Title: In the Presence of Enemies
Author: bourkem
Rating: M
Genre: Adventure/Romance
DLP Category: Other Fandoms/Naruto (?)
Pairing: Naruto/Yugito
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,852
Published: September 25, 2010
Status: Complete

Summary: A Naruto TwoShot. Having declined a position in the mission to retrieve Sasuke, Naruto is instead sent an another assignment. During his travels, he will meet an unlikely ally and face-off against unknown enemies. Rated M for for safety.

Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6350140/1/In_the_Presence_of_Enemies

Personal opinion/Rating : Its a Naruto/Yugito romance fic. While its got its fluffy moments, I found it more than enjoyable to read as far as short fics go. The best thing I liked about this fic was the characterization. Naruto is very much in character without being positively retarded ( CoughShippudenCough). I like pre-timeskip Naruto and after sage-mode Naruto. Its very rare that a fic that is based decidedly in the After-Training-trip arc can entertain me, but this one did.

I give it 4/5.

Edit : Please rate the fic if you leave a review. As in, click the stars at the top of this page. If the rec doesn't get enough votes, it just stays in For Review gathering dust. So that if you vote one way or the other, the fic goes into either the library or the recycle bin.


Checked: June 9, 2012

 

Jesus Christ on a pogo stick your display pic cracked me up. ^

That said, pretty cool story. Doesn't get bogged down in shit, and while I woulda liked to see more written, it ends at a decent place. No bullshit inter-village love ins and Kumo greetin Naruto like a long lost son for savin Yugito.

Good character portrayal. Liked Hidan and Kakuzu's especially. Naruto stays in character but loses the qualities of his manga self of that time period that make me want to strangle him.

Worth a read.

 

First off, it keeps pretty much to canon Naruto attitudes and abilities (aka socially retarded Naruto who appears clueless to what's going on around him, but yet somehow retains enough sensibilities to catch people offguard), which is good and bad. Good because the characterization is superb, the interaction is believable, and the abilities reasonable. Bad because it's a really fine line to walk (which most authors can't, frankly including Kishi at times) - the author manages to keep his balance pretty well, so I didn't mark off much, and it certainly could have been much, much worse.

That said, it's nice to see it as a fun fic which gives you a short introspection into the time it's set in. Fun stuff, but not really revolutionary or epic.

Solid 4/5 for a worthy read, but not something that I'd shout about from the hilltops. A pity it's capped at two chapters, because it could be fun to see more of this Kumo/Konoha interaction down the line.

 

I liked it, but didn't love it. Naruto is well characterized, and the author avoids having the two characters fall in love at first sight. I was worried about that, since it's only a two-shot. The truth is I'm not sure I would want to read another ten chapters of this anyway. What was there was well written, but not interesting enough to leave me wanting more. Still, 4/5.

 

A good twoshot. I particularly enjoyed how it kept Naruto at canon levels of strength, but removed Kishimoto's ingrained Idiot Ball. 4/5 because I really fucking wish this was expanded into a longer story.

 

QFT. Naruto's canon skill level, while not something I really enjoy in actual canon, is nice here. It gives the story a more wholesome feel, as if the author really was just writing this story in a gap in time in the actual manga.

Naruto's characterization is perfect. He's stupid, but not retarded, and his dialogue seemed genuine. The interaction between him and Yugito was well played out, if a bit fluffy at times, and the whole situation really seems like something Naruto would get himself mixed up in.

4/5 because I too would want to see this expanded. The fandom needs more quality Naruto/Yugito fics.

 

One of my favorite Naruto/Yugito stories, for the reasons stated above. Although I personally would classify it as a friendship story, instead of romance.

As to the length of the story - it works for me. While I wouldn't mind a few expanded scenes of Naruto/Yugito interaction in the future, I like how the story ends with Naruto leaving Kumo, instead of the author writing an epic journey where Naruto wages war with Madara.

4/5

 

Naruto actually felt like Naruto which can be a rare thing considering how few writers (understandly) don't often want to tell a story with him as he really is. He's dumb and friendly and that works here.

It's not too common to have Yugito show up either despite being one of earliest Jinchuuriki introduced after Gaara and I'm glad that her age wasn't changed (intentionally or otherwise) to make her younger.

A small thing was when Naruto reverse summoned himself to Mount Myoboku - the writer taking some liberties on that front since this was pre-senjutsu - as I found myself wondering if the summoning scroll came with him since leaving it where Kakuzu seems likea bad idea. There's also Darui antagonizing Naruto. Given that he's always been a really laid-back character and not really prone to that kind of attitude, I felt like the writer may have picked the wrong character to use in that scenario.

Overall, that was better than expected and still works all these years later.

4/5