This is freaking incredible.

This. This is REAL writing!

I didn't get number 17. Please explain?

I love how you can write and have the story go from past to present, and from serious to humorous without anyone noticing until the end. There are probably more stuff you did but all I can say is... -insert clapping here-
...Wow.

Takeshi, perchance was the genin named Hongo?

I really liked this, all of them, my favorites were 20 and 21 though. They were really short but they somehow managed to enrichen canon -at least in my head-. Thank you!

Wait. I haven't left a review for this? I've read this story like fifty times, and I've never...

Huh. Gotta make up for lost time.

It's likely you'll never read this. It doesn't seem like you're still active on the site.

That doesn't matter.

What does matter is the sheer brilliance of what you've created here. The sheer NARUTO.

I was having a conversation with my Beta earlier today as we plotted how we could hook up Sasuke and Sakura in the most in-character way possible (i.e. Competitive Violence), and the topic of ESSENCE came up. We ended up discussing how many stories just seem to miss the point of Naruto, turn the series and the character into something he's not. And how sad that is. The point is something that's intangible, but it's THERE. Themes and reminders and half-spoken words.

But that's the reason I love this story so much.

Because it UNDERSTANDS. It doesn't matter that 50% of what it's about had been turned non-canon. You managed to perfectly comprehend what makes Naruto good, what boils beneath its characters facades, and you weaponised it and thrust it right into our hearts. Everything here COULD have happened. It's more than believable: it's expected. What we read is just as valid as whatever Kishimoto came up with. It is that in-touch.

A beautiful job.

I'm gonna read it again now.

Thanks for writing this.

how does being related to Danzo give Shizune a nephew?

This is absolutely gorgeous writing. Funny, sad, heartwarming, and a dozen other things all rolled into one, and on the few occasions that you do build upon the characters' character, it fits wonderfully and actually does feel real.

I don't get number 7

This was delicious. Simply delectable.

Lists appeal to me so much and your ones are funny.

I am laughing ridiculously hard and it is 12 at night because of 21 in chapter 5. Just god this entire story is marvelous.

This was absolutely magnificent. #19 from the first one is probably the hardest hitter among them for obvious reasons.

These are all surprisingly touching.