Only Shikamaru Nara (N-008) says "interrupt that attack" — sorting the 12 revealed Supports by what they actually do

This is the fourth entry in our one-card analysis series. This morning we read Ino Yamanaka (N-011); now we read one of the two cards she names — Shikamaru Nara (N-008).

His text contains a phrase that appears nowhere else in the 38 revealed entries.

Interrupt that attack.

12Revealed cards with a [Support] line

1Cards that say "interrupt that attack"Shikamaru only

4Supports that stay as a Characterall cost 1 chakra

What this is based on: Shikamaru’s card face comes from the sample image in the “Game Features” section of the official “About the NARUTO Card Game” page (SAMPLE watermark, NOT FOR SALE marking). Most of the other ten Supports used for comparison come from scans of the English-version demo cards handed out at Gen Con 2026 (posted by X users). Tallies are taken over the 38 entries in our card database. The official rulebook and card list are still unpublished, and anything speculative is marked as speculation.

1. Reading the frame

On the official site, this card is the example used to explain how you spend a Chakra Card to activate a jutsu — a chakra card flipping face-down on the left, Shikamaru turning face-up from the face-down zone on the right.

Here is what the frame shows.

Field	Printed value
Card name	Shikamaru Nara
Card number	N-008
Card type	Character (CHARACTER)
Rarity	C
DMG	1
POW	6
HP	4
Chakra cost	1 (CHAKRA box)
Traits	Special / Hidden Leaf Village / Team 10

The effect text runs two lines.

[Support] Shadow Possession Jutsu [During Your Opponent’s Attack] Summon this card and interrupt that attack.

The first line declares the jutsu name, the second is the effect. As noted in our roundup of the 12 jutsu names, this is the one card whose Japanese jutsu name can be read on an official card face — the other eleven come from English-version demo cards or from reference translations of them.

The “1” in the CHAKRA box on the left is the price of firing the jutsu. As set out in our count of what cards make you pay, a printed cost box is the price of firing the card as a jutsu from face-down, not the price of putting a Character onto the field.

2. Sorting the 12 revealed Supports by what they do

Of the 38 revealed entries, 12 carry a [Support] line. Here they are, sorted by what the card actually accomplishes.

• K.O. Characters 5cards（42%）
• Summon this card 4cards（33%）
• Negate a Support 2cards（17%）
• Return a Character to hand 1cards（8%）

The breakdown:

• Five K.O. effects — Naruto Uzumaki N-004 (Rasengan, all Characters) / Sasuke Uchiha (Chidori, all Characters) / Jiraiya N-006 (Fire Style: Toad Flame Bombs, up to 2 rested) / Orochimaru (Striking Shadow Snake, up to 2 rested) / Hinata Hyuga ([8-TRIGRAM] Air Palm, 1 non-EX Character)
• Four that summon themselves — Shikamaru Nara N-008 / Karin N-010 / Suigetsu Hozuki N-021 / Choji Akimichi
• Two that negate a Support — Kakashi Hatake N-009 (Lightning Blade) / Shisui Uchiha N-016 (Kotoamatsukami)
• One that bounces — Sakura Haruno (Cha!)

The removal-heavy design was covered in the August 18 removal piece, and the two negate cards in the August 30 piece. What matters here is the one phrase that fits none of those buckets.

Interrupt that attack.

Shikamaru is the only one of the 38 revealed entries that uses that word. The other eleven either deal with the card that is attacking (K.O. it, bounce it), erase a jutsu (negate it), or take some other profit. Only this card addresses the act of attacking itself.

3. Answers to an attack come in three shapes

Narrow the field. Six revealed Supports can act [During Your Opponent’s Attack]. Here is how each of the six answers.

Three shapes fall out.

1. Deal with the attacker (4 cards) — K.O. it or bounce it. But every one of them scopes its target as a “Character”
2. Take the hit and claw something back (1 card) — Karin gains 2 life; the attack still lands
3. Stop the attack (1 card) — Shikamaru alone

The thing worth noticing is that only Shikamaru’s text never uses the word “Character.” What he stops is “that attack”, not the card making it. As set out in how effects write their targets, the revealed cards are quite precise about scope wording. Following that precision, Shikamaru is an answer that does not ask what is attacking.

Unconfirmed: what “interrupt” resolves to mechanically is unknown while the rulebook is unpublished. Does it stop immediately after the attack declaration, or just before damage? Does the attacking card stay rested? Even our piece on the rested state could not fill this in.

