Naruto 324

[mage]

Killing Chouji at that point would have made Shikamaru quitting being a ninja, and he would have gone a crazy, lonely man.

Shikamaru is not a real person. He is whoever Kishomoto makes him. It would be very easy to create a scenario where he comes back from Chouji's death and becomes a better and wiser person because of it.

. .

[p0ltergeist]

The annoying thing was that the death scenes for Chouji and Neji were very well done... except that they didn't die. It's as if Kishi suddenly changed his mind just as he was writing the end of part 1.

[samsonlonghair]

If Chouji had died, it could have made Shikamaru a better character in any number of ways. With some good writing, Kishimoto could have spun Shikamaru's reaction to Chouji's death into several great storylines.

[Munsu]

Kishimoto could've also made it all about Naruto once Chouji died. Naruto would start to question if getting Sasuke back is worth the life of his friends and shit, I think that would've made some interesting storylines.

[RasenDori]

which would not work with the theme at all

[samsonlonghair]

The theme of Naruto is a loser who finally gets to win. Making Shikamaru a loser would fit into that theme perfectly.

[RasenDori]

the most central point of the story right now is about 2 people trying desperately to save their friend. what im saying is that naruto having doubts about if sasuke is worth the effort would moot that point.