Darn... got that completely wrong. I meant to say that he plays Shogi,
not chess in the anime. Appologies.

No worries, I got the jist. However, allow me to explain my point.

Hinata has a real problem with her self image. She admires Naruto as a 
"Proud failure" and wants to be like him.

<snip>

Consider, Shikamaru is lazy, but his own choice to become a ninja is an 
interesting one. His family takes care of the deer of Konoha. He could 
easily have just become a games man... a low ranking piece, but he took a 
more difficult path of his own choice. Again, he could speak from 
experience on the subject of just settling for the easy victory.

I didn't actually know anything at all about Shikamaru's parents or what 
they did.  The most I remember about him was saying that he wanted to 
graduate as a ninja with mediocre grades, get a decent paying job, marry a 
normal woman, have a few kids and then retire early and send his old age 
playing games and such.

She needs to see that life isn't bound by rules the way chess is, and that 
while the lowly Fu can only aspire to gain a little more mobility as a To, 
she can aspire to become far more.

The know this is just a waffy fic, but part of Hinata's deeper problem is 
that she's a "settler" she settles for less than she could be.

Those are a lot of good points, and in all honesty, and at the risk of 
sounding like Hinata myself:  If I'd been more confident in my ability to 
make this story just as good using my only mediocre knowledge in shogi, I 
probably would have used it instead of chess.

Thanks again for the suggestions.  Much appreciated.

Eric 'Dragonboy' Holdt

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