Anyone know of any decent romance fics near the quality of Tempered in Water?
Not involving Hinata preferably. I've checked the ones in the library but they are all abandoned or similarly forgotten

 

Eh. I'd say stick with it.

 

Tempered in Water is excellent, possibly the best romance fic in the Naruto fandom.

Unfortunately, romance fics tend to kill themselves. By railroading in a particular ship, romance fics tend to undermine consistent characterization and the tightness of plot. Honestly, even some professional authors don't really handle romance that well - it takes a special kind of maturity and subtlety to do it well.

There's Girl from Whirlpool and Cutting Loose, but both are incomplete and abandoned.

 

Wut? Since when is Tempered in Water a romance fic?

 

You do mean this one right? It's not exactly what most people would call romance

 

A shame, really. But thank you for your answer

You can try In the Presence of Enemies
A two-shot featuring Yugito and Naruto. Not explicit romance, but a heartwarming story nonetheless. It's in the library though, so you may have read it.

 

I read the entire fic, but came out largely unsatisfied.

It's very dry. It's team and village, not character focused. The characters are bland, almost faceless, stick persons that we recognize only because we know canon so well. It's too heavy on description, and in the first half, most of the dialogue is the author telling us how chakra, training, the world, works. The first half is super heavily into team training, while the later part is more about village politics. Problem being, it's on the macro scale. And it starts getting repetitive.

I can't even call Naruto a main character or a protagonist in this.

It does do some things well. The divergences are well thought out, and everything the author does makes sense. Everything's realistic. Team Seven develops much better than in canon.

I can't really give it any higher than 3/5.

 

Personally I like the macroscale on the village politics. It's an interesting take on how the village responds to the invasion in a much more realistic way.

 

Yeah, I got like 7 chapters in before dropping this and shaking my head in disgust. I can't remember it fully, but Sakura is so useless he couldn't even come up with a legit way of her getting stronger without giving her a 'talent for punching' - and then without any training whatsoever to build up muslces for the required power behind a non-chakra infused punch she far outstrips Naruto and Sasuke in physical strength when they've both been training intensely for years and she as still her old academy self.

I was like 'Really?' - I even told him straight up how stupid that sounds in a review and he basically told me to fuck off because he's a master practitioner of Muay Thai Kick-boxing and some other couple or other fighting styles.

Yeah, that guys a moron.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7914311/1/A-New-World-The-Story-Of-A-Lost-Shinobi - This is a pretty decent fic overall. One of the better Naruto/Fairy Tail crossovers in my own opinion. Bit to much anime like nosebleeds and stuff like that though. Good for a time waster if you can ignore them.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9230960/1/The-Lucid-Berserker - A Naruto/Fate Stay crossover. One of the best actually where Naruto is summoned in Hercules place as Berserker. Itachi and Minato are also summoned and are true to their badass selves. Bit disappointed in Naruto during his fight with Itachi though because he was in a Genjutsu for like five minutes and didn't even notice. This was after he had died so shouldn't he have raised his skills enough by this point to notice he was in one? And Sage Mode is pretty underpowered in this fic I'd say. But overall, it's a good read.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9115020/1/Three-Jerks-And-A-Scarecrow - This was a guilty pleasure for me. But it was funny as shit. Naruto based on Gilgamesh from Fate/stay and Sakura as Ranma. It was a goood time waster for about 20-30 minutes if you pace youself.

 

I found this among Shezzas favorites on ff.net, and I could not find it in this thread.

Chance for a Prophecy by Dorcyy
You can't stop the flow of time. Its wheel only whirls in one direction. It is impossible for a mere human to change that path. But sometimes the impossible must be done… Naruto time travel fanfiction.

It's basically about Naruto being transported back to the time where the third is nearing the end of his reign. Team Minato is still alive, Obito excepted, and Naruto loses his memories.

Spoiler

At first.

It gets a bit sappy later on, I find.

 

Ofcourse. I'm particularly proud of it. It gives me a sense of fulfillment when I tick people off with simple statements such as thinking giving a girl with arm muscles resembling wet noodles can shatter stone with her tiny fists alone and with no 'power' to cause such a thing - is stupid.

If I'm annoying you aswell, all the better. You're validating my existence of annoying people and making me feel all warm and tingly inside.

 

Yes, you're a special little snowflake all right.

 

I follow this.

It's readable. That's about all I can say. It's something I'd say is "almost recommendable" but it definitely falls short of actually being very good.

 

Mr. Snowflake to you.

 

The Girl With Red Hair was recently updated. This, Awaken Sleeper and Prince Who Was Promised...Story overload.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7929587/7/The-Girl-with-Red-Hair

 

...I thought you said The Girl from Whirlpool. Disappointing.

 

This is a pretty decent read - https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7782168/10/The-Daddy-Thing.

Basically, Minato's chakra imprint within the seal 'wakes up'. And has been with Naruto since the night of his birth. Kinda raising him in a way. It's mostly a fluff story though.

Minato guides him through his shinobi training from the start, helping Naruto along the way. It has a nice developement in that he's pretty strong for his age but not some kind of 8 year old Jonin pwning machine.

He becomes a Genin at 8 or so which is acceptable to me. Since Kakashi became one at 6 and Itachi became one at 7 and had mastered the Sharingan at age 8.

 

See, every time someone complains about '8-year-old Jonin-pwning machines', I'm painfully reminded that it's canon that those things exist and are not singular or even terribly uncommon.

Makes you wonder what the fuck those Jonin getting pwned were doing with all their time.

 

My god, your display picture!