The Best Damn Fics You've Ever Read.

Throwing up the Naruto fic Obito-Sensei for a rec! A Sakura-centric story, whose fundamental butterfly is that Obito survived Kannabi Bridge, not Kakashi, and then became Team 7's sensei. Sakura is definitely the chief protagonist, but all four members of Team 7 play critical roles from start to end; Sakura is just first among equals, as it were. There's also a myriad of other important background world building changes that spin out as the story unfolds, but I think the story as a whole rings true to the tone of canon, and the changes aren't willy-nilly, but concrete what ifs that help develop and build up the story's themes and overall arc. It's ultimately a very different story from canon, with little attachment for the usual stations of the canon, but I think it genuinely captures the heart of what made the original Naruto story great.

Reading it genuinely had me hooked and excited the whole way through just like reading the Naruto manga had me hooked, and I'm excited to pursue a reread and take it all in as a whole.
I'll third that, genuinely one of the best fan fics I've ever read. Sakuras' development throughout the entire story was amazing.
 
Throwing up the Naruto fic Obito-Sensei for a rec! A Sakura-centric story, whose fundamental butterfly is that Obito survived Kannabi Bridge, not Kakashi, and then became Team 7's sensei. Sakura is definitely the chief protagonist, but all four members of Team 7 play critical roles from start to end; Sakura is just first among equals, as it were. There's also a myriad of other important background world building changes that spin out as the story unfolds, but I think the story as a whole rings true to the tone of canon, and the changes aren't willy-nilly, but concrete what ifs that help develop and build up the story's themes and overall arc. It's ultimately a very different story from canon, with little attachment for the usual stations of the canon, but I think it genuinely captures the heart of what made the original Naruto story great.

Reading it genuinely had me hooked and excited the whole way through just like reading the Naruto manga had me hooked, and I'm excited to pursue a reread and take it all in as a whole.
Did it finish? That's a rule here
 
As someone who has kept up with the story for years, derec. I was skipping lots of the chapters, mostly the Sakura parts, but others too. Mostly because I found Sakura an unlikeable character, in a bad way. But there was also things I just didn't like, most of the stuff happening in Hidden Waterfall, and a lot of the stuff in Hidden Rain too. Big chunks of that was just dull. The summit at the end was pretty good, and did pay off a lot of the setup I did read, but that doesn't make the parts that happened before better.

It's not a bad story, I wouldn't stick with a bad story, but definitely not Best Ever. I call it a solid B.
 
I bring forth Watchmen: Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty.

As the name implies, it is a fanfic for the Watchmen comic and follows the aftermath post-comic from Adrien's perspective as everything starts falling apart. Absolutely haunting and incredibly sad. Not just watching Adrien slowly go insane, but in the way despite how much he wants to feel loved and to stop being alone, it's much too late for any sort of redemption or hope. When it finally ends with Percy Shelley's Ozymandias poem I felt a weird mixture of pity, sadness, anger, and catharsis that only comes when the ending's perfect yet you're still left unsatisfied. So good I wish it was canon. Do not be turned off by the short length it uses every word to perfection.
 
Throwing up the Naruto fic Obito-Sensei for a rec! A Sakura-centric story, whose fundamental butterfly is that Obito survived Kannabi Bridge, not Kakashi, and then became Team 7's sensei. Sakura is definitely the chief protagonist, but all four members of Team 7 play critical roles from start to end; Sakura is just first among equals, as it were. There's also a myriad of other important background world building changes that spin out as the story unfolds, but I think the story as a whole rings true to the tone of canon, and the changes aren't willy-nilly, but concrete what ifs that help develop and build up the story's themes and overall arc. It's ultimately a very different story from canon, with little attachment for the usual stations of the canon, but I think it genuinely captures the heart of what made the original Naruto story great.

Reading it genuinely had me hooked and excited the whole way through just like reading the Naruto manga had me hooked, and I'm excited to pursue a reread and take it all in as a whole.
A downvote - personally, found it boring. Nothing really bad, just nothing that stood out or was that exciting to me.

I want to rec War Machines, a RWBY fic by BryonNightshade, who previously got on the list with Teaching Qrow.

War Machines - Chapter 1 - BryonNightshade - RWBY [Archive of Our Own]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works


The story mainly focuses on Penny at Beacon, and the interactions she has with the friends she makes and the impact she has on people is definitely the best part of the story. Fairly lengthy at just over 300,000 words, but I think it's a compelling read.

A DeRec on this as well. 3 chapters in- I'm bored. Acceptably written, but similarly to the above, there's not really many actually interesting ideas or things happening. And what does happen takes far too long to.
 
