Title: New Blood
Author: JFalcon
Rating: T
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Predominatly Shikamaru/Temari
Summary: For three years the ninja of Konoha and their allies have fought a losing battle. When Konoha becomes so short handed that Shikamaru must train a Genin squad no one could have predicted the effect he and his team would have on the war. ShikaTema

Link: New Blood

This is the only next generation series I read. It is long as all hell (almost 1,000,000 words across four stories), but its dark and actiony and enjoyable. The characters are written in a believable way and the story in general is well written. My only complaint reading it was that Shikamaru had his genin shadow clone training, but at least that was brief and not overdone. Even though just one shadow clone should have killed a genin.

The story is AU after about Asuma's death since it was written back in '06. All in all an enjoyable read. I rate it a 4.5/5 because there were some parts that grated on my nerves.

 

I'm twelve chapters in (out of 170) and I'm enjoying it. Good action scenes, cute little genin, some interesting plots.

*edit: I got bored around chapter 40. Too many characters, dull relationship drama, and far too man exclamation marks. It might get better, but I really can't be bothered to find out. 3/5

 

That was my main problem with it too, though once Akuma is introduced and the story starts getting darker it gets a lot better.