Abandoned - Reload by Case13 - M - Naruto

[Janus]

Title: Reload
Author: Case13
Rating: M
Fandom: Naruto
Chapters: 11
Words: 155,413
Updated: September 22, 2009
Published: April 27, 2008

Summary: They've been there. They've done that. And they didn't even get a shirt to prove it. Reload - because sometimes things are just as they seem to be, and at times they are even more.
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4203131/1/Reload

Probably the best Time Travel fic I've come across, simply by the fact that it is being attacked from a refreshingly new angle by an excellent author. Some of the later chapters fall a bit flat, but the others more than make up for them. The characterization is excellent.

There's more to say about this fic, but I'll let others do the talking.

5/5


Checked: June 11, 2012

[AntiChrist]

Like many of Fosfor's stories, they start off excellent with fresh and brilliant ideas, but as it goes on, it seems to run out of steam somewhat. The later chapters have grown a bit too disjointed for my liking, but it is nevertheless an excellent story.

[Janus]

Fosfor?

I agree about the previous chapter or so, but the newest one seems to be back on track. xD What a fight scene!

[AntiChrist]

Fosfor is Case13's forum name on The Fanfiction Forum, and it's what he prefers to be called I think. Not positive on that though.

I do agree that the fight scene was nice, but there were some spots where I thought there were some issues with the flow.

[Lhefriel_Medies]

I think that this is a excellent idea, and a fairly good execution, but after reading through the first 5 chapters, I have yet to see a point. The sandbox is interesting, and while it is entertaining to see the two play around in it, in the middle of the first arc, the reader still has on idea as to the reasoning behind the whole thing. I realize that there's still a sizable portion left for me to finish, but it just doesn't seem to me like the author is even bothering to establish even a skeleton of a plot. And this is a massive amount of text for purely exposition.

The only compliment I really have for it, though, is that Naruto and Sasuke's behavior is much more as to what should be expect of two adults thrown back in time with their minds intact, with the world as their oyster; no angst necessary as a motivational measure. And while this comprises the bulk of the story, for the most part, with just this, thew whole story just strikes me as cheap entertainment.

Why did they go back in time? How did they go back in time? Are they actually here to do something? Or is this just going to be a continuous passage of their lives? The perspective is certainly refreshing, but I'd like to have more to go on than just character dynamics. That much respect to the reader, at least?

[Immolo]

Originally Posted by Lhefriel_Medies

I think that this is a excellent idea, and a fairly good execution, but after reading through the first 5 chapters, I have yet to see a point. The sandbox is interesting, and while it is entertaining to see the two play around in it, in the middle of the first arc, the reader still has on idea as to the reasoning behind the whole thing. I realize that there's still a sizable portion left for me to finish, but it just doesn't seem to me like the author is even bothering to establish even a skeleton of a plot. And this is a massive amount of text for purely exposition.

The only compliment I really have for it, though, is that Naruto and Sasuke's behavior is much more as to what should be expect of two adults thrown back in time with their minds intact, with the world as their oyster; no angst necessary as a motivational measure. And while this comprises the bulk of the story, for the most part, with just this, thew whole story just strikes me as cheap entertainment.

Why did they go back in time? How did they go back in time? Are they actually here to do something? Or is this just going to be a continuous passage of their lives? The perspective is certainly refreshing, but I'd like to have more to go on than just character dynamics. That much respect to the reader, at least?

This story is Fosfor's stress relief.

[Howdy]

I started reading this, but gender-confused!Sasuke is a little too much for me.

And I have no idea what is going on.

[Hadoren]

Originally Posted by Howdy

And I have no idea what is going on.

This.

My main gripe about Fosfor's stories. I never understand what's happening.

For example. Itachi's battle with Sasuke. First this "bee" girl comes out and leads him to Sasuke, before disappearing. Weird.

Then Sasuke throws an illusion.

That I get.

Then

"You are, indeed, Uchiha." She leaned back with a sigh, looking out the window at the full moon. "Looking but not seeing anything."

Itachi blinked as the woman on the throne seemed to simple shimmer and dissolve into moonlight.

Itachi's eyes widened a fraction.

'Another illusion? But-' He blinked, before nodding slowly.

"I see." He murmured thoughtfully, looking at the empty throne for along moment, before finally turning to the silhouette standing behind him. "To mistake the reflection of the moon for the real thing..." The corner of his lisp twitched a bit as the wheels of the sharingan spun faster, and the woman beside him fell apart into swirling petals that vanished a moment later. "I am not so immature as to bark at the reflection either." He turned to the throne, looking at the pale silhouette.

What the fuck. An illusion created by the moon? Or an illusion of the moon? I don't know.

Then apparently Itachi's an illusion.

Then Sasuke throws another illusion. Hard to tell, but I can get that.

Then there's some dialogue, I think about Madara. Except it's all metaphor and allusion and I'm reading fanfiction here not "The Sound and the Fury" and I don't want to spend five minutes figuring out what the fuck the dialogue is about.

