Naruto fics
Some Naruto fic recs for Heidi. I am enormously, enormously picky when it comes to fanfic, and I don't actually read much of it at all, but the following are the handful of fics that I've stumbled across in this (admittedly huge) fandom and really liked.
If you like any of these, make sure to comment and tell the author.
Shikamaru/Temari
Semantics by cephiedvariable
"Who said I wanted to marry you?"
This is a short, sly fic that demonstrates exactly why I love this (semi-canonical) pairing (and why I love Shikamaru): it's romantic and unromantic at the same time, it's demonstration rather than statement, and it's got a very neat sense of lazy inexorability to it. LOVE. This is in here to balance out the inexplicable amounts of Shikamaru/Ino (whhyyyyyyy) in some of the other recs.
Half a Thousand by ronsard
When their eyes meet, she cocks her head to the side a little and gives him her trademark grin: all teeth.
I JUST FOUND THIS ONE TODAY. It's perfect. It's about distance and slow dependence and finding someone to share your silences with and once again it's just spot-on Shikamaru.
Sai/Sakura
Study of the Heart by teresa
“What?” Sai tilted his head in surprise. “Are there not any books about it?”
The prose in this one isn't fantastic, but it's such a wonderful and painstakingly well-thought-out portrait of Sai that I have to include it. Basically: Sai goes about learning the rules of relationships. And falls in love. Cute & very funny.
Sai/Naruto
Wavelengths by questofdreams
Naruto marveled at how calm he sounded when his brain and his body were currently having an emergency press conference to discuss who should lead when faced with a teammate’s not-entirely-unwanted advances.
This is clever. And hot. And hilariously in-character on both sides <3
Sasuke/Naruto (one of fandom's favourite pairings, of course, so there's a SHITLOAD of it out there and a small sliver of it is fantastic)
Lucky Bachelorette Number Two by ronsard
“Sasuke-kun,” Sakura said, sounding unruffled if homicidal. “What the fuck?”
This is my second-favourite Naruto fic of all time; it's SO FUNNY and it's both plausible and cracky (BEST GENRE) and Sasuke's thought process is priceless and oh. It's the perfect anecdote to canonical angst.
Choosing Who by gelfling8604
“They tell me,” Sasuke’s voice was like open water after midnight, dark and bottomless, “you have a monster in you.”
This one is really, really dark and detailed and just about the best creation of an agonisingly slow, tense atmosphere that I've ever seen. It's disturbing and it's twisty and (despite an annoying number of typos) the prose is brutal and the emotions are raw. GNNN. Read it, but read something cheerful afterwards.
Three Nin in a Boat by dual_avi
“It does look like a duck,” Kakashi said interestedly, gazing at the dead animal.
Something cheerful like...this one, for instance. This is PURE CRACK and it's about equal parts Sasuke/Naruto and Gai/Kakashi/Iruka and it's just insane and kinky-smutty and ridiculous. It's been raining for far too long, there's only so much sex a Hokage can have, and Naruto has a Brilliant Idea. This fic makes me want an Emma take-off in which Naruto attempts to matchmake for everyone else in his life (Sasuke would make a fantastic Mr Knightley <3 well, sort of).
Thread by a_white_rain
“I don’t fear lies,” Sasuke said and Naruto gave him a crazed look before kissing him.
If it happened, it would happen like this. Uncompromising and real and ambiguous, and as such a breath of fresh air in a fandom that...well, I won't go into some of the worst frequent character assassinations. READ THIS ONE, IT'S GREAT.
Despite Your Best Efforts by icemilk
What a waste of you, spilled all over me.
Heheh. I discovered Kris through link-hopping and I fell in TOTAL LOVE with this fic (my third-favourite!) and fangirled her embarrassingly in comments. She does amazing things with words and actions and brief, sharp images, and her SasuNaru is very depressing but very true. I love love love her Naruto in this: so angry and entitled and challenging.
wake us and we drown by icemilk
Sasuke wakes up furious and flickers into Sharingan off the bat, punting Naruto into a wall that is lucky not to be made of paper.
