I’m not really sure why, but this weekend, I ended up not only noticing a FanFiction.net author’s poll for picking the top 5 Naruto authors from a list of 50, but taking the time to examine all 50 choices. Suffice it to say, the poor quality of almost every choice on the list was beyond embarrassing. (I’m assuming the 50 choices were finalists of some sort, proposed by “the average FanFiction.net user”)
Most of them were the kind of authors I wouldn’t read if you paid me (people who, as far as I can tell, spend their time writing tired, cliché, fix-it or shipper plots that were done to death years ago) and, of the 10 who have actually written at least one story I recognize as something I’d consider worth reading in retrospect, almost none of them are the authors I’d really recommend for their skill, talent, wit, cleverness, and/or ability to keep it up over the course of several fics.
Given that I had a little free time and a decent collection of records on what I’ve read and liked, I decided to compose my own list, complete with the fics that earned them their place. I really didn’t want to sort all 50 from best to worst, so it’s in alphabetical order instead.
Not everything they write is good, but each of them wrote something good at least once and all of them demonstrated that skill and/or luck in Naruto fanfic. (I’m not sure I’d have been able to find 30 authors, let alone 50, if I limited myself to people who wrote more good stuff than bad over the course of their interest in fanfiction)
Enjoy and, if you think I missed someone, please leave a comment so I can check them out.
- Aleh (Appreciation)
- Andoriol (Naruto: Lord of Konoha)
- Angel of Snapdragons (A Drop of Poison)
- anothvortex (all four stories)
- Asha’man of Fire (Kitsune on Campus)
- atom-of-ice (Naruto’s Advice)
- Average Naruto (Tomato)
- Bloodreaver Alpha (Diary of a Madman: Memoirs of a Nukenin)
- brown phantom (Students of the Snake, Naruto’s Kit)
- Case13 (Reload, The Art of the Deal… and I’m told his other Naruto stuff is amazing too but it’s still on my to-read list)
- Chibi-Reaper (Overlord, Uzumaki Naruto, Sorceror for hire, and various clever ideas that haven’t been written far enough yet to list)
- Chilord (Bondage Style!)
- ChoppedHige (Nicknames and Shadows)
- Crimson Skies (This Time Around)
- Denim88 (Cracked Mask)
- DisobedienceWriter (Naruto’s Compensation)
- dogbertcarrol (Glaring Problems, Play it again, Naruto!)
- Dragon Man 180 (Feel Like A Woman)
- drakensis (The Night The House of Cards Was Built, Cheaters Prosper)
- EdStargazer (Naruto: Captured)
- froznfox72 (Geniuses of Hard Work)
- gsteemso (The Disorderly Princess and the Fiery Steed)
- HitokiriOTD (The Book of Naruto)
- Innortal (Shinobi OneHalf, The Naruto Omake Files: Innortal Style)
- Jade R. Raven (The Rival)
- Jonakhensu (Kyuubi no Cabbit)
- Jonque (The Missing Hokage)
- Kenchi618 (Better Left Unsaid)
- Kraken’s Ghost (Foxhound)
- leafygirl (Loophole)
- Lord Archive (Between Deception and Truth)
- Lucillia (Time MixUp, History Exam, Little Uzumaki, The Consequences of Drunken Experiments, Chickenzilla, 5 Hokages, Underwear the Cat, Pet Names, Yukiko, and various others)
- Majin Hentai X (Naruto: Game of the Year Edition)
- Minnionette (Switched!)
- MockV (A Twist of Chance)
- MogTheGnome (The Great Romantic, Naruto, the Spanking Nin, The Imprint, The REAL Sound Nin, and less memorable others)
- Nes Mikel (Garden of Sanctuary, Medusa Javelin, Empyreal Paradox)
- nobody102 (Scorpion’s Disciple)
- notgonnasay09 (Guardian’s Wings)
- Nugar (Ask Me No Questions, Anything and Everything)
- Orrunan (Uprooted)
- Ozzallos (Tales of the FoxCat)
- Sarah1281 (It’s For a Good Cause, I Swear!)
- Shadow Crystal Mage (Death and the Uchiha)
- ShaperV (Time Braid)
- Smylingsnake (Oops!)
