Who will win?

*possible spoilers* i can see a problem in this thread. it's divided between people who have only seen the anime and those who read the manga. if you haven't read the manga, then you haven't seen the just-recently concluded battle between shikamaru and hidan of the akatsuki. shikamaru was awesome in there. so, if you only watched the anime, then i suppose it's really unfathomable that shikamaru COULD beat gaara. in the manga however, it's already been two and a half years since sasuke left konoha so there are a lot of changes within the characters in terms of strenght and their jutsus. there were also changes in the character's attitudes. after gaara has become the kazekage, he has mellowed out so he's not as monster-like as he was before. also, you have to take into account that the shukaku has already been taken out of him. i'm sure he's still strong and awesome, but i'm also sure that the loss of the shukaku would have affected his strength somehow.

I am sure many people will say gaaraa but that doesnt close the possibility that shikaru might win, he will just have a strategy that can beat gaaraa. well, in the manga, shikamaru even beat akatsuki one on one afterall. garaa lost against one of akatsuki but shikamaru won. so why shikamary cannot beat garaa? he can even transfer the shadow to the sands afterall

Shikamaru's very smart. It may seem that he's weak on one-on-one battle but he's a good leader. He makes best use of any resources he have. He may have a little amount of power but surely he will make the best use of those. Shadow manipulation technique may look weak but as Naruto series continues, we can see that Shikamaru's improving the use of that technique. Sand cant stop a shadow. For me there's a possibility that he can win against Gaara.

gaara ...... coz what if gaara created a dome with no sunlight passing thru covering the arena .... shika will have no no shadow as such to use .....

well, i do think that gaara is stronger compared to shikamaru. but the way shikamaru thinks can be very critical to just fighting with strength. But we don't know whats gonna happen unless we see it in action.

gaara precedes over shikamaru so i guess writers will go for gaara.

Its hard to imagine how Shikamaru will win against Gaara. The other one who responded here said that he beat one of the Akatsuki, I have watched one movie of Naruto. Its against a person with a bloodlimit that can summon a black hole. Shikamaru fought a strong adversary in that movie, the enemy's very strong and it seems that Shikamaru can win against her. She trapped the enemy, although the enemy lost with the help of another sand ninja, he still managed to defeat her. He will always look for an opening against his enemy, he has an IQ of 200. He's a genius!

Gaara will win. Shikamaru cannot touch Gaara. Even if he manages to bind him with Kage Mane no Justu, it is only Gaara that won't be able to move. Gaara's sand moves on its own. Even if Shika uses his Shadow Strangulation Tecnhique, it will only make his slim chances worse. When Gaara passes out, the monster inside him will awaken. (Gaara can use his Forced Slumber jutsu even before he passes out). It's a clear win for Gaara. =)

garaa will have the upperhand if their battle will occur but i think shikamaru has a chance of defeating gaara if gaara will let his guards down. shikamaru is very intelligent but lack in powers and weak on one-on-one battle gaara on the other hand is very powerful but don't use his brain much, he let his sand do most of the job. so i think both ninja will have the chance of defeating each other

i like them both a lot and i believe shikamaru has a chance with gaara, but gaara has matured and improved after the chuunin exam, so im 50/50 on this

I would have to agree with shadowstalker, I've seen all the animes of what Gaara can do, and in the second movie. He has some impressive power and ways to adapt to a situation like Shikamaru. And we all know Shikamaru is a genius, so i would have to go 50/50 on this too.