Sunshine Sidestores is canon and written by Silver Queen. In ch. 7, there's this:

It's implied that's part of why it seemed Tsunade was so pleased about the result from Shikako faceplanting in her office - that Tsunade could do a pushback on Danzo requisitioning her ninja for debriefs and orders. And Shikako is pretty sure that Tsunade wouldn't have sent Sai with Naruto if she hadn't already investigated Sai.

Ch. 11 of Sidestories has Sai reporting to Danzo after his mission with Naruto and Shikako.

 

See, when I read in the fic that I just nodded along and recalled a line where Kakashi mentioned the chakra drain was because of how the eye was implanted, and trying to fix it now risked it being destroyed in the attempt. So Tsunade would be trying to get him to go along, he doesn't want to take the risk, and the end result would still be "canonical", him with his Sharingan.

...looking back now, either I was hallucinating or it was from another fic :?

 

It's possible you're right, I haven't reread the fic in a long time. The fact that it didn't happen in canon, though, makes it feel a little gamey to have this 'surgery' that fixes one of the few things that really challenges Kakashi. I feel like if this was a possibility in canon then he'd have gotten Tsunade to do it during the timeskip.

 

All that was brought up was a surgery with no specifics. I am thinking that it is one of the ways the author is using to explain the difference in Kakashi's of the Sharingan after timeskip.

 

Maybe she wants to implant Hashirama into his chest.

<_<

 

Yeah, I like the new pace. I also liked the part where she bitchslapped the R&D mooks for insulting Shikamaru. That was pretty awesome. Although I wasn't sold on the non-usage of storage seals, it might be due to the fact that seal masters aren't very common, and the elite ones like Jiraiya have better things to do with their time than overhaul systems that seem to be working okay.

 

Well considering canon I imagine that would work. Her being willing is the tricky part.

 

Lol, yeah, I was kidding. Even if she knew about the procedure and had access to some Hashirama cells, there's no way Tsunade's going to go around putting her grandfather's face inside people.

 

No one knows they can mix Hashirma with Sharingan dna, right? That's for people who experimented with it, i.e, Danzo, Orochimaru and the Tobito faction. And, well, Shikako if she remember that from canon.

Personally, I suspect a better job at the Sharingan in order to control it at an easier chakra cost or something. Tsunade is bound to do a better job than a 14 year old kid in the middle of a caved in hole with only a few minutes of time

 

So I finished reading this through the other day and can safely say this is better than Vapors. It's got the right blend of light heartedness, action and drama to keep things interesting without overpowering the characters to kingdom come.

 

I originally stopped reading during the filler arcs. I have no idea why the author insisted on including every single filler arc, but it was annoying. The only interesting thing about that time period in the fic was seeing how Shikako handles things. Her fighting styles, recruiting her own spy, etc. But the stories and characters (especially Naruto and Sai) were boring.

I'm so happy that Naruto is gone. He was really a drag on the story for me in the later chapters. He just didn't add anything to the story for me anymore. He spams clones, does the rasengan, gives speeches and therapy no jutsu, etc. It got boring. I know that's just how his character is, but that gets old after a while. One moment that stands out to me is during the filler arc when Naruto got upset at Shikako because she didn't stop the Princess from killing the man that killed her father and brother. He just became to annoying, and him being gone for 3 years allows for more character growth and plots that don't rely on his presence.

As soon as he left it felt like the quality returned to this fic. I loved the Chunin Exams fights as well as Shikako's new day-to-day activities. Its really gratifying seeing her have so much responsibilities and recognition after all of this time. Her interactions with Kakashi and Sasuke remain one of my favorite things about the story, and them disappearing due to obligatory filler arcs was annoying.

I like her friendship with Ino and hope we see more of that. Ino's development is much more subtle than Shikako's, but I'm loving it. Re-reading it, small things like Shikako commenting on Ino having a flower in her hair became so much more impactful.

I wouldn't mind if Shippuden canon is thrown out the window. Sasuke not defecting should have changed a lot, as well as Karin dying in the Forest of Death, etc. I'll be disappointed if the story ends up resembling Shippuden plots closely. I think it would be interesting if there is a shinobi war but more along the lines of Konaha vs Rock or Cloud kicking things off.


Edit: When Naruto does come back, I hope he learns more than he did in canon. Shikako and Sasuke are learning a lot right now and it would be annoying to have him come back as a big presence with nothing but a bigger rasengan.

 

So finally posting in this thread.

I have a complete hard-on for SI fics, and Dreaming of Sunshine was what introduced me to them.

