Title: The Waves Arisen
Author: Wertifloke
Rating: M
Genre: Rationalist
Status: Complete
Fandom: Naruto
Pairings: None
Chapters: 23
Summary: A young Naruto found refuge in the village library, and grew up smart, but by blood he is Ninja, and what place is there for curiosity and calculation in this brutal world of warring states?
Link: https://wertifloke.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/chapter-1/

A rational AU Naruto fanfiction with no epic battles, but split second fights, where ninja actually die. Including different view on kage bunshin, jinchuuriki and ninja business in general.
'Limited adjustments to the canonical Naruto setting have been made for the sake of storytelling, realism, and consistency.'
'Every chapter is cramming in more and more plot than the one before it! I sincerely believe this story will die of plot toxicity.'

I found this story a few days before on reddit/r/rational and was suprised, that it isn't already recommended. The updates are daily and the story should be finished before hpmor starts updating again.

5/5 For an original rational Naruto fanfiction with a few unforseeable turns.

 

Really enjoyed it so far. There is no real white list. The kage bunshin is..weakened but also empowered and allows interesting possibilities.

But the cliffhangers! Evil.

Rating 5/5 since it manages to keep me on edge and surprised me several times.

 

Aburame Taylor confirmed?

 

This story is so weird. It's well written and it's clear that the author put some serious thoughts in it, but some developments are just downright stupid in my opinion. I can't suspend my disbelief that much.

 

I like this fic a lot - but then again, it definitely hits all of my buttons. Somebody with different tastes might consider it cringe-worthy.

Sasuke's characterization is awful (but also hilarious, in a good way). Plot runs like a fucking Veyron. Nobody is safe. Fun read, and the fact that it's completed and on a fast posting schedule is a huge plus.

 

I'm about to start reading it, but before I do...

o.0
This is a thing?

 

So far in reading, Naruto seems to solve a lot of his problems too easily. However, I'm only in Chapter 4.

Love the backstory and slight changes the author has made though.

 

The guy that searches his name has a lot to answer for, if rationalist can be considered a genre.

It's actual genre of: "Presumptuous fanfiction author who wants to tell the world how smart they are" is a little too long and doesn't flow off the tongue so well I suppose.

 

I'm still reading this, but really enjoying it. Some parts of it could be awkward, except the author pulls them off well enough that they're actually funny.

There are some cool concepts being explored here, both in terms of plot and world building. Sometimes unexpected things happen that I suppose could be interpreted as jarring or too random, but I actually feel they add something to the fic.

4.5/5 from me at the moment.

 

Being a rationalist is not the same as being a genius. The Naruto of this story is still kind of an idiot sometimes. Being rational means trying to find out how things actually work, using all the resources you are given. Naruto is using a lot of old knowledge, which gives him an edge, but also can be misleading. For example the four colour theorem. 7 is possible.

 

The fic is entertaining, and the way the author writes makes me believe he could do a very interesting surrealist work, but as it stands the fic to me comes off as weird bordering on funny.

For example, breaking down chakra capacity to "millichakras" and then running 25 clones permanently which cost x amount of chakra less then the amount he regenerates is just the same as simply running 25 clones permanently, with extra words thrown in for not a whole heap of benefit.

On the other side, this exchange I found quite humorous while simultaneously realising that the fic wouldn't be going where I wanted it to from a writing perspective.

Spoiler

Naruto took a deep breath. He’d expected this. “Do you remember what we were reading in that marriage counseling book last week? Let’s try exercise three again, and start our sentences with ‘I feel…’”

Disregarding that the conversation just came up to give Naruto to yet again solve every problem, the problem at hand was fucking retarded and would have been a benefit to simply ignore.

Then there is the plethora of minor quibs that I absolute detest in his grammar, sentence structure and plot, and I'm left once again feeling pretty disapointed with the result.

So...

-1 for the random italics to emphasise whats going on. Paragraphs containing 3-4 are unnecessary and frankly annoying.

-Maybe... Maybe another for this sort of question that would be better off either not said or a statement? Always comes with an ellipsis for whatever reason.

