Naruto Fans Revisit Shikamaru’s Most Metal Moment

There have been a lot of heart wrenching moments in the franchise of Naruto. From the death of the Third Hokage while struggling against the villain Orochimaru to Jiraiya falling in battle against the Akatsuki member of Pain, there have been a number of times where audiences got misty eyed while following the adventures of the ninja within the Hidden Leaf Village of Konoha. During the sequel series of Naruto: Shippuden, perhaps one of the saddest moments came in the form of the death of Asuma, which also resulted in one of the most bad ass moments for the young ninja Shikamaru.

Reddit User Saucy_Rosssi shared this moment when Shikamaru managed to exact his revenge on the killer of his sensei Asuma, the Akatsuki member Hidan, who proved himself to be immortal which ultimately proved to be a weakness rather than a strength following his final confrontation with the shadow wielding ninja:

Shikamaru has always been a unique character in the roster of ninjas in the Naruto franchise, not just because of his mastery of the shadows, but because of his brain. Leading Team 10 through a number of missions, the black haired strategist managed to become one of the few ninja that were able to pass the Chunin Exams and become a leader in his own right. It was this intelligence that assisted Team 10 in avenging their master by defeating Hidan and sentencing him to a punishment worse than death.

When Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino brought down Hidan, they could not kill him thanks to his immortality. Instead, the grieving trio buried him beneath the ground, with his body parts separated from one another, unable to reconstitute himself to his former “glory”. To this day, Hidan still sits beneath the ground, unable to die and unable to make any major change to the world above.

Did you think that this was Shikamaru’s most “metal” moment? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the Hidden Leaf Village!

Originally created by Masashi Kishimoto for Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump in 1999, Naruto follows a young ninja, with a sealed demon within him, that wishes to become the leader of his home village. The series ran for 700 chapters overall, and was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex that ran from 2002 to 2017. The series was popular enough to warrant a sequel, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations which is set several years after the events of the original Naruto story and features the children of many of its key characters such as Naruto and Hinata.