4. “Summon this card” — four Supports that do not cost you a card

The other phrase worth stopping on is the opening clause.

Summon this card and interrupt that attack.

As set out in reading face-down Supports, [Support] is a mechanism for using a card you placed face-down as a jutsu. You would expect a card that fires to be spent. Shikamaru instead arrives on the field as a Character at the same moment he fires.

Four revealed cards are written this way, and all four cost 1 chakra.

Counting purely in cards, the ledger looks like this.

1. Flip 1 chakra face-downone of five
2. The opponent's attack is interruptedno damage taken
3. A POW 6 Character stays on the fieldhand and board do not shrink

You paid one chakra, and the face-down card moved onto the board as a Character. Chakra is a five-card resource, but the Leader’s [Recovery] flips it all back face-up, so in practice it is a slot that refills across turns.

Speculation from here: the K.O. Supports (Rasengan, Chidori and so on) sweep the board but read as not leaving the firing card behind. These four look like the opposite trade — a smaller effect in exchange for keeping the card. That said, where a fired Support actually goes has never been announced, so the reading above rests entirely on the printed wording.

5. Inside cost 1, the fighting numbers are modest

Compare the stats within the same cost band. Eight revealed cards cost 1 chakra.

Kakashi Hatake N-0097

Choji Akimichi7

Shikamaru Nara N-0086

Sakura Haruno6

Hinata Hyuga5

Shisui Uchiha N-0165

Suigetsu Hozuki N-0215

Karin N-0104

Shikamaru’s POW 6 sits third. HP is 4, which per the stat distribution is the most common value among the 16 revealed non-EX Characters. DMG is 1.

So his raw fighting numbers are unremarkable, and the card’s value sits in its text. His rarity is C as well — and as the rarity piece counted, the revealed C average actually comes out above R, so rarity and printed strength do not line up neatly.

6. With Team 10 assembled, the numbers change

Run Shikamaru’s stats through Ino Yamanaka (N-011) and they become something else.

[Activate: Main] [Once Per Turn] If you have [Shikamaru Nara] and [Choji Akimichi] on the field, your [Ino Yamanaka], [Shikamaru Nara], and [Choji Akimichi] all gain [Rush] and +5 power/+1 damage during this turn.

Shikamaru becomes POW 6 → 11 / DMG 1 → 2 and gains [Rush]. This morning’s piece covered that in full; what is worth adding here is the order of operations.

Shikamaru arrives [During Your Opponent’s Attack], so one slot of Ino’s condition can be filled on the opponent’s turn. If the board is already assembled when your Main phase begins, the order can go out immediately.

Unconfirmed: after interrupting an attack, what state Shikamaru is in (active or rested) has not been announced. Until that is settled, whether he can swing back on the following turn is undetermined.

7. Still unknown

• What “interrupt that attack” resolves to (immediately after declaration, or just before damage)
• The state of the card whose attack was interrupted (still rested, or restored)
• Whether multiple Supports can be fired against the same attack
• Whether Shikamaru arrives active or rested after being fired as a Support
• Whether it can answer a Leader’s attack (the text does not scope the target as a “Character”, but nothing official says either way)
• How many cards may be placed face-down, and when (still open in the face-down piece)
• The set he is printed in (product information has not been announced)

All of it waits on the official rulebook and card list. We will update the card database entry and this article as things are confirmed.

Summary

• Shikamaru Nara (N-008) is a C-rarity Character at DMG 1 / POW 6 / HP 4 with chakra cost 1
• [Support] Shadow Possession Jutsu reads “[During Your Opponent’s Attack] Summon this card and interrupt that attack.” No other card among the 38 revealed entries uses the word “interrupt”
• The 12 revealed Supports break down as five K.O., four self-summons, two negates and one bounce. Only Shikamaru stops the attack itself
• Across the six [During Your Opponent’s Attack] cards, every other answer scopes its target as a “Character” — only Shikamaru writes “that attack”
• The four “Summon this card” Supports all cost 1 chakra: you do not lose a card, and in exchange the effects are kept small

Related articles

• Ino Yamanaka (N-011) is the only non-Leader with [Activate: Main]
• Reading face-down Supports — how far can public information narrow down what your opponent can do?
• Chakra is not the only thing you pay — seven kinds of cost across 38 revealed entries
• All 12 [Support] lines carry a technique name — but only one Japanese jutsu name is readable on an official card face
• Only three revealed Characters can pay Gamabunta (N-005) off their printed stats