Rereading these one-shots reminds me of a better part of the naruto universe. When Itachi was alive and badass, Jiraiya was alive and even more badass, tsukuyomi/amaterasu was the best that sharingan could do, and a regular rasengan was still impressive.

Jiraiya's death was one of my favorite parts of any series ever and gouges me right in the goddamn feels every time. It's right up there with Tales from BaSingSe.
Reading through Twenty Cups of Sake was a pleasant reminder.


On the other hand, reading through 20 times he didn't die makes me boggle over the fact that in an attempt to make a Naruto that was an immortal powerful to the point of absurdity, the author actually didn't come close to the current manga's powerlevels.

I'm not one to really criticize the naruto-verse at all, but rereading these has made me realize how much better it used to be. I think that I still enjoy them and I still will read the mangas, but I enjoy them the way I enjoy a michael bay film instead of something I really want to watch/read, the way I used to look forward to every update.

 

Yup.

Pre-TimeSkip : A movie from Peter Jackson, complete with Ian McKellen.
Post-TimeSkip, especially the Sasuke arc of Shippuden (except Sage Naruto Arc): A Movie from Michael Bay complete with Justin Beiber.

 

Not sure if these have been recommended before or not.

Something Scary by Plagius

Features a sociopath Naruto who leaves Konoha with Jiraiya after he kills a shitload of people. Fun if you need to kill some time.

Drifting by AlphaDelta1001

Naruto is somewhat stronger and smarter, but still very similar to canon and he unwittingly leaves Konoha and starts drifting. Has the harem tag so it will probably turn to shit later but it´s pretty fun to read right now.

 

There is a 95% chance it will be abandoned. It might be my fault.

 

Really? Because it recently started updating (a month? ago) after several months of inactivity.


And since I'm posting, might as well add this on:

People Lie »
Lies have power. They can change a simple-minded believer into a two-faced schemer and a timid follower into a fanatical devotee. They can change a child angry at the world into a man consumed by more than vengeance. But that power is a lie as well.Naruto - Rated: M - English - Adventure/Humor - Chapters: 34 - Words: 286,222 - Reviews: 2187 - Updated: 7-25-10 - Published: 8-24-07 - Naruto U. & Hinata H.


Never got finished & he did a weird divergence into Ask Me No Questions which lasted about 50k, but he has some interesting ideas & it is an entertaining enough read. Oh, and he did this too:

Anything and Everything AU It finally happened. Hinata was made heir to the clan, and Hanabi was going to be sealed. Desperate, she promises anything and everything to any man or being who can give her freedom. The Kyubi answers, and a deal is made.Naruto - Rated: M - English - Supernatural/Horror - Chapters: 4 - Words: 13,784 - Reviews: 178 - Updated: 6-25-11 - Published: 4-1-09 - Hanabi H. & Kurama/Kyuubi

Short, but nifty.

 

I suppose this all begs the question, what would you all love to read? I'm not talking about a plot bunny here, but rather what type of story really captured your interest and what would you like to see put down on paper?

Hmm?

 

I really enjoyed The Girl From Whirlpool by Silvershine. Great writer, who manages to inject humor and seriousness in equal part to the back story that she has created. GFW is the penultimate fic for that couple, imo. Plus, it's fun seeing how the events from her story tie back to canon.

I wouldn't mind seeing a fic that focuses on all the Hokage. But in a narrative that uses excerpts from different history books to describe their pasts and accomplishments, framed by the story of an OC Academy kid who wants to be Hokage him/herself. Is that too cheesy?

 

Personally, I would like more ANBU-Naruto stories. Shezza's is amazing, would love to see more well written ones.

 

More ANBU or at least one that doesn't cover graduation-Wave-Chunin or does it with Naruto looking in rather than being part of it. Really I think I just want a Naruto that isn't a complete idiot and a Kyuubi who isn't evil incarnate but at the same time isn't particularly nice either.

Still looking for that half decent bloodline fic too, and different village stories, but those are all few and far between.

 

Hm, that's a tough question... There was a fic a few years ago that was called Food For Thought that was like... everything I wanted. It had a Naruto that kept getting smarter, it had unique missions, and good character interaction, and something that a lot of the better written Naruto stories kind of lack (especially later on): humor.

I get that, in order to write a more 'realistic' Naruto tale, you end up going to dark places, but yeah, that's my big thing. There needs to be a balance of humor and bad things.

 

To be honest, I am mainly interested in seeing fics that write specific ideas well like "Minato and Kushina survive", "Sasuke and Sakura defect" and "Mokuton!Naruto".

