I'm also a little confused about this, mainly because of the politics behind it differing greatly from canon. The way I'm seeing it:

Grass and Earth countries invaded Wind Country with the aims of drawing Fire Country soldiers away due to their alliance with Wind. Unfortunately, Orochimaru is a bit of a loose cannon and Sound invaded/distracted Fire using zombie-things which meant Fire is keeping out of the Wind conflict for the time being.

Grass wanted Earth and Fire to waste their resources on a pointless struggle in the deserts of Wind in order to capitalise and invade the weaker of the two at the end. With Fire staying out of the conflict, Wind has a chance to enact guerrilla tactics on the invading Earth and whittle them down until they are forced to withdraw, Soviets-in-Afghanistan style.

...

Awesome story, Geor. I was a little confused about the odd placement of a ghost(?) in the latest chapter. I didn't get why it needed to be there but it didn't detract too much. I love your characterisation of Kakuzu. Have we actually seen him win a fight in this fic? He always seems to be running away, or at least beaten by rampaging Jinchuuriki, but grabbing hearts on the go is just awesome.

Howdy if I remember correctly, Tenzou is the leader of Unity at the moment, at least in Konoha, but I also am hoping for some shadowy overlord Madara/Nagato style.

 

Nah, I would prefer Unity to be just what it appears to be, a conglomerate of like minded people who wish to see the world united under one banner. No secret objectives, no shadowy overlord. Just a bunch of revolutionaries who think they're doing what's best for the world.

Call me old fashioned but after the first shadowy leader I tend to just not care about any more.

 

Danzou was the leader of Unity in Konoha. When he died the group fractued into seperate 'branches' and did their own thing.

 

Chapter 22 is up.

 

I know many of you thought the revelation lame, but I really want to know what's going to happen with Karin.

 

She's probably going to meet up with Naruto at some point in the future, and she's either going to get herself killed or she's going to be Naruto's spy in Oro's fortress.

Truthfully, though I don't think many people here think likely, I want her to be Naruto's sibling and have her develop a grudging respect for him after a few fights. Then they either get caught together away from either side and have a good talk and work thru any problems that Karin has with Naruto, and they then develop a kind of sibling rivalry that edges more on hostility. She then becomes Naruto's ear in Oro's fortress (Konoha has absolutely no-one actually in Oto village).

This chapter was good, wished the Oro fight would've gone differently but meh. Here's to looking forward to the next chapter.

One more question, can we get an update on Eleven? If it's possible how far you are on the next chapter?

 

The next chapter of Eleven is delayed due to writers block. I got at least two scenes done, so its about 50% done...so you'll get more once I get my mind past the block.

 

A fun chapter. Several interesting developments. And the ending was certainly interesting. It gives Sakura a more developed character, which I'm thankful for.

I do wonder what'll happen to Sand. I suppose I'm kinda hoping Kohona would come to the rescue with Naruto bringing out his can of awesome ass-kicking. But then again, that's just me. Lol. You gotta admit, it'd certainly be cool.

Orochimaru. I'm glad you gave him that scene. It didn't belittle his skill as a Sannin, a legendary ninja. Yet you still gave due to both Madara and Konan. And that's always a hard balance to maintain. Yet you did it quite well in this chapter. That was excellent.

Hmm. Not much more to say but that I hope to read the next soon. ^^

 

I think she would defect before she became a spy. Besides, you gotta be crazy or Snape to spy on Orochimaru.

 

I'd think of it as something that Naruto has on the side. Because they are blood-related they are loyal to eachother above all else, even if they absolutely hate eachother and will beat eachother senseless if they meat one another on the battlefield.

Of course this is after they find some way to sit down and talk out why Karin hates Minato. Hell it could even be a rallying point to bring them together.

 

That trope is more common in fiction with siblings raised together at birth and separated later. They didn't grow up with each other, so they have no connection other than parental.

I agree with your second part. I can see that, but I can only see their relationship as grudging acceptance unless there's some great sacrifice of one for the other, or Orochimaru goes "kukukuku" and tries to use her for Edo Tensei or something.

 

So Sasuke's dying?

It'd be interesting if Sakura took his eyes if he did.

Also, Shino's got a girlfriend? Who's it going to be? It can't be Hinata or Tenten, so, it must be someone unconventional...

 

The pairing list at the start of the story (at FF.net, not his personal site) say it's Shino/Keiko-chan. So it's a really, really creepy relationship with the bug inside of him.

 

A bug. There's others.

 

Bug Bunshin FTW?

 

Meh. To be honest, I'm not at all happy with the sister-thing. I'd be perfectly happy for it to never actually take center focus in the story. Bah.

 

Alright so I like this fic I really do but am I alone with Ino bugging the shit out of me? She was acceptable when she just had her sword skills and her clan shit but now shes getting one handed ninjutsu and for some reason its just irritating.

Anyways that aside the latest chapter was a lot of fun, I enjoyed the creative use of the cannons, gunpowder isnt something you see a lot of outside of crack fics in Naruto but you wrote it very well. Also I liked getting a look at Sakuras motivations, its interesting to catch up with her and Sasuke a little bit. However my favorite bit was the fight with Orochimaru vs. Konan and Madara, it was a very pleasant change to see him come off in a fight as the Sannin he is. Far too often hes either gimped at the knees or uber sick powerful either way the fight ends in a handful of seconds.

Last as other folks have been saying Id like to see a little more with the Karin storyline and why exactly she has such daddy issues. Honestly anything that has less Ino and more Anko in it is an improvement to me.

 

It would annoy me more if she gained these skilled with no real progression. She learned them over a series of chapters and it isn't as if she magically recieved the ability to do one handed seals. I reckon its kinda refreshing to have a logical progression in skills; she needs better combat skills- learns to use a sword, she needs better ninjutsu skills- learns to incorperate ninjutsu into her sword techniques.

 

I would love to see more Shino/Keiko-chan interactions. Some of the funniest parts of the first story was Shino's little one liners and monologues to Keiko-chan. It really helped round out Shino and give him a lot more depth as a character.

This is definitely in my top 3 or 4 favorite Naruto stories right now. My only problem right now is how absurdly complicated the plot is as well as the seemingly numerous unconnected plots against Konoha. I'm sure it will all be revealed to be connected but right now it seems like there is an unsurmountable amount of enemies against Konoha right now.

Also I'm a little bit irritated with the command/control seal (or whatever it's called). It seems like its too powerful. I know you said that a strong enough mind could resist it, but seems like the amount of people who could resist it are small in number.

 

Sorry for the double post, but it has been a month so I figure I'm alright.

I'm going to be pissed if Anko is a traitor like the scene seemed to indicate. Otherwise, I'm looking forward to the Naruto/Sasuke Sakura/Ino fight, should be good.