If I'm not mistaken, wasn't Sai specifically chosen by Danzo and his forces to infiltrate Orochimaru's forces and find out information on Uchiha Sasuke, and possibly kill him? Team 7 was used as a convenient vehicle, because it had a slot open (vacant due to Sasuke), and was filled with people who would go haring off after any sign of Orochimaru and/or Sasuke.

It makes more sense to have an OC replace Naruto if for whatever reason Naruto isn't part of the Rookie 9 lineup, because if the author has Naruto out of the lineup, it's more than likely that any interaction between Naruto and Sasuke will have been close to nil, and thus Team 7 would no longer function as that convenient vehicle by which to send agents after Sasuke. The same emotional history wouldn't be there, so why would Sai be assigned at all?

 

Idk Danzo would probably like having an agent watching Sasuke considering he was a bit unstable, the whole watching his family be killed thing may do that.

 

Plus he'd be watching for signs of the Mangekyou Sharingan so that he may later steal it for himself.

 

Oh I remember a cliche, Arrogant/Evil Sasuke made to be a total prick and evil Sakura who has a mother on the "Civilian Council".

 

Yep. People almost seem proud of it too. For example, in their summary they would be like, there's "Sakura Bashing! or Sasu Bash!"

Bleh -,-



Here's another thing I can't stand. I just read one where Naruto gets kidnapped and sent to Iwa blah blah. Why is it that Naruto HAS To learn the Kage Bunshin wherever he goes? It always happens very easily too. Some jounin just happens to know the forbidden technique from another village, they kill a Konoha Nin and learns it after an interrogation, or he just somehow develops it because he can't make a normal clone. This usually leads into another cliche with the Kage Bunshin training, but I already mentioned that from before.

 

Well it is canon that a Iwa ninja knew Kage Bunshin.

Was it ever explained why he knew it? It may be that the Kage Bunshin is a commonly known Jounin jutsu in other villages.

Still not something that they would teach Naruto right off the bat.

 

Yeah, it's not so much other village knows it that bothers me. At the very least, it probably isn't too hard of a technique to learn, seeing as Naruto figured it out from a scroll in half a day. It's just that when Naruto gets a different upbringing, I want to see different techniques too. But Kage Bunshin just always worms its way back into Naruto's arsenal, normally too early on when it's doesn't make too much sense why he was taught it.

 

Naruto just wouldn't be Naruto without a dozen blonde kids running around fighting.

 

One cliche that I think is awesome is the "Naruto wears orange because it's the only thing shop owners will sell him in the hopes that it will get him killed." It's an awesome cliche because we now know that Naruto's jumpsuits are custom made with the clan insignia on them - most likely gifts from someone of importance like the Hokage or Jiraiya, who we know buys him his second outfit during the timeskip.

That's one way to turn a cliche on its ear. Good job Kishimoto.

 

Hmm was the whole Naruto is actually really smart but is wearing a mask and acting stupid to be underestimated cliche put here?

 

Is that actually stated somewhere or are you inferring it from learning that the insignia originates from his clan?

 

Inferred, but it's fairly obvious. The only other people who wear the symbol are those wearing body armor that has the Uzushio symbol on the back. Naruto is also shown wearing the symbol on some T-shirts when he is younger.

 

Wouldn't Orochimaru's role basically be mad scientist? Between the curse seals, cloning the First Hokage, and helping Danzo make his Sharingarm, Orochimaru definitely seemed to have a talent for violating the laws or nature to make people into better ninjas.

 

Howdy all of the Konoha Chuunin jackets have that as a sign of their alliance with the Uzumaki so who knows.

 

Yeah, and Naruto isn't a chuunin. And not a single person in the universe wears the Uzushio symbol aside from him, ever, outside of the flak jacket.

 

True enough was probably sarutobi

 

Naruto somehow gains a ridiculously powerful bloodline or a doujutsu so powerful it has Rinnegan's, Sharingan's and Byakugan's abilities(+ kills with just a glance).
Or he somehow sprouts fox tail and ears, or has darkness, light, chocolate pudding affinity, plus a sword that morphs to different things when it tickles its fancy.
Or massive harems not just from his village but from all over the continent.


And I kinda like the Naruto's interest in plants thing. He seriously needs a hobby other than gobbling up different flavours of ramen

 

I feel hate towards that one. Pure, unadulterated hate. If that happened in the best Naruto fic ever, I would stop reading it.

 

I agree that giving Naruto some interests outside of ramen and being a ninja is a fine thing, it's just that the plant thing has been done to death, and has been done badly too many times.

Of course, that's how a lot of fanfiction cliches get started; one writer has a good idea, and then a thousand inferior writers copy the idea and implement it in a far stupider fashion.

As someone else once put it: fanfic writers need to stop trying to turn Naruto into Inuyasha.

That reminds me of one of my other big pet peeves for Naruto fanfics (and really fanfiction in general); you get a lot of times when people will import the mechanics of different animes/universes into the Naruto-verse. If you're going to have Naruto train by slapping extra weight/gravity onto himself, have people constantly talk about sensing other ninja's chakra levels, and shooting each other with chakra blasts, you might as well just drop all pretense and write a Dragonball Z fanfic instead.

 

Hmmm...cliches, eh?

1. Using the words "orange jumpsuit" when Naruto's clothing is obviously not a one-piece.

2. Naruto wearing a mask. With Naruto, what you see is what you get. When people upset him as a kid he didn't hide his pain behind a smile; he either glared at them, pranked them or ignored them.

3. Naruto ending up on Team 7 regardless of what changes have been made to the universe or the characters involved.

Can't really think of that much more. I don't read nearly as much Naruto fanfiction as I used to.