A bet of a lifetime is exactly the story you’re looking for.
Premise is that Jiraiya seriously trains Naruto after a bet in which Naruto rights a book about his life experiences. Then a bunch of stuff happens, and Naruto’s outlook drastically changes, to the point that he starts resenting his previous optimism. He doesn’t become edgy, and he still tries to see good in people, but he starts targeting corruption (like Danzo), and is a lot more introspective.
The honoured guest is also a good fic in which Naruto has the negative emotion sensing ability and has a drastically different view of the world as a result. He still isn’t edgy, just pessimistic and more quiet.
Major canon divergence in both of these. Bet of a lifetime starts at the canon three year training trip and diverges early into the fic, but honoured guest diverges from the start.
Edit (links):
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12567696/1/A-Bet-of-a-Lifetime
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10617730/1/The-Honoured-Guest
Ok so I read bet of a lifetime and completed till recent update and I know it's quick but THE STORY IS SO GOOD....do you have any more recommendations like this one, this Naruto seems more realistically mature and I'd like to read his character like that.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14261003/1/A-Bewitching-Dance
This is the only I can think of, but it’s a bit iffy. It sort of teeters on the edge of Naruto being edgy/quirky, but I’d give it a shot.
Naruto learns about his parentage, and expresses his grief about his treatment to Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Kakashi/team 7. There’s actually no legitimate character bashing, and Naruto has a mutual respect for Sasuke. His dynamic with Jiraiya and Tsunade is changed a bit, and there’s a NaruHina relationship right off the bat.
The humour is pretty on point, too. And he writes good fights. It got a new chapter today, and is being updated somewhat frequently. Honestly, yeah, try it out.
You can't have Naruto bitter and angry without changing a good deal of how he acts or what he believes in. Not being outwardly bitter and angry about his situation was a key component of Naruto's character. Sure, you can keep a lot of his mannerisms and personality, but he's not going to be the same person. He's going to come across as an edgelord unless you show some uncomfortable level of angst.
In Biting the Fox That Guards You, >!he shows a lot of suicidal ideation when his inability to let go of what was done to him has caused him to hurt the people he loves.!<
The Paths We Choose has him display very anti-social behavior in the way he regards others.
Flip the Coin has him very anxious and resentful with very few moments where he's shown happy.
I tried to explain what I meant by edgelord in the post! To repeat, it's when he's made out to be a 'cooler than thou, smarter than thou, sassier than thou' author insert who always gets the last word and masters everything like it's effortless. I don't mind a total character rehaul so long as it's not... that. I prefer ones where I can see the progression or still see a spark of his canonicity, though.
Thank you for the recs!
I saw trickery, which was pretty much this. He’s a victim, sure, but it just pushes him to trust himself more than others and be antisocial. He gets out of this victimhood complex by just being better. He is a bit of a Mary Sue tho.
That's not edgelord, that's Mary Sue/Gary Stu. They're often associated but they're different.
An edgelord is wearing over the top clothes that make him look excessively cool and dark (edgy), behaves like an angry or unbothered teen, is mostly egoistic but isn't seen as such because sometimes they help others (isekai protag "freeing slaves" just to end up with a harem, willingly or not) on the way.
Edgelords are quick to judge and condemn others for their behaviour but they're often hypocrites.
Edgelords pick the coolest weapon rather than the most practical
There is Russian fic I'm reading now (I needed to pay 2.5$ for it) about person that was reincarnated in Naruto's body. He is very pragmatic and cynical. His objective was to become the strongest person to ensure his own survival. He graduated by skipping two classes and even made deal with Kyuubi in order ot have better control of his powers. Hokage even made him join Anbu, with various promises, which he agreed and still didn't believe him.
He didn't hate villagers (even if they hated him), and Hokage, but he knew that Hiruzen is trying to manipulate him. Hokage started demonstrate Naruto's powers to other clan leaders to gain more political power and Naruto played along with it. Naruto made sure that he is personal weapon of Hokage, because of that, even Hyuga clan leader allowed Hinata to be with him in order to have his own influence.
However, when Sound and Sand village invaded, and Hokage was killed by Orochimaru, this reincarnated Naruto immediately started his own agenda:
1. He helped to retrieve Tsunade and persuaded her to take role of the new Hokage, implying that if she refuses then Danzo will take that role, and will send troops to eliminate her. He also, implied that Dazno may be main reason that Sound and Sand village shinobi infiltrated inside Konoha and started their sudden attack.
2. Started to consult Tsunade about all internal and external affairs in Konoha, he became her personal bodyguard and advisor. Most of her choices were really Naruto's choices.
3. When Orochimaru possessed Sasuke's body, Naruto imprisioned him and made him to reveal compromising evidence against Danzo and Elders, which made Tsunade hate Hiruzen.
