Most of Shikamaru's impression of Mia stems from their mission together to the Third Floor back in March, which was mostly a positive one.

She was by no means defenseless going in there, but her combat skills weren't as well-suited for the situation. Healing abilities or not, Shikamaru wasn't sure at first why she would have wanted to go along. It made more sense the further into the mission they got, from the way Mia did everything in her power to help the team with such focused effort. It's a motivation he can really appreciate.