Another short fic by Kris. Even more brutal. Just as incisive.
Back Seat Anecdotes by Fool
"There," I said, pointing at the car. It was parked sullenly to our right, and smoke still drifted guiltily up from the leather inside. "Is a hole. In my car."
This person writes consistently excellent fic and I wish they were on LJ so that I could stalk them. This one is...I don't know, semi-AU?...anyway, it's a roadtrip. Featuring a sexually frustrated Sasuke, a surprisingly inventive Sakura, and a perpetually exasperated Kakashi. It's very silly. It's a lot of fun.
The bridge I crossed by Fool
"That car," Kiba said three weeks later, "will be the Other Woman in his marriage. Mark my words."
(Okay, so the Shikamaru/Ino in this one is vaguely bearable, mostly because of Shikamaru's car.) Anyway, this fandom produces a LOT of epic drama/romance AUs, and this one is damn impressive. It's very long and very well paced, the relationships and backstories have been adapted in interesting ways, the research is thorough and the writing is excellent. Mostly Sasuke/Naruto -- and it's first-person, which I am not usually a big fan of, but it works well here -- but with a lot of peripheral relationships and with no skimping or laziness when it comes to fleshing out characters. I keep making the mistake of starting this one and then spending an entire afternoon/evening reading all twenty-something chapters. It's also got a one-shot sequel and then another multichapter WIP set in the same universe.
Madame D'Aulnoy by Fool
There is a man trying to fit a glass shoe three sizes too small on Naruto.
I left this until last because it's my favourite Naruto fic that I've come across so far. Once again it's plausible crack, even though it doesn't really read like crack. It's...fairy tales and twisted reality and Naruto fighting the tropes and Sasuke learning to talk to snakes and I really wish I'd written it, that is how much I love it :)
~
And now: my own Naruto fic roundup so far.
Five people Sakura punches in the face
Patience, Sakura decides, is for people who aren't holding lives in the space between their mind and their fingers.
Written in my first flush of love for the series in general and Sakura in particular. Gained inexplicable amounts of attention for what it is.
talking for the dead
Sai smiles because he was meant to take it as a compliment, and because by now that's just what he does with his face.
SAI <3 A completely cynical look at Sakura and Naruto's relationship through Sai's eyes. This was enormous amounts of fun to write, because I am a cruel person.
The Listening Sky
He looks at the stubborn set of Naruto's jaw, the uncertainty in his far-focused eyes, and realises that he has just admitted to the existence of a hereafter.
Fucking EPIC Sasuke/Naruto that ate my soul and brain and typing muscles. This would be the fic into which I poured most of my opinions about certain aspects of the series, especially the complex mess of emotions and situations that is Sasuke & Naruto & Sakura, their past and their present and their future.
Gloss
It begins with the way Sasuke reaches out and picks up Naruto's hand, with the way his lips are dry and smooth and he never even blinks as he pulls Naruto's fingers into his mouth.
PORN. Um. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Self-indulgent porn with a side dish of Sasuke's oral fixation and Naruto's inability to think in straight lines.
Solfege
This is a war that none of them has ever been trained to fight and they are learning everything by ear and by touch. The only lesson that can still be applied is this: know your teammates.
You know what this is? This is going to end up being the Naruto equivalent of Our Pataphysical Divigation, that one fic which I love and adore beyond measure but towards which fandom is merely mildly approving. I am ridiculously proud of this one. There's an apocalypse and Shikamaru/Temari and NEJI and KABUTO and...okay, this is crossing the line from 'proud author' into 'rabid self-promoter' so I'll shut up.
Currently I'm working on (for a given value of 'working on' which at the moment is actually 'not working on because of med school oh god panic panic PANIC') a Sasuke/Naruto/Sakura fic called Triage, and I have vague plans for a long & snarky Shikamaru/Temari fic and a deliciously disturbing Sai/Kakashi fic.
