.
Why
Because every one of his Shadow Clones was busy. Over a dozen copies, lined up around the laboratory benches, all doing the same thing.
Testing insect responses in different petri dishes. Adjusting chakra levels. Recording reactions.
Shikamaru had always known that the Aburame clan "played with bugs."
This was the first time he understood just how terrifying that could become.
Shino focused on insect evolution.
The other two girls drilled into chakra manipulation and floral transformation techniques. With Aizen's bottomless chakra support and talisman supply behind them, the three raced forward at a frightening pace, advancing every single hour.
Every twenty hours, they halted.
Not to sleep.
To hold a meeting.
They gathered, compared notebooks, shared conjectures, corrected each other's mistakes, and cross checked experiments.
Shikamaru had eavesdropped on one of those meetings.
Their foundations were still not as deep as his, but in terms of practical application and creative leaps, they had already reached a terrifying level. Shino had even proposed a full theory of "chakra pheromones," built from flowers and insects.
In theory, it was entirely possible to affect human bodies and minds the same way. If someone developed that idea properly, it might lead to a whole new system of secret techniques.
But Shino did not care about grand uses.
He just wanted better insects.
For twenty one days, while Shikamaru studied, they studied.
When he slept, they studied.
When his head throbbed, he took the medicine Aizen provided. When his research hit a wall, he went to ask Aizen questions, then dug through the referenced papers to fill in the gaps with his own theoretical work.
And still, compared to them, he felt like he was barely moving.
Honestly, he was scared.
This was not learning as he understood it.
Learning, in his mind, was what it had been at the academy. You learned ninjutsu with your friends, you experimented and messed up and laughed, you grew stronger together. That was it.
When had learning turned into this
As the days passed, he could sense them changing. It was not just their schedule or their habits. The way they moved, the way they thought, even the conditions under which they functioned, all drifted further away from anything he knew as human.
If someone lived a completely different life from normal people, thought differently, behaved differently, and even altered their physical rhythms to match something else entirely, were they still human
Those three had not gone to the toilet, had not done any of the normal physical things, in a full twenty one days, yet their bodies remained perfectly healthy.
If that was technology, then Nara Shikamaru admitted he was terrified.
He did not want that.
He absolutely refused to become that kind of creature.
In the soundproof rest room that belonged only to him, he closed his eyes and tried to empty his mind, praying for a peaceful sleep.
The insulation was excellent. Even when explosions echoed outside, or chakra surges rippled through the corridors, the room remained undisturbed.
Yet Shikamaru could not relax.
Something whispering in the back of his consciousness kept poking at him, urging him to get up, to do something, to go out and take action. The urge gnawed at his mind like a nightmare soaked in caffeine.
He knew exactly what it was.
It was the feeling of being left behind.
A mess of inferiority, bruised pride, and bored genius, all tangled together, pushed him forward toward a road he could not fully see, but one that shone with a strange, dangerous light.
He knew that, too.
He knew it was only for a month, that it was the time limit that made everyone snap. He knew that this madness was possible only because Aizen kept pouring in chakra and resources without restraint.
Just from the density of chakra in the air, just from the power contained in the pills they had taken these weeks, Shikamaru could guess.
Each pill had probably held chakra on the level of Shukaku, the One Tailed Beast. Feeding and sustaining a few kids for dozens of days was nothing.
No matter how he reasoned it out, the pressure did not lessen.
So he lay there, wrapped in his blanket, shivering slightly at the cold, inhuman atmosphere coming from outside, and tried to sleep.
Instead, his senses grew sharper.
He heard every breath, every heartbeat, as if they were crashing inside his skull.
Then, the door opened with a soft click.
A heavy, calm voice drifted in.
"Ah, Shikamaru kun. Are you asleep already"
"…Not yet, Aizen sensei. You can tell, right"
"Yes, but children always have things they do not want adults to see," Aizen replied mildly. "So I maintain a basic politeness."
