I am looking for oneshot; Old story about Valentine like day celebrations. I remember that Naruto wanted to celebrate with Sakura but Sakura turned Naruto down saying something like she didn't wanted to spend her celebration in Ichiraku(?) and instead she goes with some sort royal man to an expensive restaurant. Naruto instead asks Ino out she agrees and Naruto takes her to some sort of royal wedding. They sneak inside if I remember correctly.

It ended quite disappointing as I remember. Ino and Naruto has good time and next day Sakura hears Ino bragging and goes to Naruto and jumps to his lap or something. Ending as a Naruto/Sakura pairing

I remember the story because it had very good Naruto Ino interaction. I remember I wished it was a longer Naruto/Ino story. Anybody remembers it?

 

The Best Dates are the Cheap Ones

 

^that is the one, Thanks mate.

cheers.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8569328/1/Iga-Naruto

Naruto, guided by a presence from the past, discovers a personal connection to a ninja clan long since lost to history. In a world shaped by endless war and constant bloodshed, can Naruto find a way to stop the cycle of hatred and free the world from the echoes of the past? Naruto /Mystic eyes. Intelligent, strong, grey Naruto. Naruto/Multiple women.

My favorite Naruto fic, surprised I did not see it in this thread. The crossover with Basilisk is seamless. Writing is good. This is not a harem fic.

One complaint is how powerful Naruto is with access to Kyuubi regeneration (he regenerated a limb) but the author is in the process of revising this.

 

Eh, I don't browse the forums much, but saw this thread. I have a few that are...readable, or are at least time waters. Most of em are crossovers though. As seems to be common in this thread, YMMV:

1: The Butler with the Devilish Smile, by The Disciple of Pein
Sometimes when a man dies, nothing changes. Sometimes when a man lives, everything changes. A feared Jinchuuriki becomes a stranger with questionable ethics. A dark avenger becomes an heir to a clan regaining its former glory. A lovestruck girl becomes a genius with an extreme sense of dualism. But why would an outlaw ever show loyalty to a place like Konoha? What is his agenda?

This is a pure Naruto fic, but nothing entirely noteworthy. A Naruto Raised by a Mysterious sensei they haven't named, who is apparently a a missing-nin. Took Naruto from the village, taught him special Uzumaki techniques and raised him among bandits.

Also, Sakumo is the hokage. Be warned of some cliches, but there a few interesting ideas. And Kyuubi is apparently actually evil in this.

2. Unwavering Sky, by Kur0Kishi
He had long since given up. Or to be more precise, he just found it hard to care. He only had his job, his burden and his duty to keep him going. Smiling was a task, a necessity. Not a luxury. This is a story of a man, learning how to see in colors again.

Naruto/Sekirei crossover, with some cameos from other manga characters.

Cliches: Naruto is Immortal. And all the various super powers that come with it.

Everything else: Not too bad actually. If you get past the immortal thing, there are some interesting ideas. Like Naruto having raised Takehito and Kaoru. Naruto has some mysterious abilities, that haven't quite been explained, but he seems to be something akin to a spirit, or some such. Also, no super duper giant Harem, just...maybe 3 so far, I think?

3: Anything from Gavedin, really.

4: Father of Demi-Gods, by xxAkuxx
Naruto has done some amazing things during his shinobi career, but when he gets transported to another dimension, Meh. Becoming a Father to a Demi-god, he could deal with it. Becoming the father of 2 demi-children. Oh Shit. Now Naruto had to deal with Gods and Furies while keeping his children safe. Ordinary day for Naruto. Post 4th SW. No Flames. NaruxHarem.

A Naruto/Percy Jackson crossover.

Started as a oneshot, in the hope of getting others to make more original Naruto/PJO crossovers, but expanded. Though it's now on hiatus, as the author feels they don't have the necessary skills to write it, rewrite it. I really only mention it, because it was an original idea, if poorly executed. The writing isn't too bad. Mostly just a time-waster.

I'll also tentatively say that Kenchi618's new fic (Basically an AU, where Ninja villages never formed, and the Clan wars kept on fighting) doesn't seem too bad. Bit of an interesting concept, if nothing else. Bit too short to comment on though, so I'll only mention it.

Like I said, YMMV, and they're mostly either a guilty pleasure or a time waster. Or both.

Really, I got nothing else, and it's sad how the fandom has been dying. The only really good stuff, is stuff written by DLP authors (Shezza, Lungs, Roarian, etc).

