I mean, Life in Konoha's ANBU starts out that way. It ah... doesn't stay that way for long.

 

Was smiling all the way through Kiss and Yell, and the author's other NaruIno story. Good stuff.

 

Not sure I can read any other ANBU story without comparing it to Life in Konoha's ANBU.

 

Fuck Shadows of Konoha. Seriously, it's like the author read a bit too much ASOIAF and thought "That looks cool, how can I make this into Naruto, only much, much shittier?" and ended up writing this.

It's a pointlessly grimdark dark!Hinata wankfest, only there is nothing to that character besides the name that is similar to Hinata.

 

So?

There's nothing interesting about canon Hinata, as countless people have pointed out on these forums.

If we're going to trash OOC for OOC's sake, 90% of FF wouldn't exist.

OTT 'grimdark' sounds excruciating though.

 

I enjoyed that story. This version of Hinata is really annoying, true, but overall I think this is one of the best grimdark depictions of the Naruto world. If someone wants to read ninjas being ninjas and assassins this is the fic I'd recommend.

There are several technical flaws -- like the author jumping between times and occasionally really bad prose -- but I still managed to look past that. I liked Naruto's progression and development. He started out as a post timeskip Naruto and became a seasoned ANBU member and later on Hokage. People in this world are fucked up, but at the same time they are doing what I imagine would realistically happen given the powers that exist in this universe. Yamanakas mindcontrol Daimyos. People use children for their goals. Shinobi have to do some gruesome shit in their line of work. Villages and towns get eradicated.

It's purposefully grimdark, yes, but I still think the story does a decent job at that without overdoing it. The characters have chosen to be professional killers. It's their job. Unhinged and unstable emotional states are kind of expected, a morally ambiguous world is one consequence of that.

The fact that this story clashes heavily with the original material is valid criticism, but I want to read more mature stories. This is on the opposite end and a bit extreme in that regard, but I still prefer that to another Naruto that's screaming and yelling at his enemies.

You're right, though. The author tried so hard to make Hinata a three-dimensional character but failed miserably. He did a much better job with Naruto, who develops and displays distinctly distinguishable professional and private sides.

 

There is good OOC and bad OOC. I don't understand how you can not know this already.

A decently OOC character still remains the same character fundamentally, though shaped differently by time or circumstance. A good test to check if a character is acceptably OOC or not is to remove his name from all instances and then give it to someone to read. If the reader realises who this character is, then yay, you passed. If the character does not resemble his canon counterpart in any way, something went wrong.

 

It's been awhile since I read Shadows, but I agree with Republic about the OOC thing. One of the flaws in that fic from what I remember is that for the most part Canon remains unchanged.

An unchanged canon provides too strong of a background for there to be this shift in Hinata's character without some ridiculous changes.

 

Hinata was definitely a weak point in this story, and many a time I wondered why Naruto remained so fixated on her . However, it wouldn't Stop me from recommending this story for someone looking to past the time . The arc of Naruto's maturity is excellent and the real draw to the work . Hinata's personality is explained as a result of a lifetime of made to feel like shit by her father, realizing her family is royally fucked up, and her big crush/inspiration is a naive gasbag. Combine that with the rigors of ANBU and it's forced her to harden . Also, this takes place when the cast is on their 20s.

Long story short, Hinata is annoying in the story but I think you are exaggerating it's deal breaker status.

 

Even ignoring the argument of the importance of believable characterization completely, changing a shit character to be completely different doesn't help your story when your new OC in all but name is also shit.

 

A drop of poison was a pretty fun read if you like reading about characters getting OP. It focuses really heavily on clone exploits and has naruto creating large networks of them - the story ends up mainly focusing on his development and introduces challenges that are less battle-oriented and more suited to stealth and infiltration. It manages to stay pretty fun throughout.

Does anyone have any other fun OP!Naruto stories or ones that focus on shadow clones?

Just a little fuel is about psychopath!Naruto. I don't particularly like it, but if you're interested it focuses on Naruto as a being that doesn't have any humanity, and he seems to believe that if he causes enough chaos in the world that he will gain some humanity.

Posting to highlight this post a while back that most people seemed to have missed. Hope you guys have more recommendations, I'm starving for a new fic!

 

If your gonna talk about psychopath/ horror Naruto than how about:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8290048/1/Sanguine
Where Naruto and the other jinchuriki slaughter people.

 

Sounds like you'd enjoy Indomitable.

 

Has anyone read Vapors ?

Nearly 700k words, completed and a sequel in the words. Not quite finished but I literally did spend a night without sleep reading this even though I am busy as hell. Not the best idea but it is rare when a fanfic, especially a Naruto fanfic, grips me like this anymore.

As to the quality, I would say it is a decent story. Obvious comparison would be Dreaming of Sunshine. Well, I would still say the DoS is better in terms of writing, world-building, being altogether more serious and character development.

However, Vapors is a lot of fun, doesn't follow the canon rails at all and goes in directions left and right, taking pretty big deviations to canon, a lot of which I fucking love.

Spoiler

for example, Sasuke becoming Tsunade's apprentice is just so fucking perfect and awesome, I can't believe it hasn't been done before. Love the dynamic they have going on there

There is other stuff like this, of course.

Main character is likeable, and I did like following her, wish her development was a bit more consistent at the beginning though.

That said, haven't finished it yet but so far, no major complaints. it isn't the best thing ever but definitely one of the better, and more importantly, more entertaining Naruto stories that I have read in some time. Also, freaking long.

 

Anyone know any decent fics where Minato and Kushina are alive.

 

Naruto:Ouroboros.

 

I've read that one I think, he was a scientist right?

 

Yeah. A mad scientist though, who was apprenticed to Orochimaru.

Decently written iirc.

 

Small Changes is readable in a pinch.

 

Yeah, read that when the sequel was just starting. Wasn't perfect, but I did enjoy most of it. My biggest problem is that the SI approached being overpowered. Not quite Mary Sue territory, but there were several times where the conflict could have been resolved a bit less easily. Still, the everyday interactions were fun to read and the divergence from canon made the fic much more interesting.

And if you're interested in reading about some of the relationships that Aiko had, I'd go to the version on AO3. I never read it there, but apparently most of the romantic content was cut from the FFN one.

By the way, the sequel is pretty awesome, and so far I think it's been even better than Vapors. Not going to spoil, but it does something I've never seen happen to a self insert, and that it works is a testament to how fleshed out Aiko is as a character.