I managed to tough out the prologue chapter, despite the clunky writing, bad dialogue and absurd leaps of logic (the 3rd Hokage knows Naruto is in for a terrible, lonely life but apparently can't adopt him because "the stupid council won't let me") but half way through the first chapter I just couldn't stomach any more. The fic takes the fanon "everybody hates and abuses Naruto" concept Up To Eleven- apparently he regularly gets the living shit kicked out of him by just about anyone for no reason and the 3rd is helpless to prevent this. But when Ino's mother goes into ridiculous hysterics of hate after Naruto accidentally scratches Ino while playing tag with her and organises an impromptu lynch mob to basically murder him in the street (even though her daugher is crying and pleading with her to leave Naruto alone because she's not really hurt) it was just too stupid for words. And then when Hinata and her mother find Naruto's battered body only for a number of other nearby children to mock them for not celebrating the fact that Naruto is apparently dead- well come on, there's a limit to how narrow-minded and spiteful you can write the citizens of Konoha before they just become a pack of total bastards, not to mention stupidly unrealistic. I couldn't read even one more word after that. The fact that the writing is simply not very good doesn't help matters either. The dialogue is bland, awkward and totally lacking in conviction, the narration is clunky (yes, Jiraiya put his hands in a freakin' fire in the prologue, of course they're going to be "still burned" less than a minute later) and it's simply a chore to read. Avoid.
FanficRecs I tried to read this... I failed.
I managed to tough out the prologue chapter, despite the clunky writing, bad dialogue and absurd leaps of logic (the 3rd Hokage knows Naruto is in for a terrible, lonely life but apparently can't adopt him because "the stupid council won't let me") but half way through the first chapter I just couldn't stomach any more. The fic takes the fanon "everybody hates and abuses Naruto" concept Up To Eleven- apparently he regularly gets the living shit kicked out of him by just about anyone for no reason and the 3rd is helpless to prevent this. But when Ino's mother goes into ridiculous hysterics of hate after Naruto accidentally scratches Ino while playing tag with her and organises an impromptu lynch mob to basically murder him in the street (even though her daugher is crying and pleading with her to leave Naruto alone because she's not really hurt) it was just too stupid for words. And then when Hinata and her mother find Naruto's battered body only for a number of other nearby children to mock them for not celebrating the fact that Naruto is apparently dead- well come on, there's a limit to how narrow-minded and spiteful you can write the citizens of Konoha before they just become a pack of total bastards, not to mention stupidly unrealistic. I couldn't read even one more word after that. The fact that the writing is simply not very good doesn't help matters either. The dialogue is bland, awkward and totally lacking in conviction, the narration is clunky (yes, Jiraiya put his hands in a freakin' fire in the prologue, of course they're going to be "still burned" less than a minute later) and it's simply a chore to read. Avoid.