Table of contents:

Below I have written:
Some things about me, [About]
a list of common English mistakes, [English]
some things necessary for a good story, [How To]
ideas and opinions on how to write a story that feels new, [Tips]
for Naruto, [TipsN]
and Harry Potter, [TipsH]
some annoying mistakes I have seen a lot of writers make, [Rants]
story recommendations, [Story Recs]
a bit about Naruto [Naruto]
and my attempt at balancing Naruto [NaruPatch]
and Harry Potter, [Harry Potter]
and others, [Others]
some story ideas, [Story Ideas]
a small group of the best story ideas with all major styles and pairing for Naruto and Harry Potter, [BSI]
some short scenes, [Snippets]
and finally how to get me to quit reading a story. [HTMMH]

To find the section, just use your browsers search option to look for the key word (with braces), for example: Press "Cntrl""F", write "[Stories]", press "Enter".

To be fair, I have written this not only in the hopes that some of the writers may learn a bit or be inspired by the story ideas, but to a large part to alleviate frustration from seeing this mistakes or other things that annoy me personally. That means there may be stuff mentioned more than once.
I also know that I'm not really qualified to critique any writers, since I have never written anything. I also don't plan on ever writing anything, since I lack time, motivation, imagination, and the ability to write any character with a deeper personality and more screen time than canon Snape or Dumbledore. But I am, at least in my mind, fairly good at analyzing, so I try to leave each writer, of any fanfiction I read, a rather long review with stuff, that could help them improve.

On my favorites list are a the very best stories, I have found here, which means good plot with nice ideas, well written in general, well written fights and character interactions. All that has to be consistent throughout the story, or there would be a few more stories on the list. And, of course, the story has to fit my tastes.

[About]

Some things about me:

The name "Veraq" is from from an old RPG. Since I'm not particularly inventive with names and most are already taken, I decided to use that one. I also remembered it wrong, when I made this profile. Whatever.

I have read well over a thousand books, mainly fantasy and science fiction. Lately most of it is in english, which really helps with the language.

I've also read a lot of fanfiction, especially in the last few years and while I dabbled in a lot of different titles fanfiction, I mainly read Naruto and Harry Potter.

For those, who have come here because of a review of mine:
Sorry, if I sounded too harsh. The more I like a story, the more I get invested into it, and the more I get invested into a story, the more I am bothered by the small flaws and the more I feel the need to point them out, to push the author to make the story just that little bit better.
And, of course, if I like a story, my expectations grow, so while it may not be bad writing to recycle the canon Triwizard tasks and using solutions that I have read a dozen times before, I will still be disappointed, even if that is in no way justified.
So yes, if my review is 90% complaints and me telling you, how you can improve your story (in my opinion anyway), than that means, I liked it. Only once in my entire time on this site, I have only once written a review for a story, I didn't like. I don't even write reviews for many of the stories, I do like, simply because I just feel dumb writing something like "good job, I enjoyed it", but I know, that is important to people, so I've been practicing that.

I don't write or plan to write any story. Ever. Frankly, I'm too lazy and lack skill, patience, and patience to get skill. The closest, I have ever come to actually writing a story, is making tons of notes (~15 pages of notes on plot points, interesting/funny scenes and the characters) for a fic, where Harry is terrified by the possibilities of bullies with magic, gets Luna as a pet, learns the mind arts, because legilimency is fascinating and he is terrified of anyone invading his mind, he finds out in his second year, that Dumbledore is possessed by Salazar Slytherin and he has to get him out again, so that he won't cause a nuclear war with a hate and rage inducing spell to set back muggle technology a few hundred years and allow wizards to catch up. For that he delves deeper into the mind arts and manages to fulfill his task with the help of Hermione, Sirius, Remus, and later Tonks, and when Voldemort returns, he uses that knowledge to program the brains of a few inner circle deatheaters to spy for him, but hides with anyone who wants to accompany him, until finally Hermione convinces him to fight.
Later they build their own fortress in the DoM, become immortal, go to university, and finally start a wizarding world war by reprogramming the most powerful muggles of Russia, the USA, and Britain. How that war goes and what happens after, I haven't thought about yet.

Since then, I sometimes write up detailed storylines (with powers, characters, events,...) as a hobby, typically something, I haven't seen before, or something, that really intrigued me. I'm currently at a total of six storylines and 24k words of notes.

As a rule i only start reading stories with at least 200k words, stay away from any kind of slash or AU with changed character genders (except for the case of Haku, where it is somewhat understandable for an author to change her gender to male) or additional siblings for the main characters.
I also try, but often fail, to avoid unfinished stories of whatever length that haven't been updated in over a year (stories that have been updated within a month get a bonus), no matter what length. I absolutely HATE it, when stories are abandoned. (That is not to say that I don't understand, why one would abandon a story.) While it's a horrible feeling to see an interesting summary, which takes a concept, I haven't read before, has good writing, and characters, I like to see, only to find, it has only 30k words and hasn't been updated for three years, it's downright devastating to read a 200k words story, slowly build up the story, plot, and characters, get to know those characters, and come to love the story, have a great time reading, and looking forward to each chapter, only to come to the end of an unfinished story and to realize, that that story will almost certainly never be finished.

It's quite amusing, how the sight of a story on top of your alerts list can make you ecstatic on one day, but is disappointing on the next.

One thing, I'd like more people to see, is that, if you write a fanfic, it's not your job to make the original author look stupid by pointing out all the mistakes in their world, but to fix them, so your story has a better world. Also, it isn't important, how powerful a character is, but that they grow and change throughout the story through events, conversations, and overcoming challenges.

I enjoy most kinds of stories. Variety is a beautiful thing after all. Good protagonist, evil protagonist, selfish protagonist, humorous, or serious, or dark, whether it's all about power, leadership, or politics, I always like a well written story. The only large category of stories, I try to avoid, are ones without a male protagonist. I don't have anything against them, I just can't really identify with such a character, which, again, isn't really a bad thing or a problem, but greatly diminished my reading pleasure and investment into the story.

The same goes for pairings. People change, that goes even more so for stories. And a good author can change any character into a whatever strikes your fancy, without changing the traits that are essential to that character.