 

Opened the story and it starts with a sort of rant/explanation behind the conception of the story which lastly boils down to this:

As a buddy of mine said, he could have had this shorter if he had just said "super Naruto" and he would have been done. Now, perhaps not fair, to base the whole story by this opening text but really, stuff like new bloodline, multiple love interests, smarter and edgier and whatnot, it really screams bad superNaruto story.

 

I've read Iga Naruto. It's written well enough. The content just isn't there. It's exactly as you suspect - Naruto becomes a MartyStu with a perfect MarySue mother/lover/teacher/whatever who impresses the Sandaime/everyone with his amazing skills that pre-date modern shinobi techniques and-

There's practically no conflict. Naruto can beat everyone without even trying. And it retreads the canon story again, chuunin exams, etc. It's a 2/5 at best. The only thing keeping it from being a 1/5 is the fact what's-her-face is a ghost, so Naruto's love for his 'very-old-girlfriend' can't be requited yet.

 

I read this last night and enjoyed it, but I was half asleep in bed reading, so my standards usually drop when I get to that stage. Still:

Spoiler

the new bloodline was believable, because it was a bloodline he qualified for, the chains of uzumaki or whatever they are called. And while he says their are multiple love interests, zero pop up so far in this story, so I think his just covering his bases buy saying he will go through many relationships before he gets to which ever one his with.

Edit:

Yeah forgot add he is a bit super powered, but its not just him, the author also makes Sasuke and Sakura more powerful in canon (this early in the fic), and some of the characterizations are awesome.

Spoiler

For instance, Naruto was rasied by bandits, Sakuras parents were killed by bandits (the catalyst for her to becoming strong early in the fic), and it turns out Naruto was actually apart of the raid that killed her parents. Little things like that that are interesting.

 

Yes the A/N are a little distracting.

You should give it a couple chapters. It is super!Naruto but his strength is believable, and there is conflict. The beginning chapters are mostly training until he goes on his first mission, promptly losing an arm. Itachi slaps him down even when he is exhausted after killing his clan, and Naruto using his dojutsu on him. His meeting with Orochimaru is just Orochi trolling him.

Naruto is pretty blase about sex but he has had it only twice.

The comment about his 'mother/lover/teacher/whatever' being a MarySue is a bit confusing. There might be a case of Naruto being a GaryStu.

And, I think Fardeki is talking about an entirely differnt fic.

I won't defend it too much, it is a fun fic.

 

They're talking about Iga Naruto, Fardeki. Don't think they've got to Butler With a Devilish Smile yet. (Which does have it's own problems) Naruto isn't super powered in that, but is still doing some canon re-hash, if in new ways.

As far as Iga Naruto goes, it's totally a Guilty Pleasure for me. I enjoy it. I'm also not sure where you're getting the idea it's not a harem fic? He's come out and said that there'll be multiple women, even if he's not with them 24/7 like most badly done harem fics.

Anyway, Iga Naruto is Super Naruto, and he smacks around everybody but Orochimaru and Itachi (Back when he was younger) His skills have been shown and said too be better than pretty much every other Jonin. SO while the Sannin can still kick his ass, that' more of a red herring to make you (the reader) think he's still weak, when he's not.

 

I've read Butler With a Devilish Smile. It's difficult to describe my problems with it - I liked it a lot until they became genin, because it seems like a lot of things went unexplored in the setting of the academy. Also, because it's just retreading the same shit with a very slightly different twist. I guess my biggest problem with it is that Naruto is at first a punk ... and then he's a butler. This transformation is documented with a reason, but I'm just not convinced of it enough. It's not explored enough. It also bugs me that he was a punk at all to begin with. It would have been more amusing if he were simply a butler all along and his reasons for being so were explored through the course of the story. If Naruto can pivot on a dime, in terms of personality, then that should be explored in the story, but hmm... I don't know. I haven't read it in a while, so I can't really analyze it too well. I just was turned off by it rather quickly. Like, "punk Naruto" and "butler Naruto" are two different concepts for two different stories and it just feels wrong having them both in the same story.

 

I have to agree, it's one of the fic's problems. It unsettled me to, but I'm fairly sure I'm one of those people who aren't as...hrmm, selective in what they read. For how bad they are, I still read Kenchi618's fics, as well as people like Pokemaster or w/e his name is now.

My main like about Butler is some of the ideas and new characterizations. Fairly sure I've seen a version of the Sasuke used somewhre else before, but Sakura? That was enticing and a bit new. Sure, the connection between

Spoiler

Naruto and Sakura's parents

was blindingly obious, but it was fresh. There were a couple ther things, but I can't quite remember em right now.

