Chunnin Exam Day - Comments Thread (spoliers)

[Morganite]

I started reading this today, and about 2/3 of the way through the idea of "what if there were two people going through the same loop?" occurred to me... I wasn't really expecting it to actually happen.
(Mind you, what I was thinking was more along the lines of "What if there were two people going through the same loop... and they didn't know about each other?" Seems like that could have some potential.)
Now, from what it sounds like Naruto's doing, he could still effectively revert things with the others that he didn't like by not making backups of them before the reset. But I don't think he's an unpleasant enough person to do that...
The comparison with Skysaber is kind of interesting, because I'm liking this story in sort of the same way I enjoyed Skysaber's Choice and Eva Revolution.
(And Paycheck, but that has nothing to do with Skysaber. '.' )
-Morgan, is the Shadow Clone technique that scarily powerful in canon? o.O"Mikuru-chan molested me! I'm... so happy!"
-Haruhi, "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
---(Not really)

[Sirrocco]

My understanding is that the training implications are not explored, and the brokenness is not exploited to anything like the same degree, but that *is* the way it works. It's well-defined magic, and well-defined magic is exploitable like that, once you have someone who knows its rules well and spends the time to seriously think about them.

[kentmagus]

Quote:It's well-defined magic, and well-defined magic is exploitable like that, once you have someone who knows its rules well and spends the time to
seriously think about them /Quote Time to exploit science!

[Morganite]

... Okay, the massages are getting a bit ridiculous.

-Morgan.

[K sai]

...ummm yeah this is just getting stupid...

There's so much potential and it's just become a really lame way to get a harem

What a waste of a cool idea.

I take back my initial post.

[Morganite]

I don't really see why. It looks like you predicted basically what was going to happen quite well. '.'

I'm still liking a lot of the story but the massage thing... Well, I was fine with the "Marry me!" thing as a running joke, when it's with
*non-enemies*. When it starts sounding more like brainwashing, that's disturbing. In fact, it's really disturbing.

Sakura getting wet from watching it is also really disturbing. Particularly since (as a review reminded me), the characters are their canon ages in this story.
(Though the reviewer wasn't responding to this chapter. Actually, I'm not entirely certain what the reviewer was talking about. '.' ) Still, that
part's relatively minor.

Though, another reviewers suggestion that if Naruto developed similar technqiques that worked on men, he'd put Ibiki out of business. That's amusing.

I'm a bit uncertain about this bloodline transfer thing. On the one hand, giving the Byakugan to anyone is likely to annoy Hiashi, which I have no trouble
supporting. Having it persist across resets would probably allow him to be annoyed in a large variety of additional ways, so that's good. On the other
hand, while I can see the Kyuubi being helpful in certain ways if only to be more entertained, that seems like it might be pushing it a bit. On the unexplained
third hand, it'd probably annoy Neji too. '.'

That part at the end of Ino and Sakura's fight is kind of dubious too. Given that Sakura has no way of knowing the actual meaning of what Ino is
"offering" her (or that she's in fact *being* offered something, rather than simply threatened with humiliation), there's no way she could
have made a real decision about it, and having made the offer is a meaningless act.

Oh, and if it's a choice between giving everyone a free show, and imminent decapitation? I'd give everyone the free show, thank you. Still, in some
ways this actually seems less anti-Sakura than some earlier parts.

-Morgan, "DECORATE ME!!" ^o^

"Do it for honor. Do it for glory. Do it for the lulz."

[K sai]

...You have good points, but as you have said, all the Underage-ICHA-ICHA-Without-Plot, is getting really...

I just think that if I was stuck in eternity, I'd find better things to do with my time than seduce every woman I know...

[Morganite]

"icha icha"? (Not that I can't probably guess from context, but...)

And as a general subject I'd still much rather read about that than the "Let's ruin Sasuke's reputation" thread, which thankfully they
seem to be done with. (Not surprising, since it's results interfere with several of Naruto's goals.)

And I still like the part where just listing his techniques is enough to get Anko to jump him. ^-^

And Hinata's response to Naruto's tail. '.'

-Morgan.

[K sai]

I'm pretty sure icha-icha is the naruto dirty little orange book series - you know, written by ero-sennin, read by every male in the naruto-verse....

Not saying it's not funny, and all, but the story has definately lost it's groove, at least for me.

[Morganite]

Huh. To me it's a bit more like it's getting back into it's groove. It seems like the cursed seal business was dispensed with a little too quickly,
but I'm happier with it back to some insanity and not taking away Sasuke's potty training.

(I'm not sure I'd even mind Sakura getting turned on by seeing Naruto give someone a really good massage... It's just disturbing when it's
Naruto giving an *enemy* a really good massage, and said enemy undergoing some kind of personality breakdown as a result.)

-Morgan, but what does icha-icha actually mean? '.'

[Necratoid]

icha-icha= Make out.

