Doesn't have to be a self insert to be NINO, just have incredibly different characterization for Naruto.

 

I recommended this in another thread before, but since this got updated, here's recommending it again:

Heliocentrism - A parody; a Minato-as-gamer story that looks at how truly insane such a person's actions would look and actually be.

 

I read setting sun awhile back and enjoyed.

Basically, imagine if minato’s personality was transplanted onto Naruto. It’s a fun read. Not great but I enjoyed it.

 

That's Setting Sun in a nutshell.

 

Any new-ish stuff people are inclined to recommend?

I blame Menace updating Love Sick for sucking me back into the fandom.

 

"Recent" in as much as I found these fics this year. Some you've almost certainly heard of. Some are a bit more obscure.

1. Kazusa Densetsu by ProfessorPalmarossa
When Hashirama dies, the village starts eating itself alive as several different factions put candidates forward to snag the Second Hokage spot. Great political thriller about ninjas behaving badly.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12723934/1/Kazusa-Densetsu
I even made a topic about this one on DLP.
https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/kazusa-densetsu-m-naruto.38845/

2. Red Eyed Monster by Loudest_Voice
Kakash oversees the latest round of the Chuunin Exams being held in the village. This just happens to be the year a young genius named Itachi Uchiha takes the Exams. Things go off the rails very, very quickly. Creepy little thriller about child soldiering and the power of genjutsu.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/448143/chapters/767466

3. One Hundred Days by Aaron Nowack
Naruto and Sakura go on separate-but-similar journeys to improve themselves in the three-year time skip. While Naruto goes on several misadventures with Jiraiya all over the Elemental Nations, Sakura gets caught up in several plots back home.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2663204/1/One-Hundred-Days

4. Hoshigaki by writer168
Sakura is born Sakura Hoshigaki and grows up in the Hidden Rain with the Akatsuki as the closest thing she has to a family. In spite of the patently absurd premise, it becomes a fantastic and heartbreaking story about broken families trying to survive in a world of professional killers.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12373473/1/Hoshigaki

5. your move, instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue) by Laysan_albatross
The Third Shinobi War drags on, and a village at war starts snatching up every available child to ship more warm bodies off to the front lines. Great example of a ninja war from a worm's eye view
https://archiveofourown.org/works/16823764/chapters/39491275

6. Rokudaime by Eilyfe
Do I even need to say anything? Eilyfe is the best author in the fandom right now.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13293317/1/Rokudaime
He initially posted it over on WbA, too.
https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/rokudaime-naruto.38285/

Looking back, I'm surprised to see so much Sakura on this list. I normally loathe her. I like to think it says something about these stories that they won me over in spite of my Sakura-hate.

I took a stab at House of Crows by SilverShine, the same author who gave us the incredible The Girl from Whirlpool, but I just couldn't do it. SS has a way with words and a gift for banter, but the Kakashi/Sakura pairing grossed me all the way out. The Girl from Whirlpool is the only Naruto thing of hers that doesn't ship those two. The prose is amazing, but the premise is my Kryptonite.

 

I definitely second that recc of your move, instigator. It's a nice short fic, I've actually been meaning to put up a thread on it for a while xP

 

You posted the wrong link for Rokudaime.

EDIT: And thus it was fixed. Also, Inert is the best in the fandom (sorry Menace, you're too inactive), fight me.

 

If you do throw up a thread for your move, instigator, I'll drop a review and a rating for it. I really wasn't expecting to like that one as much as I did.

 

since you weren't specific about why it was good @Eilyfe explain rokudaime and why it should be read or shouldn't be idk

 

It's not a fic, but I recently came across Republic's The Second Uchiha.
It's a quest on Sufficient Velocity, and has some of the best characterizations of secondary characters I've read in a while.

 

Never heard of it. If it isn’t cross posted to DLP it must be terrible.

 

Isn't the best in its fandom, so a clear step down from his previous work.

 

remember when we tried to make quests happen on dlp

 

https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/the-second-uchiha-naruto-quest.28805/

It's not terrible.

 

/s

 

It's got my name on it. That's all you plebs should need

 

I'll do it.

Rokudaime plunges into a world at war as Naruto leads his own squad against an occupying force in the Land of Grass. The stakes are high enough as-is, but the campaign to retake Grass takes on an extra dimension when it becomes clear the war for Grass is being used to test Naruto for the soon-to-be-vacant seat of Hokage.

If Naruto succeeds, he will get everything he ever wanted as a child. Should he fail, he's going to get everyone in his squad killed.

It's easily my favorite Naruto-goes-to-war story. A lot of authors have taken a crack at it, but they usually fall short in some area. Making it too DBZ or too black-and-white or too twee in its sensibilities. Eilyfe strikes a great balance between the character beats, the action scenes, the grim-n-gritty nature of ninja warfare, and a potential light at the end of the tunnel. It tackles ideas like the burdens of leadership, what is or isn't acceptable in a time of war, and whether it's really worth it to sacrifice yourself for some tenuous sense of a "greater good."

Eilyfe crafts a sentence, sets a scene, and tells a story like few in the Naruto fandom ever have. I put him in my personal top five alongside authors like Ser Serendipity, JMenace, SilverShine, and DigitalTart.

You should really read all of Eilyfe's stuff. He gets better with every new story, and Rokudaime is both his newest and best one yet.

 

Excuse you?

 

It's the best Naruto quest featuring Sasuke as a protagonist with a Mary Sue OC.