"To be honest, I have no interest in a bunch of blind led by a one-eyed shadow." She waved her hand dismissively.

The corners of Itachi's lips twitched a bit, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"They say that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." He said mildly.

"King?" She chuckled mockingly. "Then the realm he rules is poor indeed, yet so very fitting - filled with nothing but the blind and easily misled."

"Should I take it as an answer to my question?" The renegade asked, rising an eyebrow questioningly.

It was, to Sasuke's amusement, the single most expressive grimace Itachi made, even counting the faint smile form before. Itachi was weird that way. But then, so was she. That was precisely why she preferred to smile anyway.

"I don't know." A faint look of amusement grew predatory, the unnaturally long canines glinting in the candle light. "Should you?"

The other Uchiha looked for a long moment, before blinking once.

"I see." He said calmly, nodding and closing his eyes briefly. "Then there is no other way at this point." Despite the deadpan disappointment, there was a faintest trace of a pleased note in the man's voice. If she had to guess, she would even hazard as to why.

Then Itachi uses Tsukuyomi, and it doesn't work. But the description is confusing beyond belief. Like here.

"You..." Itachi's eyes widened a fraction as the woman's voice came from under the dripping blood. With a wet squelch, the fluid coalesced, against all laws of physics, flowing and forming an undeniably feminine silhouette. "who is little more than a puppet eaten alive by his own strengths, who doesn't even know the deeper arcana of his art...!" the raven strands, still wet with blood, scattered around her, showering the water with droplets of red that started to dissolve, lending water their crimson hue.

Afterwards Itachi is trapped in the Tsukuyomi, and he undoes it.

And then comes the mindfuck.

The Mangekyo spun once, the illusionary world of Tsukuyomi sliding away like a curtain, revealing the moonlit chamber.

The woman said nothing, still sitting in the very same position as before.

"Fu fu fu..." The fangs glinted in a lazy smirk. "Do you really?"

Itachi blinked, before strangling a scream as his eyes started burning with pain, followed by his body.

"Illusions..." he struggled for breath, even as he fellt o his knee before the stone throne. "can't...!"

"Actually, they can but in your case, you were dead the moment you came here." The elegant hand reached and the overpowering smell of cherries hit Itachi again, mingling with soft tones of the strangely familiar song yet again. Itachi looked upwards at the smiling silhouette, with hair like raven's feathers pouring the alcohol to the kunoichi’s saucer yet again. "Or even before."

Itachi's knees hit the carpet of cherry blossom petals even as understanding dawned.

The Uchiha renegade stared at the pale beauty for a long moment, before his lips twitched, a strangled gasp escaping his throat. It took Sasuke a moment to understand that the bizarre sound was, of all things, laughter.

The genius bowed his head once, a small smirk on his lips.

"I see." He murmured. "My thanks, my lady. I will darken your chamber no longer. But then..." the corners of his lips twitched. "I never did in the first place, did I?"

"Hmm... who would have thought... he can learn!" The kunoichi said with genuine amusement. "You are too stiff, boy. Unless you let the sword rest it will become dull and break."

"Ah." The other Uchiha nodded. "I see."

"Instead of seeing go and do something about it. Getting laid works wonders for one's stress threshold." The kunoichi let the saucer in her hands dissolve even as Itachi fell back on the cherry blossom carpet, the Sharingan in his eyes spinning slowly.

With the last bit of his strength, his eyes darted towards the woman on the throne, the Uchiha bloodlimit piercing through paper-thin layer of illusion.

The onyx eyes looked back at him unflinchingly as the crimson faded.

"...I see now." Itachi chuckled softly, the Sharingan dying as chakra finally ran out. "Forgive my... intrusion." He whispered as the poison finally finished its job.

If anybody can bother to explain what the fuck happened in that brief sequence, I'd give them a million dollars.

All I know is that Itachi lost. Sasuke was really cool. And I have no fucking clue what just happened.

That's a good description of all Fosfor's writing. Main character does something really awesome. Villain is pawned. Reader (that's me) cannot understand anything else.

[Dark Syaoran]

Never liked this story much. Seems like all the stories I like of his never get an update while all the ones I hate get a fuckton of work.

That's life.

[Janus]

Originally Posted by Hadoren

If anybody can bother to explain what the fuck happened in that brief sequence, I'd give them a million dollars.

What, seriously? =P

All kidding aside, genjutsu fights, or any fight between two illusion masters in any genre are going to be confusing as fuck. The point is that you don't really know what's going on.

As for what happened, you need to pick up on a few little clues he left scattered around the other chapters.

First was the fact that genjutsu can be layered in his world, seperate from each other and such. Then he had the whole thing about the Sharingan being able to pick apart illusions, but hinted that it could only be done one at a time (or rather, that you dispelled the illusion you were aware of). So Sasuke has mastered all these different layers of genjutsu and such and stalls the hell out of Itachi.

Moral of the story? Sasuke used a physical illusion instead of genjutsu to kill Itachi. The flower petals weren't just decorations, they were poisonous. S/he was just waiting for them to put him down for her.

