I've been thinking about running a quest here alongside Probellum, now that DLP's gotten in on the act, but in another fandom.

Narutoverse is a pretty obvious fit for a universe with plenty of characters to draw from and valid reasons for physical & bullshit magic skills and abilities. Also it's just about over, so there probably won't be much more new info.

I'd like to know from you guys, assuming you'd want to participate, what sort of character and setting here would most appeal. I'd like some idea of where to jump off from without assuming too much. As such:

1. Should the player character be a canon character or an OC? (If the former, which one would you prefer?)

2. Starting from the academy or something else?

3. What era? Canon is an obvious one, but the second or third shinobi world war have familiar characters, and it'd still be less repetition of canon. Warring States has its own quirks, I imagine.

I'm adapting Probellum's mechanics to fit with this 'verse, but I'd like general input before I get some actual votes going. Thanks ahead of time.

 

1. Either could work. I'm leaning towards a canon character though, because I haven't seen that done in a while. Probellum's Jiraiya suggestion would be awesome, as would Orochimaru. A Good Day for Ninja Science was glorious, and I think DLP would make awesome Snake Sannin. Plenty of room to explore all the ninja arts, plenty of chances to get involved with all sorts of characters/factions.

2. I'd be fine with the Academy. Starting with a chuunin Team Hiruzen would be fine too - basic personalities established with lots of room to grow, skip boring stuff, still in time for the second war.

3. Definitely not canon, I'm fed up with Naruto and Sasuke at the moment. Let's go earlier.

 

Hokay, here are my pitches/requests for PoV characters!

Uzumaki Naruto, Hokage of Konoha: Uzumaki Naruto is a child born in the midst of a Bijuu attack, and raised amidst a world war. Follow him as he blows through a faster, harsher academy system, and hits the front lines with comrades at his side and a demon in his stomach. Premise: Konoha refuses to give up Hiashi or Hizashi following the incident with Kumo, and Kumo declares war. A fourth great war ensues.

Jiraiya, Sage of Toads: In the Elemental Nations, very few shinobi ever achieve elite status- A rank. Even fewer manage the steep climb to village destroyer- S rank. And above that, only a handful have ever been. This is the story of one. This is the story of Jiraiya. Premise: Tits and toad ass.

Maito Gai, Fountain of Youth: YOSH. Premise: GAI-SENSEI.

Kurama, Fox of Nine Tails: Kurama decides to take a more proactive role in carrying out the Sage's will. When Hashirama finally comes around to shackle all the Bijuu, he's in for a helluva shock. Premise: Kurama mucking around in the beginnings of the shinobi world, being a sick badass and spending a lot of time with the other Bijuu. This quest would involve a lot of time skips and OCs, and the Bijuu would be the primary cast for the first part of the quest, but in my opinion it could be the best of all of them when it really got going. Feel free to bleed into canon once enough time has passed, with plenty of butterflies, of course!

So yeah. I'm voting for canon characters with non-canon scenarios, whatever the poll includes. Good luck, Roarian!

 

I wouldn't necessarily mind starting with canon, but mucking about with it quite a bit.

 

10/10, would fan the flames of my youth with.

 

Kakashi would make for a good fit. Maybe even one where he doesn't get the Sharingan or at least a scenario where survivor's guilt doesn't slow down his growth as much as it has in canon. Could either start with him getting the eye or diverge completely around that point.

Since both Jiraya and Orachimaru have been nominated, why not complete the trio. Tsunade with the divergence being that she was never into Dan in the first place, removing the trauma that his death caused. With that, Tsunade continues to change the ninja world and such.

I would be partial towards Sasori. His brand of expertise is interesting and going around, collecting famous ninja as puppets is bound to be entertaining. We may or may not join Akatsuki, heck, we could stay in Suna and have fun becoming the fourth Kazekage, after the third mysteriously disappears.

As far as interesting powers go, or if we want a character who doesn't have much backstory to fuck up, how about that sand kunoichi who hat heat based powers, who left mummies in her wake?

Would also be interested in an Ino Quest, to see where we could go with a mind based power set.

 

So mentioned so far...

Gai
Ino
Jiraiya
Kakashi
Kurama
Naruto
Orochimaru
Pakura
Sasori
Tsunade

Kind of a varied lot. XD

 

Tough to choose, there are lots of ways all those ninja could be taken in different directions. Still think the Sannin or Gai/Kakashi are the best though - haven't read a really good fic or quest exploring the second war, and the powers of youth and hipness shouldn't be discounted.

