Neji Scholar™️

okay here’s my vision: essentially puppets like kankuro’s, but made of shadow.

replicating karasu/crow with shadow is kinda giving shadow clone jutsu to me. like, functionally i think they’re the same because there’s no physical puppet. and it’s lame that a shadow technique like that isn’t limited to the nara clan but i understand why it’s a versatile technique among nin everywhere. if anything i think shikadai should be like inherently better at the shadow clone jutsu than most of his peers.

sanshōuo/salamander goes underground anyway right? and we’ve established that “there are shadows under the ground” according to naruto universe logic (because it’s dark down there, i guess). lots of potential for shadow puppets to maneuver underground and pop out to surprise an enemy, a la naruto in his exam fight against neji.

idk how the logistics would work for kuroari/black ant — maybe since this is more of a finishing move anyway, shikadai could summon hella chakra and envelop his opponent in shadow (mimicking kankuro’s black secret technique) long enough to disorient them or let a teammate swoop in? could be pretty terrifying imo.

bonus: chakra threads. we’ve already seen from shikamaru some of the possibilities of combining shadow usage with chakra threads (re: his first fight in the chunin exams). i think it would be sick if shikadai latched some shadows/chakra threads onto an opponent and turned them into his own living puppet, akin to what kankuro did with sasori during the war.