If you like any of these, make sure to comment and tell the author.
Shikamaru/Temari
Semantics by cephiedvariable
"Who said I wanted to marry you?"
This is a short, sly fic that demonstrates exactly why I love this (semi-canonical) pairing (and why I love Shikamaru): it's romantic and unromantic at the same time, it's demonstration rather than statement, and it's got a very neat sense of lazy inexorability to it. LOVE. This is in here to balance out the inexplicable amounts of Shikamaru/Ino (whhyyyyyyy) in some of the other recs.
Half a Thousand by ronsard
When their eyes meet, she cocks her head to the side a little and gives him her trademark grin: all teeth.
I JUST FOUND THIS ONE TODAY. It's perfect. It's about distance and slow dependence and finding someone to share your silences with and once again it's just spot-on Shikamaru.
Sai/Sakura
Study of the Heart by teresa
“What?” Sai tilted his head in surprise. “Are there not any books about it?”
The prose in this one isn't fantastic, but it's such a wonderful and painstakingly well-thought-out portrait of Sai that I have to include it. Basically: Sai goes about learning the rules of relationships. And falls in love. Cute & very funny.
Sai/Naruto
Wavelengths by questofdreams
Naruto marveled at how calm he sounded when his brain and his body were currently having an emergency press conference to discuss who should lead when faced with a teammate’s not-entirely-unwanted advances.
This is clever. And hot. And hilariously in-character on both sides <3
Sasuke/Naruto (one of fandom's favourite pairings, of course, so there's a SHITLOAD of it out there and a small sliver of it is fantastic)
Lucky Bachelorette Number Two by ronsard
“Sasuke-kun,” Sakura said, sounding unruffled if homicidal. “What the fuck?”
This is my second-favourite Naruto fic of all time; it's SO FUNNY and it's both plausible and cracky (BEST GENRE) and Sasuke's thought process is priceless and oh. It's the perfect anecdote to canonical angst.
Choosing Who by gelfling8604
“They tell me,” Sasuke’s voice was like open water after midnight, dark and bottomless, “you have a monster in you.”
This one is really, really dark and detailed and just about the best creation of an agonisingly slow, tense atmosphere that I've ever seen. It's disturbing and it's twisty and (despite an annoying number of typos) the prose is brutal and the emotions are raw. GNNN. Read it, but read something cheerful afterwards.
Three Nin in a Boat by dual_avi
“It does look like a duck,” Kakashi said interestedly, gazing at the dead animal.
Something cheerful like...this one, for instance. This is PURE CRACK and it's about equal parts Sasuke/Naruto and Gai/Kakashi/Iruka and it's just insane and kinky-smutty and ridiculous. It's been raining for far too long, there's only so much sex a Hokage can have, and Naruto has a Brilliant Idea. This fic makes me want an Emma take-off in which Naruto attempts to matchmake for everyone else in his life (Sasuke would make a fantastic Mr Knightley <3 well, sort of).
Thread by a_white_rain
“I don’t fear lies,” Sasuke said and Naruto gave him a crazed look before kissing him.
If it happened, it would happen like this. Uncompromising and real and ambiguous, and as such a breath of fresh air in a fandom that...well, I won't go into some of the worst frequent character assassinations. READ THIS ONE, IT'S GREAT.
Despite Your Best Efforts by icemilk
What a waste of you, spilled all over me.
Heheh. I discovered Kris through link-hopping and I fell in TOTAL LOVE with this fic (my third-favourite!) and fangirled her embarrassingly in comments. She does amazing things with words and actions and brief, sharp images, and her SasuNaru is very depressing but very true. I love love love her Naruto in this: so angry and entitled and challenging.
wake us and we drown by icemilk
Sasuke wakes up furious and flickers into Sharingan off the bat, punting Naruto into a wall that is lucky not to be made of paper.