-1 for rapid changes in pacing throughout the story, it goes from 0-100 and back again on a dime, one chapter he's getting ready for the chuunin exams, the next a whole heap of people have died and suddenly he's meditating with slugs.

-1 for the Naruto who has the social skills of an autist.

+a bit for the fact that it's an au that is actually an au, there was no mission to wave, for all the faults I have with the story Naruto isn't just a moron following his nose to ramen etc.


3/5.

 

I think you don't understand the scientific method. Knowing as exactly as possible what you are doing and what those calculations allow you to do in other situations is worth the eventually boring seeming experiments und math behind it. Without this, ninjas don't know at all how much chakra they have our how much they regenerate. All they are working on are vague feelings. Micromanagement alone is known to give you a certain edge. But the insight Naruto gains into techniques and the nature of chakra give him an even greater edge.

The alternating speed of the the story might be an issue of taste. You might like your stories to progress in a constant speed, but other might be bored by that.

Canon Naruto has no real social skills either. He just brute forces his opinions on the world around him. Here he actually uses techniques to make difficult communication easier.

 

It's that attitude that I hate the most in the wake of MOR, the absolute necessity to ensure that everything is explained in the most minute of details. I'm not arguing that if the Naruto world was real something like that occurring would be out of the question, I'm stating that it detracts from the storytelling.

In regards to your last point, having a discussion on how people feel about things is great, putting it in perspective of someone who should be quite fit being told to get piggybacked to conserve energy is something I'd expect out of a shitty sitcom.

This story, like every other story which aims to be "rational", has missed the point that being rational does not have to involve calculating everything to the finest detail, while projecting a protagonist that saves the world from itself. In fact, I'd argue that being rational is about being reasonable, not about reverse engineering a fictional universe with dodgy science and then going from there.

edit: I sometimes wonder how much of this comes from the fandom, quotes like "Micromanagement alone is known to give you a certain edge. But the insight Naruto gains into techniques and the nature of chakra give him an even greater edge." don't exactly inspire me.

Here's another edit: Canon Naruto's social skills are canonically so good that "talk no jutsu" exists. If something like Pein happened in real life, Naruto would be a fucking religious figure.

 

If you don't believe that micromanagement gives an edge and sometimes results in incredible possibilities, then I guess I cannot really help you. But as stubborn as I am, I will still try. Most technological processes work on very small error margins in terms of factors like temperature, pressure and concentration. Those exakt margins had to be found through long and eventually boring processes of micromanagement and calculation. And they created incredible new things out of otherwise rather useless materials.

Or to take another example, have you ever played any strategy games? Micromanagement and the insights gained from it, is what makes the difference between a world class player and a casual player.

Reasonable. If you are in a post apocalyptic world, in which most knowledge is lost and the greatest means for power are barely understood, I think it is only reasonable to do anything possible to gain a deeper understanding. And the scientific method is the best tool to get there. If you think there is too much written about how Naruto does his calculations, know, that not even one percent is actually shown. Science needs a lot of math and the author only gives us a glimps into what Naruto is doing, since all of it would simply be too much.

Last but not least, can you imagine canon Sasuke allowing Naruto to carry him for hours? He'd rather kill him.

 

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality sucks because magic isn't meant to be a science. Explaining and quantifying it is akin to ruining it. It takes away the awe and the mystery.

Ninja, however, are not wizards, and chakra is not magic. In reality, ninja would try to systematise chakra, because that would give them an edge. And, as this story does well to illustrate, that edge could mean the difference between life and death.

I like how in this fic ninja fights are sudden, swift, and lethal. That's how it should have been, not these titanic battles that go on and on. That was one of Kishimoto's mistakes in the later manga. Strategy, preparedness, decisiveness, and skill - these should have been more important than bigger and badder Rasengan, endless power-ups, and even more interminable Sharingan wank.

The way this Naruto deals with chakra and ninjutsu is the way the best ninja would really operate. Exploiting whatever they can to maximise their chances to live and win.

