Its pretty sad how everybody says 'I liked shika from the start'. He did sweet fuck all for the first 30+ episodes, did I miss some hidden episodes where Shikamaru bet the piss out of some bad ass opponents. No, the reason why that didn't happen is because he's a weak fringe character.

The fact that Naruto is disliked by so many people because he is annoying at times while Shikamaru is both annoying and boring yet everybody seems to love him is just hypocritical.

I am not one to jump on the band wagon of the flavor of the month character. Gaara is my favorite and always will be. Naruto is a close second, just wait until everybody sees him do the rasengan I guarantee he will be far more popular.