Last edited:
Another recommendation, sorry about the double post I am going through some of my old favorites fanfic's and seeing which one's hold up, is Wishful Thinking by Toggle1. It's about Makima from Chainsaw Man getting stuck in a time loop and being forced to become a better person. It goes about as disastrously as you can imagine. lol.

One of the very few times a Makima redemption feels genuinely earned and also a rare example of a Groundhog day story being done on a truly despicable, and thus deserving, Main character. Also has a bunch of Omakes and side stories afterwards to enjoy as well.
 
Throwing up the Naruto fic Obito-Sensei for a rec! A Sakura-centric story, whose fundamental butterfly is that Obito survived Kannabi Bridge, not Kakashi, and then became Team 7's sensei. Sakura is definitely the chief protagonist, but all four members of Team 7 play critical roles from start to end; Sakura is just first among equals, as it were. There's also a myriad of other important background world building changes that spin out as the story unfolds, but I think the story as a whole rings true to the tone of canon, and the changes aren't willy-nilly, but concrete what ifs that help develop and build up the story's themes and overall arc. It's ultimately a very different story from canon, with little attachment for the usual stations of the canon, but I think it genuinely captures the heart of what made the original Naruto story great.

Reading it genuinely had me hooked and excited the whole way through just like reading the Naruto manga had me hooked, and I'm excited to pursue a reread and take it all in as a whole.
I don't feel strongly enough about this to downvote it but I'm definitely not rec'ing it either. I recall thinking it was decent, with interesting AU elements and good takes on the canon trio, until the Rain arc. At that point, the author clearly had an idea of where he wanted the characters to be but had no idea how to get there, so he had basically every character acting incredibly stupid all at once to justify the team being willing and able to ditch Konoha. I couldn't keep reading past that and dropped it on the spot. I've been told it's actually good past that point, but it was a dealbreaker for me.
 
I'll 4th the recommendation for Obito Sensei as one of the best fanfics I've ever read, although it's looking to be a pretty decisive one over here.

Had some of the best moments I've ever read from a fanfic that will stick with me for a long time, along with a genuinely fantastic ending means for me at least I'll likely always remember it fondly.
 
Throwing up the Naruto fic Obito-Sensei for a rec! A Sakura-centric story, whose fundamental butterfly is that Obito survived Kannabi Bridge, not Kakashi, and then became Team 7's sensei. Sakura is definitely the chief protagonist, but all four members of Team 7 play critical roles from start to end; Sakura is just first among equals, as it were. There's also a myriad of other important background world building changes that spin out as the story unfolds, but I think the story as a whole rings true to the tone of canon, and the changes aren't willy-nilly, but concrete what ifs that help develop and build up the story's themes and overall arc. It's ultimately a very different story from canon, with little attachment for the usual stations of the canon, but I think it genuinely captures the heart of what made the original Naruto story great.

Reading it genuinely had me hooked and excited the whole way through just like reading the Naruto manga had me hooked, and I'm excited to pursue a reread and take it all in as a whole.
5thing this.

It had me reeled from the start with the simple change at Kanabi Bridge, then hooked me the rest of the way with all the logical changes that would follow from Obito not being the one who was crushed. The character interactions are on point, the changes fascinating, and the fight scenes are a highlight. Easy to follow while showcasing the power of a shinobi.
 
Throwing up the Naruto fic Obito-Sensei for a rec! A Sakura-centric story, whose fundamental butterfly is that Obito survived Kannabi Bridge, not Kakashi, and then became Team 7's sensei. Sakura is definitely the chief protagonist, but all four members of Team 7 play critical roles from start to end; Sakura is just first among equals, as it were. There's also a myriad of other important background world building changes that spin out as the story unfolds, but I think the story as a whole rings true to the tone of canon, and the changes aren't willy-nilly, but concrete what ifs that help develop and build up the story's themes and overall arc. It's ultimately a very different story from canon, with little attachment for the usual stations of the canon, but I think it genuinely captures the heart of what made the original Naruto story great.
I'll 6th this. The way it manages to have good butterflies but circle back to and hammer in the same themes while redeeming some of what I felt were less fleshed out aspects of canon is absolutely brilliant.
 
Does Dial count as complete. It a pretty darn fun fanfic that builds on the mcu setting to add a lot of comic book stuff, protagonist feels slightly op a lot of time, but he still does struggle. It does a good job of balancing the big caste and the savage land arc is chef kiss.
 