I used to dislike characters like Luke, Superman, or Naruto, but now I see that they are actually quite impressive. They are examples. Superman isn't the perfect hero to end crime, but the perfect example on how humanity should act, he isn't the most effective crime fighter, but instead a goal to work towards. Similarly, Luke shows extremely strong integrity. He doesn't give in and gives up on Vader just because it could become difficult, but pursues his goal no matter what it takes. Naruto doesn't concern himself with things like laws or rules. Instead he does, what he feels is right, the thing that will make him proud of himself, contrary to following a law that he sees as wrong.
I still don't think, those are very interesting characters. I like Vader much better than Luke, I'll always prefer the dark and cunning Naruto from a fanfic to the version from the manga, and Superman will never be as fun or interesting to me as Deadpool.
But if I could be whatever I want, I would learn from those three how to make the choices I truly want to take, no matter, if they are forbidden, dangerous, or difficult.

I've watched Game of Thrones, and I was reminded, just how much of an example the story is to any author of fiction of any kind (except for authors of children's books). A story is so much more interesting without plot armor and if the good guys don't always win, if impossible odds are impossible, regardless of courage, trust, or faith. People are not mindless drones, who follow your views and your code of honor (which was, why the (dead) Starks were idiots), but everyone wants something and won't work for you, if it doesn't bring them closer to that goal. People are not black or white, always grey, and they always change. Also, absolutely no one is always completely logical. People do things that are wrong or stupid, if they're driven by their emotions. And blind trust in people, you don't know, kills just as fast as a knife through the heart.

I don't read slash. I don't have anything against the readers either. I am, in my own opition, a very tolerant person and very true to the concept of "Don't like, don't read!". I read pretty much anything without a slash main pairing and without graphical slash. But slash is, in my opinion, the single most frustrating thing about fanfiction. Again, that is not because I have any problems with it, but because, when I actively search for stories, there are sites that have 90% slash. It is ridiculously frustrating to do a search, have 300 stories, and find out, 180 are slash, 60 are too short and apparently dropped, 40 are total glibberish, and 15 just don't look appealing, for whatever reason. For those, who don't want to calculate, that leaves 5 stories from the original 300.
Even worse is, if I start to read a story, come to like it, and then there is a slash pairing and I have to drop a perfectly good story. That's especially bad for rare crossovers like Addams Family and Harry Potter or for small fandoms.
Come to think of it, I sure rant a lot.

On the other hand, the best part about fanfiction is to discover a story that makes you look at your favorite characters in a completely new light and shows parts of a story or series, that you never noticed. It's also great to find a new and fascinating pairing or storyline or fandom.

The one thing about fanfiction, which I really hate, is bashing. Sometimes, it can be fun for comedic value, but only in really short pieces. Mostly though, it's just contrary to what is, in my opinion, one of the most important rules of writing: That every character has his own history, goals, feelings, and talents.
People are, who they are, mainly because of their genetics (hormones, etc.), how they were raised, and what they experienced in their lives.
That is, what makes humans individuals, and that is, what makes characters interesting.
Bashing takes all of that away and denies any kind of depth to a character, and ignores what made that character, what it is now.
It's something that makes an author look bad, because instead of doing the right thing and making something good out of a bad character, they do the easy thing, bashing a character to alleviate their own frustration.

Live your dreams today, because if you say, you will live them tomorrow, you will say that very same sentence on the day of your death.

[English]

Now that that is done, some of the most common English mistakes:

'they' is a personal pronoun used to refer to objects. Example: Three ninja dropped out of the woods. They were clad in black Anbu armor.

'there' refers to a place. Example: Ichirakus is my favorite restaurant, let's go there for lunch.

'their' is a possessive pronoun and refers to something that belongs to someone (more than one). Example: Naruto and Hinata went back to their camp.

'they're' is an abbreviation for 'they are'. If a character uses such abbreviations depends on their style of speech. Usually it's more authentic to use abbreviations.

'too' can have the same meaning as 'also' but can also be used like 'excessively'.
Examples: I heard, Naruto went to Ichiraku's, let's go there too. Don't you think that was too much force?

'to' is mostly used with the infinitive of a verb. It can also be used to refer to the direction of a location.
Examples: I want to train now. Let's go to the training ground.

'two' is the number 2.

'its' is the genitiv to 'it', similar to 'his' or 'her'

"it's" is short for 'it is'

" 's " is a genitive, indicating something belongs to someone. Example: They went to Harry's house.
There are some exceptions to that rule like "it's", but it's generally true for most substantives.

'-s' is, for substantives, usually plural. Example: We will need many cakes.
'-es' is normally used, if the substantive ends on and 's', like 'class' and 'classes'.

'off' means something similar to 'away from'. 'An event is off' means the event is canceled.

'of' indicates, something belongs to someone, but also means 'from' or 'about'.

'would' is a word that substitutes 'will' if you're writing past tense. Meaning it's uses to refer to the future from past tense. Example: Later Naruto would wonder how he managed that.

'to know' is the verb to 'knowledge'. Example: 'I know, what you did last summer.'

'now' refers to the present moment. Example: 'We have to do this now.'

'couldn't care less' means someone doesn't care at all. 'could care less' (which is the wrong version) would mean someone cares at least a bit.

'lose' is the opposite to 'win'.

'loose' is the opposite to 'tight'.

'loss' is the noun of 'lose'.

'past' is the opposite to 'future', but can also mean 'to the side of someone/something'.
Examples: I wasn't serious about fighting, but that is in the past now. He shot past her, before she could react.

'passed' (means 'went by' or 'successfully completed (a test etc.)') is the past form of 'to pass'.

'few' is used for countable objects.
Example: 'He had a few apples in his backpack.'

'little' is used for uncountable objects, but is also a synonym for 'small'.
Example: 'He had little water left.', 'A little girl.'

'waist' refers to the area between ribs and hips. Example: 'He put his arm around her waist.'

'waste' is something superfluous, for example trash, but also a useless spending of ressources. It is also a verb, 'to waste' means spending something for no or no significant gain. Example: 'This is a waste of time.'