- S’TarKan (Out of Darkness: A Jinchuuriki’s Tale, Team 8)
- The Red Dragons Order (Flip Flop and Fly)
- TwinEnigma (Secretive, Transcendental Idealism, House of Dogs, Replica, Ad Oculos, Side Effects May Occur, Alternate Hosting, and less memorable others)
- yasuhei (Ganbatte ne, Oirokechan)
Runners-up:
Entries in this section didn’t make the top 50 list, not necessarily because they weren’t as good, but because I don’t remember them very well, so I have to take my records’ word for it that they’re good… and I don’t trust my younger self’s judgement without nostalgia to back it up. 😛
Some of them are here due to a lack of quality though. They’re still good… just not quite good enough to match one or more similar authors in the list above.
- Arthur Hansen (Infinite Sharingan)
- BukkakeNoJutsu (Coping Mechanisms)
- Danfiction (Naruto Reborn:Sasuke Uchiha)
- daniel-gudman (Spying no Jutsu)
- DigiFruit (Kakashi Junior)
- Eleature (Fuinjutsu)
- esama (End of one world)
- Iced Blood (No Longer Alone)
- KyuubiMan (Prove the Pervert Wrong)
- lord of the land of fire (That Look, Why Kakashi Should Never Read Out Loud)
- Perfect Lionheart (Chunin Exam Day)
- recodan (No More Underwear)
- Saiyan Angie (The Benefits of Omnipotence)
- sambomaster (Cloud Age Symphony)
- TheGreatHibiki (Memories)
- Thundereaper (The Dichotomy of Namikaze Naruto)
Note: Before I get any flames about Chunin Exam Day being down here, please keep in mind that I’m perfectly willing to admit that Perfect Lionheart does have a knack for writing catchy stories with strong starts… he just draws them out and gradually changes them until they’re not what I wanted anymore. (I’ve often wondered whether he’s a troll or just arrogant and too full of hubris)
Late-Comers:
This is where I put authors who wrote really good stuff… but I only found it after I’d written the first version of this post.
- 88mph (Ninja Who Lived)
- calatrava (Breaking the Boundaries)
- Erisah Mae (Butterfly Genjutsu)
- obsidian dreamer (The Mouse of Konoha)
- Rathanel (The Empty Cage, Swapping The Cage)
- Shawny Wong (One Small Step)
- ToBetasered (Uchiha Fukurou)
50+ Naruto Authors Who Did Something Well by Stephan Sokolow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
I would recommend third fangs : http://m.fanfiction.net/s/5218118/1/Yet_again_with_a_little_extra_help. It’s the only fic I’ve read that can last 75 chapters be over 1000000 words while still being updated about once a months that still has my interest. Great plot OCs and for its general humor. Hope u give it a shot.
I actually do read that and it’s notable that I don’t mind reading about the OCs and how they interact with the canon characters… but it just needs too much beta-ing to make it on this list.
(I think it balances out to what I’d rate as 4 out of 5, and this list is for stuff I consider 4.5 out of 5 and above.)
Thanks for sharing though.
OMG, I didn’t realise there was that much Naruto fanfiction out there prior to reading your post. I’m having trouble keeping up with the official releases as it is! 🙁
I would recommend My Toes, My Knees, My Shoulders, My Head and Who Would Have Thought I’d Kill For You both by Liberty sleepstorm. He writes in a refreshing perspective, and it’s a good alternative to all the fluff and cliche romance out there. the first i mentioned doesnt even focus on its pairing, but on shikamaru and shikaku’s father and son relationship, which not much authors could pull off s well. it’s worth considering. – A. Drew
several good fics and one I was looking for which is why I am asking this. Have
you read a fic where Naruto after being told by Kakashi he has no hope of
beating Neji goes of and performs the jutsu Kakashi used in wave that takes him to the kitsune summon realm? I have been looking all over and cant find the blasted thing.
Could you elaborate? I read so many fics that it’s hard for me to remember a specific one on such sparse details.
For example, could you give the events in the order in which they happened, along with more context? Which jutsu that Kakashi used in wave are you talking about?
I don’t specifically remember the kitsune summon realm, but I don’t readly remember very many details of any of the fics of that type, so that’s not saying much and it might pop to mind with more details to go on.
