This story is a sequel. Please read and review The Broken Tool before continuing.

Title: Kirigakure's Shore
Author: Jonohex
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Friendship
Status: Complete
Length: 345,648
Pairings: Haku/Mari (OC)
Summary: Haku is content with his new home in the Land of Waves. But when a ninja clan thought long dead reemerges intent on destroying the Hidden Mist Village, Zabuza's former apprentice must consider a return to his former life. Sequel to 'The Broken Tool'.
Link: FF.net

Where The Broken Tool was a self-contained story dealing with the immediate aftermath of Haku's survival, Kirigakure's Shore tells a much grander tale spanning multiple story arcs for better or worse.

It opens with the introduction of more familiar characters as Haku journeys to Konoha shortly after the Sasuke Retrieval Arc where he meets members of the Konoha Twelve, particularly Kakashi and Sakura. More importantly Haku later meets Naruto again and gets the opportunity to forge a friendship that otherwise never would have happened which, personally, I think becomes one of this story's strengths. You get to see how far Naruto is willing to go for a friend that actually deserves it.

And the real meat of the story is in Kirigakure where Jonohex has so many different plot lines going on that I'm genuinely surprised that he reached a conclusion. Ninja clans seeking revenge, supernatural beings, would-be revolutionaries...

It's crazy in both good and bad ways.

Inevitably, this story continues to add more original characters to the roster with Kirigakure's shinobi and the kekkei genkai clans. We do get some familiar faces with Mei, Ao and Chojuro but that's practically it. Which is a shame because you could have fit in a few more of the known mist-ninja but they may have been introduced into the manga too late.

The worst parts of the fic are the Konoha segments during the Kirigakure saga which regularly interrupt the action with plot lines that are either silly and pointless. It's honestly weird how the story takes such a drastic dip when it returns to Konoha.

Spoiler

Inari and Chuuya pretending to be a sick Naruto to cover for him, Konohamaru's squad getting on their trail and Udon's secret origins all felt like a massive waste of time.

Word of warning, Jonohex included a summary for each story arc in his profile and the first chapter. Skip that if you want to avoid spoilers.

It's a quite a different story to The Broken Tool but I enjoy it in for different reasons.

4/5

 

I feel that it got far too complicated and tried to take on too much later on. The Broken Tool was very good but I never bothered to finish this one. Eight years of development might be the deciding factor, I think Jonohex never fully knew where he was going with it and it shows. 2/5

 

Good enough to review?

*nudge nudge wink wink*