'dessert' is stuff you eat after they main course of the meal, like ice cream or a cake.

'desert' is just like 'dessert', only it doesn't taste good and isn't edible. It also is way bigger and consists mainly of sand or other barren land. Like the Sahara.

'to desert' is to abandon something.

'could care less' means caring (at least somewhat).

"couldn't care less" means not caring at all. I don't get why people get that wrong. Just read the sentence.

'?' is a question marker. It marks a question, something, that requires an answer directly related to said question. Question markers are in general not used in sentences, that state facts.

'Shake one's head', I don't know, if I got that wrong, but to me to 'shake one's head' means 'no', to 'nod' means 'yes'.

'patriarch' and 'matriarch', is the title of the head of the family, depending on their gender. That means, for any family, there is a patriarch OR a matriarch, and that person is the indisputable ruler of the family, the one who makes the final decisions. I don't see, why anyone would use that word to describe the father or mother in a family, since it makes a definitive statement about the power dynamic in the family.
Molly Weasley could be considered a matriarch, as could Fugaku Uchiha a patriarch. But then, Arthur would NOT be a patriarch, and Mikoto NO matriarch.

If you use a word and are not really sure, it means exactly, what you think it means, just look it up. There are plenty of online dictionaries and it will only take a few seconds, especially if you put it in your quicksearch bar. A very good site if you already know a decent amount of english is: oxfordlearnersdictionaries [dot] com. If not, take a look at: leo [dot] org.

If you're not sure of your own grammar, you should check out this page: grammar [minus] monster [dot] com.

Even if you take only a quarter of an hour to learn correct use of commas, it would probably improve your writing a lot.

For someone who wants to improve a lot in the language, I recommend reading a few english books, especially long ones like Lord of the Rings, not the simple ones for foreigners or comedy stuff.

[How To]

How to write a good story:
First off, I have never in my life written a story, except for some pitiful attempts in school, and then only when I absolutely had to. So writing all that stuff about mistakes authors make and how to write a good story makes me a huge hypocrite. I know. And I don't care. At all.
If you want to write a good story, remember, there is the internet. If you want to write a good character, go on youtube and search for a video that explains it to you in ten or less minutes. Same goes for plot, scenes, descriptions, and everything else. There are even interview from authors like J.R.R. Martin, J.K. Rowling, and J.R.R. Tolkien out there.
If you really want to put some effort into learning how to write a good story, pick some scenes fromr really good books and analyze them. Pick an action scene, and find out, what makes it so fast paced and breathtaking. Pick a romantic scene and search for the words and sentences that build the atmosphere. Pick an entire romance and think of how the characters develop and what stages they go through. Pick a sex scene/lemon and analyze it until you know, what makes it hot.
So, what makes, in my opinion, a good story?

A good story (written down) requires three key elements: Story (like it is in your imagination), writing, and language.

Language refers to a certain degree of skill in using English. Spelling and gramma errors make a story difficult to read at worst, at best they just interrupt the flow. Another important factor is synonyms. One should never use a word too often, that's bad style and annoying. That means, a good author should know enough words for anything, that the reader will never think "Oh, that guy uses that word all the time".
The second stage to that is the ability to write certain speech patterns like verbal ticks or accent to make characters better. That includes stuff like swearing and choice of words. Lucius Malfoy doesn't talk like Ron Weasley and the Hokage talks differently from Naruto.
Finally, one can give every character a form of dialect. Every region has it's own dialect, each slightly different from others, and then one can consider, how people learned their way of talking, and so on.

Writing is the most important and the most difficult part. It's the art of describing things, so the reader can picture a scene, to connect scenes fluently, and, most of all, to create an atmosphere. Depending on the character and how a reader should think during the scene, certain things have to be highlighted.
Good writing means making the reader feel sad, when the character feels sad, making the reader marvel at the wonders in your story, making each and every character feel like they are brimming with life.
A good writer can have a dozen main characters, each with their own backgrounds, ambitions, actions, and quirks and none of them will feel like they are similar to another one. Of course no good writer would ever do that, because it would be way too much work and make the story drag on forever with glacial speeds.
Good writing is the difference between writing 'When he came to the top of the hill, he saw, for the first time in his life, grass.' and making the reader feel the wonder and awe of someone, who has only ever seen snow and cold, and now, for the first time, sees something so warm, so alive.

The last key element is story.
That is basically the story you want to tell, not the story, that is actually on the paper after you're done writing.

The first element to your story is the world. The world needs to have a multitude of aspects, you need to think about. It starts with the size, technological level, races, magic or no magic, history, and so on. An important aspect to that is consistency. It should be clear how everything works, with realistic limits. Things like Naruto needing elemental training to create the Rasen Shruiken, but Sasuke not needing it to make his own Chidori variants is a good example of bad consistency. (So is the rest of the Naruto manga btw.)
Anyway, size is very important for a world. If a world is large, like middle ages earth, that means there are civilizations, that have never or only seldomly made contact with each other. If a significant population (wizards/shinobi) is small, that means, that some things, that we think natural, like a working governement, the possibility of wars, significant technological or cultural development, or even something as simple as a search party or a great and grand sports festival, may just be completely impossible, simply because there aren't enough people.
Especially for fanfics, it's important to think about how the concepts, that are used in the story, work. If the author doesn't supply consistent or enough information on something, it's the fanfic writer's job to round out the concept into something that works and makes sense.

In that world you set your characters. Every important character needs their own distinct personality, brand of humor, history, body and clothing style. All characters have to be genuine, each making their own decisions. There is no way to make a good story, if only the main character (and maybe his girlfriend) act like real humans and all others like puppets, only there to show the main characters greatness and to give an excuse for some plot.

Then there is interaction between the characters and the world. Interaction happens every time, a character comes into visual range (or range of any sense, really) of anything. If it's just someone seing a patch of grass, the interaction may produce no visible results, but if one character sees another one, there is already some form of interaction.
All interaction has to fit the characters' personalities and abide to the rules of the world. Interaction is also what is responsible for character development. Every interaction changes a person, even if it isn't noticeable or immediate. For interaction, it is essential to see any word or action from the sides of each character that it affects. If two people talk, don't just let the other speak, what needs to be spoken to get the conversation to where you want it to be, but think of it from the other person's view. How would they hear and interpret the last sentence, and how, considering their character, history, and current situation, would they react to it.