When I first read DoS a year ago, I absolutely adored it. The world building, the characters, etc - it got across the Naruto feel, but with a better put together universe and characters with a lot more depth. Everything was consistently high quality and very believable.

I took a break for a few months halfway through the fillers, and got back to reading it recently. I'm not sure if it's because of the lack of reading continuity from the early chapters (because of a break), a change in the pace or just a change in my own expectations, but at this stage? I struggle to even read the single, short chapters that come out. I'm really, really forcing myself and one step off dropping it.

The feature of this story is that it takes these exaggerated anime characters and makes them real people. I can imagine Shikako, her family and her friends being people I'd meet in real life - that's something I've never gotten in Naruto fanfiction ever. But I think that's precisely what's making me lose interest. I love anime and fanfiction because of exaggerated characters that couldn't ever exist. Events that are out of this world. Intensity, humour and fun interactions that would be weird with any real person.

Towards the start of Dreaming of Sunshine, I feel that this wasn't an issue because the actual events that Shikako were going through always had a certain intensity to provided the contrast. You were reading about ordinary people participating in extraordinary events. Moreso because Shikako was from our world, so everything in there was new, exciting and different. But as the story has gone on, those events have naturally been normalized. Shikako and her friends have become more experienced. So now it feels like I'm reading about ordinary people doing their ordinary jobs - everything is routine and unexciting.

The second Chuunin exam was a good example. It didn't hold my interest at all. Hell, the fillers had more impact for me. It felt like such a low intensity, routine sort of event, lacking all the tension, energy and significance of the first one (even ignoring events like the invasion or Orochimaru appearing). The attempted kidnapping had a very real, emotional impact (like how I'd expect someone in real life to feel after say, an attempted mugging) - but lacked the sort of plot level intensity and significance I expected.

Another thing that has irritated me in the more recent chapters is how much of a center of attention Shikako has become. In just about every interaction - whether her friends, jounin, her ANBU teammates, etc - it feels like she is the center of attention. Given that the story has that downplayed sort of feel, it actually detracts from a lot of the side characters and makes them feel pretty unimportant.

The author loves overusing this particular exchange that has really started to annoy the crap through me where Shikako says something to downplay her skill/role in some event, and the other person she's talking to gives her an incredulous stare and then drawls out a sarcastic response. Like it happened several times in response to her making Chuunin, it happened with her new ANBU teammate, and has happened other times in the past. It's gotten to the point where it almost feels like Shikako is using false humility to fish for compliments, rather than her genuinely feeling like that.

But yeah, overall I know when I first read the fic I really wanted to give it a 5/5. If I was gauging my current feel for it it, I'd give it a 2-2.5/5. I will assume that it's only the recent chapters that went downhill and everything pre-filler was still great and come to an overall score of a 3.5/5.

 

Updated. Summons!

On another note, I really like the interaction between Shikako and Aoba. Aoba is helpful for someone who desperately wants to know secrets always. He made a good choice for his job, I suppose. Maybe it's his, I hesitate to call them over-the-top, but perhaps exaggerated reactions that make him entertaining. He feels pretty solidly sketched out for a side-character that wasn't seen much in canon.

And in a blink and you'll miss it... Given the paper cups incident, I think Shikako's actually managed to configure Tenten's seal to her liking and put it on her skin. That's going to be a nasty surprise for someone (or alternatively, a really fun party trick). Now, I sort of want Shikako to continue pulling out strangely mundane things as people try to figure out how she actually managed to fit the item(s) in question up her sleeves.

 

While I would have loved to see Shikako meeting new summons in the summons realm, I am happy to explore the deer contract. Only saw it used once, and I am hoping it will be suitably epic with time. Doubtful that it can go toe to toe with the big summons like Toad, Snake and Slug but it should be useful.

 

Updated 2 times.

Wow. It's not that I disliked chapter 109, but I just wasn't quite sure where Silver Queen planned to take it. But of course, Silver Queen has never let the 'fillers' be one-offs. Parlaying that into (potential) research (assuming Tsunade agrees) on the Edo Tensei and Cursed Seal and having Kisuke stick around as a ghost shinobi is pretty dang awesome.

Also, the scenes with Sasuke and her family and Ino and Sakura have all been very sweet. And another side effect of roping Tenten into the sealing process has been revealed.

 

I agree with you CheddarTrek, but I don't think that anyone who has stuck around for 109 chapters is going to call BS on Shikako leveling up. This isn't chapter one, we are all invested by now.