I started reading the story when the characters listed were OC and Naruto. NOT OC x Kakashi. He's not even one of the Main Characters anymore, for chrissakes.

When Naruto himself hadn't had a passing mention for chapters upon chapters, and the romance with Kakashi was by far the larger focus, I stopped caring because my initial draw to the story was interest in Naruto with a Sibling. I don't want to read about an OC Semi-SI's romantic adventures without any focus on Naruto himself.

I even sent a PM to the Author herself about this concern, she basically just said 'yeah, I know, just the way it is though!' Of course, in a super nice girly way.

So no, not complete bullshit. The focus and aim of the story changed from Changes to Naruto and The Naruto World based on the SI to Watch Aiko Romance Kakashi. That was fucking boring, quality writing or not.

 

This thread has long since been derailed, to the point where it's just 'Almost Recc'd: Naruto Edition'. Best to just accept that, and wait for the occasional gem that someone posts.

Hell, Im pretty sure it was Pete who posted that story that inspired Menace. If anything, that's a major contribution towards quality Naruto fics (though it's too early to tell how that snippet will go).

 

Sorry which one is Menace, and which fic that was recommended are you talking about?

 

I'd like an answer to this post if its not too much trouble.

 

At the point I'd stopped reading, he was replaced as A/The Main Character by Kakashi in interest of Aiko gettin her jive on with a 'hot' older Jounin.

Also, see my above post.

 

Thanks that helps...... I'm surprised people are recommending it after it deviated so far from what it promised to be. Now I'm curious though. Either its just that good that people don't mind reading about an SI/OC, which completely supplants the main character. Or people just wanted a Kakashi romance tale involving one of his students.
I don't know which is worse.

 

Menace is the author of The Howling Wind, Written in Reverse, and now Radiant Nights (which is the one that was inspired (so far unofficially I think) inspired by a rec here.

 

(Bear in mind that it's been a while since I read Vapors.)

The story is more about the OC than Naruto, so in that sense she does replace him as the main character. However, their stories branch from one another, so rather than Mary Sue-ing the fuck out of canon, the OC does her own thing while Naruto does his. He does play a big part in the story and there are many points where they interact, but the focus is on Aiko.

My biggest issue with the fic is how the author deals with conflict. The OC is a touch overpowered (though most Naruto characters seem to be) and sometimes conflict which has been building for several chapters is resolved a little too easily. The author does a pretty good job of building up to the point where the shit could hit the fan and the story could really shine, but then the tension just sort of fizzles out.

Still, the everyday interactions were fun to read and I remember just sort of being sucked into the fic. Sure, there are some let downs in Vapors, but I'd say it's one of the better SI fics out there.

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Oh, and I don't remember the Kakashi romance actually being anything more than a kid crushing on her teacher, so don't worry about that. In fact, I'm pretty sure the FFN version has almost no romance, and if you want it you have to read the AO3 version.

 

Derailment and discussion, huh? Well, this is the Story Search forum...

1.) Do you remember back when Zabuza thought "impossible" when kakashi had visible chakra on his hands back in Wave arc? You know, before we had a demon goddess behind the man behind the man behind the man behind the man leading Akatsuki? (And I do believe that's the correct number of "behind the's.") Before Bijuu Chakra Mode, Sage Mode, Sharingan reality warping magic eye hax, hell, even before boss summons entered the picture?

Are there are any good "Real Ninja" Naruto stories out there? Stories where ninjutsu are used strategically, like in Wave, and are very draining to the user as opposed to the DBZ slugfest that canon became?

2.) Sarutobi lead Konoha through two "World Wars" all the while retaining the position of strongest ninja village. That doesn't take power; it takes intelligence. Are there any good Chessmaster!Sarutobi stories out there?

3.) There's one great Minato fanfic out there (The Girl From Whirlpool https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5645686/1/The-Girl-From-Whirlpool -- if you have not read this already you are doing yourself a massive disservice. Unfortunately it is on permanent hiatus.) Any others that even look promising?

4.) Pretty damn sure I know the answer to this one, but are there any good fem!Naruto fics out there? I know of a few readable ones, but the only one I would have rec'ed -- the only one I did rec -- was deleted by the author citing "personal problems." Blah.

...And if there was a good fem!Naruto fic out there, would you read it?

5.) Any good stories where Wind is not Naruto's affinity? Tuebor (Mokuton!Naruto) is good, though on permanent hiatus.

6.) In canon, Naruto is consistently stupid but sometimes he is actually quite perceptive of the feelings of others. Any good stories that really play into Naruto being perceptive rather than intelligent in a more classical sense?

For those of you who don't like stupid Naruto's, would you be okay with reading a book dumb but socially perceptive Naruto?

7.) A variation on the last one -- any good stories where Naruto is a MASTER at obfuscating stupidity? In particular, anything where he stands out as being like Jiraiya -- a stupid, clumsy goofball one minute and then a badass the next?