I think he’s talking about Naruto: kitsune sennin. By devilzxnight86
I recommend Silentz
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/342880/Silentz
Especially ‘And:Reboot’ . This author makes the best naruto I have ever read. It’s hard to explain but i like the fact that the little things that make naruto personality are subtle in the story and not thrown at you like you are too dumb to understand.
My life’s pretty busy right now, but thanks.
I’ll take a look when I have some time to spare.
Does anybody know the title of a Naruto Fanfic where Naruto and Sakura are trained military style and are sent on missions within konoha and they don’t meet sasuke or Kakashi until much later?
I know I’ve read that and I’m not sure whether or not it’s on this list but it should be.
I’m pretty busy but I’ll try to dig it up sometime within the next week, assuming nobody else beats me to it.
oh! I found iit after reading some of the fics in the list. It was Naruto: Captured.
Red Blossom by Yamisui was also really good, but it is unfinished.
I would recommend ‘Teach Your Children Well’ by AvocadoLove. It’s a pretty great story, and has a very good author. It’s not yet complete, still at 17 chapters, but it’s really good.
Hope you’ll consider it.
What about… ‘Inamorato’ by firefly? It’s really amazing, I mean, you’ll die hard laughing.
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s actually a crackfic. Really funny, great grammar, funny plot. I’ve read firefly’s other works, and I have to say, he fits the character’s personalities well with each other. He managed to fit Hidan and Hinata’s personalities well into a one-shot.
I do love checkerbloom! All of her work, the characters are so terribly in-character the entire way, and they do pull on your heart strings. Also, her plots are unpredictable and draws you in, and her grammar and writing is perfect!
Thank you for the list, by the way. It must’ve taken a lot of effort. 🙂
Not as much as you’d think. I’ve written a rough prototype of a tool for keeping track of what I’ve read and I’ve been adding stories to the database as I read them.
When I decided to make this list, over 90% of the work was simply “query the database for stories rated 4.5 out of 5 or better.”
(Of course, Naruto fics are the most thoroughly documented. I started reading other fandoms before I wrote the database, so it’ll take more work to go back and complete the database when I decide to do lists for series like Harry Potter and Ranma ½.)
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll check out checkerbloom when life gives me time to get back to reading fics.
I recommend this fanfiction http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7415078/1/Naruto-Ouroboros
Can you recomend a fic where someone attacks anko when she bust through the window into a room full of tense childsoldiers in a possible enimeis village (at the end of the first exam)
Surprisingly, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen that. Maybe once… but it’s so vague that I may have just imagined it.
I think that there are quite a few writers out there that should be on that list. I’m not really a major fan of Majin Hentai X and The Dichotomy of Naruto Uzumaki kinda got tedious as it carried on. Anyway… I think that you should add these two writers. It’s funny ’cause they have a kind of rivalry as well.
1. Iron Monkey Fist: The Uzumaki Descendant, Naruto: Potential Realized.
2. pudgypudge: The Melt, An Uzumaki Amongst the Dunes.
Why Kakashi Should Never Read Out Loud is pretty damn funny. Good choices.
I’ve actually read “Why Kakashi Should Never Read Out Loud” but something about it just didn’t feel quite right. I’d say that I prefer more coherence in the comedy I recommend to others (For example, the Harry Potter fic “A Black Comedy” by nonjon) but Lucillia’s stuff can jump around quite a bit so I dunno.
As for the others, I’ll give them a try when I’m in the mood and have time. Lately, I’ve been in the mood for other fandoms a bit more.
I also had no idea there were so many Naruto fan fictions. It really isnt a surprise I guess, the more I watch Naruto the more I realize how much emotional diversity it has for an anime.
http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2063496/Okami-Rayne
Her writing more than deserves the recognition. Considering the pairing it would be only for the reader’s benefit to shoo away all skepticism and preferences and go in with an open mind. The way this woman writes has risen my expectations for fanfiction stories so much that I now find myself roaming sites like this one, desperate to find something up to par. And Kami-sama the characterization! Let’s face it, Kishimoto missed opportunities to develop some wonderful characters which sadly remain one-dimensional. The characters in her stories feel so right, exactly how one sees them in their mind’s eye going off of the mere glimpses shown in canon. The characterizations feel like an actual extension of canon, a deeper exploration that just grips you and tortures you when you actually try to read something else. The plot drives the ship which makes it all believable to me.
