A ninja rabbit? Get the holy handgrenade! But seriously, I never understood why its coat was white. If you keep a rabbit for using it for a Kawarimi, wouldn't you want to make sure its coat wouldn't give you away?

 

I seem to recall that at the end of the Gaara Rescue Arc, Deidara faked his own death with an explosion clone while he hid underground. So Zabuza isn't the only example.

 

Yeah, he pulled a Cell.

 

To be honest, while Zabuza was one of the most ninja-esque ninja in the show, I was still disappointed by him, at least I am now. Guy is supposed to be a master in silent killing, a.k.a. killing people without them realizing and his opening move was to throw a three meter sword at a group of ninja, with Kakashi among them.

Now, call me naive, but I think Kakashi would have been able to save himself and his team from that attack even without finding that bunny (and seriously, what was that bunny even for? Everyone else and their mothers are able to use logs and whatnot and there are always logs, no sense for Zabuza to use an animal as the only one. Then again, that technique, alongside henge, is one of the most broken techniques in the whole show).

Zabuza, the assassin, was challenging Kakashi, the combat monster with the Sharingan, and we know what the widely regarded tactic for fighting the Sharingan was that was known throughout the world (don't fight them one on one), to a one on one battle.

Sure, he had an exit strategy and all, and yeah, kudos for that, being one of the few who have that (Kabuto, Orochimaru and Deidara being the others) but still, it was still stupid of him to give up his biggest advantage like that. Now Dreaming of Sunshine was the one story that explained (that I read, at least) why that was and that was because Zabuza didn't really want to kill Kakashi or the Bridgebuilder, since challenging Kakashi to a fair one on one and give him time to prepare the Sharingan is all kinds of stupid, same with using the water prison to capture him and not do anything, but it is still just a fanfic, so, Zabuza's actions seem more stupid than everything else.

 

I get that but it seems entirely too easy to get the rabbit to change its coat to the proper color. Kakashi said something about the amount of sunlight it gets making it change. Put it's cage outside if it's the wrong color.

 

To be fair, if they had found a rabbit without noticing its wrong colour, they would've assumed Naruto was startled by the animal. If they found a log, they would instantly know that something was up.



On topic: I found this story quite good.
It features a timetravelling Gaara that wakes up in Suna at the age of 11.
He's unaware of how he's got there and now he has to convince everybody that he's not insane again.

Shifting grains by Cadel

Sabaku no Gaara lands in the past to a time where everyone feared him and his father was still alive. He realises this will force him to regain everyones trust when they still think he's a blood-thirsty psychopath. Time-Travel.No pairing.

 

That isn't a quality fic. It's full of 'poor misunderstood Gaara' and childish drama. It was mentioned earlier in the Almost Recc'd threat, and it is just barely good enough for that.

 

Shifting Grains is pretty good, imo. I don't know what kind of 'poor misunderstood Gaara' you're seeing. It's a time travel fic. As in, Gaara's already a well-adjusted individual by the time the fic takes place. It freaks the fuck out of everyone in Suna.

 

Every chapter there's a moment of 'oh no, the demon child will kill us' only for it to turn out that he only wants to help, honest. Butter wouldn't melt in this Gaara's mouth. Just irritating. Technical aspect of it is only average, too.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8953270/1/Genin-to-Hokage

An alternate universe take on Naruto. Characters may be a little older and more professional. Countries and individuals may have more varied political agendas. Good guys are allowed to be subtle, and madmen may be more willing to exploit their advantages to achieve their goals. Idealism and boyish enthusiasm may move hearts and minds, but will not win wars without a little help.

It's enjoyable and 'in progress', give it a shot.

Warning: it's another redo!fic of the first and second(for now) arc.

 

Somebody was asking about this earlier, but this is a decent example of a strong, Team 7 centric fic. I'm not too sure how you guys will like the sealing premise, though.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6694302/1/Naruto-Myoushuu-no-Fuuin

A seal had managed to defeat and imprison the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest demon to ever exist. It was just ink on paper-or a stomach, as the case may be-and it held so much power… 'Yeah,' Naruto decided 'I gotta get me some of that.'

