Yeah this is my limit. I'm sorry about I can't read blatant Sasuke bashing. Yes he is a jerk but it was no fluck he was rookie of the year. He had a surprising amount of skill (the creator or Naruto calls him a prodigy considering he learns to control the Mankeyo better than Itachi) so we can't say that. You also deliberately turned him into a coward. He would not run from stronger enemies wanted to make himself stronger to beat his brother. Yes he wanted Orchimoro to take the scroll in the exams and leave but when he didn't have that option he fearlessly fought him. He is also shown to be kind and respect Naruto, shown when he was willing to die from Haku in the Wave arc. You claim to hate character bashing but you are doing a wonderful job of it here. This is where I stop reading (would have done it earlier but my friend said this story was good and realistic but I can see this is not the case.)

So this is a Sasuke bash story? I'm disappointed. It was good.

I really do live this fic! Not too much angst or romance. Not too many godlike characters. It's a good balance.

I love this, hope you plan to continue this story sometime soon

Love your story. Just had to comment. I, myself, am a yaoi fan girl (don't mess with us, we're slightly rabid and don't fight fair) I just want to say that I have read quite a few sasunaru and narusasu and some do knockup sasuke, without turning him into a her either. Now you know! XD

please update this story

A really nice story.
1sunfun

Please update soon

Although it was anticlimatic you did what I wish more fanfic writers would do, find a way to finish the arc at a place with no cliffhangers. I also think that considering just how complicated Kushimoto's Naruto has become I like the less complicated earlier days.
I've pretty much stopped reading Kushimoto's Naruto, maybe once he actually finishes the manja I'll see how it ends but right now I feel he's just milking it out for as long as he can.

interesting, though i'd raise the baseline abilities for everyone a bit.

Ummm. If he wasn't supposed to be capturing ninja then why the hell were they using a (likely more expensive) chakra disrupting poison?

Man, Kurenai had a good speech there.
Too bad WBiF! Sasuke is a total asshole.

Oh man, this is quite a good story. I like that your changes were minor enough that canon events continued, but with slightly different outcomes. I'm glad that you had good outcomes as well as bad ones. Many authors seem to think that giving a minor advantage to one or more of the characters would allow them to succeed in face of most the canon confrontations. All other things being equal, that might be true. In canon, most fights seemed to be won or lost by a relatively small margin. However, if you change some things for the main characters, the antagonists should also change either in response, or to balance out the conflicts. I think this story did a decent job of balancing conflict.

I also like that not every random plot-encounter had to have far-reaching consequences. Running into Orochimaru on the beach was pretty funny, although I keep picturing that pale figure in bahama shorts and a straw hat. It's kind of a weird image.

I didn't realize it until I had already read up to this point, but I am surprised that Naruto didn't use his shadow clones to go after the multiple objectives in the second task of the Cloud exams. It seemed like such an obvious point to use clones. Still, I suppose they may have just not thought of it.

It's too bad that you haven't been able to write more for this story, but this is at a good leaving off point. Only thing I'm waiting to see is a bit more about Anko and Iruka.

Wait... What happened to Tsunade's hemophobia?
It's just... gone. Did I miss something?

Crap. Reasonable justification for Sasuke's behavior one chapter later.
I feel like a tool now.