Team 8

I don't think it matters. Sasuke is not an important character in this fic so I don't think he'll become Naruto's friend or something like that.

Because Kakashi didn't treat the cursed seal seriously in the original.

If cursed seals could be removed, why does Anko have one?

Ahh, well. Just another change. I can't believe I missed that though.

Maybe because it was treated in early stages, within less than 24 hours of receiving it?

Got a holler to move this one to Fan Fiction — seems right, moving.

@Camacan - Thanks, man!

Naruto really likes hard challenges.

Not defecting to creepy Oro. He was not mindraped a second time and does not have to deal with being inexplicably surpassed by a team-mate. And as you said Kakashi is giving him the training he needs.

Ah, yes, Team Eight. The absolutely wonderful fic that updates once a year if you're lucky.

Concur it's unlikely that Sasuke will defect here; he didn't have the single sudden shock of Naruto, someone who he had always been comfortably superior to, suddenly surpassing him, but instead had the sudden shock of Naruto, someone who he hadn't really interacted with in months, curb stomping him. Which translates to less "Everyone else is getting really great powerups that I'm missing out on" (moving on to "and it's because my teacher doesn't care") and more "I'm falling behind because I'm not training hard enough". And it helps that Kakashi is actually training them now.

Regarding the seal, I don't think it's actually gone. I think it just got sealed up tight as in canon, and Sasuke has never yet felt the temptation to use it. (There's an interesting fic somewhere where, due to butterflies, Sasuke uses the seal when he fights Itachi at the start of Tsunade Retrieval, and Itachi (being Itachi) just beats him up anyway. Which leads to Sasuke concluding that the seal is relatively worthless and just training harder normally.)

I'd read that, if you can remember the title or the author.

Wonderful might be pushing it... but hey, it's subjective.

It's called "Expectations of Development", and I'd look up the author for you if it wasn't 4 am.

Heh, I once considered writing an AU fic where Sasuke's family took baby Naruto in. Scrapped it.

Might try One Small Kindness for that. It's one of the best-written Naruto fics I've seen, and fairly epic.

Edit: Expectations of Development.

edited 16th Jan '12 8:51:46 AM by alethiophile

What is Expectations of Development about? I've been looking for something new to read, and the recommendations has peaked my interest.

Basically, Sakura isn't useless. Which leads to Sasuke not fighting the Sound genin who showed up to kill him during Forest of Death, which leads to him never associating 'activated Seal of Heaven' with 'power'. It goes from there. And there are intermittent rather hilarious scenes which depict Sasuke's mental state as a Mental World with anthropomorphisms of his issues running around.

So it's For Want Of A Nail for Sakura's uselessness? Sounds interesting. I'll probably give it a read soon.

Well, I hope Team 8 does update. Know back in April when I said I'd be happy with him leaving it here? I lied. I've been giving serious thought to just continuing on on my own.

I only just worked this out, so I figured I'd share.

The event that got Mattai and the rest of Kurenai's team killed was that a) Kurenai was romantically involved with Mattai,a Hyuuga b) either Mattai, or Kurenai hopping over the fence at the wrong time, witnessed Hizashi Hyuuga switching places with Hiyashi and he suspected something c) it being not possible to kill either immediately due to them being on a mission,some missing-nins were hired to Make It Look Like an Accident.

How does that event cover the changes to Magic A Is Magic A?

It doesn't. I just felt a small sense of accomplishment for a possible answer to the For Want Of A Nail event that changed Kurenai's life.

Honestly,I'm all right with letting people learn jutsus of all five elements. Even if it doesn't give an explanation.

Thinking further, the affinities are to do with how well they can do it. Fire jutsu does x damage and is size y. Fire affinity + fire gives S.T.A.B..

edited 2nd Mar '12 5:47:16 PM by AckSed

I'm only teasing. Your theory is a good one, but I don't even think the author has actually planned the divergence. I believe he's just covering his own ass by saying that Kurenai investigating the Genins at the academy wasn't the divergence point, due to the fact that it doesn't explain all the changes.

I still don't see how he could justify Itachi being a villain, either. And the problem with the Elemental Jutsus is that having two elements is normal for Jonin, and three elements is rare. Naruto already has Water, Earth and Lightning and in canon he has a Wind affinity so that would make four.

At this point it's more of an AU Fic than For Want Of A Nail.

I think that the elements thing is not so big a divergence as some are saying. My interpretation of jounin normally 'having' two elements is that they've mastered them, perhaps not to the degree of Naruto with his waterfall-splitting in canon but maybe to the point of leaf-splitting (burning, drying, whatever the element is). There's no reason why the minor utility techniques of an element shouldn't be available to everyone; it's usage on the level of Rasenshuriken or Itachi's army-killer fireballs that requires an affinity.

^This.

It's already said in the series that using three elements is rare among Jonin. So Team8 has definitely dropped the ball on that one.

The Author's Notes make clear that he's just ignoring canon because he hates moral complexity.

This fic is one of those things that I find myself gradually liking less and less over time.