I will say it helps that there's no overt bashing, or super-powerful Naruto.

 

Oh boy, if only I were a part of this forum months ago... would have loved to get in on that conversation a few pages ago while it was happening.

Okay, well I just read all 16 pages so I'm pretty sure none of these are repeats. Some of these are short at only one chapter, while others are well over 100k words.

Never trip on the same stone twice by Lord Mendsauit
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9385665/1/Never-trip-on-the-same-stone-twice
Namikaze Minato has made many mistakes during his life, and the one he considers his worst comes back to haunt, and ultimately, kill him. He would have been happy to atone for his sins with his death, had he not been given a better way of doing so: Preventing himself from making those mistakes in the first place!

AU/AR story with Minato making a mistake due to a prophecy. May or may not be the start of a full length story, but it's pretty good just as a one-shot.

If you're okay with Fem!Naru then by the same author:
Not So Alone After All
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8983432/1/Not-So-Alone-After-All Chance reunites a lonely, brooding shinobi seeking to avenge his teammate's murder through fratricide and a flirtatious, carefree owner of a bar in a small town in the middle of nowhere that just keeps reminding Sasuke of what he lost...

One I actually just read today is:

Tale of the Setting Sun by Guilty Bird
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8963527/1/Tale-of-the-Setting-Sun
AU. Naruto was born with hair as red as his mother's – but with a face and intellect that paralleled his father, the Fourth Hokage. Will the revolution he brings be the world's salvation or destruction?

Naruto isn't a bad person, but he's kind of a sociopath in a way that makes sense. He thinks so much about being a ninja that if it's for the sake of his mission he will do bad things that a child should find revolting.

Blind Stars of Fortune by 100demons
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9008333/1/Blind-Stars-of-Fortune
Thirty year old Kakashi was supposed to have been killed by Pein during the Invasion. Instead, he wakes up in the body of his twenty year old self. (It gets a lot more complicated.) Time travel.

So far a very well done Kakashi-centric time travel fic.

To Shatter by hitokiri.no.boku
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9184399/1/To-Shatter
Team Seven was ill prepared for the outside world. The mission to Wave Country goes terribly wrong and over the dead body of his teammate, Naruto realizes that being a shinobi, a killer, is all that it implies and sometimes even more. To Shatter: Because no one is unbreakable.

The first few paragraphs give this away so it's not really a spoiler, but the theme is that Sakura dies and it forces Team 7 to come together. The death is treated realistically with Naruto being hit HARD and going Kyuubi on the bridge, Kakashi feeling like a failure and getting called out by the Hokage and Sakura's mother, and Sasuke reliving a nightmare and becoming very protective of Naruto. Great potential.

If you want even more Grim!Dark you can try:

Introverted by Shadenight123
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9125398/1/Introverted
Being ignored and gazed at with hatred can lead someone to become a boisterous and loud orange-wearing shinobi, but it can also drive him to become a silent and invisible introvert. Of the two, Naruto takes the logical choice for a future in the Ninja World. Team Sai-Naruto-Sakura. No pairings. Future of bloodshed and grittiness assured.

By the author's admission, this was supposed to be a somewhat fluffy fic, although if you read his author's notes you will rapidly discover that his idea of fluffy is not what you're used to. Ooooh boy. There is a chance that characters you care about might be tortured and/or killed in unpleasant ways. But, for all of that, unlike other Grim!Dark authors who kill characters just to get a rise out of you, every death has meaning within the political machinations of Konoha. Naruto is being manipulated by a not-nice!Sarutobi, a canonish!Danzou, and a Kyuubi who is LITERALLY the embodiment of all malice and views his creation by the Sage of the Six Paths as effectively a mission from God to stamp out all evil and Naruto is in the way just by existing. Does not follow canon at all. Even the chuunin exams are completely different.

By the same author:

The Harsh Truth
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8337120/1/The-Harsh-Truth
There are truths and lies scattered in the shadows of the leaf. Conspiracies and secret meetings, decisions and backstabbings. The plot twists until the point where there is no ally, and no enemy. Only yourself, and your trust. Face the harsh truth: in the midst of the shinobi world, nothing is what it seems. Naruto is born five years prior to canon, and from there...!NidaimeNaruto

Note that the author is from Italy and his story starts out just this side of readable. Also, it seems like the Hokage (who is not revealed until like 3 chapters in) is being a jerk towards Naruto just to be a jerk and for no other reason. Once you find out his reasons you'll realize it's not more stupid than what Gaara's father did with him in canon -- in fact it's less stupid, albeit based on a completely ignorant position. Even after Naruto breaks free, there are schemes within schemes that keep this a fairly enjoyable read.