Then there is plot. Plot is a row of events that make the story a story instead of a senseless row of unconnected scenes. The plot can be very simple, only giving a starting point for a story and letting interaction do the rest (if we take the Harry Potter universe at the start of book one and think about every character, flesh them out and imagine, what they would to, there will be a story) or be decided all along with the actual writing process only being a way to connect beginning and end.
Things like the occurence of the Triwizard Cup or the Chuunin Exams aren't plot, they are the results of the actions of characters off screen.
It's extremely important, that the plot for any story is original. Even if someone can rewrite the first three HP books so well, that their story is still a pleasure to read, the story will still be far from what it could be with an original plotline.

So the art of writing a good story is basically thinking of a good plot and use it to draw the reader into a chain of interesting scenes and making it pleasant to read with good language.

Above that, there are the little things. Things that aren't really needed, but make the story much better over all. That includes humor, of course different for every character and stuff like Harry eating a lot of meat as his first meal at Hogwarts, because he never got any at the Dursleys' or couples at Hogwarts being upset at one another for using magic for every tidbit/doing everything needlessly slow instead of using magic. This also means integrating special aspects of your world (like magic, or jutsus) in things like daily life and relationships.

There are, however two important rules:

Patterns.
Avoid them. Any pattern, that appears often in your story will make it less interesting to the reader.
Where is the fun in a new enemy, when you already know, the hero will fight them, lose, train to get stronger, then fight them again, and win. Or they could fight, be on the backfoot, then have some very emotionally relevant flashback, find new strength, and win.
Same goes for conversations. If they all have a certain pattern, they become boring. Also, most patterns are unrealistic because the characters develop with the story.
Take Holmes and Watson as an example. (I've never read the books, but they somewhat represent that stereotype, true or not.) A typical conversation would be that Watson tells his opinion of who the murderer is, Holmes tells, why that theory is useless and makes a theory of his own. But that implies, that Watson never learns anything and always makes the same mistakes, which is unrealistic for any somewhat intelligent person. That doesn't mean that he is instantly at Holmes' level, but over time, he would learn to recognize his own limited way of thinking, then understand how Holmes thinks, and finally learn to think more like Holmes.

Development.
Everything needs development.
The events in a story have an impact on each character. Every word spoken to them, changes a character, but especially something that is new or shocking to them. On the other hand, such changes don't happen over night. For bad things, there is this whole process of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance, a character goes through.
On the other hand, the events of a story also have to develop logically. Every person has to behave in character. Their actions must never be driven by how the author wants the event to conclude. On the contrary, the author has to set the circumstances, so that, with every action fitting the character's personality, the event reaches the desired conclusion.

Fighting is an aspect, that I only mention, because I often read stories, where that is relevant.
When two characters get into a fight (with weapons, magic, fists, ...), both have an agenda, something they want to archive. That agenda can be anything, starting from simply escaping alive, to winning the fight, gaining fighting experience, killing the opponent, stopping an opponent from reaching their goal, to elaborate plans such as putting on a show, making a demonstration of power, etc.
A clear headed fighter will always keep that goal in mind, since winning the fight means reaching one's goal, not defeating the opponent. Of course there are always aspects like battle lust, exhaustion, panic, etc. to keep the fighters from thinking rationally.
So there are more or less two groups of fighters: Clear headed ones, who will put their goal above all else, plan and strategize, trying to figure out an opponent and finding their weaknesses, and instinctive ones, who will simply attempt to outfight their opponent, until said opponent is defeated.
There are also many aspects, that play into a battle: Skill, body (reflexes, speed, stamina, wounds/scars, the senses), experience, eventual magical reserves, ability to analyze the opponent, ability to plan, creativity, ability to use the surroundings, emotional state, and a ton of other things, I didn't think of.
One should take all of those into account, when writing a fighting scene.

But in the end, what truly defines a great author is this:
They show me a world that feels as real as when I look out of the window, with people in it, where I can look at any person and know, this person has a story. I can think of the teammate, or the younger guy, who pops up every few chapters, the enemy, everyone is their own person, with their own strengths and weaknesses, their smarts and knowledge, their dreams and goals and their own story. The main character is just another person, like those around him, but his story is the most amazing story of them all and his is the story that is being told.
It is just like any real story with real people in a real world. The only difference is, that it's amazing.

[Tips]

This section is for some practical advice I have found all over the internet or thought of myself on how you can make your story more interesting.

Subvert expectations. This one is really obvious when watching a tv or anime series. There are many episodes that are very predictable, like the completely perfect new boy-/girl-/friend of one of the main characters turns out to be evil, a character who struggles with some personal issue will have to overcome that and be the hero in the climax of the episode, at the end of the episode, the heroes always win, etc.
For fanfiction, these expectations exist as well, be it that important characters are factually immortal, certain characters always stay the same, the hero will always outgrow everyone else in terms of power, and so on.
Subverting those expectations is a first very important step towards making a more interesting story. Lower the stakes. If the protagonist losing means the end of the world, the reader will know with complete certainty, that the protagonist simply won't lose. Let your protagonist fail. If your protagonist has to protect a village, but fails, and everyone in that village dies a horrible death, every fight scene after that will be far more interesting because the reader knows that the protagonist can fail. Let characters die. Same as the point above, if you build up a side character, only to kill them off, every time a side character's life is at stake will feel more interesting. If you build up a main character, only to kill them off, every time a main character's life is at stake will be much more tense.
It is important here that the characters that die are ones you have actively developed, and aren't just characters from the original story that you never planned on using. Switch things up. Changing the allegiance of characters around is a great way to freshen up the world. Cripple your protagonist. If your protagonist becomes too powerful or grows too fast, just give them some form of debilitation that sets them back.
For example, let Naruto win a close fight, but make him sacrifice an arm for it. After that he'll have to learn one handed seals, regain his instinct and balance, and train to cover for his injured side.
Let Harry have after effects of the cruciatus curse, causing a constant trembling and inflicting him with terribly painful cramps whenever he tries to exert himself, making him unable to use spells. That forces him to either switch to an indirect fighting style which he has to learn from zero, or make him rely on a potion that gives him short windows in which he can fight and forces him to be on a timer in every battle. Before writing a character, think about their flaws, weaknesses and problems. Every important character needs those. They are essential to make them interesting and relatable and are required for personal development.

