Shikamaru's not without sympathy. If he were fresh to Luceti again... but with all of his friends from home this time, not just Naruto, claiming to have not seen him for so long? He'd be lost and upset; analyzing and coming to grips with it as easy as catching a fish bare-handed.
He thinks of how he would feel... and then multiplies it by twofold. That, he thinks, is probably how Chouji feels.
Shikamaru gives his friend a slight nod, pardoning, and promises not to keep him in the dark like that any longer than he has to.
"I'm farther back than some of you," he says in opening, zipping his bag closed to give his hands something to do. "Not by a lot, but enough. The Fifth had just recovered from her coma, and I was attending a war meeting alongside my old man."
[Action]
He thinks of how he would feel... and then multiplies it by twofold. That, he thinks, is probably how Chouji feels.
Shikamaru gives his friend a slight nod, pardoning, and promises not to keep him in the dark like that any longer than he has to.
"I'm farther back than some of you," he says in opening, zipping his bag closed to give his hands something to do. "Not by a lot, but enough. The Fifth had just recovered from her coma, and I was attending a war meeting alongside my old man."