By episode 229 of Boruto, the reason why Shikamaru hates Kawaki is revealed, and it will probably make you gasp in amazement.
Throughout the Boruto chapters, Shikamaru seems to have always hated Kawaki like a “step-son”. He always tries to humiliate him, despite his merits against Isshiki. Most people thought it was because of his strength. According to the opening flashback, he seems to be the destroyer of Konoha. But the truth is, I really care about you. He was afraid that if he recklessly fought without any preparation, the owl would surely die.
This was made clear when Kawaki refused to accept D-rank quests when he first joined Konoha. He really couldn’t believe he had to do these things “to protect the village”. To him, doing something like that was an insult. And he had raised his neck to curse the entire village council for this.
To Shikamaru, those who spend the whole day in battle are always the first to die, no matter how smart or experienced that person is (Kawaki is one of them).
But Naruto didn’t seem too angry. After years of being the father of a brat like Boruto, he also understood the situation. And he continued to explain to his adopted son. But he still stubbornly resisted. He believes that fighting is the most effective way to practice. And plowing hoes after all is just a form of “lower”. This way of thinking made Shikamaru’s blood boil, and since then he has openly hated Kawaki.
But what Shikamaru hates about Kawaki is not his personality, it’s his attitude. It really reminded him of his failures in the past. That day, he was “famous” as the famous lazy ninja in the village. Therefore, despite his superior intelligence, he also encountered many problems. First, he was forced to surrender to Temari. It wasn’t because he was lazy, but because he wasn’t strong enough to finish her off even after successfully tying the ball.
It was he who was once forced to surrender to Temari despite successfully tying her up. Too weak to be tied is also hopeless.
And this is not the first time that laziness “betrayed” him. The second time this happened while hunting Tayuya – one of the Four Monsters of Sound. After countless numbers of brain “bouncing numbers”, Shikamaru thought of a way to bind the shadow. But the ball is too weak, it spawns just for her to move once and it’s “open”, unable to hold it anymore. Even his relatives and teammates brought his laziness to public humiliation in front of the village. He was in so much pain, it hurt so much that he was lazy and still had to hurt when something touched his past wound. Unfortunately many Boruto era ninjas did this.
Fortunately, his son Shikadai was not among them. It’s clearly quite tough in practice. But Kawaki doesn’t, he just goes to war all the time. Shikamaru knew well that if he didn’t practice, he would sooner or later die. At this rate, he will eventually “go” just when the village needs him the most. In general, Shikamaru hates Kawaki, but he still cares and worries about him. And of course he also admits that he is a rare talent.
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