No I'm saying that unless they go through some drastic changes, chuunin is are far as either of them will go. I do think they were both lucky to get through the chuunin exam considering that it seems to favor the nins who rely more on brute strength than intelligence. Can you imagine if Shikamaru had to fight someone like Lee or Neji or Gaara during the prelims. He could not have won any of those fights and thus he would not have had the opportunity to show his talents to the observers in the finals therefore he would not have become chuunin. This is also why Shino doesn't deserve to be a chuunin. The fighters were not being judged for becoming chuunins in the prelims only in the finals. But since Kishimoto fixed the outcome of everything by being the one who wrote the manga, things pretty much went as he saw fit.