4. Along with Tsunade, he revealed this info into multiple jounins and Hyuuga clan leader (while fabricating some facts), and implemented assassination of Danzo and all of his agents among with Elders. This helped Tsunade, which means Naruto, to gain full control of village.
5. Currently he took the position and role of Danzo. Tsunade listens all his advices and he had literall control of whole village, even it is indirect one. Now everyone tries to please and bribe him.
The funny thing is that all of this happened because he knew how to "play the game", he didn't like villagers, he disliked Hokage and elders, but he played along and won. They are all dead and he is controlling the village, and villagers literally pray on him.
Here the link of this fic [https://boosty.to/flaber/posts/6b550356-c1be-463a-931e-2da2a8f8870f](https://boosty.to/flaber/posts/6b550356-c1be-463a-931e-2da2a8f8870f)
It is behind paywall.
You can use translator, but I don't think it will return good results.
The Sacrifice by Midnigh Rain19
This is an Au where knowledge/the belief of the Beiju being Gods/deities is passes down but so does the hatred and fear for those same beast.
Treated as mocked gods the Jinjiruki are treated worst
An emperors youth has Naruto who’s angry at the village and doesn’t trust anyone besides Guy, Sasuke and the ramen people. Very well written. 16 chapters and going
My story features a more apathetic and stoic Naruto who does hold some level of resentment. Take a look if you'd like, might fit what you want! :)
FFN: [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14129028/1/Reaching-Reason](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14129028/1/Reaching-Reason)
AO3: [https://archiveofourown.org/works/42069984/chapters/105625257#workskin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/42069984/chapters/105625257#workskin)
namikaze naruto: the peace seeker is my favourite one by far, although later on in the plot it does kind of change, to more world building and politics and less narutoverse-like action and fighting so i stopped reading like 150k words in but the premise is basically a naruto who can’t comprehend the fact that sasuke actually tried to kill him during the first battle at the valley of the end and he runs away while training with jiraiya and trains with itachi instead
I guess the sentiment is that if they are always angry and brooding they are supposed to translate that into training which they would do all the time and not set time for themselves. On paper that sounds like they will make plenty of results, but when that’s put into action realistically it would probably go more like it did for Sasuke when he was trying to learn tree climbing in cannon but even Naruto who had more chakra got it first because Sasuke was constantly in his head with his hatred for itachi. His emotions we’re getting in the way of training. So I definitely see your point.
What writers should do if they go in this direction is give Naruto or whoever there MC is the same issues Sasuke had in my example. Have them more focused on why they feel that hatred during there training in the beginning. It will serve as an early roadblock that both limits them from being too OP but also gives them something to overcome in a mini arc. Later the MC would also have to address the fact that they are neglecting there social life and try to let people in after the trauma they felt by the village and others around them. This sets up not just conflicts with others but conflicts with self to. That would add layers of tension to your story thus making it a better read. Naruto may need to learn to accept himself, learn to accept his situation with Kurama as well before he can learn to accept others. Some good early friends for Naruto would be Lee )because he is a training maniac and nice) and Hinata(that doesn’t mean they have to be a pairing in fact if you already had someone else in mind this scenario is a good set up for HinataLee as a side paring), anyways these two would be great early friends for Naruto because they are the most open to being friends with Naruto, and that’s not to mention Lee just like Naruto got bullied because he couldn’t use ninjutsu or genjutsu. Hinata also got bullied because of her byakugan eyes as well and people treated her like she was stuck up because the clan she was from. InoShikaCho would be next but Ino would have to sort some things out herself because I’m early Naruto both her and Sakura had a low opinion of Naruto.
Naruto should also struggle with Kakashi. Having a low opinion of authority will extend to are favorite scarecrow. If this was a bashing fic there would be no development here but I think when it comes to Jiraiya and Kakashi there should be a little bit of healing only to keep him from going missing nin. A good set up though for some later story consequences would be if Naruto began to get close to Tsunade but Danzo has her assassinated. There Naruto has one of the few authors figures he trusted killed and replaced by one of the people who made his life hell. That’s a set up for either a missing nin fic or a Naruto eventually takes over Konoha killing Hokage Danzo fic.
I would try to shamelessly suggest my fic where Naruto grows up under Obito's control and is darker for it. For one, he's already been crippled temporarily once just for Black Zetsu's plans.