Yaoi really isn’t my thing so I know I wouldn’t be able to give them a fair chance.
I’d prefer to let others who see this form their own opinions.
Here to rec SilverShine’s The Girl From Whirlpool. A really amazing epic. I don’t care about the Fourth’s era, and this was still one of the best Naruto fics I’ve ever read. Awesome characterizations/humor/everything.
Also recommend Ouroboros69’s Freedom in the Eyes of Another. Some people find the characterizations off-putting since they’re basically kids with PTSD. Gory ninjas in the best way.
I’ve been reading more MLP and Harry Potter fanfics than Naruto lately but, when I’m back in the mood, those both look interesting. Thanks. 🙂
The Resilience of Time
This fanfiction is pretty well written, it’s a well thought out time-travel story without any character bashing, I’d highly recommend u give it a try!
Plus this story doesn’t have any deliberate, forced pairings, so far the only pairings that exist are canon. (though there is a little Gai/Shizune towards the end but it’s really insignificant)
Thanks for the suggestion and sorry for taking months to acknowledge it. My life got very busy leading up to the holidays and then I spent a while afterward trying to catch things back up.
I don’t currently have time to read new fics but I’ll check it out when I do.
I hope you don’t mind that I merged your two comments together and cleaned up the formatting a bit so it’d be easier for visitors to read.
I recommend reading both Time and Again by Kylewin and Never Cut Twice by shadowmaster62.
Thanks. At the moment, I’m not reading much fanfiction of any type, so I’ve mainly had to focus on updates to stories I’m already following, but I’ll take a look when I have time again.
Sorry for the delayed reply. (Similar reason. Too much to do.)
I don’t know if you only what naruto but Maderfole in fanfiction for gundam see (i have not read it) has an 3 part story that when merged together has 3,540,995 words long
I’m not really into Gundam but, if you haven’t read it, why are you recommending it?
No Zapenstap and White Rain…?
I never ran across Zapenstap and, looking at the summary for White Rain, I get the impression I wouldn’t like it.
(The summary has several stylistic quirks that, in my experience, tend to indicate an author whose writing lacks the kind of immersiveness, character depth, humor, and/or novel ideas that I look for.)
A Ninja’s Guide to Surviving High School by JA-Japster
I didn’t get to see the FanFiction.net author poll winners but I do recognize some of the writers you listed in your top 50 list and I definitely agree that the once I recognize do deserve some credit.
Just out of curiously did you list the authors in order or is it a top 50 random list?
I sorted them alphabetically so I wouldn’t have to choose between trying to accurately rank 50 authors relative to each other (I’m a bit of a perfectionist) and pure random.
I’m gonna suggest ‘Naruto One Man Team’ by Ackdam. U might like it you might not but it’s one of the four or five that I go back and read again multiple times (my others include ‘Team 8’, ‘A Drop of Poison’, ‘Dark Pheonix of Konoha’ and ‘Hokage To Be’). It hasn’t been updated in a while, and it’s got the herem thing going but I think it’s still a good read.
The odd thing is, I was certain I’d stared reading One Man Team, but a quick check isn’t turning up a sign of it outside a mention on a “to read” list that I sometimes forget to remove things from once I start reading them.
(It’s possible I only read part of it, and it put on one of my harder-to-check “finish reading this” lists that need to be folded into my regular lists.)
Either way, thanks for that suggestion. I don’t recognize Dark Pheonix of Konoha or Hokage To Be, so I’ll have to take a look at those too next time I’m in the mood for some Naruto fanfiction.
Nice to see that Team 8 made the list :). I guess it would be hard to argue that Viridian didn’t do something right, given how many Favorites it has ;).
I did raise an eyebrow at seeing Chunin Exam Day before I saw your notes. I’d agree, though, that there are aspects of it that are interesting, despite having some other aspects that are problematic. (I might make a similar remark about Time Braid.)
Oh, and anyone who likes Scorpion’s Disciple should probably check out the author’s more recent work, Mother of Learning.
Most of the others I haven’t read.