By the same author as Amenaza,

Natural Talent by Alban55
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7847763/1/Natural-Talent
The ninja world's seedy underside is teeming with many unsavory aspects. Due to unfortunate circumstances, Naruto will get involved with the often disregarded gangs, crime, and politics of the ninja world. With so much exposure to these aspects, will Naruto come out the brave and idealistic ninja that is idolized in Konoha?

I normally HATE WITH A PASSION the cliche of Naruto growing up surrounded by gangs and prostitutes, but this story actually does a good job with it by taking it to its logical conclusion rather than just using it for character angst and/or as a means to give Naruto improbable skills that make him able to do valuable ninja-type things better than a jounin.

And finally, this one might be a bit hit-or-miss, but:

Undisclosed Operations: Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai by Fenris187
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8715479/1/Undisclosed-Operations-Ansatsu-Senjutsu-Tokushu-Butai
Stealing the forbidden scroll held more consequences than Naruto initially expected as he is offered a position within the dark side of the village. Grey/specialist Naruto

It features a very different portrayal of ANBU.

 

I've quite liked it at first, but the latest chapters seem to be full of shit that make little to no sense to me. Naruto suddenly starts acting fucking crazy (as in, more than a little unhinged) with little to no explanation given, strange things happening all over the place and 'kinda-meh' plot etc. I guess that it might turn out to be alright in the end, but for me it looks like the further it goes, the worse it is.

 

Butler with a devilish smile is just so boring sure it's not a terrible story but it's bland, kinda like plain rice. I found a few moments where I'd be like no fucking way! A quick moment of intensity and it would go back to being boring most definitely not a quality Naruto fic imo.

 

Decently certain this isn't in here, possibly for good reason.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5742587/1/Little-wooden-men

Naruto gets adopted at an early age. How far can he get with somebody actually supporting him? And how will he influence the Elemental nations? Rating for language.

Quite simply, the beginning, at least for me, is terrible. Some hardcore Konoha Council bullshit (which I truly despise), but it shines through a little in the fact that Sarutobi doesn't really listen to their whining. The story gets better bit by bit as it goes along, although there was another stupid council decision that Sarutobi listened to, which is retarded. However, in the later chapters starting from

Spoiler

the outbreak of the war

it actually gets pretty decent. Definitely not for all, because I marvel at how I got through the beginning.

For those who are still interested through all that, the story portrays Naruto as a child genius, but he isn't really too overpowered.

Spoiler

Though the fact he was actually able to fight Roushi in the later chapters was absolute bullshit, irregardless of the fact he was using one tail more than Roushi. Roushi is far more experienced and doesn't succumb to bloodlust when using his beast. It should have been more of a complete curbstomp battle instead of Naruto putting Roushi on the ropes.

When using Jinchuuriki powers he's as stupidly strong as always, but in the latest chapters he's nearing jounin level, without Jinchuuriki powers, at around the age of ten. Possibly too overpowered for most tastes, but I think the author paces it rather well.

Some other bad points are when the author rehashes cannon, like when he becomes friends with Garra, and the lack of characterization. However, as a guilty pleasure fic for a reasonable child genius (though not nearly as awesome as Hurricane Suite or Life in Konoha's ANBU), I'd check it out if you have the ability to get through the beginning of the story.

If I were to give this story a rating, I'd give it a 2/5, simply for the beginning. However, if I didn't take that into account, I'd give the story at least a 3.5/5. Potential for 4/5 if the Author decides to scrap the beginning and gets a little better at writing.

 

Every part of Little Wooden Men that doesn't take place inside Konoha is fantastic. Every part that does take place inside Konoha is made of suck. I recommend it if and only if you are willing to put up with that.

 

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8715479/1/Undisclosed-Operations-Ansatsu-Senjutsu-Tokushu-Butai is pretty good, though the description is a little bare. I like the premise and what's been going on so far, though I think Naruto having 'perfect' stealth skills is a tad difficult swallow. I'd have preferred if he was a little more rounded in his skillset, or that there were a more apparent reason for his mastery of stealth (implying the Kyuubi being at work, or a genetic trait, anything at all?)... but it's decent. The ANBU stuff is better than most, though if I were designing a covert military force, I'd do it like this: ANBU has 5 tiers. Tier 1 is shittier, full of rejects and failures. Basically, genin and chuunin level ninja with various specializations. Their jobs are covert guard duty and to draw attention to themselves. They're the first responders to everything, canon fodder. They don't go on missions outside the country and do not take on missions form contractors other than the Konoha gov't. Tier 2-4 are various levels of "Black Ops" like Naruto is in, in the story above. Higher the tier, smaller the group, more skilled they are as a collective, more unknown they are. They blend in as civllians or travellers and Tier 1 ANBU/non-ANBU shinobi aren't supposed to know their names or identities even when not on assignment. Tier 5 is Root or Root-levels operatives - faceless, without identity. Obviously, each Tier thinks "they" are the best of the best, because they don't know a tier above them exists.