Throwing up the Naruto fic Obito-Sensei for a rec! A Sakura-centric story, whose fundamental butterfly is that Obito survived Kannabi Bridge, not Kakashi, and then became Team 7's sensei. Sakura is definitely the chief protagonist, but all four members of Team 7 play critical roles from start to end; Sakura is just first among equals, as it were. There's also a myriad of other important background world building changes that spin out as the story unfolds, but I think the story as a whole rings true to the tone of canon, and the changes aren't willy-nilly, but concrete what ifs that help develop and build up the story's themes and overall arc. It's ultimately a very different story from canon, with little attachment for the usual stations of the canon, but I think it genuinely captures the heart of what made the original Naruto story great.

Reading it genuinely had me hooked and excited the whole way through just like reading the Naruto manga had me hooked, and I'm excited to pursue a reread and take it all in as a whole.

Tentative seventh. The prose is competent and I think the Waterfall and Kage Summit arcs are probably my favourite in terms of setup and payoff. Fight scenes have an entertaining physicality to them that I think just isn't present in other fics. This is an author who definitely understands the canon in and out and pays homage to the work instead of superficially bashing or lauding characters like so many fics do in this fandom.

That's not to say that there aren't some foibles with this fic. I think it's safe to say that there's a couple of chapters during the Rain Arc where the pacing is a little weird, fights drag on for far too long for me like in Not Sick , there are some characters that I wished got more of a spotlight in the fic and it's a bit of a doorstopper.

But.

It's probably the most cohesive Naruto AU I've seen that doesn't fall that hard into the typical tropes paraded around in fanon. It manages to stay consistently good for most of its chapters and doesn't fumble the landing. Great to see the improvements from Not Sick and I hope the author continues to write more fics!
 
Last edited:
Mr Fixit is... something I don't think I can second in good faith. It's definitely not a bad fic, but it's a very, very fanon-y one. Alexandria is stupid and evil, the PRT is incompetent and PR-obsessed, Sophia cares deeply about predators and prey, Greg magically fixes everything, the unwritten rules are an actual thing that people actually take seriously, etc.
 
Last edited:
I'm going to second Mr. Fixit. It is a story that becomes more nuanced as it goes along, but the premise is ultimately "one basically ordinary human doing his best to do good in a world that's power level is far beyond him". It encapsulates the idea that goodness doesn't come from punching problems in the face.

Mr Fixit is... something I don't think I can second in good faith. It's definitely not a bad fic, but it's a very, very fanon-y one. Alexandria is stupid and evil, the PRT is incompetent and PR-obsessed, Sophia cares deeply about predators and prey, Greg magically fixes everything, the unwritten rules are an actual thing that people actually take seriously, etc.

Basically the only critique that is actually valid for the story is "Alexandria is stupid and evil". The PRT is not portrayed at incompetent at basically any point. In the prologue, they are portrayed as following corrupt policies (which ultimately flows from the Alexandria is stupid and evil plot point). Both Lightning Lass and Piggot, the two main viewpoints for the PRT are given a nuanced portrayal, generally as biased people struggling against restrictions from higher up.

Sophia has her predator / prey thing for basically a chapter before it ultimately gets overturned and discarded thanks to the interactions with Greg.

As for Greg "magically fixing everything", A) his power is the ability to 'see how to fix things if possible', so not implausible, and B), in the Vermont aftermath section, we see that there is very much things he can't fix.

And finally, the unwritten rules are pointedly written as something that no one really takes seriously except for the teenagers who haven't really been exposed to how the world works yet.

The only thing I feel is an actual weakness of the plot is the somewhat over-the-top direction the Epilogue ends up taking, of Greg's persona still having an impact centuries down the line.

But the rest of the story is an excellent look at how one person can bring hope, but how doing so take a toll on anyone.
 
My main meh is that Greg's family fucked him up in non-realistic way and that he ignores endbringer section. And, well, that PRT fails to find who he is after he crashes, in PRT building, for fifteen hours.
 
Derec on Mr. Fixit. I didn't get far enough into the story to comment on plot, but I dropped it because of general sentence fluency issues, which IMO is disqualifying from best ever.
 
My main meh is that Greg's family fucked him up in non-realistic way and that he ignores endbringer section. And, well, that PRT fails to find who he is after he crashes, in PRT building, for fifteen hours.
A need for appeasement and a feeling that other people are worth more than you is (sadly), an extremely realistic way for an abused kid to get fucked up. Particularly a non-athletic boy raised by a racist "strong man" like Greg's dad is portrayed here.
 
Back
Top