Well I just won the jackpot as I hadn't actually read Howdy's Wild World yet!... and then of course lost immediately afterwards at the thought of no continuation of the story.

Apart from the Hurricane Suite and the like, I browsed through my own ff Naruto listings and found a lot of mediocrenessness.

However these two are the ones I'm enjoying and waiting for updates.

In the Breaking
One of my all time favourites. I think the writing flows brilliantly. Pretty sure Nyet is still updating, just at a very slow rate.

Uchiha Fukurou
I know it's been recommended in the forums.. and I think it missed out? If you've missed it on that basis I'd advise you to give it a try. I think a few people have had trouble with the way it was written, but I didn't take issue.

Hopefully I've linked those correctly, I don't post often on the forums.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7414561/1/The_Philosophy_of_Self

Odd premise, but good writing. I like it.

 

Just opened up "One Small Kindness". I always figured there was more to Naruto and Sasuke and finding out their mothers were friends (or at least on speaking terms) kinda bugged me. Naruto had no one, and I've always wondered what would have happened if Mikoto had been friendly to him (mind you, that'd make it only her and the old man), only for her to die during the massacre. I don't think its going too far to assume he'd try and avenge her or do something drastic or at least tapping into the Kyuubi's chakra when he found out.

Looks good so far; thanks!

 

Oh, btw...

I finished going through our Naruto shelf in the library marking the complete fics. I noticed we have quite a few old gems sitting there:

Complete
Oneshots
In Progress (updated within the last 12 months)

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8157710/1/Naruto_Iron_Soul

Throwing this one that I found yesterday out here now. It's a little on the short side for now, but it's got an almost daily update rate, so that's not likely to last all that much longer.

Basic premise is that Naruto has an accident that leaves him impaled on a big ass metal pole. The Kyuubi somehow manages to fuse the metal into his body and repair/enhance it using the metal, and Naruto ends up basically as Magneto with Wolverine's skeleton. There's some rather intriguing changes to canon from there, most prominently that Ebisu ends up his tutor for a couple years and Naruto graduates early and is on a team with Neji and Tenten under Ebisu.

It's well written, and I really like the interactions between Naruto and Sandaime. Only thing in the fic that bugs me is that the author has a phobia of Japanese titles and refuses to use them, so Ebisu is called "Teacher" constantly, or Tsunade called "Princess Tsunade", etc despite practically no English natives actually speaking like that.

 

As we've already discussed here on DLP, usage of Japanese terms is not inherently a bad thing when the source material is Japanese. Hell, as I recall, Kakashi is called Kakashi-sensei in the English dub.

To continue the point, it's when they're over-used that it gets annoying. I'm perfectly fine with honorifics and jutsu being Japanese, but that's mostly it. There's a few other ones I'm alright with showing up, but that's beside the point.

As I said, using Japanese when the source material is Japanese is fine, but there's a line, and crossing that line usually breaks any and all hold the story had on me.

 

Oh I completely agree, excessive use of Japanese is bad. What I was getting at is that the author refuses to use Japanese, but uses the direct English translation, to the point where it almost reads as a very strange dialect of English. If you're not going to use the Japanese words, you should just make it completely English, sentence structure and grammar included. For example, Japanese people call their teachers "Sensei" as a general rule, English speakers do not call their teachers "Teacher".

The weird bastardization/combination of English words and Japanese colloquialisms just reads very, very strangely.

 

It was really nice surprise, maybe quality isn't top rated, but frequent updates make up for it very well. The usage of only English words (Teacher and etc) is little on the negative side, the sentences doesn't sound natural and it stops story flow. The concept is nicely done, taking something very cliche (Naruto being fatally injured by action of some hateful villager and surviving only due to Kyuubi) and re-make it in something that I personally haven't seen before the whole concept of metal ninjutsu.

Overall: 3.75/5

 

This thread should be closed.

There is no such thing as a quality Naruto fanfic.

 

Yeah, ever since that one guy stopped writing, there really isn't much worth reading anymore beyond a guilty pleasure.

What was that guy's name, again? I remember he was fond of using Led Zeppelin song titles in his stuff.

 

Scanning this list, I haven't seen Paradox Jast listed. I'll have to remedy that.

I first started reading his Naruto/Fairy Tail story, which was the first crossover of this type I read.

The Fire Shadow of Fairy Tail » reviews
War is hell. It took a while, but Naruto finally understood Pain's words. However, the war becomes the least of his worries when he is brutally thrust from his homeland into the great unknown. Welcome to Earthland. Population: Mages. Nin nin!
Crossover - Naruto & Fairy Tail - Rated: T - English - Adventure/Romance - Chapters: 16 - Words: 121,089 - Reviews: 1092 - Updated: 8-28-11 - Published: 6-4-10 - Naruto U. & Erza S.


Additionally, he is writing my favorite non-comedy Naruto/Kyuubi fic:

Experiments in Empathy » reviews
The Nine Tails. Everyone in the Elemental Nations knows about it. But no one knows it as well as one Uzumaki Naruto. So what if he meets it a few years earlier, what's the worst that could happen?
Naruto - Rated: T - English - Drama - Chapters: 8 - Words: 86,637 - Reviews: 305 - Updated: 3-26-12 - Published: 4-16-10 - Naruto U. & Kurama/Kyuubi

I also have high hopes for the Naruto/Mikoto fic he's begun to publish, which is reportedly almost complete. According to the author, we can expect a new chapter every week for at least 3 months.

