Title: Within Interest
Author: Silent Songbird
Genre: Adventure
Rating: M
Status: WIP (37k words)
Fandom: Naruto
Characters: Naruto, Ino
Pairing: Undetermined
Summary: "Don't lie to him" Shikamaru felt the need to say, "He's observant". Ino felt her nose rumple in disbelief. "Is he?" she frowned, wondering if the Nara was joking. "Since when?" "Since always." He paused. "Especially with things that catch his interest."

Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12438633/1/Within-Interest

Remember those fanfics where Naruto is a hidden genius pretending to be an idiot hiding his skills secretly ANBU or a diabolical villain plotting the downfall of his village/world?

This is not one of them.

In one of the best moments of the fic, the author goes out of his way to blatantly mock the trope and you cannot help but nod along while suppressing your chuckles.

The humour is the strongest aspect of the story by far and just about avoids going over crack-territory. Iruka in particular is hilarious.

Another thing I like about the fic is how it never is told from Naruto's point of view. It is mostly people reacting to Naruto, so we are never sure what is actually going on in his head. Is he secretly a genius pretending to be an idiot or an idiot who has no idea he is secretly a genius?

One way or the other it promises to be a great ride.

4/5

 

4/5 for an interesting premise and decent writing.

+1 for okay execution of Naruto's characterization, and not seeing things from his perspective.

+1 for "Hello sorry, I'm Tenten - Get ready to eat pointy metal!"

-1 for 'Hai' on otherwise English speech.

-1 for 'Nani?' on otherwise English speech.

-1 for 'Gomen' immediately after a normal 'Sorry', on otherwise English speech.

-1 for publicly discussing during class about Ino turning down Naruto.

-1 for Naruto actually taking the hat from Hiruzen as an Academy Student

I'd take out more for Ino's characterization, but this'll do.
-1 for Ino's characterization

-1 for actually trying to make an argument that the Academy is legit useless

 

So your score is -1/5?

 

That's the score in my mind.

 

I actually like Ino's characterization in this. Nothing groundbreaking, but not exactly what you would call a story-killer either.
The story doesn't make an argument about the Academy being useless, quite the opposite as a matter of fact as it lays quite a bit of emphasis on the fact that Iruka is a good teacher and what he teaches is important, its just that Naruto has an aversion to it, which is, I believe, your reason for assuming the story is shitting on the Academy.

Yeah that was retarded.

 

Recall that she's supposed to be; what? Eleven?

Yeah, and Iruka burning the Academy textbook was not at all a validation of Naruto's 'if only they'd actually teach us useful things' whinging.

Come off it. The story says that teachers are important, but they're going about it all wrong. All on Naruto's word. Because of course.

 

Well, till we get the next chapter we do not really know how that is going to play out. Since from the looks of it Iruka is having a breakdown of sorts and it really is more likely he is going to end up regretting doing it.
--- Post automerged ---

Ino maturing had a decent enough set-up and she still is plenty impulsive and flawed even with that bit of development. So, once again, I thought it was actually done well.