Title: Devil's Advocate
Author: livezinshadowz
Genre: Friendship/Adventure
Rating: T
Chapters: 17
Words: 126,821
Updated: Jun 14, 2015
Published: Jan 2, 2013
Status: WIP
Fandom: Naruto
Pairings: Implied Naruto/Ino or Naruto/Tenten

Summary: Character study. An accidental meeting brings Zetsu into Naruto's life as his tutor. With Zetsu trying to sway Naruto to his own philosophy of "the only one you can rely on is yourself", Naruto discovers that the world isn't as black and white as his tutor is, that there are at least two sides to every story, and that he has a lot to learn. Hinted NaruIno and NaruTen; grey!Naruto.

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8864982/1/Devil-s-Advocate

This is one of the more original stories out there if only 'cause it has Zetsu mentoring Naruto. It is the tale of an anti-hero, dark but not overly so and the author has done well to portray a protagonist who is more concerned with survival than anything else. While Naruto here is morally ambiguous, he has managed to stay away from the grim-dark territory which is an achievement.
It is an engaging character-driven story with a lot of creativity(especially when it comes to Naruto's skill-set). Naruto's evolution alone makes it a fascinating tale.
The one weakness of the fic would be its lack of conflict. There is some, but it is resolved fairly quickly... but it looks like that might change as we move into the shippudden era of the story.
4/5. If only 'cause it looks like its about to get better.

 

Miiiiht want to fix the link so it doesn't go to the mobile version.

 

My bad... fixed!

 

I've had this on my favorites list for a while now.

Naruto is still Naruto, but is much more intelligent, cynical, grey mercenary. His combat style is about stealth, poisons, surprise and so on.

It's a fairly interesting read, really. 4/5.

 

I've just blasted through the fic this afternoon, and this fic is good, both about avoiding shitting on canon and in general. Naruto's philosophy is handled remarkably well, and alternatives to his ideals are shown in an equally good light, which is sadly something of a rarity.
The poison focus is done well, though Naruto feels a bit overpowered - even though it's because he's underestimated and so on, he seems to have it a little too easy, though that may be because of the calibre of his opponents so far.

It starts off a little too rehashed for my tastes, though. The author explicitly admits this in an AN, stating that we'd just have to imagine the battle against Zabuza ourselves. It rankles a little, but I can see the reasons why they did it.
There are also some other problems; Naruto doesn't appear to care at all about being a Jinchuuriki, and Sasuke outright disappeared from the fic, as did Kakashi. I hope the author has plans for all of the above, really. I'd also like for Black Zetsu's speech to be more subtly shown, and for the jutsu names to not be bolded, but that's just nitpicking, really.

Anyway, the writing is nice, the themes are good, and the characterization is consistent.
4/5.