It's been updated.

So, the fic still reads extremely impersonally and is dry as all hell, but it's now clear as day that there will be no rehashing of canon.

I'll decide over the next couple of chapters if I'm interested in continuing with this story.

 

I liked this chapter.

I've followed this fic from the beginning and read it described as dry and impersonal and all that, but I don't mind that. It feels kind of minimalist in a good way. The HP/Naruto works well here. The HP parts sketch out a framework for the Naruto parts to fit in a new pattern. Harry is integral to that. Canon!HP and most of HP fanfics focus strictly on England. Also, the moral dichotomy and story progression between HP and Naruto is different.

In this fic and in canon, Harry worked more to preserve life, although in this fic it's said as Harry got older he did use darker and less black and white methods to preserve the peace and move the WW into the future. For Fukurou, killing for the state is how things are normally done, as it is for all the other ninja. There's also the fact that the setting has shifted from the Western, specifically British mindset WITH WIZARDS! to a Eastern fantasy/chakra setting with the notable characters being combat monsters where you have the fate of nations fought over in shadow wars WITH NINJA!

You have a fanfic!canon!Harry becoming Old Harry who's the starting point in this fic for Fukurou who adapts to the shinobi way of life and solving problems. To me, it doesn't come off as dry or without heart, but a real change from most Naruto fanfics who STILL for the most part follow a certain formula and chain of events.

Team 7-Mission to Wave-Chunin Exam-Suna/Oto Invasion-Fight at Valley of the End-Naruto apprentices w/ the Toad Sannin, Sakura w/ Tsunade, Sasuke w/ Orochimaru-and so on and so forth.

This fic has pulled off the crossover surprisingly well for me. I only hope the author does not throw in other HP characters into the fic later. Harry is enough for me. Although in chapter 12, there was an interesting sequence toward the middle if the chapter with Luna or Harry thinking he was talking to Luna that made me think of the barrier/divide between the HP dimension and the Naruto dimension being a little like the Lifestream from FF7. Harry was shifted from his own world to Naruto's world after his death because he was needed and could make a real difference, which he is doing.

Because after all, having the whole world and the prospect of a better future rest entirely on the shoulders of a canon!Naruto with all his problems, both character wise and in terms of ability, is a little much.

Thoughts?

 

I actually didn't like this chapter much. As everyone noted, it was rather bland. :X

But you bring up a good point. The HP/Naruto dynamic actually works to his/her framework here.

I honestly don't know what to think about the semicannon rehash ;X

 

Exactly. Nothing happened in this chapter. It seems like it was a chapter the author made to declare to the reader he won't be following canon events, which is good.

However, compared with the last two chapter, I rather enjoyed this one. The interaction between Ao and Terumi was cleverly written to mimic their interaction in canon, and it was amusing. But the underlying problem still exists. What's the plot? Who or what is the antagnoist? Back when there was Danzo and the Uchiha massacre, there was always that excitement on where the story is headed. But right now there isn't anything. Do we really have to wait for a boring rehash of the Sound/Sand invasion or until Akatsuki finally shows up? The pacing is slow.

 

The reading I get from the story so far, especially in the last couple chapters, with Fukurou reading the scroll about the Sage of the Six Paths is that Fukurou's goal is to change the world. Move society away from it's old, destructive patterns into something more harmonious.

The world, as men have made it since the Sage's time seems to be a dark reflection of what the Sage wanted. The Sage seems analogous to what Merlin represented in the Wizarding World in HP. There may also be the underlying theme of future generations straying from what the Founder, the living legend, wanted the world they helped create to be. The case could be made that Merlin and the Founders of Hogwarts never wanted the pureblood/muggleborn issue to become such a chasm that it gave birth to something like Voldemort and the racism and struggle that marked the 1st and 2nd reigns of the Dark Lord.

Such a goal may and probably would be even more difficult in the Eastern/quasi-Asian/fantasy setting of Naruto. It would mean the current system, sich as the Hidden Villages, the entire modern system of government and the power structure in the Naruto world would have to be changed, if not scrapped completely. Much of the current dynamic is might makes right. the strongest lead, the peasants and those not gifted without chakra and superhuman abilities are at the bottom of the ladder, barely noticed in the shifting battle for power and control. Would Orochimaru want to share his secret of immortality with the world? Would Sarutobi, by all accounts a gentleman shinobi and grandfatherly figure, give up power and let the ordinary people find their own way to live? Of course not.

A big part of the issue is trust, a rare commodity in the ninja world. The dream of the Sage would be along the lines of everyone in tune with the world, in the same flow. A neat machine of humanity working with the world working with humanity through the application of chakra and its infinite uses. Real change to break the current cycle of conflict and children, no matter their power and ability, made to fight, and all the ugliness and deceit and the crap. That may be the goal of the story, that puts Fukurou at odds.

The world, such as it is, is not supposed to be this way, and only something Out of Context, like Fukurou/Harry, may be able to help make something better.

Thoughts?

 

See you're looking at this the wrong way. When I discuss, in detail, the small nuances of a fic's plot points and events, its because I actually like the fic, and want to discuss it further.

Uchiha Fukurou is not a good fic. It uses a baseline of the Naruto world to empower a Harry who has absolutely no relation to the canon Harry that we know and sort of like. The Harry crossing over is a complete OC with wtfhax powers in his own world that he earned after a hundred years of being a badass. Now, we have a random, superpowered, superwise old guy with a chance to do things anew in another world. So really, this isn't a Harry Potter crossover so much as an OC.