[TipsN]

So, for the average half decent Naruto story, Naruto learns the Kagebunshin no Jutsu due to Mizuki, gets on Team 7, completes the wave mission, is in the Chuunin exams, fights in the attack on Konoha, goes on a training trip, and fights his way through the Akatsuki, until he defeats Pain.

But what, if someone wanted to make a more interesting Naruto story? Here are some things that, in my opinion, should be changed:

Don't have Naruto learn the Kagebunshin no Jutsu. It is just completely overused and ridiculously overpowered. Make Naruto work for his power. Instead of letting Naruto learn a huge arsenal of jutsu, just give him a few, make him work for them, and make him chose jutsu that give him one well defined fighting style.
Also, don't make jutsu easy to learn. People can get stuck or hung up on figuring something out, a part of a jutsu can require so much practice, that the one learning has to fight with giving up and regain their conviction. There can be as many difficulties to overcome as you can think of. Again: Give Naruto an actual FIGHTING STYLE. Running at someone with a powerful melee jutsu until it hits is not a very interesting or viable strategy. Instead create a fighting style that allows for interesting combat and has clearly defined strengths and weaknesses. Chose a different environment. Let Naruto go Kyuubi mode and destroy Konoha after being mobbed or find some other way to get him out of the village. That allows him to become part of a group of refugees, join Suna, Kumo, or Kiri, and just grow up different from canon.
Alternatively, have a different Hokage. Obviously Minato could survive, but more interesting would be Danzou or Orochimaru as Hokage. Also, the Uchiha coup could succeed or just weaken Konoha enough to make it vulnerable to other villages and open a span of possible conflicts. Put Naruto on a different team. There are many combinations of two Genin and a Jounin to complete Naruto's team that are far more interesting than Kakashi-Sasuke-Sakura. It is important, however, that there is still plenty of conflict and character interaction and growth instead of the team just falling into place. Either ignore the wave mission or give it a different spin. Some other team can kill Zabuza or he can just never be in the area. Alternatively, Gatou can just put a price on the heads of the Konoha team that would draw missing nin from all over the Elemental Nations in order to get what he wants. Write different Chuunin exams. As interesting as it may be to see how your iteration of Naruto does in the Chuunin exams, many readers have read the version with Ibiki and Anko probably over a hundred times. Just think of some other tasks or have the Chuunin exams in a new village alltogether. Also, it is not mandatory in any way to have Naruto in the finals. He can just drop out at any point. If we go with a realistic version, there are dozens of teams or individuals in the exam that can easily defeat him in any stage. There is no need to have the Konoha invasion at all. Having a new Hokage isn't really all that important and the invasion arc is something nearly all Naruto stories have in common. Instead, they could go on the offensive, hunting down Orochimaru's minions before and after the exams or just making a full on attack on Otogakure. Make no training trip. The training trip serves several purposes, mainly to make Naruto older, give him some new jutsu, and improve his power level. If Naruto has a fast power growth to begin with, the graduation age is 15 and the Akatsuki are ready sooner, there is really no need for a trip. On the other hand, it usually also serves to freshen up character interactions when Narutos meets his friends again and they have all grown up, so that trip isn't really bad. Get new antagonists. The Akatsuki are fairly well developed and powerful, so they make good antagonists, but they are horribly overused. Other antagonists could be other hidden villages, like a power hungry Kumo, a vengeful Iwa, Mizu, ruled by Yagura, or a stronger Suna.
The Akatsuki could, for example, still be part of their shinobi villages.
Orochimaru could also be a good antagonist, especially if Sasuke becomes on of his minions and you add a few OCs to his forces.
What is really important is that any antagonists has enough well developed, powerful enemies for Naruto and is more than just a speedbump. Especially if you decide to keep the Akatsuki, kill off one or more of the jinchuuriki instead of having them captured. That stalls the Akatsuki and allows at least one team to pursue other goals, but also sets up a bijuu attack/rampage in the future. Especially if relations between villages are strained, that is a great source of conflict and a good way to stir up tensions all over the country. Making Naruto an enemy to Konoha would provide many powerful and well developed antagonists. Write a realistic relationship that has a significant influence on the story. Real relationships come with problems and developments and getting together is not the end of the romance or problems, but just the beginning. Take the time to develop other characters. Naruto isn't the only person training. Every trains and grows stronger, from Genin to Chuunin to Jounin to Kage. With time, every character should grow more powerful and learn new jutsu as well as have character changes. Write the story about Naruto and his love interest or a friend and have them learning abilities that complement each other, so they become great together, but stay mediocre alone. That also allows for a focus on teamwork.

[TipsH]

The average Harry Potter story is something similar to this: Harry grows up unhappily with the Dursleys, befriends Ron and Hermione, becomes part of the quidditch team, saves the philosopher's stone, defeats Diariddle and the basilisk, finds out that Sirius is innocent, takes part in the Triwizard cup, tries to convince people to fight Voldemort,searches and destroys the horcruxes, and fights the war against Voldemort.