Just read the whole thread so I'm fairly certain no one mentioned it. Hasn't updated since July of last year, though.

 

I'm pretty sure this was in Almost Recommended, because I've read it before and everything I read comes from DLP.

It's interesting and good for wasting time.

Spoiler

I found the whole red-light subplot to be really angsty and annoying, and the super pick-pocketing skills to be deus ex machina in the stupidest way. Naruto grew up in the redlight district so he can pickpocket jounins, and he's such a good conman because he's run cons before. The whole idea is laughable, and the story kind of revolves around it past the second chapter. They pass the chuunin exams in 20 minutes because he pickpockets his opponents? Really?

I will say that Kakashi dressing down Ino in chapter 6 was one of my favorite scenes of Kakashi in the entire fandom. The story had a lot of good things going for it, the sealing and the whole Danzo starting rumors to discredit Kakashi as a possible Godaime being chief among them. But the whole red-light district angst crap kind of killed the whole fic for me.

 

https://forums.darklordpotter.net/showthread.php?t=19128

It's in the recylcing bin. It's not a bad story, but it isn't that good either. It's a fic to pass the time with.

 

The bad parts are very meh, but the good parts are awesome. It's my favourite portrayal of Kakashi and my second favourite portrayal of Team 7 in the fandom.

 

/ramble mode

I think you're being hypercritical here. In terms of the known history of Gaara, this seems fine. Everyone there is pretty thoroughly convinced that he's a crazed killer, because, you know, he's killed who knows how many innocent people already? It seems to me that it would take a monumental effort to change the perception of the people of Suna and really it's things like that which make you scratch your head - how did Kishimoto get into this position again? Oh right, stars aligning.

I mean, Gaara's transformation from pariah and social outcast to Kazekage in less than three years is nothing less than incredible and by itself would make a great story. Of course, in canon, this whole conflict is just glossed over almost completely. We just accept that Gaara is the Kazekage.

In a potential time travel story starring Gaara, there isn't a whole lot he can do. He might be really strong, but it's not like he can just leave the village if he wants to. It's not like he can just say to everyone, "Hey guys, yeah I'm different now!" Not like that's going to earn forgiveness for doing either thing.

Could the story be different? Sure, but I think the author wants to portray Gaara's proper atonement and rise from feared to loved. And maybe he could do it better, but the way he's doing it right now is fine/interesting enough. It's not masterwork by any stretch, but I would expect there to be, for the first 20 chapters or so, to be this constant conflict of "oh no, villagers haet me again" and "oh shit gaara's being nice? what the hell". To have this dynamic just disappear after the first time it happens is unbelievable at best and a cop out at worst; it's not like the author can just ignore the fact Gaara was a psychopath.

The idea is also interesting. I myself have tried to write a similar story, though I gave up with it rather quickly. It's /hard/ to write something like the author's doing, beause we don't know much about Suna and we certainly know of few conflicts early in Gaara's life that can be used to keep things interesting.

How would you attempt to do such a story, anyway? The way I see it, a time-travelling Gaara has few modes of thought:

1) Stop his father from doing stupid things that ruin the country (preferably without making Gaara reveal that he's all futuristic n' all)
2) Fix his country's woes [How exactly does he improve Suna's standing in terms of economic or military might at the age of <12?]
3) Help Naruto and other jinchuuriki so they don't get snatched up.

All three of these conflicts are pretty much impossible to write, because how the hell does Gaara get to Konoha before the Chuunin Exams? How the heck does he deal with Orochimaru (who can just seal away his jinchuuriki / fuck with his chakra)? The only way to really write this story as I see it, is to do exactly what the author is currently doing.

 

On other news, Naruto:Ouroboros just kind of... rebooted itself.
A shame.

 

Are you trying to prolong maneyan's April Fools or just didnt read it all?

 

It was kinda strange since it actually looked like he had an interesting story opening.

But then there were ponies.

 

It was an interesting idea. But yeah, you're right. Derp.

 

Honestly, up until the ponies, it was an awesome opening. I actually enjoyed it, because the story has definitely... gone down in quality, lately. I blame Naruto being a jackass, and not the likable kind. But that included with him being the whiniest asshole when it came to Mei that made me yearn for a reboot.