Title: Naruto: Potential Realised
Author: Iron Monkey Fist
Rating: M
Genre: General
Chapters: 19
Words: 217,710
Updated: May 6, 2013
Published: June 24, 2011
Status: Work In Progress
Fandom: Naruto
Pairings: Naruto/OC (Currently)
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7113972/1/Naruto_Potential_Realised

Summary: The old man survived the invasion and acknowledged Naruto's services to Konoha. How would the shinobi world cope with a Naruto who realises his full potential and becomes the splendid shinobi only few believed he could be?

This fic was recommended to me a few months back and I found myself pleasantly surprised. The basic idea is that Sarutobi survives the Invasion and, in the aftermath, Naruto is promoted to Chuunin along with Shikamaru.

I enjoy the purpose and direction of the story which focuses on Naruto's growth both physically and mentally, in a realistic fashion. And the plot shows more originality than what I usually get from a Naruto fanfic. With Naruto taking on a higher rank, it also gives us a greater insight into how Konoha works (such as different divisions) as well as the type of workload a Chuunin receives.

It features a number of OCs but not too many and they are all integrated believably. The only one I outright dislike is the one that's naturally meant to dislike. The fight scenes are handled well, though it's difficult to remain interested during the short OC-centric scenes. The romance is mostly in the background and still developing, and while Naruto's currently starting a relationship, I find myself doubting it'll be a single pairing that lasts throughout the story.

Some things that put me off was Naruto's attitude in the first chapter which made it look as if the story was about to take a nosedive, but this was nicely subverted. The constant verbalisation of jutsu is something I have a problem with which can often break the immersion for me. And there are no some instances where the writer mixes up Japanese and English terms such as using both "brat" and "gaki" in the same conversation and also the use of "Sasuke-teme" which bugs me to no end. Finally, there are a few grammatically errors and uses of repetition within same sentences but it's sound writing on the whole.

Overall, this is one of my favourite Naruto fanfics currently updating. 4.5/5 rounded up.


Checked by Minion, August 1, 2013

 

I read it so far, and I was pleasantly surprised. I really like this story. Just when I was getting desperate for a good Naruto story, this shows up.

It's well written, I like the premise, and the OCs are refreshingly well made. I enjoyed reading it, and I think other people will, too.
It does have a few bits and pieces that need work, however, so it doesn't get full marks. The author seems to have the anime heavily in mind, and that makes me twitch every time I see it.

So, probably a 3.5/5, rounded up to 4/5

Edit: Definitely Library material

 

Mind if I ask where you think it's lacking? I can guess a few but I rate this story pretty high so I'm curious.

 

I concur with Cheddar, this story isn't really Library material, at least in my opinion. Over the years of reading Naruto fanfiction, I have encountered several types of Naruto's and the one in this story belongs to a category that I fondly call "Angry Fuck Naruto" because of his innate desire to spit out "I am no genius, I worked very hard to get where I am, my life was horrible, no one acknowledges my deeds, I am an orphan, my life was really, really horrible" rants and lectures which quite honestly, piss me off just as much as they bore me.

He is just unlikable. Sure, he is tamer than other such Naruto's and the story gains points for having no real bashing, especially Sasuke was portrayed in a rather realistic light. I fully expected the author to go the usual "I am an Uchiha, worship me!" way but his character didn't much care for Naruto's promotion, which was the right way of handling it.

With Naruto's unlikable character comes a problem that is common in this type of stories and that is that the side cast is so much more interesting and everyone overshadows Naruto, the female OC, the Sannin, the summons, Shikamaru. All off them I would rather follow than Naruto at this point.

Then there is the fact that the story went lazy, imo. At first I thought that the Hokage surviving would have a huge impact since the feeling I got from the summary was that he would train or groom Naruto but apart from one mission, that was irrelevant in the greater scheme of things, and a few tweaks here and there, it followed the canon route. They still had to fetch Tsunade and the Sandaime can't fight any more. I just hope the story will include the Sandaime again in some significant way, otherwise it would have been a waste to keep him alive.

If it weren't for this thread, I would have dropped this story at chapter 1, Naruto was extremely obnoxious and aggravating there and he only became marginally better, being mostly angry, respectless and antagonizing to pretty much every one he meets and that's just grating. The fights are decent, the dialog is meh and the whole story is meh.

2.5/5 from me. The story is average, okay if you want to kill some time but nothing great or even good. Just okay.

 

*looks at original rating*

Yeah, that's too generous. I stopped following this one a while back.

It's an alright story but there's nothing truly interesting there. Naruto becoming a chuunin wasn't handled well but it was a novelty as was seeing some of Konoha's infrastructure, but those are the only things that stand out positively. The OC's are bearable but unnecessary; you could easily take them out of the story and put the pair on the same team as Izumo and Kotetsu.

Based on where I stopped reading (chapter 13/14), it felt decidedly average so 3/5.