Title: One Small Kindness
Author: DigitalTart
Rating: M
Genre: Drama/Tragedy
DLP Category: Narutp
Pairing: n/a. Naruto/Sasuke bromance?
Chapters: 19
Words: 110,278
Updated: October 19, 2011
Published: March 10, 2011
Status: Complete
Summary: Uchiha Mikoto takes the hand of an outcast child, and with it rewrites the destiny of her clan. AU.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6813473/1/One_Small_Kindness

Gotta say, this fic was a nice surprise that the fandom isn't dead. I'm not too great at making summaries without having to sue spoiler tags, so I'll leave you guys to judge for yourself, but this does have a good driving plot with fantastic characterization.

5/5 easy.


Checked: June 10, 2012

 

Promising.

Edit:

Very promising.

Im quite enjoying this story, Mikoto isn't a combat beast and possesses the kind of instincts and thoughts I'd expect someone like her to have - shes can be tough, but maternal, and the story sets up opportunities for both of those to happen without being obvious. The political angle slides very well into the plot, and I like how the story sticks with Mikoto and her role rather than focusing on her interactions with the 'big names'.

I wouldn't put it at 5/5, but a very solid 4.5/5 for me, a hearty recommend. And best of all, not abandoned! Its in progress and updating, more to come!

 

It is actually good story wich I read yesterday and was thinking of posting here.

I would give 3.5/5 because this has very little Naruto in it.It is mostly Uchiha politics.

 

I enjoyed it, I found it a more political version of The Matriarch of Destiny, mostly because of being set pre-massacre, rather than post-.

 

Matriarch of Destiny? I've never heard of it, but I've been on a Naruto kick as of late. Is it any good? I found that the political aspect of this fic is great, so do you think I'd enjoy Matriarch?

 

Definitely the best Naruto fic I've come across in a while. I love political maneuvering in the Narutoverse. 4.5/5

 

Well Matriarch was written quite a while ago, it's a post-massacre Mikoto taking in Naruto, but not knowing who's kid he was if I remember right, the guy seems afraid to diverge from canon though and is using different explanations for the same things to happen, so I'm a little worried of a canon-rehash, but if you liked this, you'd most likely enjoy it, but I won't gurantee it since everyone has different taste.

 

This was a pleasant read. It's not too heavy, and not too light. It's a remarkably good effort to tell a tale from one of the Uchiha's perspective. Itachi was slightly redeemed in my eyes during the course of this story. I didn't expect that.

 

This was surprising. It's a well written Naruto story- which is a rarity on par with virgins giving birth to rainbow colored unicorns. Hyperbole aside, the prose is uninspiring but readable. The grammar is solid enough I didn't notice any glaring errors. These two things would be enough for a 3/5 in the Naruto fandom. However, where this author really excels is in creating a very realistic and engaging picture of the politics behind Konoha. Her characterizations of both Itachi and Kakashi are phenomenal, although her handling of the lead is a bit ham-fisted at times. Also, every OC I use will be named Tiana Aria Xia McSparklytits. Seriously.

:awesome

This rates a solid 4.5/5 from me.

 

Is it wrong that the authors notes are inevitably some of the funniest shit I read? For example,

Nice. Also, updated today, I personally didn't enjoy this chapter as much as the others, but it was good to see more plot movement.

 

I SEE YOU ARE DISCUSSING MY FANFICTION. CARRY ON.

*swoops back into the night*

 

STOP GOOGLING YOURSELF!

Spoiler

EDIT: I don't know about this chapter. I think you may have dropped the ball a little here. Everything that happened was so.. smooth. You'd think if Fugaku and co could be suspicious of his own son, he'd be suspicious of everyone else too.

Glossing over the meetings was a mistake too, imo. It woulda gave you a chance o go through Fugaku's thought processes and whatnot to justify Mikoto's plan being so easy.

Shisui losing was never in doubt because its Itachi, so there wasn't every any threat there.

So yeah, a little bit disappointed in this chapter.