 

Heh, it also depends on whether or not people want to really make their own specialty or go with the canon. As someone mentioned, a kakashi who isn't relying on obito's eye might have a really different skillset. Also, ninjutsu specialist Gai would be a horrifying force of nature. That unreasonable determination applied to something other than dynamic entries and bellowing at Kakashi? -shudder-

 

You know what Rororian? No.
Just a big fucking NO.

With Wand & Shield and The Leafs Naruto you are wirting two of my favorite stories not just in their own fandom but over all. On top of that you are writing the Stark Trancendent quest which, even though I'm not a marvel fan, got me into Ironman.

All three (very) sadly seem to be on hold at the moment. And now you try to start a new quest I will in all probability love as well? It's like you enjoy the misery you cause.

/rant


On a serious note, while the Kurama one sounds awesome, believable character interaction and progression would be hard to capture. I can't see many people trying to interact with a mountain tall mass of pure destuction. If someone works out a good system to play the fox in, great. But I will throw my vote in with Gai for now. The flames of youth are almost as good as playing an immortal mountain stomping badass.

 

Yeah, different builds could be cool. Kind of why I wanted Orochmaru actually, he has dabbled in pretty much all the various ninja arts. A DLP-guided, vaguely sane Orochimaru would be a scary motherfucker capable of expanding in any direction. Butterflies from the second war would also do a nice job of rearranging canon.

Ninjutsu!Gai...it would be The Professor and his elemental shenanigans all over again. I'm not sure how I feel about a Gai who can't just punch the air so hard it turns into a tiger head and explodes though.

 

Women don't get a lot of screen time in Naruto world. I would really like to see that.

Ino is good. She has an interesting position in canon, was one of the top graduates but ends up at the weakest of the Konoha 11. So you could go places with her. I prefer canon time period because that's what I can most relate to. Ino can see her place as one of the top fighters of her generation slipping away and decides to do something about it. During the Sasuke retrieval arc she gets on the team. Seeing what goes down between Naruto and Sasuke she had a moment where Patriotism > fangirlism and mindfucks Sasuke into submission. Returns to Konoha as a hero but does not know that delving into Sasuke's mind when under the influence of the seal has tainted her...and then I suppose develop from there. Could be she's picking up on the berserker aspects of the seal and co-opting them subconsciously, could be she takes on some of Oro's traits.

If it's the generation before I would pick Kushina. She sounds like she could've been quite a bad ass. Unfortunately she married Minato. A story about Kushina who has been sold from her village to Konoha to be the next jinhuriki. Knows there's no going back and is the outsider in the village, she has to make it. If you take away the romance angle and just look at her different stages: Academy student, Genin, Chunnin, Jounin, Contender for Hokage, it could be interesting.

One angle you could throw in is that when news gets to Konoha that three villages are attacking Uzu, Konoha chooses not to send anyone to aid because their spies have figured out that the other three villages want Konoha over extended so they can attack them next. Kushina goes off against orders (Maybe with pals) to defend the home that sold her off, except she still loves her family.

Anyway, dunno how this quest thing is done. Basically for me it comes down to choose a character we haven't read much about and go from there.

 

For whatever it's worth, I vote for Menace's Kurama idea. That sounds kinda amazing, mostly because of getting to see early ninja life and the various Bijuu being based.

 

WaS and TLN are both very different sorts of stories from quests, and as such I can't really write them intermittently - I have to really sit down and have time for them. Since I have a rather busy workschedule lately with mostly short bursts of free time, I've busied myself with quests and the like which I can more easily get around to in bits and pieces.

Honestly, I wish I could finish more chapters too - best to just take what you can get whenever possible. XD

 

Adding a vote for Gai. It must be done. For Youth.

 

Add another for Gai. Writing hand-to-hand is hard, which is why I think there are so few TaijutsuSpecialist!Naruto stories, but I think Roarian can pull it off.

 

Every encounter will be like the first time, because Gai has no long-term memory about anyone he doesn't give a fuck about.

 

Wasn't Whirlpool destroyed before she was a ninja? Kushina is probably the most interesting of the female characters - you're totally right about the character progression encompassing a lot. She was by all accounts a total badass in her own right and it would be nice to see her as more than accessory to Minato and mother to the Chosen One.

I'd definitely prefer her to Ino, if only because it is before Ninja Jesus renders everyone irrelevant.

 

It should have been destroyed after since she was sent by them to Konoha to become a jinchuuriki.

 

She was sent as a child though - I'm almost positive it was destroyed while she was still in the Academy, not in any position to go save it.