And then you get to the problems on the Naruto world. A world with heavy themes of corruption, an unending chain of hatred and the hard, cold slog through the mud in order to reach the chance at ending the pain. This fic ignores all of that, and displaying exactly why fix fics never work, attempts to let Fukurou 'correct' the world of elements the author disagrees with. Without acknowledging any differences in world or characters, this fic just skips all of the meat of the series and says 'yep, Fukurou can do all that in about 15 short chapters. Okay, what now?'

And then the writing; dry, bland, cardboard cutouts for Fukurou to knock down or set up, terrible chemistry and infodumps galore.

So, my thoughts. When an analysis of the themes leads to 'well, as long as a wizard dimension hops into the one perfectly placed child to help, we're golden, but if that doesn't happen we're fucked', thats the time to stop, drop and consider why you care at all about this fic.

 

I think Berkeley summed up most of the concerns I had. Honestly, if it wasn't Harry Potter, but just another random joe, it wouldn't have made much of a difference - his personality's so different from the Harry we know - changed further by in-world events that... it's just someone with Harry's name and fa- oh wait.

 

Honestly, I've read so many variations of Harry in fan fiction that I'm pretty de-sensitized to OC portrayals unless they're absolutely baseless. This Harry was about as old as Dumbledore before he died, and he had lived a full and accomplished life. The author made that quite clear and referenced Fukurou's previous life a number of times when discussing his aversion to the cutthroat world of shinobi. I think he's not so much OC as he is a very large (though deducted) leap from canon Harry to Fukurou. What we know about Harry from canon is that he went on to become head of the DMLE and had a poor impression of the wizarding community's political system during his adolescence. So the author determined that Harry would go on to be Minister of Magic and reshape things rather forcefully. Fukurou has qualities which flow on quite well from this premise, I think.

My problem with this fic is the almost complete lack of character interaction. Too much telling, not enough showing. It's hard to invest any feeling in Fukurou because we rarely see how he interacts with others. The author tells us about him, but we don't see it so we don't feel it. Meh.

 

I managed to get through twelve chapters before dropping this fic. Like many others have said already the story is incredibly dry and the characters are little more than cardboard cutouts. The most disappointing factor, for me at least, is that this story went down the Miranda Flairgold route. When Harry Potter isn't called Harry, doesn't really do magic, and has almost no connection to the Harry Potter world outside of throw away mentions then the story is no longer a Harry Potter story or crossover.

That leaves Uchiha Fukurou as just another super!ninja story with an OC protagonist. Even worse, as TBH said the fic becomes a "fix-it" story. Fukurou manages to save Hizashi from dying, save part of the Uchiha clan from the massacre and also removes Danzo from power simultaneously taking control of Root. That's not even mentioning how he continues to get more and more wtfhax powers each chapter.:facepalm

On the plus side I did like the scene with Orochimaru and parts of the earlier story before it became apparent that it was going to be super!harry. The story is readable with few grammar or spelling mistakes that I noticed and ultimately, despite its flaws, it's still better than the majority of the FF.net drivel making it fitting for the recycling bin.

2.5/5 rounded up

Also:

QFT

 

Newest chapter is up, and if this story was suppose to focus on team 7 (who has Hinata in it now btw), I might've found it enjoyable. But as it is, I don't give a damn about their genin exam. Why was mentioned, and in such detail? Bleh.

 

Author's note seems promising at least, specifically

 

So he pisses off mandara and orochimaru off so much, that they activly going for his head.
kumo and suna are made so terrified he has a kill on sight message.

 

Yeah, that mandara is a dangerous bastard.

 

Yes, all fear the bastard child of the pink-haired one and the boss of Snakes.

 

So this updated again...

Fukurou's abilities have turned into a laundry list of fan-wank, god-tier, mega-moves and copied Madara's practically word for word. HooHaa!

 

All abilities are logically explained. And this is better then copy of canon!Sasuke's abilities.

 

I don't know... He's bring in the whole hyperbolic time chamber shit in now, it's just ugh o,o


The Madara bit was somewhat interesting though. Although, that's because he's finally showing some stuff rather than more telling. Not enough though.

 

The Madara piece at the end of the chapter was good, and seemed to set the tone for what I would expect Madara's character and attitude to be. It also brought up an interesting thought...

In the HP verse, Harry was the Dark Lord's equal. Would the same apply here, Fukurou being Madara's equal? Something to note regarding the dichotomy between Harry and Voldemort was where the Dark Lord was selfish, Harry was selfless. Where Voldemort leapt face-first into the Darkness, Harry fought to keep his humanity.

A similar idea could be made here. Both Fukurou and Madara are 'old souls', both seemingly with plans to change the shinobi world, both are Uchiha, both have the Mangekyo, even if their abilities in that area diverge. Madara has his 'Eye of the Moon Plan', which is focused on control over everyone, while Fukurou seems interested in the Sage of the Six Paths and his ideology of humans using chakra to become harmonious with the world.

Anyway, that's my reading on it. I get the feeling the growing struggle between Madara and Fukurou will be one of the centerpoints to this fic. Madara's obsession with the Kyubi may be another. The Mist War arc seems to be just the prelude to that.

Thoughts?

 

New chapter that surprisingly, I enjoyed greatly. Maybe because I'd just read another sickening chapter of MoR, but this update worked quite well. Exciting, enjoyable and no upgrades to Fukurou. Could signal a new start for the story.

 

It was okay... no upgrades, but a whole lot of nothing as well, just some Mizukagure action that could've been taken care of in far less words, but hey, at least we might get a major battle next chapter.