 

On the Story: 3.5/5 from me, 4 for the purposes of voting. I like the world building, the dialogue, and the way the author isn't afraid to show how nasty the Ninja world really is. What I don't like is the 'lets change awesome things because I want to be UNIQUE HUR HURR'.

Water elemental? (This is your fault, Eilyfe) Slug sage? Fuck. No. Bad author. Bad. No writer-biscuit.

Edit: No they're fucking not. Canon Naruto has the social skills of an autist, just like this one. Or are you conveniently forgetting the many, many times he completely missed various things that were obvious to everyone else? In fact, this Naruto has significantly BETTER social skills than canon Naruto. He just doesn't have Because The Author Said So making him unrealistically convincing about shit.

Canon Naruto was charismatic, honestly good intentioned, and had a buttload of power (plus the wonders of prophecy) to back it up, but he was NOT socially skilled. There's a difference. He had natural advantages that carried him despite the fact that social cues about anything even slightly or somewhat subtle went as far over his head as a jumbo jet.

 

About the Water affinity, I agree that initially bothered me. But then again, The Pro did the same thing in Hurricane Suite and there's nothing particularly wrong with it. It just makes this even more of an AU.

The Slug Sage thing also came out of left field and I just can't see the justification for it. Also, it fails because it doesn't make the obvious connection between Hashirama's Sage Mode and Shikkotsu Forest. The Sage Mode Naruto has unlocked doesn't match the appearance of Hashirama's at all, and that annoys me.

 

That is actually a problem I had with the fic - suspending my disbelief that chakra hasn't been systematized, and that Naruto is such a special snowflake. I mean, Naruto learned this all by reading, yeah? Are you telling me the entire medical establishment of Konoha has no means of measuring Chakra, and that if they do there is no mention of it in any text Naruto read? It's just little things like that which I found annoying.

And things like the comment about Naruto wielding the "ancient art of algebra" - I get that it is supposed to be a joke, but for me at least it just comes off as pretentious and annoying.



Still, the fic isn't bad. I'd say it starts out as a 3/5, but as things get real it goes up to 3.5 rounded up to 4 for voting. Worldbuilding is always fun, and the author does it well - thought I could have done without so many explicitly spelled out shots at canon because those always seem like a waste of words and I don't like being taken out of the story like that. Dialogue is pretty solid too, and there were some bits in there that actually had me smiling (Sasuke talking about "what was wrong" with Hinata). The characterization of Sasuke in general grew on me. And yes, definitely some points for making the ninja world a pretty fucked up place without focusing on grimderp.

 

I like it well enough, mostly because it's pretty unique and innovative. I don't think it's the first story with this kind of back-story, but I don't think I've seen that connection with the map made before. In retrospect it's kind of obvious, but I didn't realize it until the recent chapter.

The storytelling itself isn't that good, it jumps very quickly from one scene/plot-point to the next. On the one hand that's good, for once a plot is resolved in a reasonable amount of time, on the other hand it feels like enough material for a trilogy with someone fast-forwarding through it all.

I kind of like the juxtaposition of humor/casualness and brutality of the ninja world. No character is safe. Other fics would be dark angst-fests after half as many named character deaths, but not this one. I especially liked how blase the chuunin at the exams were acting. They just didn't care.

Naruto tries to act like a "rationalist" character, but the story is kind of saved by him not really knowing what he's doing. He just absorbed some spotty knowledge from the 'Ancients'. It seems kind of obvious that "milli-" is a prefix that the Ancients really liked for science stuff, so Naruto is using it for his own made-up units. Kind of adorable.

3/5 for writing, but +1 for being original and having a plot that actually progresses. So overall 4/5.

 

Thanks for your help, I don't know how I could survive without it. Since I doubt we will ever see eye to eye, I'm just going to say I don't have any problems with mathematics, or science or anything else you think I apparently have problems with (I'm working on a doctorate in data sets and layer abstractions in relation to computer science), so really, I just have a problem with it being so crudely put into a work of fiction.

Also that bit about Sasuke didn't convince me in the fucking slightest that Sasuke would have jumped on Naruto's back, and the fact he did at all made me shake my head.