What's missing from portrayals of ANBU in Naruto stories is this kind of deception and double-think. ANBU are supposed to be master assassin ninja, yet they don't cover their hair in the manga, so it's kind of easy to say, "Oh yeah, that's Yuugao." Stories that don't correct this obvious discrepensy - that ANBU don't do enough to protect their identity/skills/whatever - and attempt a serious story focused on espionage and shit... well, they're worse off for it. Can't take an organization of secret killers seriously if they don't even try to stay secret. The above story does an okay job at this, I feel, even if it's not perfect.

I couldn't make myself read little wooden men. Maybe it's great, I don't know. Bullying? As an opening scene? I've read that tripe ten thousand times now. I don't have the stomach for it. It pushes me out of reading anything.

 

I'll be posting something fairly soon (within the week I hope?) about the Naruverse. Basically my theories on chakra, jutsu, shinobi ranks, village structure, etc. I have a pretty lengthy section on ANBU.

I agree about the way ANBU is done in that fic... well, it's interesting, but not entirely logical. However, I also disagree with your approach.

I believe firmly that everyone in ANBU is chuunin or higher with the exceptions only being Root trained operatives. The key factor for ANBU is not skill, it's secrecy. Bearing that in mind, who are the ninjas who have proven that they have the maturity to maintain secrecy? Chuunin. What's most important for chuunin rank is not skill, but proving you have the skill to lead others.

Ninja villages are small, so I don't think 5 separate layers of secrecy is at all possible, nor does that resemble how real life black ops works. The size problem is huge. Even in Konoha, the largest village, basically everyone knows everyone. You can see this in Ino and Chouji's response to Sai when he first appears in the manga. So what about Sai then? Root is not really a part of the Hokage's forces, but Danzou's private army. I would guess that there are Root agents who have never even been to Konoha before. At one point Kabuto was one of them. Danzou can afford such secrecy because the Sandaime basically gave him carte blanche to do Konoha's dirty work. You probably won't find any organization that secretive in any other village.

And yet for all that secrecy Danzou is well known by guys like the Raikage, who even suspected him of helping Orochimaru invade Konoha. So, yeah.

Konoha's ANBU are probably only a few hundred in number depending exactly on the size of the village, which is not at all clear. My guess would be at most a tenth of Konoha's ninja force. If we're going by class size, Sasuke's report card indicated that the academy graduates has about 90 students per grade. If we're going by ninja registration numbers, Naruto's number is 012607 and if you trace these numbers back among Konoha shinobi, the earlier they became gennin the lower the number (Sarutobi Hiruzen - 000261, Tsunade - 002302, Uchiha Mikoto - 005348, Hatake Kakashi - 009720). Based on this we could estimate between 2000 and 6000, the latter assuming few casualties. Of course, in the current arc, the shinobi alliance had 100,000 troops and I didn't see any fresh gennin among them. Moreover, the Sandaime Raikage supposedly held off 10,000 men for 3 days. What, was that all villages vs Kumo or something? Anyway, point is, ANBU number only in the hundreds, Konoha shinobi are probably fewer than 10,000 in number, and shinobi are supposed to be FAR more attentive than you or I. So they basically all know each other, maybe not personally but by sight. ANBU probably don't talk about being ANBU and thus their secrecy is somewhat protected, but it's not like they can hide it very well in a village so small. If someone is a close friend or family there's basically no chance that they don't know. The best you can do is either say "don't talk about it, I won't answer any questions" or else lie about which division you are a part of.

My guess is that the ANBU is broken down by department and in each department that are some agents who do more secretive work than others. Most likely, all the work that everybody does is "need to know only" so even if a guy has his locker right next to yours that doesn't mean you know anything about him other than his name and what section he's in.

I totally agree about the hair, but keep in mind that Kishimoto showed us the hair specifically so that we the audience would know who we are looking at. In fanfiction, you are right, it makes sense to either cover up the hair.