Shikaku Nara

is the father of Shikamaru Nara and the husband of Yoshino Nara. He is rarely seen in either manga or anime, but when he is seen, he greatly resembles his son with the exception of his more matured appearance and the few scars on his face.

Background
Like his son, he was part of an Ino-Shika-Cho trio, together with Choza Akimichi and Inoichi Yamanaka. Like his son, he is the Shika in the group name. He is married to Yoshino Nara who, as his son says, has him whipped. Despite his claim that "a woman is always tender to the man she loves," his son is never convinced. As a member of the Nara clan, he raises deer, whose antlers can be used to make a medicine which halts the destructive effects of the Akimichi clan's three colored pills. Since his son became a Chunin, Shikaku has taken a great interest in Shikamaru's training as he knows his son has much greater potential than he gives himself credit, regularly playing him at shogi to further refine his son's intellect and teaching him more of their clan's secret techniques. He is probably the most skilled strategist and shogi player in all of Konoha, he beats Shikamaru on a regular basis.

Personality
When he is first seen, he is portrayed as a bit of an alcoholic, and at times uses some of Shikamaru's catchphrases ("What a drag" in English, "How troublesome" in Japanese). Like his son, he thinks that women should be tender and sweet, but as his son says, his wife has him whipped. Also like his son, he is a very lazy person, but he is also quite caring, and is ready to jump into action when needed. Unlike his son, his resolve is much stronger, as even during the most depressing or dangerous of situations, he has shown to maintain great determination and understanding as shown from how he has repeatedly helped his son regain his sense of worth. He also seems to be very smart as he has defeated Shikamaru in shogi.

Chunin Exam arc
Shikaku is first seen during the Chunin Exam festivals, sitting alongside Choza Akimichi and Inoichi Yamanaka, talking to Inoichi about how troublesome it must be to have a daughter. A little while later he is seen talking to Shikamaru about the festivals and saying that he should enjoy them, even though all Shikamaru wants to do is drag his father home before he (his father) gets too drunk.

Invasion of Konoha arc
He makes his next appearance during the end of the Konoha Invasion arc choking Sajin and two other Sand Shinobi with the Shadow Neck Bind Technique and then again next to Choza and Inoichi saying that it is the reunification of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

Sasuke Retrieval arc
When Shikamaru returns unsuccessful, Shikaku is there to help Tsunade cure the effects of the destructive Three Colored Pills taken by Choji and later encourage his son to keep his responsibility as team captain as it might be that a team on a mission could have several casualties, but if he was there that team might end up with no casualties.

Hidan and Kakuzu arc
In Part II, Shikaku appears for the first time when Asuma Sarutobi's funeral has taken place and he finds his son, Shikamaru sitting outside the house staring at the moon. He asks him to come in to play Shogi. He then tells Shikamaru, who's angry at his father for complimenting him while he feels like he was the one to blame for Asuma's death, to let all of his anger, fear and sadness out. After that he returns to the same room and finds the shogi pieces placed in a strategy Shikamaru came up with. The King piece is still protected.

Later on in the end of the Hidan and Kakuzu arc, after Shikamaru had defeated Hidan, he is seen playing Shogi with his son and proves to be much better than Asuma Sarutobi when playing Shogi, as he could easily beat his son at the game while Asuma never could, displaying genius beyond that of even Shikamaru's.

Invasion of Pain arc
In Pain's invasion on Konoha, Shikaku is seen with his son speaking to Shiho. When he was speaking to his son, he seems to have some knowledge of Senjutsu, stating that they should not interfere with Naruto's fight with Pain.

Later, Inoichi comes to them explaing to him about a "Main Body", after chastising Inoichi for not being able to find it, Inoichi tells them he knows how to. Along the way towards the true Pain, Inoichi and the others bump into Naruto, who requests that they not follow him or interfere. While initially saying nothing, Shikaku tells Inoichi to let Naruto have his way. While not saying it, Shikaku remembers what his son said about Naruto and decides to trust him. Afterwards, he realizes he made the right choice to trust Naruto when he learns that everyone in Konoha who died is revived.

Abilities
Like his son, and the rest of his clan, Shikaku uses a special secret clan type of Jutsu, that utilizes the manipulation of shadows in various combat able ways. Although he has only been seen in combat once, as the head of his respective clan, it is highly presumed that he has mastery of his clan's techniques. During Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha, Shikaku perfectly used the Shadow Neck Bind Technique against three opponents at the same time.

He has also shown on several occasions to be a very intelligent man, repeatedly giving insightful words of advice to Shikamaru, as well as repeatedly beating him in shogi, strongly hinting at having an intellect that surpasses his son's.

Quotes

 * "No matter how strong-minded a woman is, she will show kindness to the man she loves."
 * "Oh come now you've never heard of the Shadow Paralysis Jutsu, then you'll love this this next one, the Hidden Leaf Village's Shadow Strangle Jutsu."

Trivia

 * Shika means "deer" but shikaku can mean "assassin".
 * It is believed that Shikaku could have trained Asuma when Asuma was a Genin and Asuma trained Shikamaru as a favor. This ties in with Kakashi training Naruto, as his father, Minato trained Kakashi.