SHIKAMARU NARA'S BACKGROUND AND APPEARANCES

SHIKAMARU NARA'S BACKGROUND-

Shikamaru was born into the Nara clan to Shikaku and Yoshino. He has a long-standing friendship with Chōji Akimichi. They met even before joining the Ninja Academy, when others ridiculed Chōji for his weight, Shikamaru too abandoned the game and ended up hanging out
with Chōji instead. Because of the kindness Shikamaru has always shown him, Chōji is unwavering in his loyalty to him, and will gladly
give his life for Shikamaru.

Once they entered the Academy, Shikamaru and
Chōji were among their classes' dead-lasts, along with Kiba Inuzuka and Naruto Uzumaki, spending their day pursuing what they deemed to be more
interesting pastimes. In Shikamaru's case, he
would spend all day sleeping; to Shikamaru, even
the very effort of putting pen-to-paper was just
too much effort for him to put into it unless he
had to. Iruka Umino, their instructor, would give them all the same condemnation.

SHIKAMARU NARA'S APPEARANCES-

To further emphasize his personality, Shikamaru
is regularly seen with a lazy or irritated
expression. He has fairly long jet black hair tied in
a spiky ponytail, narrow brown eyes, and has
both ears adorned by earrings, which were
given to him and the other members of Team Asuma by Asuma himself.

During Part I, his attire was rather plain,
consisting of a green lined mesh T-shirt under a
short sleeved grey jacket with green edges,
adorned on both the sleeves and the back with a
circle with a line through it, his blue forehead protector worn around his left arm, brown pants, and blue sandals. After his promotion to chūnin, he also wore a flak jacket over his outfit.

During Part II, he has grown noticeably taller. His
hairstyle remains the same, but he changed his
earrings from rings to studs. He has also
undergone a costume change, and among the
members of Konoha 11, he's the one to sport an attire more mirroring the standard Konohagakure's one: he retains his flak jacket, along with a black long sleeved shirt paired with
matching pants and sandals, and green lined
mesh armour on his wrists and ankles. The
placement of his headband is the same as before,
but only the metal part is visible, seemingly sewn
onto the shirt itself. He is also equipped with a chūnin's tantō, horizontally strapped onto the back of his flak jacket via a brown strap. During
the second part of the Hidan and Kakuzu Arc, he had a belt with some bags attached to it around
his waist.