 

I'll second anything from Paradox Jast, and his newest story has actually been completed, not just 'almost there'. So there's something to look forward to.

Also gonna second the rec for The Conduit. It's refreshing to read the occasional Massive-AU. Unfortunately due to the circumstances of the Premise, it does turn into 'An OC named Naruto'. But it's still good.

I will not rec A New Life. I remember reading the first chapter way back in '07 and thinking it was a great start to a potentially great fic. And after 5 years of updates, it finally finishes, managing to cram in more ass-pulls than a hooker with Mary Poppins' bag up her rear. That story made absolutely no sense by the end and the ending itself was even worse.

In the Breaking gets some major props for being both well written and really damn good.

Moving on, I'm just going to throw out the ones I've read lately that fall between 'somewhat good' whatever you call actually really good Naruto fics.

Aberration: The second she realized she was in the world of Naruto, Rae swore she wouldn't interfere. Even so, looking at the shivering 8-year-old before her, she couldn't help but hold him close. It's not like one friend will change anything, right?

This is the only OC-Insert story I've read in a while that didn't make me wanna hurl at the first sentence. OC has foreknowledge of events but that hasn't broken the story and isn't very Mary Sue-ish. At least, not yet. After 18 chapters, the plot still hasn't moved forward much, focusing more on character development.

A Teacher's Glory: "Zest to over-achieve" marks Team 7's entry into the Ninja world. Kakashi teaches lessons better than he imagines.

This is...interesting. I can't say much about it because there's fairly important stuff happening in the first chapter. But it is good. Very Team 7 centric.

A New World, The Story Of A Lost Shinobi: A different custom. A different language. A different time. A different dimension. Damnit Kakashi, where the hell did your Kamui send me?

Yet another Naruto/FairyTail crossover. First off, you can skip the first third of chapter one. In fact, it probably would have been better if the author removed that entire block and replaced it with the last sentence of the summary. Would've been easier. Anyway, it's pretty good. It features a reluctant Naruto that doesn't immediately join a guild, some backroom politics, and some funny facepalm moments. Also, fans of both series' will enjoy the fight scenes.

 

Had to stop reading Experiments in Empathy near the end of chapter 5 when it completely jumps the shark by having Kakashi deliberately allow Sasuke to go to Orochimaru. It was readable up to then, though hardly gripping.

 

I was also looking forward this story, being a big fan of time-travel myself, but his last chapter was such a let down. I really can't understand how authors can't realize how stupid it is to make the time-traveler immediately tell a lot of people that he come from the future. And in this case it was done in such a stupid and contrived fashion. It's my personnal pet-peeve, and a direct indicator that this story has no chance to be interesting.

 

I'll second the rec for Aberration, but check out Dreaming of Sunshine.

Dreaming of Sunshine: Life as a ninja. It starts with confusion and terror and doesn't get any better from there. OC Self-insert

It's actually a pretty good OC SI fic.

 

I have a real problem with the premise.

Spoiler

Genin, killing Kakashi? Really? Really-Really? I'm sorry. But that's a huge detractor.

I will, however, give it one more try.

 

It's the one, single plot point that sets up the whole story. It's not so unbelievable that it could never happen, it is definitely unlikely. But hey, it happens and the story moves on.

 

Like Walking said, that said plot point ruined it. Not because it was said plot point, but because of how it was carried out. Supposedly a difficulty feat done with seemingly ease by a bunch of Genin, it just doesn't carry a good tone for what the rest of the story is going to be like.

EDIT:

Spoiler

Probably would of been better if the author just skipped the killing Kakashi part and just mentioned it in passing, leave it up to the imagination of the viewers.

 

Get that shit in the library. Right now.

Sure, what happens in the first chapter stretches suspension of disbelief quite a bit, but everything besides that is masterfully done. This is better than 50% of the existing Naruto Library, it should definitely be in there.

Spoiler

I thought credit for the kill went mostly to Kakashi himself, who was paying minimal attention at the time and missed the fact that what was burning was poisonous. The fact that he pays minimal attention is stressed, both in canon and in the story.

 

I've been power-reading this (read: I haven't slept much...) and I gotta say, that was pretty damn good. Characterization is mind-blowingly good, and the author's ability to tell a story from Shikako's perspective is beautifully done.

One of the only gripes I have with it is that Shikako hasn't gotten as much recognition as I think she deserves for a few things. Things like

Spoiler

Shino getting promoted to chunin after losing to Shikamaru, while Shikako, who captained a squad against an unknown number of invading enemies and a jinchuriki and led them out with minimal injuries, didn't.

That bugged me.

About A Teacher's Glory, I really want to wait to put it up for review. Maybe just another chapter, maybe until completion, but I do want to wait. Since the story has ten chapters after a full year and doesn't seem anywhere near being finished, I'd rather there be more content to review.