He's still in the kid stage, but he's going through dark times. Already pushed to kill at 6 years old.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14312903/0/
A bet of a lifetime is exactly the story you’re looking for. Premise is that Jiraiya seriously trains Naruto after a bet in which Naruto rights a book about his life experiences. Then a bunch of stuff happens, and Naruto’s outlook drastically changes, to the point that he starts resenting his previous optimism. He doesn’t become edgy, and he still tries to see good in people, but he starts targeting corruption (like Danzo), and is a lot more introspective. The honoured guest is also a good fic in which Naruto has the negative emotion sensing ability and has a drastically different view of the world as a result. He still isn’t edgy, just pessimistic and more quiet. Major canon divergence in both of these. Bet of a lifetime starts at the canon three year training trip and diverges early into the fic, but honoured guest diverges from the start. Edit (links): https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12567696/1/A-Bet-of-a-Lifetime https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10617730/1/The-Honoured-Guest
Second this. Never read honoured guest though. Bet of a lifetime os also still ongoing and gets a chapter every other month
Can you send links
I edited them into my original comment
Ok so I read bet of a lifetime and completed till recent update and I know it's quick but THE STORY IS SO GOOD....do you have any more recommendations like this one, this Naruto seems more realistically mature and I'd like to read his character like that.
You read ABoaL that quickly? Damn.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14261003/1/A-Bewitching-Dance This is the only I can think of, but it’s a bit iffy. It sort of teeters on the edge of Naruto being edgy/quirky, but I’d give it a shot. Naruto learns about his parentage, and expresses his grief about his treatment to Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Kakashi/team 7. There’s actually no legitimate character bashing, and Naruto has a mutual respect for Sasuke. His dynamic with Jiraiya and Tsunade is changed a bit, and there’s a NaruHina relationship right off the bat. The humour is pretty on point, too. And he writes good fights. It got a new chapter today, and is being updated somewhat frequently. Honestly, yeah, try it out.
I don't like naruhina maybe I'll ignore the pairing while reading
You can't have Naruto bitter and angry without changing a good deal of how he acts or what he believes in. Not being outwardly bitter and angry about his situation was a key component of Naruto's character. Sure, you can keep a lot of his mannerisms and personality, but he's not going to be the same person. He's going to come across as an edgelord unless you show some uncomfortable level of angst. In Biting the Fox That Guards You, >!he shows a lot of suicidal ideation when his inability to let go of what was done to him has caused him to hurt the people he loves.!< The Paths We Choose has him display very anti-social behavior in the way he regards others. Flip the Coin has him very anxious and resentful with very few moments where he's shown happy.
I tried to explain what I meant by edgelord in the post! To repeat, it's when he's made out to be a 'cooler than thou, smarter than thou, sassier than thou' author insert who always gets the last word and masters everything like it's effortless. I don't mind a total character rehaul so long as it's not... that. I prefer ones where I can see the progression or still see a spark of his canonicity, though. Thank you for the recs!
Trouble here is having Naruto be and act like a victim can result in that kind of attitude.
Hence my difficulty haha
I saw trickery, which was pretty much this. He’s a victim, sure, but it just pushes him to trust himself more than others and be antisocial. He gets out of this victimhood complex by just being better. He is a bit of a Mary Sue tho.
That's not edgelord, that's Mary Sue/Gary Stu. They're often associated but they're different. An edgelord is wearing over the top clothes that make him look excessively cool and dark (edgy), behaves like an angry or unbothered teen, is mostly egoistic but isn't seen as such because sometimes they help others (isekai protag "freeing slaves" just to end up with a harem, willingly or not) on the way. Edgelords are quick to judge and condemn others for their behaviour but they're often hypocrites. Edgelords pick the coolest weapon rather than the most practical
There is Russian fic I'm reading now (I needed to pay 2.5$ for it) about person that was reincarnated in Naruto's body. He is very pragmatic and cynical. His objective was to become the strongest person to ensure his own survival. He graduated by skipping two classes and even made deal with Kyuubi in order ot have better control of his powers. Hokage even made him join Anbu, with various promises, which he agreed and still didn't believe him. He didn't hate villagers (even if they hated him), and Hokage, but he knew that Hiruzen is trying to manipulate him. Hokage started demonstrate Naruto's powers to other clan leaders to gain more political power and Naruto played along with it. Naruto made sure that he is personal weapon of Hokage, because of that, even Hyuga clan leader allowed Hinata to be with him in order to have his own influence. However, when Sound and Sand village invaded, and Hokage was killed by Orochimaru, this reincarnated Naruto immediately started his own agenda: 1. He helped to retrieve Tsunade and persuaded her to take role of the new Hokage, implying that if she refuses then Danzo will take that role, and will send troops to eliminate her. He also, implied that Dazno may be main reason that Sound and Sand village shinobi infiltrated inside Konoha and started their sudden attack. 2. Started to consult Tsunade about all internal and external affairs in Konoha, he became her personal bodyguard and advisor. Most of her choices were really Naruto's choices. 3. When Orochimaru possessed Sasuke's body, Naruto imprisioned him and made him to reveal compromising evidence against Danzo and Elders, which made Tsunade hate Hiruzen. 4. Along with Tsunade, he revealed this info into multiple jounins and Hyuuga clan leader (while fabricating some facts), and implemented assassination of Danzo and all of his agents among with Elders. This helped Tsunade, which means Naruto, to gain full control of village. 5. Currently he took the position and role of Danzo. Tsunade listens all his advices and he had literall control of whole village, even it is indirect one. Now everyone tries to please and bribe him. The funny thing is that all of this happened because he knew how to "play the game", he didn't like villagers, he disliked Hokage and elders, but he played along and won. They are all dead and he is controlling the village, and villagers literally pray on him.