 

We all have our vices?

Anyway...you have a point there. My idea was that Fugaku has a major blind spot when it comes to his family--in canon, he defended Itachi from the other Uchiha after Shisui died, despite pretty strong evidence he had something to do with it. Itachi had also been laying the groundwork for the Uchiha Massacre until he had that talk with Mikoto. He wanted the village as a whole to suspect he was both becoming disloyal to his clan and going crazy.

If I made this more clear, would the chapter have worked better? Or is it still too meh?

 

I was more referring to Fugaku's backing finding out about the rebellion right underneath their noses. While Fugaku would completely ignore what his family did, the fact that the Council had suspected Itachi in canon says that they watched his family just like they did everything else.

Itachi got away with it by playing the crazy card, but Mikoto has what, a fifth of (I haz no numbers) the Uchihas in rebellion? You'd think one of them would notice.

EDIT: I guess my gripe is the lack of conflict I think. Doesn't make for much excitement if it turns into a curbstomp of Konoha + Mikoto vs Surprised Conspirators.

 

It's not really supposed to be an action packed story. This is more character driven, which I kinda like. It's fun watching the political meltdown of the Uchiha and Mikoto's efforts to save, at least some, of her clansmen.

 

The story is based on characters yes, but it also contains a plot, and plot runs on conflict. When everything goes the characters way, there's no chance to develop either. Mikoto's plan looks to be succeeding where Sarutobi and the council, and anyone not Uchiha has failed. When shes working from a position of weakness, there is a struggle that makes the story fun, but this chapter was the execution of a major component of the plan, and it was sort of...glossed over. It built up to these tense meetings and suddenly it was like 'yay, it worked!'

Still fun to read and I did enjoy the chapter, but I expected a more in depth look at this part of the plot.

 

I used to Google myself sometimes but all I ever got were pages about Autocad and lawn tractors. >_>

 

I like it.

As a major fan of Itachi, I really like your Itachi. He's willing to do what he believes is the best. Although we are seeing it all from his mothers perspective I llike how you are showing he is very confliccted between family and village. I also fully approve of Itachi being far more skilled than Sasuke. Sasuke is in no way nor should ever been Itachi's equal.

As far as Mikoto's skills are concerned you have made her dangerous without being unstoppable. She knows she can't match up against Itachi, Shisui, or Kakashi. But at the same time she is a better shinobi than her husband. She also knows her limits, saying if Kakashi had been using his sharingan she would have never been able to sneak up on him.

4/5

 

Totally radical. Rapid updates, terrific technical skill, and a good plot makes me happy. Un-retarding Itachi is friggin' fantastic. Seriously, killing everyone? Because Madara said so? Bah, humbug.

Keep it up. 4.5/5.

Oh, and the Author's Notes are always good for a few good chuckles.

 

I liked this a lot. The characterisation of Mikoto was interesting and surprisingly multifaceted. In the Naruto fics I've read, she's usually either a generically nice mother who gets martyred or a bitch in sheep's clothing. I'm glad to see a realistic Mikoto, a woman who can be compassionate and maternal, but as a spine of iron.

Her friendship with Kushina was a nice touch; it added depth to her growing closeness to Naruto. I liked it whenever Mikoto actually compared Naruto to his mother, subconsciously. Not many fics so far have explored the Kushina/Mikoto friendship. It was probably similar, albeit less antagonistic, to Naruto and Sasuke relationship.

As logiccosmic mentioned, the un-derailed Itachi is also refreshing. His character is notoriously difficult to nail, so it's a testament to this writer's strength that the Itachi here is believable and *legasp* likeable.

Some parts dragged, however. The descriptions could have been a bit more fluid, especially when it was in range with exposition. The clumps made it difficult to read smoothly, at times.

Nevertheless, great work overall.

4.5/5, assuming that the conclusion to the Uchiha Massacre (or abortive Uchiha Massacre) is executed well. I fear that that moment will be the testing point of the story; it will be probably the most difficult part to describe.