His tone was gentle, but carried a weight that was hard to ignore.
Shikamaru, of course, knew who it was.
He also knew what kind of terrifying power stood behind that voice.
Aizen Sousuke, who had moved through the past twenty days like the perfect gentleman, the perfect mentor, walked into the lounge, pulled out a chair, and sat down beside Shikamaru's bed.
"If you do not mind, can we talk" Aizen asked. "It has already been three weeks, and yet Shikamaru kun still refuses to truly study. It troubles me."
"If we are only talking about theory, I have already memorized it," Shikamaru answered from inside the blanket. "You never said I had to understand everything. You said memorizing it would be enough."
"That is true," Aizen admitted. "But it does not mean I want to give up on you."
"You want to drag me into that state too, right Forget it. I do not actually want to be that kind of ninja."
There were no formalities in the dark. No posture to hold.
The fear that had been swelling in Shikamaru's chest melted into his words before he could stop it.
"I learn faster than others. I am smarter than others. I just do not want to end up like them. If your goal is to make me like that, Aizen sensei, then there is no need. That is not what people should be."
"…You have the premise wrong, Shikamaru."
Behind him, Aizen let out a small, helpless sigh.
"I do not value your so called talent," he said. "I simply do not want to give up on mediocrity. Your mediocrity, to be precise. Your results will be recorded under my name. That affects my reputation. That matters to me."
"Mediocrity Me"
"Compared to others, yes," Aizen said calmly. "You are very mediocre."
Shikamaru's face twisted, even though Aizen could not see it.
He sneered. "Just having better insight in battle and studying faster is only 'a little cleverness' to you"
"Exactly. That is not talent," Aizen replied, his tone unchanged, as if he were explaining a basic formula. "Real talent must be shown in results, not in how little time you spend.
"Time has never been the key factor. The most important thing is what you produce.
"If you spend one hour to learn the entire academy curriculum and master it by yourself, then spend three years afterward and still do not advance beyond that, then your grade is the same as any ordinary ninja who took three years to learn it. That is not talent. That is incompetence."
His words sliced straight through Shikamaru's pride.
"Talent is only talent when it is used. You have never reached a situation where you needed to fight with everything you have. You have not even stepped onto the path of ninjutsu development, nor understood the level of energy and creativity required.
"You cling to a small edge in speed and effort, then declare yourself a genius. You think that because you can play while others must study, that makes you special. That is a very common mistake.
"You are simply pleasing yourself.
"Objectively, you are an ordinary, underachieving student."
Aizen's voice did not rise. He spoke at the same calm volume as always, yet every word felt like a blade pressed against Shikamaru's throat.
He was right, and Shikamaru knew it.
Compared with the geniuses in Konoha's past, his actual achievements were not that impressive.
He had made Chunin. True.
But he had not advanced to Jonin.
His overall grades were nothing spectacular.
His chakra control was only decent.
He liked to say he had a hundred ways to defeat an enemy, but those plans only worked if he had the chakra to execute them.
And if you had that much chakra to begin with, a lot of people could win.
Because he was smart, he understood the gap a little too clearly.
He was not the extreme of human intelligence he liked to imagine.
He was exactly what Aizen called him.
Someone who used the idea of genius as a shield to hide from his own fear.
As Shikamaru trembled under the blanket, Aizen continued in the same even tone.
"Same age. Similar basic grades. Yet your development is worse than the others.
"Ino has already created Flower Shuriken. Sakura has built Cherry Blossom Rush from Tsunade's monstrous strength.
"Shino's continual improvement and modification of his insects speaks for itself. That is the result of sustained effort.
"Many people will be fooled by your so called genius. I have no use for that sort of person. I need those who have the courage to face difficulty head on.
"Reaching a standard quickly is nice. If you cannot move past that standard, you are no different from trash to me."