But what if someone wanted to write something new? Here are some of my ideas on what to change:

Let Harry grow up somewhere else. Harry can grow up in some muggle orphanage, be raised by another muggle family, or be straight up raised in the magical world. This could give Harry new people to guide his life and new friends that influence his behavior. Surround Harry with different characters. Hermione, Ron, Sirius, and Dumbledore are very important characters in almost every fanfic. Simply making Harry associate with other characters (Fred, George, Bill, Cedric, or anyone from the huge cast) would add a ton of new character interactions to a story, even if it is some work to build the characters. Stop giving Harry so many advantages. Write him without his vault full of money, his invisibility cloak, and let him meet a group of people who want to take advantage of his fame instead of giving him all the privileges and advantages, which he has in canon.
That also opens up new problems and requires new ideas on how to solve them, which would liven up the story tremendously. Harry can do some other sport instead of Quidditch. Harry could do dueling, broom racing, or take part in any other sport. Alternatively, he could write for a school newspaper or spend his free time exploring Hogwarts. The plots about the philosopher's stone and the diary/COS are just completely overused. Instead of Harry having to protect the stone, Voldemort could be at Hogwarts to kill Harry or not be there at all. The first year could just be time for Harry to acclimatize and learn about magic. For the second year, Harry himself could find the diary and the plot is about Harry slowly getting manipulated by the diary and having to fight back against Voldemort's influence. Sirius is kind of a fixed point in most Harry Potter stories. However, one could focus on the actual process of proving his innocence as well as displaying the mental damage Azkaban has done to him. Sirius could also succeed in killing Peter and then go on a killing spree against former deatheaters or do something that causes him not to meet Harry. The Triwizard cup is the worst offender out of all stereotypes for Harry Potter fanfiction. Those three tasks are just old, especially considering, how easy it is to change that. Take the time to come up with new tasks, three, five, seven, it doesn't really matter. You can also write up a few accompanying elements such as dueling competitions or cursebreaking contests. The whole hunt for the Horcruxes can be much more interesting. Instead of just having them fall into Harry's hands, you could make him really search for them, making him track down obscure hints, interrogating witnesses, all with the all important secrecy so that Voldemort won't notice.
Of course changing the locations and security measures for horcruxes is also a great way to liven up the story. Aside from that, you can have different antagonists than Voldemort. For example, Dumbledore, Sirius, or the aurors could have found and imprisoned Voldemort's spirit before Harry starts at Hogwarts, which takes Voldemort out of the equation.
Instead, Dumbledore could be the antagonist, when he tries to force a confrontation between Harry and the Dark Lord.
The ministry could be the antagonists, when they try to force Harry under their thumb or Harry decides to do something about the bigotry, corruption, and favoritism.
Also, Voldemort has six horcruxes, each of which can corrupt someone until the horcrux takes over. This can make anyone into an antagonist. They could be a politician and have enormous influence within the government, they could be an auror and abuse that power for their own goals, they could be an unspeakable and have strange and powerful magic at their disposal, there are really no limits.
On the other hand, there could be a new Dark Lord on the rise during Harry's time at Hogwarts. Use goblins, centaurs, and magical creatures. You could write a whole book on Harry and friends trying to prevent Voldemort from inciting a new goblin rebellion or keeping a tribe of magical creatures from joining him. He could spend a year searching for ancient artifacts from all over the world to find a way to kill dementors, there are so many unused possibilities.

[Rants]

Congratulations, you made it to the ranting section of the profile, where i complain about dumb stuff that gets on my nerves in order to get it out of my system. I kind of hope, some people will read this and learn from it. So, without further ado:
The Ranting Section; aka. Really dumb stuff, that some authors do (even if it's Kishimoto, who does it, it's still dumb):

Let one or every female character have some sort of trigger, from which they become raging brutes, who are suddenly able to overpower anyone, regardless of power to beat up a man. This is actually one of the things that can make me sick of a story after only a few times.
First off, I accept, that that is usually done as a form of comedy. But fact is, that it often mirrors real life abusive relationships as some sort of running gag, which I find unpleasant. While I'm neither squeamish nor any kind of sensible, but I find the thought of an abusive relationship terrifying in ways other forms of pain or violence just can't quiet reach, mainly because the mix of dependence, trust, loss of control, and mindless destructiveness. But aside from that, a joke works, because it is unexpected, it shifts the readers perspective. If I expect someone to get beaten up whenever they say something that doesn't fit that female's fancy, the joke isn't funny anymore, it's just depressing.
The pattern often depicts real life abusive relationships in a positive or humorous way. Patterns like someone (most often women) inflicting violence one someone (most often men) without any provocation to justify that level of violence, the victim just accepting the abuse, doing nothing to retaliate or end any contact with the abuser, some victims even rationalizing their abuse, accepting that they 'deserved it' are serious signs, showing in real live abusive relationships. That is something, people go to prison for and I, personally, find it really disturbing to see something like that shown a positive/humorous light.
Now one could argue, that it is in some way justified, for example as a punishment when the man does something perverted or selfish. But there is the fact that in nearly all cases, that 'punishment' has no effect whatsoever, and with that it is no longer punishment, but abuse for the sake of stress relief. What makes that even worse is, that often the man/boy has no idea, what he is being beaten for. There are many Naruto fics, where he is beaten up (by Sakura for example) without ever having a clue why. Just imagine going through your day and suddenly some girl comes and punches you in the face for no reason and then proceeds to kick you for fun.
Sadly, for some characters, it is even somewhat realistic to take the abuse. Canon Naruto is a good example, since he endures Sakura's beatings because they are some sort of attention and some sort of connection to him. On the other hand, there are ridiculous examples of characters who have been beaten and tortured in their childhood and later accept beatings from some girl without any problem, like it is all natural and justified. In reality, their trauma would lead to them either folding into a ball to keep the worst of the abuse away from soft areas, or become extremely violent. On the other hand the abusive female friend or girlfriend never gets the idea to get the man professional help or something.
What completely boggles my mind is that the males are then deathly afraid of the female(s), but never change their behavior or do anything about the beatings, neither defending themselves, nor getting away from the abuser. It's like they like being in a relationship with the perpetual fear of random beatings. Of course males never have such a trigger that has them beat females in a similar fashion, because that would be horrible and abuse. In that sense Naruto (and many other manga) as well as it's fanfiction is actually incredibly sexist. I have actually read one manga, where the male was dishing out the abuse and the female on the receiving end. Even though, it was actually an important part of the plot, I thought it quite funny, how much of a fuss people made about that compared to the normal case (abusive female).
There are two more extremely annoying aspects which concern the writing. Usually there is only one abusive brute female, but some of the worse fanfiction authors let every female have that trigger that turns them into abusive brutes. That is horribly ooc for many characters, especially even tempered and gentle ones like Hinata or Haku, Hermione or Luna, etc. Hell, if Hinata were to beat up Naruto in a fit of rage, I honestly think, she would break down mentally and maybe even try to kill herself.
Even worse is, that this is used as some lazy way out of awkward (or any other) situations, whenever the author doesn't want to bother doing things right or wants to prevent character development. This is a horribly annoying way, especially in manga and anime, to keep the plot from moving, avoid adult situations, or upset the status quo.
All around, this is one of the things in stories that bother me the most, even if that is probably not justified.