But generally I'd like to see fics that aren't trying to do their own version of canon and take a more independent route. Something like Spying no Jutsu by daniel gudman where the entire fic is about the original mission that Naruto has been sent on. More adventure fics that play around with certain aspects of the Narutoverse like the Jashinists, monks, samurai, summons etc. And something I'd really like to see is a fic which covers the training trip since Naruto and Jiraiya spending two and a half years travelling the continent would have all sorts of potential.

 

I'd like another story like Inert's stories, Worth Dying For, or Shezza's ANBU fic, where the story takes canon storyline and fanon cliche's and breathes new life into them with fresh ideas and alternate character interpretations.


Ideally, I'd like a story that combines the following:

1. When Naruto talks about how he's going to be the next Hokage, he's not being a braggart like in canon. He's stating a fact--he trains hard (no shortcuts, remember?), and although he might not be the brightest and cleverest, no one can match his drive to become the Next Ninja Legend
2. The Kyuubi (and other Bijuu, by extension) is not misunderstood. He has no Freudian excuse for his actions, he is not a spawn-of or King-of -Hell and will not offer Naruto a Faustian deal. He is a walking natural disaster at best and a minor god at worst, and he was not split from the Juubi to become the Sage's pet and/or child. No, the Sage created him because having nine walking potential genocide machines was better than having one Titan that was likely to wipe out mankind out of careless ignorance, like ants under our heels.
3. Naruto will eventually bring about world peace. He won't do it through making a war or leading an army against the Akatsuki, but rather almost accidentally. Through his actions across the years, whether convincing an omnicidal insomniatic maniac the value of fighting for something more than yourself, saving the princess of a foreign country, or saving the world from a demonic apocalypse, he makes friends in high and low places, so that by the time he gains the hat of Hokage, anyone who wants to start a war could only do so by attacking a friend, thus creating at least one or two generations without war, thereby breaking the cycle and allowing the following generations to live in a world without war.
4. Obito died on Kakashi's first Jonin mission. Kakashi was sad, never really got over it, he calls his Sharingan Obito in his head, but that's the extent of it. There was a touching funeral. The Uchiha clan didn't much care for him. Dicks.
5. There is no super-hax Mangekyou. The eternal Sharingan exists if for no other reason than to give a reason for Madara (HIMSELF) to be alive, but there is no Susanoo tank or Izanagi/Izanami reality warping powers. Kakashi's Kamui and Itachi's Ameratasu and Tsukiyomi are pretty much the height of their trees.
6. Naruto will NOT become the second coming of either Jiraiya or the Yondaime. He will become his own person with his own talents. He will not wear a near-carbon-copy of the Yondaime's cloak. If we are going to make fun of Lee's copying of Gai's jumpsuit, we will do the same to him.
7. There is no Golden Kyuubi Cloak Mode. If Naruto is not careful, he will go into a blood-rage and kill everyone. He MAY be able to tap into the Kyuubi's power to some degree, and he is fundamentally different than other humans in terms of power and speed and whatnot, due to having the Kyuubi's chakra flowing through him since conception (if the mother and son exchange blood, why not chakra?) to puberty and beyond. There is no way that didn't affect him.
8. The Impure World Resurrection technique has major drawbacks to the user. The chakra has to come from somewhere, either the summoner, or infused over time into the possessed body. Either way, no spamming ninja zombie armies.

A few other things as well, but these definitely. Hell, I would have been happy with them in the manga, where they belong.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2663204/1/One-Hundred-Days

Training trip fic, 50/50 split for Naruto & Sakura pov.

 

I've actually read that before though I'd completely forgotten about it. When I first read it it was after it had been completed and a felt a bit dated, so I'd like a more modern version of the idea.

I don't mind a lot of what's happened in canon but 3, 4, 5 and 6 appeal to me a great deal.

 

I'm looking for someone who's really badass mentally with true grit. Without too much angst.I want a Naruto who confronts the Kyuubi in his mindscape and kills it so he has full control of the chakra and power.

Also, I want to see cool jutsu or techniques. I like seeing the sealing stuff, the barrier stuff, the complicated over-the-top stuff like mokuton or the chakra chains. I like seeing people use cool ninjutsu. It's actually what makes Jiraiya so great to me. He has this really varied set of ninjutsu, from doton, to hair, to summoning, to rasengans, and to fire.
Shezza's fic sort of fulfills this because he uses a lot of combination techniques, but I feel like it's still missing something.

 

I've read a fic that does exactly that but I can't remember the name at all.

And to be fair, I'm fairly certain that they spend most of their time training. By the time of the Chuunin Exams, they'd only done 7 D-ranks and a C/A-rank, IIRC, and most of them shouldn't take longer than a few hours so that's a lot of time leftover.

 

Sree, have you tried The Best Laid Plans, by Arun2110? Still features parts of some of the bits you mentioned disliking, but Kakashi nearly kills Sakura during their initial training and would have killed Naruto if it weren't for his healing/kyuubi.