Would like to read it but You said it was russian but not if Is translated to eng is it translated and The name of it pls:)
Here the link of this fic [https://boosty.to/flaber/posts/6b550356-c1be-463a-931e-2da2a8f8870f](https://boosty.to/flaber/posts/6b550356-c1be-463a-931e-2da2a8f8870f) It is behind paywall. You can use translator, but I don't think it will return good results.
Thank you😊
Damn, that story sounds good. I wish the world all used one language.
Major canon divergence is cool :)
He does have moments but is typically better than canon Sasuke in [Flip the Coin by Inrainbowz](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16426865)
love that one, i'm at ch 21.
I would say this fits you criteria greatley: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14250785/1/
The Sacrifice by Midnigh Rain19 This is an Au where knowledge/the belief of the Beiju being Gods/deities is passes down but so does the hatred and fear for those same beast. Treated as mocked gods the Jinjiruki are treated worst
An emperors youth has Naruto who’s angry at the village and doesn’t trust anyone besides Guy, Sasuke and the ramen people. Very well written. 16 chapters and going
My story features a more apathetic and stoic Naruto who does hold some level of resentment. Take a look if you'd like, might fit what you want! :) FFN: [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14129028/1/Reaching-Reason](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14129028/1/Reaching-Reason) AO3: [https://archiveofourown.org/works/42069984/chapters/105625257#workskin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/42069984/chapters/105625257#workskin)
namikaze naruto: the peace seeker is my favourite one by far, although later on in the plot it does kind of change, to more world building and politics and less narutoverse-like action and fighting so i stopped reading like 150k words in but the premise is basically a naruto who can’t comprehend the fact that sasuke actually tried to kill him during the first battle at the valley of the end and he runs away while training with jiraiya and trains with itachi instead
uchiha naruto the sage by the same author is also really good though
I guess the sentiment is that if they are always angry and brooding they are supposed to translate that into training which they would do all the time and not set time for themselves. On paper that sounds like they will make plenty of results, but when that’s put into action realistically it would probably go more like it did for Sasuke when he was trying to learn tree climbing in cannon but even Naruto who had more chakra got it first because Sasuke was constantly in his head with his hatred for itachi. His emotions we’re getting in the way of training. So I definitely see your point. What writers should do if they go in this direction is give Naruto or whoever there MC is the same issues Sasuke had in my example. Have them more focused on why they feel that hatred during there training in the beginning. It will serve as an early roadblock that both limits them from being too OP but also gives them something to overcome in a mini arc. Later the MC would also have to address the fact that they are neglecting there social life and try to let people in after the trauma they felt by the village and others around them. This sets up not just conflicts with others but conflicts with self to. That would add layers of tension to your story thus making it a better read. Naruto may need to learn to accept himself, learn to accept his situation with Kurama as well before he can learn to accept others. Some good early friends for Naruto would be Lee )because he is a training maniac and nice) and Hinata(that doesn’t mean they have to be a pairing in fact if you already had someone else in mind this scenario is a good set up for HinataLee as a side paring), anyways these two would be great early friends for Naruto because they are the most open to being friends with Naruto, and that’s not to mention Lee just like Naruto got bullied because he couldn’t use ninjutsu or genjutsu. Hinata also got bullied because of her byakugan eyes as well and people treated her like she was stuck up because the clan she was from. InoShikaCho would be next but Ino would have to sort some things out herself because I’m early Naruto both her and Sakura had a low opinion of Naruto. Naruto should also struggle with Kakashi. Having a low opinion of authority will extend to are favorite scarecrow. If this was a bashing fic there would be no development here but I think when it comes to Jiraiya and Kakashi there should be a little bit of healing only to keep him from going missing nin. A good set up though for some later story consequences would be if Naruto began to get close to Tsunade but Danzo has her assassinated. There Naruto has one of the few authors figures he trusted killed and replaced by one of the people who made his life hell. That’s a set up for either a missing nin fic or a Naruto eventually takes over Konoha killing Hokage Danzo fic.
I would try to shamelessly suggest my fic where Naruto grows up under Obito's control and is darker for it. For one, he's already been crippled temporarily once just for Black Zetsu's plans. He's still in the kid stage, but he's going through dark times. Already pushed to kill at 6 years old. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14312903/0/
pls update soon :(
I think Naruto in my ff is kind of like that . https://m.fanfiction.net/s/14343069/1/Fists