Showing how good your main character is by putting down those around him. This is something, I feel, I read quite often, and sometimes also see in some movies or series, where a (often female) main character is shown to be strong and competent by portraying everyone around them as idiots.
But a truly strong character is one, who shines in spite of being only on par with or sometimes outclassed by others in their environment.
Harry Potter is a strong character, but he isn't an extremely powerful wizard. There are also likely better examples.

Not thinking about what you write. I can't believe how many writers just don't think about what the words, they write down, actually mean. That causes all kinds of dumb things, from "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" to characters doing things that are completely idiotic and don't fit them at all.
And all that could have been prevented, if the writers had taken the two seconds to actually think about and understand the sentence they're writing.

There is another side to "not thinking about what you write", and that is ignoring the implications of events in your stories. Most importantly on a basic level. A great example for a complete fail in that regard is a scene in Star Wars: The Last Jedi:
Vice Admiral Whateverhernameis engages the hyperdrive and rams Snokes giant ship. That means, capital ships are completely useless in the whole canon. The only reason anyone would use a military ship large enough to be hit by any other ship in hyperspace is, to serve as a resting place for the fighter pilots, that decide the war.
Otherwise, for example during the battle of Hoth, the Rebellion could just hyperspace jump with one ship per stardestroyer and take out Darth Vader's fleet at the cost of something like a ten transports and a frigate. Of course there would be specialized ram ships, that would allow the pilot to escape in a fighter before entering hyperspace and taking down an enemy capital ship. These ships would be cheaper than a transport.
And with that single scene, Star Wars warfare is forever changed. But apparently, you only need something like 5 X-wings and a bomber to take out a dreadnought, anyway.

Plot Armor. Obviously almost every story has some amount of plot armor. But some stories are just ridiculous. In some occasions in Harry Potter and Naruto, half of the semi- (or more) important people get a bunker's worth of plot armor and a nuclear arsenal worth of plot sword. For example, when a group of first years manages to traverse a dungeon designed to keep out Voldemort. Or when every single one of the rookie nine manages to pass the second stage of the chuunin exams, even though they are obviously weak and there are tons of way older, better trained, and more experienced teams. To make it worse, the rookie nine are almost half of the remaining genin.
The problem is that plot armor makes stories boring and unrealistic. This is, what makes Game of Thrones so good. It takes at least half the fun out of reading a story, when you know, that there are a bunch of people, who are guaranteed to never be killed.

Writing characters without flaws. Flaws are essential to any character, make them real and relatable, and leave room for improvement.
It can't be overstated how important flaws are for any character. Those flaws should, of course, also have an influence on the story. On the other hand, there is nothing more boring than reading a story and knowing that the MC is guaranteed to have the upper hand, no matter what happens, and that that MC will handle any situation with the best imaginable solution.

Changing the rules of your world according to what you want to happen in a situation. That includes things like the bad guy getting away, and getting killed in the same situation some other time. My favorite example is, when a Naruto clone has to fight the Sandaime Raikage. The wind element counterst lightning, but Naruto's Rasenshruiken (the most powerful wind jutsu in existence, from what I know) is unable to overcome the Raikage's lightning armor.
That is unrealistic because of the elements, but also because the defensive power of the lightning jutsu is stretched over the whole body, while the Rasenshruiken impacts only a small part (which is why offensive weapons will always be stronger than defensive shields). With that chapter, Kishimoto made a great example for how you can make yourself look like a complete idiot. (Kishimoto is really, really good at that.)

Easy learning. Imagine, there is some extremely powerful attack and imagine that attack was refined by a powerful person with immense skills through countless battles and represents the absolute pinnacle of its kind of attacks. Now imagine our main character comes and learns that attack, far above his level of power and skill, in two or three days. What is wrong with that picture??
I read a fic where Naruto and a bunch of other characters learn Tsunade's strength technique and they can do it ON THEIR FIRST TRY. ON THEIR FFIIRRSSTT TRY!!! SERIOUSLY?? HOW???? HOW?????

Plot driven actions. This is the same topic as the two above. This means people acting completely out of character because the author wants to go towards a specific plot point.
An example would be: Bad guy 1 is held in a medical station. Bad guy 2 is sent to free him and sets of an explosion in the power generator, deactivating the security measures, but also activating a blaring alarm, notifying everyone about the attack. Just after freeing bad guy 1, they are confronted by a few good guys. Then a nurse stumbles in and is taken hostage. That means, that the nurse has decided that she should use the occasion of a blaring intruder alert to check up on a patient, that wouldn't need her help anyway, ignoring all safety protocol and common sense.

Misjudge the effects of age. In many fanfics, the protagonist starts out very young, like Harry Potter (11) or Naruto (12). When I was 17, I often laughted at myself, how dumb and naive I was at that age. I also remember that, at that age, those were the pipsqueaks who would respectfully make space for the upper years. From that point of view, thinking like a grown up person or even dating someone three or more years older is really unrealistic until the mc becomes older.