Another short fic by Kris. Even more brutal. Just as incisive.
Back Seat Anecdotes by Fool
"There," I said, pointing at the car. It was parked sullenly to our right, and smoke still drifted guiltily up from the leather inside. "Is a hole. In my car."
This person writes consistently excellent fic and I wish they were on LJ so that I could stalk them. This one is...I don't know, semi-AU?...anyway, it's a roadtrip. Featuring a sexually frustrated Sasuke, a surprisingly inventive Sakura, and a perpetually exasperated Kakashi. It's very silly. It's a lot of fun.
The bridge I crossed by Fool
"That car," Kiba said three weeks later, "will be the Other Woman in his marriage. Mark my words."
(Okay, so the Shikamaru/Ino in this one is vaguely bearable, mostly because of Shikamaru's car.) Anyway, this fandom produces a LOT of epic drama/romance AUs, and this one is damn impressive. It's very long and very well paced, the relationships and backstories have been adapted in interesting ways, the research is thorough and the writing is excellent. Mostly Sasuke/Naruto -- and it's first-person, which I am not usually a big fan of, but it works well here -- but with a lot of peripheral relationships and with no skimping or laziness when it comes to fleshing out characters. I keep making the mistake of starting this one and then spending an entire afternoon/evening reading all twenty-something chapters. It's also got a one-shot sequel and then another multichapter WIP set in the same universe.
Madame D'Aulnoy by Fool
There is a man trying to fit a glass shoe three sizes too small on Naruto.
I left this until last because it's my favourite Naruto fic that I've come across so far. Once again it's plausible crack, even though it doesn't really read like crack. It's...fairy tales and twisted reality and Naruto fighting the tropes and Sasuke learning to talk to snakes and I really wish I'd written it, that is how much I love it :)
~
And now: my own Naruto fic roundup so far.
Five people Sakura punches in the face
Patience, Sakura decides, is for people who aren't holding lives in the space between their mind and their fingers.
Written in my first flush of love for the series in general and Sakura in particular. Gained inexplicable amounts of attention for what it is.
talking for the dead
Sai smiles because he was meant to take it as a compliment, and because by now that's just what he does with his face.
SAI <3 A completely cynical look at Sakura and Naruto's relationship through Sai's eyes. This was enormous amounts of fun to write, because I am a cruel person.
The Listening Sky
He looks at the stubborn set of Naruto's jaw, the uncertainty in his far-focused eyes, and realises that he has just admitted to the existence of a hereafter.
Fucking EPIC Sasuke/Naruto that ate my soul and brain and typing muscles. This would be the fic into which I poured most of my opinions about certain aspects of the series, especially the complex mess of emotions and situations that is Sasuke & Naruto & Sakura, their past and their present and their future.
Gloss
It begins with the way Sasuke reaches out and picks up Naruto's hand, with the way his lips are dry and smooth and he never even blinks as he pulls Naruto's fingers into his mouth.
PORN. Um. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Self-indulgent porn with a side dish of Sasuke's oral fixation and Naruto's inability to think in straight lines.
Solfege
This is a war that none of them has ever been trained to fight and they are learning everything by ear and by touch. The only lesson that can still be applied is this: know your teammates.
You know what this is? This is going to end up being the Naruto equivalent of Our Pataphysical Divigation, that one fic which I love and adore beyond measure but towards which fandom is merely mildly approving. I am ridiculously proud of this one. There's an apocalypse and Shikamaru/Temari and NEJI and KABUTO and...okay, this is crossing the line from 'proud author' into 'rabid self-promoter' so I'll shut up.
Currently I'm working on (for a given value of 'working on' which at the moment is actually 'not working on because of med school oh god panic panic PANIC') a Sasuke/Naruto/Sakura fic called Triage, and I have vague plans for a long & snarky Shikamaru/Temari fic and a deliciously disturbing Sai/Kakashi fic.