 

I'm one of those guys who'll take the good with the bad. Romance with Kakashi doesn't bother me and I'd rather read the unadulterated version. That being said the reason I'm gonna avoid this story is because first of all its not only OC-centric but its SI-OC centric. Now while there are fandoms where this works its just one of my peeves when it comes to the Narutoverse. I like honesty in a story and when I see Naruto listed as a main character I expect to see him as a main character.

I also believe overpowering a character isn't the only way to create Mary-Sue. If an OC's actions are more consequential than the original canon characters' that qualifies in my book and will probably put me off it.

To me it seems the author just used that to boost her reader-base.
Still from what I've seen it has a large and dedicated following so the author must be doing something right.
Thanks anyway.

 

Naruto is never the focus of the story. It's the OC's story - Naruto is an important side character since he's her brother and she loves him - but it's not following him. He's often doing his own thing while she is doing hers. Now, do you mean does she supplant him in importance? I'd say no. He's still the prophesy child, the one the Akatsuki are hunting, and so on. He's as strong as in canon. Personally, it's quite enjoyable nonetheless. Like Joncis said, it's...easy to fall into, I guess.


The whining about romance is retarded. She never romances Kakashi, she has a crush on him that she outgrows. Hell, she never really has any relationships at all in the FF version, and even the AO3 version isn't focused on romance or anything. It's focused on the character, and romance is just something that comes up between other stuff when appropriate.

 

I stopped reading somewhere around the middle, though, after Naruto was taken off the main characters list. Perhaps it changes, but when I stopped reading the story seemed entirely about her thing for Kakashi. Which was annoying as hell.

I think, considering what was going on IN story, and that the story listing had changed to have him as a main listed character (and never changed back) assuming it had shifted to be about her desire to get some Kakashi Booty isn't exactly baseless.

 

Fair enough. I'd say he was listed since he was her primary teacher and thus had a pretty prominent place in the story besides romance (he's basically her mentor in the way Jiraiya was Naruto's), but it's easy to see why you'd be worried.

That said - in the nearly million words between Vapors and Clarity, she never got any of that sweet Kakashi Booty.

 

The main character is Naruto's twin sister from the very start. Still worth the read though.

 

Well since Vapors and Clarity got brought up again, I'll give my thoughts on it.

Vapors
700k words?! Wow, that was off-putting. I'm sure I tried reading it in the past too since the beginning 10-20 chapters seemed familiar. Well, once I got past that point, I became gripped with the story and had a couple of sleepless nights reading it. (Also, VanRopen is pretty much on the ball with the Kakashi thing. I suppose since I started reading it after the pairings change there was no bait-and-switch feeling for me.)

It's pretty good. Is Aiko OP? Not particularly in my opinion because her influence, while substantial (eventually), wasn't never large enough to become the only driving force of the story. I quite liked Aiko's character and the various story-arcs that happened. There were moments of genuine apprehension for me.

I ended up skipping a lot of the non-Aiko parts, like with Hinata. Turns out, as I had suspected, to not have much relevance to the overall plot. Also, I never knew there was an AO3 version with extra parts, but it obviously this too never had relevance to the plot. The word-count could probably have been reduced by a third.

Clarity
I hated it. Well the start anyway. I was pissed off for the first 15 chapters and, hell, I actually skipped several or so just so that I could find out if I was going to dislike the entire story. I feel like the story is only now starting to get back to what I liked about it. This felt like a bait-and-switch to me because I was quite invested in the storyline and characters of Vapors - but at least the author started a new story.

Vapors/Clarity may have been necessary to stop Aiko from becoming OP if I think about it.

Spoiler

There was a hint that she was even getting some knowledge from her other-world back like the "Mangekyo" Sharingan, but I don't know if it extends to her memories too. All the hints seemed to be that it didn't - plus it would mean she would be right back on track to being OP.

 

Have you read Scorpion's Disciple? It all but bashes young!Naruto, and then throws tons of character development at him.

 

IIRC Scorpion's Disciple takes a canonish Naruto and develops him into a book smart character who doesn't really care about the feelings of others.

 

What? I think you're thinking of a different fic, because in Scorpion's Disciple Naruto still obviously cares for others.

 

Scorpion's Disciple remains one of my favorites, and at the end of it Naruto is not at all an unfeeling machine. He still greatly cares about his friends, and it's actually a source of conflict between him and his mentor.


On another note, I started reading The Girl From Whirlpool yesterday at about midnight and wrapped it up at five AM. Nice going DLP, now I'm nice and exhausted for my math test...

I liked it a lot though, I feel that a lot of fics make Minato and Kushina (but especially Minato) to be essentially perfect people, while this one shows them both to be flawed individuals, especially Minato, who I'm convinced is more than a little bit a sociopath (if one with a pretty strong moral compass). He never really seems to feel anything for anyone except for Kushina.

 

I succumbed to my curiosity. I skimmed through Vapors so tell me if I'm wrong.

Spoiler

Aiko has the Hiraishin, is a jounin before the age of fifteen, has a greater influence on the sand siblings, Kakashi, Yamato and Tsunade than Naruto does, seals the three-tailed beast, defeats Yugito, gains an S-rank and is apparently the reason Pain surrenders.

Did I miss or misread anything? Like I said I just skimmed through it.