"To be honest," Aizen added, "I simply do not want a child who does not even dare to lift his own blanket to drag down my name."
"…"
There was nothing to refute.
Shikamaru knew it.
He had always relied on the Nara clan's secret techniques. He had never thought about expanding them, much less building something entirely new.
Compared with the three who were throwing themselves at their dreams, he really did not look like someone Aizen needed.
But words like that still stung.
He can do it too. He can become like that too.
For the first time, someone had crushed his pride so completely. For the first time, Nara Shikamaru felt heat surge up from his chest.
He threw his blanket aside, got up, and stood barefoot on the floor. Then he bowed deeply in front of Aizen.
"Aizen sensei," he said, his voice rough. "Please teach me."
"Why should I give you individual guidance" Aizen's expression did not change. "You do not seem to have any definite learning goal. I have no need to interfere with your hobbies."
"Huh"
"Ah. It seems literature has misled you." Aizen gave a small laugh. "You thought that because I came to talk to you alone, it meant I valued you highly.
"That is wrong.
"I came because you have fallen so far behind that you risk embarrassing me. That is all.
"As I said before, I just do not want you to stain my reputation."
Shikamaru stared, thrown off balance.
Aizen sighed, then pointed casually toward the bed next to his.
Sakura's and Ino's undergarments were scattered there in a messy pile. Compared to Shino, who had discarded human rhythm completely, the two girls at least came back once in a while to change clothes that had been scorched or dissolved by experiments.
What Aizen had placed there now could not even be called clothing anymore. They were scraps, fragments burned and shredded by uncontrolled chakra.
With a faintly awkward air, Aizen picked up the replacement clothes he had brought for them and stood.
"I did not come specifically for you, Shikamaru kun," he said. "Sakura and Ino carried out a joint chakra test, and the result destroyed all of their clothes. I came to get them something clean.
"Research is good. Maintaining stamina is not bad. But I hope you all remember you are human. You must retain some minimal sense of rationality."
He walked toward the door, then glanced back with a wry smile.
"Watching two young girls of that age laughing while standing naked in a field of flowers and cherry blossoms made from chakra was impressive, even for me. They are remarkable researchers. No wonder they reached Chunin while developing their own techniques.
"Even so, I hope that when they look back on this someday, they will at least feel a little embarrassed."
"…"
The words were honest.
If this had been any other situation, talking about half naked girls in a flower field would have made Shikamaru blush for a different reason.
Right now, he felt nothing like that.
He knew those two.
Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino, probably the two girls in Konoha most obsessed with appearance and reputation.
The madness they had shown these past weeks left a chill in his bones.
But still.
Even knowing Aizen had said it on purpose, what if some of that was how he truly thought
And from an adult point of view, was it really wrong
Power that never left your head was not power. Until you showed what you could do, no one had reason to believe you.
Pretend to be weak for too long, and you might actually become weak.
I do not have anything worth being afraid of, do I
They have dreams, goals, reasons to throw themselves into this. It is natural for them to be that consumed.
I have already memorized everything. I am a genius.
If I actually try, there is no way I will lose to them.
They have already given up basic shyness.
So what if I give up sleep for a while
What is wrong with digging into these strange theories
I am a genius of Konoha. With just a bit of real effort, of course I can learn all of this.
"Just wait," Shikamaru muttered under his breath.
Look down on me and see what happens.
I will use your own theories to play a trick on you, and prove exactly what I can do.
He pulled on his outer clothes, teeth clenched, and walked toward the brightly lit lab.
A few seconds later, voices exploded.
"Shikamaru What are you doing here"
"Sasuke… what am I going to do now…"
"Shikamaru kun, I know life has been stressful lately, but this is not the answer."
"I did not even see anything Why are you yelling at me"
The two girls stood in their new white lab coats, still faintly flushed, humanity slowly returning to their expressions.
Shikamaru's face went scarlet as he roared back at them, sounding more alive than he had in days.
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