And that's why shonen is mostly a terrible waste of time and space.

That's call for the "Order of the Holy Tsunade" to minister the "Temples of the Divine Toad Sage Jiraiya"!

 

I dunno if it's been mentioned previously, but Small Changes just updated. Basically, Naruto is born several years before the Kyuubi attack and has red hair. When he goes to the Academy, he's a classmate of Itachi, Shisui (who I always thought was much older than Itachi, but it's an easy thing to ignore), and Anko (same story as Shisui).

I would say this is more of an "almost recommended fic", because the beginning takes some suspension of disbelief. 90% of the reason I'm posting it in here is to get the thread back on track; talking about Naruto fics rather than the manga (there's another thread for that, guys).

There are several time skips, and once the main characters are 14~ it really hits it's stride.

 

I tried to read it but the writing is pretty shit, especially the dialogue. I even skipped along to the later chapters and noticed barely any improvement.

 

Agreed. I think he had a really good thing going with 'Sage' but dropped the ball with his other fics.

 

That's a fair assessment. I read the majority of it in one sitting when I'd gone a while without sleep, so I was probably aided by that. I like the fact that since

Spoiler

Konoha is now in a sort-of/semi 4th war against Taki/Sound/Kusa, Naruto is now living up to being the son of the Yellow Flash.

 

The author does that annoying thing which completely ruins any kind of flow or comprehension on my part:

"Character 1 says something." Character 2, mostly referred to as he or she, reacts.

Several of these lines in a row and I have no idea who's saying what and whose facial reaction I'm reading about now. I actually have to reread simple and basic dialogue in order to follow a conversation which really is testament to the poor and frankly lazy writing.

 

That was something that annoyed me when reading as well. Anyone have any other fics they've been reading they'd like to recommend?

 

No idea if it's already been recced somewhere, but I had a field day with Ricochet.

With ~32k words its short, and well worth the read, imo.

Ps: my bad about the link, fixed it.

 

I'm pretty sure it has been. Btw next time provide the link for the first chapter not the third.

 

Any good fics with shakuton in it?

 

You mean Naruto using it?

 

I'm not sure, either Naruto using it or a good Pakura story would be nice. The backstory the anime gave her was really touching.

Edit: Actually anyone using it, I just find it an interesting element.

 

Only stories I've read that feature Pakura at all are Life in Konoha's ANBU (Chapter 18), Daybreak: Part 1 (Chapter 31) and Naruto: Great Clan Days (Chapter 7-8).

Seeing Naruto with Scorch Release (or almost any of the advanced elements) in a good fic will probably remain a pipe dream.

 

Bloodline!Naruto has been done to death, but that's one of the bloodlines I would actually really like to see him with. Although honestly, IMO the story would have to be quite a bit darker than canon. I don't see how to do that bloodline without lots of killing.

Then again, most of the good fanfics are quite a bit darker than canon.

 

Hence my note that I hadn't read many good bloodline!Naruto stories.

 

Good or guilty pleasure? There's probably lots of those, but I can't be bothered to look them up.

 

I'm trying and failing to think of a good one, but as a theme it's been done to death by countless bad writers. Any bloodline!Naruto story has to rapidly separate itself from the pack to draw interest.

 

I'm trying and failing to think of how that can be done.