The way the summary for From the Garden of Gods tries to make a distinction between Kagome's abilities and Wood Release bugs me more than it should. Wood Release literally creates life and if it can grow grass as well as wood/trees (see: Yamato's Nativity of a Sea of Trees), it can probably create other plants too. Not to mention all the variations of advanced elements there's been anyway.

And Suna's never had anyone with Wood Release so this would be a godsend for them no matter what. It might just bug me because I'd actually like to see a Naruto with the Wood Release who takes advantage of his life-giving/plant-growing abilities outside of combat.

So yeah, just some weird petpeeve I have when I haven't even read the fic in question. But I think I'll try and change that.

 

Damn this thread quieted down fast. So here's a decent story that's only a month old:

In the beginning of the fic, Sakura is a prisoner of Sound. Orochimaru, who has taken over Sasuke's body, repeatedly tortures her in an attempt to break the last resistance of Sasuke's mind. So, when a box containing the mangled body of Hidan is thrown in her cell, she finds solace in the teachings and company of the person who suffers along side her. (Don't the worry, the relationship between Sakura and Hidan isn't romance, but more of a partnership/mentor-student thing.)

Throughout the fic, it's interesting to watch Sakura as her perspective and values change and she begins to appreciate Hidan's religion, as well as understand her own weakness and her vicious desire for vengeance. I liked watching her personal growth, even when it's for rather grotesque reasons, and the interactions between her and Hidan are entertaining. And, as the author said, it gets pretty absurd, since Hidan sticks around because he needs Sakura to carry his torso while they chase after his stolen legs.

It's fairly violent and gory, and while I doubt that's a problem for most on this forum, you've been warned that it's a major factor in this fic. Though really, in order to convincingly convert Sakura to Jashinism, it couldn't be any other way.

 

I like the premise and I will check it out, one question though. Why would Orochimaru care about torturing Sakura? He has to have better things to do than care about a 12 year old genin.

edit: reading fail, my bad

 

Dude.

Come on.

 

Good rec. It's actually pretty decent so far and it's got a pretty good update rate too. I've run low on new and good Naruto fanfiction, so this is very welcome!

 

Ouroboros updated.

 

Well, the sequel was posted, so not quite an update.

 

Kimiko vs Sakura Cat fight. Oh wait...

 

I really like Ouroboros, I enjoy the plot and characters despite how comically OC Naruto is, but I don't think I could in good conscience recommend it as a quality fic. It's hard to put my finger on the exact issue, but I'd have to say that it feels like the author is trying to master his/her own writing style; everything feels almost overly dramatic, like they're trying to blend cliche character interactions with quality writing I guess.

Either way, I still like the fic, and would recommend it with an asterisk.

 

Ouroboros itself was amazing before it bent over backwards to force Naruto joining the Akatsuki to make sense, and arguably failed. Now, it is simply great.

As for the sequel, well, time will tell.

 

I dropped it at the Akatsuki arc. It was awesome up until then.

 

I think I stopped reading Ouroboros right around when he started hearing a voice in his head. This was after he came back from Kiri iirc.

 

Was it written before we got more canon details on what Akatsuki's goals were? I used to be so in love with the idea of Naruto joining Akatsuki before it was revealed that their entire purpose as a group is to dick him over.

 

That last chapter was so contrived it hurt. In his impatience to rush the plot his quality of writing suffered.
But here's to hoping it gets better and it gets as good as it used to be.

 

That was a good read, thanks. The torture, the humour, the fuckedupedness. Great.

Sakura's slowly changing worldview is only halfway convincing, which is a pretty damn impressive achievement seeing as we're talking about Sakura potentially torturing and murdering people for a god. Her rage at Konoha's enemies was thoroughly believable as was her breakdown later.

A few things felt unconvincing, such as Sakura thinking that she was put on Team 7 to be disposable. That realisation needed something more for me to believe it.

Thanks for the find.

 

You dont get to live and be part of the military might of your country and be normal. By the time Sakura was 16 she could punch the ground and cause fissures. Naruto at 12 (13?) could level villages with the help of Gamabunta. There is no excuse for being childish and immature when you're a professional killer for hire. Her attitude is out of place with her environment, which is the issue people have. Contrast her attitude with Tenten, who (fanon) is usually the straightman to the odd shenanigans of her team. Tenten had bad luck face a wind user (that counters her throwing weapons) but in a year she did develop some non-academy taught skills (summoning sealed weapons) and an exceptional skill (immense accuracy with thrown weapons, and -fanon? not sure- skill with all the weapons she uses in melee capacity). Sakura literally coasted on her good chakra control until she got an uber teacher.

 

I'm not sure how Hinata is any less pathetic than Sakura. She pines after someone she's barely spoken too, but doesn't have the courage to say anything to him till years after it starts and her crush might literally die. Sakura is is more brave, but is an obsessive stalker who's also a hypocrite-- she gets annoyed with Naruto when he acts like her. Naruto is also unhealthily obsessed with Sakura, though to a lesser extent, and Sasuke is a an asshole who callously rejects them (in Shippuden, of course, he becomes a giant raging asshole.)

They're all terrible examples of anything resembling a relationship. The only halfway normal relationships in Naruto are Asuma and Kurenai, Mikoto and Fugaku, and Mito and Hashirama.


Moving on.


+_+_+

Mild spoilers ahead:

Reading the HP/Naruto fic. Its promising. Hermione's cautiousness shines through, which is a nice bit of characterization, but a bit of an annoying character trait. The lack of a bell test was a nice divergence, and the mild differences that are cropping up are promising. But 4 chapters in and nothing exciting has happened yet. Shikamaru is being his usual boring genius self, etc.

 

That was revealed to be scarcrux style dickery.

It was made after the reveal but he's not a jinchuuriki here.

 

now that I think about it why didn't Jiraiya/Orochimaru/Tsunade/Minato ever do this, with even just three of them together they could probably take on one of the smaller Hidden Villages

 

...Why would they?