I think the less anit-Sakura thing is from something I explained early on in this thread... most of anit-Sakuraness is from Naruto going loony tunes. He was
unnessassarily antaganising her and then taking her as reactions as if they were entirely her fault. Look at some of my ealier posts for the specifics.
Sakura getting treated better is likely Ino fault, she actaully does like Sakura as a person. Basically Ino has tempured his reactions towards her, as well as
having several anchors in sanity at this point.

You also have to remember that the sound girl is probably not just getting the massage treatment, she is probably getting at least a bit of the same things
that Ero-Senin was getting bribes with. Happy illusions, the kind that leave you a droolling wreck. I think that was the point of him using them to get the
summon contract in the first place. Chekovs gun an all that. He is training her to be his pet spy here.

With Sakura's reaction to that, you have to remember that Naruto, from her perspective, has offed her dates everyday for years... which means she is
probably imagining herself with someone that can do that as a boyfriend. Ignoring her getting some of the genjutsu herself to screw with her head.

On another note, Reguardless of what the writer thinks of the future cannon... he is still going with the Sharingon is more family curse/demonic possession
than a normal bloodline. The scarily addictive efffects he mentions (which are mind control judging by the longterm effects of having it for a couple of days
one reset.). So while he is becoming less of a creep to Sakura he has to still to do something with the Sharigan possessed members of his team.

On a side note, as he seems to have made good on many of his early promises to make it up to people for training him in skills, I'm guessing he'll
eventually get around to giving Lee a fully functional chakra system. I'm also guessing if/when he ever gets around to curing people of the sharingan
he'll eventually manage to sick Itachi and Mandara on themselves.

[Sirrocco]

You are trying to analyze. You are looking for underneath the underneath. There is none of that here. There is no deep characterization, there is only
crack. Watch the arc of the story. read the authors notes. He started out with a cunningly constructed world, but he let that fall apart, and now he is
simply having fun with it. The story... I would say that it jumped the shark, but that is not quite right. It jumped a shark. Then it said "hey. That
shark was insufficiently large. Let us find another." It worked its way up the shark family until it ran out of progressively larger sharks to jump, and
has recently begun simply driving across beached whales.

I'm not saying it's bad for what it is - honestly, as far as Mary-Sue add-another-to-the-harem crackfic goes, it's pretty high quality - and it
does still seem to have a group of readers who enjoy the ride for what it is - but what it is now, and what it was when it started are two rather different
things.

[Morganite]

There was a cunningly constructed world?

I'm not really sure what there is *to* construct. '.' It mostly seems to be a matter of keeping track of Naruto's abilities and goals. But most of it
from the beginning seemed like having fun with it. (And quite frankly, I *like* that. '.' )

And if Naruto's throwing in illusion stuff, I'd really hope the author would actually *say* something about it. It's still kind of a disturbing
scene. Okay, this wouldn't be the first person Naruto's convinced to change sides in this thing, but for Gaara and Temari, he's offering them
something a bit more solid than massages.

It does seem like having company has stabilized Naruto somewhat though. (Even the wedding before he had company did some of that.) Even with Sasuke, at least
now there's some legitimate concerns (both ICly and OOCly) behind it, not just "Let's watch Sasuke's balls get crushed repeatedly!"
(There was that previous business, but it was also before Tsunade joined... I think.)

Still, while I'm glad to see a reduction in the anti-Sakura, I wouldn't really expect the same for Sasuke. It may be exaggerated, but there is
*something* of a reason behind it, so unless something comes along and invalidates that... *shrug* As for Kakashi, he'll probably remain in the role of
small obstacle to be avoided. With Tsunade, Kurenai, and Anko along for the ride, Naruto probably isn't going to need to have much to do with him anymore.

-Morgan.

[Sirrocco]

Okay, maybe not cunning, but there was, to me, a feeling of construction. he was building on things, figuring things out, working through process. There was
detail work there - hitting things that he couldn't achieve, or couldn't study, or couldn't find out, and having to go back and try something else.
Now, it's devolved more into Ridiculously Overpowered Naruto (and his Ridiculously Overpowered Harem) acquiring things through overwhelming force.

[K sai]

Yes, my feelings exactly... it's almost like the author has got tired of his own story, before he was going to a great deal of trouble to say 'What
would character x do in situation y given the following constraints' and proceed logically from there...

Now its just random, gotta catchem all Konana's Sports Illustrated...

...boring.

But that's just My opinion, and doesn't actually mean I disagree with anything that's been said.

In one sense any story that generates this much controversy defines it as something out of the ordinary. By that measure, it's actually very good, for
something that probably started off as a one shot joke

[Morganite]

I'm not sure. Periods of randomness followed by running into a new wall wouldn't be a new pattern for this story. Given the higher-ranked assistance he
has now, it's not surprising that some things are no longer obstacles, but that doesn't mean there won't be a new problem appearing soon. (Not to
mention there's still the invasion to deal with; stopping Orochimaru but wrecking Konoha isn't that much of an improvement.)

And it occurred to me this afternoon that, while Naruto had some serious issues following being "decorated", no one else has had any problems that
have been talked about. I suppose this could be interpreted in several ways. '.'

-Morgan.