This last bit, Itachi realizes that he'd been had and just dispells everything like a regular non-Uchiha ninja would do, blowing Sasuke's illusions apart all at once. The black eyes were because Sasuke didn't have the Sharingan activated at all, maybe to make a point, maybe to conserve chakra, whatever.

"Even when it was only... a simple reversal...?" Sasuke winced a bit as a spike of migraine hit her. "...tch!"

@Howdy: =P Don't give up on it man! He's not gender-confused, just gender proficient! It actually comes up later in the story. A few times at that.

[AntiChrist]

I actually like the fact that sometimes I have to reread a section a few times to understand it completely. It makes it more interesting for me, and gives the story reread value because I'll notice something new each time.

[Janus]

^^; Ditto. Genjutsu fights are tough to write, and despite barely understanding what went on that one left me with a sense of awesome. I aspire to do that one day as well. >>

[Wildfeather]

This story makes me think that Joker!Naruto would be awesome.


Other then that, there's a bit too much buddy-buddying with Naruto and Sasuke for me to really enjoy it, especially since we don't have a reason why they are so friendly. The standard timeline went on, so Sasuke did shove a chidori through Naruto's chest, as well as other things. I suppose that is circumvented by the whole "multiple cycles" thing but...

[Chime]

I think you have to put it the context of Naruto and Sasuke as shinobi. They may have been 'enemies' before, but they trust each other now. I imagine trust is a rare commodity among shinobi. Though I do agree it's irksome that the author hasn't explained how Naruto can accept the past like it is, it may simply be because Naruto doesn't care. They were brats when it happened.

This is actually my least favorite Case13 story (in terms of plot and characterization, this story is rather weak in comparison to his other stuff), too, though I do enjoy it when he updates.

[vinais]

Originally Posted by Janus

^^; Ditto. Genjutsu fights are tough to write, and despite barely understanding what went on that one left me with a sense of awesome.

Agreed, Had to read that fight three times to barely follow what was going on. Still loved it. The Naruto fight however, was on a totally different level, especially when Tsunade got involved! 5/5 from me

[Janus]

Originally Posted by Chime??

I think you have to put it the context of Naruto and Sasuke as shinobi. They may have been 'enemies' before, but they trust each other now. I imagine trust is a rare commodity among shinobi. Though I do agree it's irksome that the author hasn't explained how Naruto can accept the past like it is, it may simply be because Naruto doesn't care. They were brats when it happened.

This is actually my least favorite Case13 story (in terms of plot and characterization, this story is rather weak in comparison to his other stuff), too, though I do enjoy it when he updates.

I think its more straight forward than that. Sasuke lays it out in the first chapter.

"...yeah. Jealous. Sure." Naruto rolled his eyes. "Why am I friends with you again?"

"For the same reason I'm with you. We didn't have any fucking choice."

I get the feeling that this has been going on for a very long time now. Sasuke mentions spending several resets doing nothing but learning Taijutsu from Gai, and Naruto mentions Sasuke spending several more moping until the miko thing pulls him out of it. Add this to all the others that are implied, ad the fact that each individual "lifetime" may actually be that, and we could be looking at a very long time indeed. (Side Note: Groundhog Day is said to have lasted 10 years, though most fans and about half the film crew suspect it would have had to be a great deal longer. And that was just one day. >>)

Case13 is essentially going about his usual style in backwards order. Nothing is explained between Naruto and Sasuke because nothing needs to be explained between them. They know each other far better than anyone possibly could, so much so that they have started coming back around the bend and are getting exasperated when one or the other still hasn't changed their ways. We're getting the character development in much smaller doses than in something like The Art of the Deal.

Originally Posted by vinais

Agreed, Had to read that fight three times to barely follow what was going on. Still loved it. The Naruto fight however, was on a totally different level, especially when Tsunade got involved! 5/5 from me

xD I think we can all agree Naruto's fight was entertaining.

O_O And let the nay-sayers be shot and gutted with butter knives!

[Paravon]

Are you all reading a different story? The week-long resets began before any major events happen in the Naruto time-line.

No invasion, no Chidori through the chest, none of that. The reason they know about everything is only because they have had an unlimited time to systematically explore their world, with no consequences beyond one week.

At the most, the Wave mission may have happened.

[aledeth]

Originally Posted by Silver Peas

Are you all reading a different story? The week-long resets began before any major events happen in the Naruto time-line.

No invasion, no Chidori through the chest, none of that. The reason they know about everything is only because they have had an unlimited time to systematically explore their world, with no consequences beyond one week.

At the most, the Wave mission may have happened.

Case13 said the resets last several months on average. Length can vary, but rarely does. And if Naruto and/or Sasuke die, they respawn next reset. What they don't know is that the resets have ended for whatever reason. This is their reality now, and they are happily making a huge mess out of it.

[Janus]

Yeah, they've already been in the current reset for longer than a week. Its definately more time than that.

[Paravon]

Huh, I was under the impression that they were under a strict time constraint.

Could someone point me to where its stated.