Mess up fighting styles.
Before writing a fight or introducing a character, think about their fighting style. What are their strengths, their weaknesses, their skills, their knowledge, their experience. How did they live and how did have they built their own fighting style to use their strengths and cover/overcome their weaknesses?
Take Kakashi for an example: His sharingan-raikiri combination is an almost surefire kill. His fighting style revolves around figuring out his opponent and setting himself up for a quick and sure kill.
Another example is, how Naruto should fight. He should use jutsu with large area of effect and ones that are hard to avoid as well as sheer numbers to force an opponent to use their own jutsu defensively, running them out of chakra, until they are helpless before him.
General Grievous from Legends fights in a way that relies on him first terrifying his opponents, weakening their connection to the force, then setting them into a state of panic with his ridiculous speed and strength, before overwhelming and killing them.
In general intelligent, knowledgable, and experienced characters should try to take control of the flow of the battle, manipulating it to their advantage and setting themselves up for a widow in which they can use their stengths to archive victory.
Fighters with excel in terms of power, speed, or similar should rely on these attributes to overwhelm their opponent. (In that respect, overwhelm can mean anything from being to fast to keep up with, to outlasting ones opponent.)
But in the end, every character needs to have or develop a fighting style that plays to their strengths and personality.

Write a character, who meets the main character, and then makes a personality180 turn.
Life doesn't work that way. While changes in behavior can be fast, changes in personality are usually rather slow going.
Also, changing a character too much, even if appropriately slowly, is usually a bad idea. The reason is simple. A character is defined by their personality in the original work. It makes no sense to use Hinata and make her confident and strong by the second chapter, or Luna and make her stop seeing weird creatures. By doing that, one takes away the parts that are essential to the character and why people like them.
And if an author just uses a character, because they like, how they look, it's really better to just make OCs, rather than changing a character till there is nothing left but name and appearance.

Bashing. So you noticed, that a character in the original comes over like total ass and you don't like them. So you think about what bad character traits that character has, push that to ridiculous levels and let it define them. That's weak!
If you don't like a character, write them differently. If you hate Dumbledore being a useless manipulative old goat, write him as a wise old man, who is underqualified for and overcome by his many duties , who never wanted the fame or the titles and instead only desired to research into the wonders of magic.
If you don't like Sasuke, either because he is a broody, egocentric ass, who has everything, Naruto doesn't, but still doesn't appreciate it, or because he is, contrary to Naruto, actually talented and not a complete retard, write him differently. Write him as a better person, or show, why he is, how he is, or just forget about him after the Genin exam and give him two or three lines, when needed, at worst just kill him off with the rest of his clan.
What bashing actually means is, that you prefer to trample on the work of another author instead of showing, how it could, in your opinion, be done better.

Use stuff like "one of the most..." inappropriately. "Konoha was one of the most powerful shinobi villages." That sentence is dumb, beause there are only five great shinobi villages and there should be a clear power ranking. But if Konoha isn't the most or second to most powerful village, it really means nothing. The other common case is "... was one of the best shinobi/wizards I know." That sentence seems to be said about everyone. Absolutely everyone. It's like there were no mediocre people, but everyone is outstanding. In most cases that sentence is simply not true. On the other hand it's also very insubstancial. It really says nothing of importance about the person, talked about. Even worse, that sounds like skill in the shinobi arts/magic is the only thing that counts. Why can't someone just say, someone else was a nice/helpful/compassionate/smart/funny/happy person? Or if it has to be power oriented, it could still be cunning/inventive/fierce,... There are so many much more important traits than raw skill.

Use sentences like "He threw three or four shruiken." or "... circa three shruiken.", and so on. There is no way, someone would ever miscount between three or four shruiken (hidden ones don't count here) so that sentece is completely misplaced.
Basically such vague sentences should only be used for numbers too large to count with one glance.

Repeat information. That refers to mentioning something in every other sentence, like Harry, who has to tell every person, he meets, how terrible the Dursleys are or Naruto's girlfriend, who apparently has a checklist of the twenty times a day, she has to tell him, how terrible the villagers are and how nothing is his fault, but it is extremely annoying, when people write something like:' "What was that", asked Naruto, not sure, what that was.'
The second part of the sentence has an absolutely amazing well of new information.

Use abbreviations. And I don't mean abbreviations like "don't" or "it's", but rather "etc." or writing "3" instead of "three" or "&" instead of "and". That really puts a damper on how smooth a text feels.
There are some rules about numbers. Usually the numbers with and absolute value of twelve and below are written as words. Numbers "13" and above are written as numbers. Exceptions are numbers as part of a name or when you number warehouses for example from one to twenty. Then you should be consistent and either write all numbers as words or numbers.
There are two more things of interest. If you use numbers, especially in a non formal setting (no debriefing or sth. like that), dozens (a dozen = 12) sounds much better than tens. In some cases a score (20) can also be used.

Use words like "fucking" in sentences like "the door was fucking loud". That is just terrible writing. First off, it likely breaks character, since most MCs from fandoms, I have read about, would not use such language, sometimes that kind of language doesn't even exist in that world, which is, why it totally breaks the flow of reading as well as the character. An obvious exception are charcters, who actually swear a lot as part of their personality, but even then, overusing those worlds is bad.

Use comparisons with stuff from our present time, when not appropriate. When you write a fanfic in an exotic world, like the wizarding world, or the Star Wars universe, use comparisons appropriate to that time and world. Such comparisons are actually great ways to bring depth and further immersion in the story without much effort.
A nice example for that would be 'all the money in the world', in the Star Wars universe, where that clearly doesn't mean much.

Neglecting the bad stuff.
How happy someone feels doesn't depend on what they have now. If someone always had money, was cared for, had friends, opportunities, privileges, loved ones, they may still be unhappy, because for them, all those things are normal.
What matters is, at least partially, the difference in happiness from the norm. If someone was rock bottom and gains all those things above, they'd be far happier, than the person in the first example has ever been.
This is why the main character has to experience both good and bad things. The bad things can't just happen off-screen, since they are just as important as the good.
Besides, bad things happening makes the story more realistic.

Let the protagonist become really really powerful and then they easily overcome all challenges. B-O-R-I-N-G. I've read on one author's site, here on ff.net once: "If you give Frodo a lightsaber, you have to give Sauron a Death Star."
Obviously Frodo (or Sam, since Frodo didn't really do anything) would need knowledge about the Death Star's weakness and a X-wing in that metaphor, but the point stands.

On the same note: Make the protagonist the only person with a brain. Let's say, Harry Potter starts his day, finds out about occlumency, finds an unique style of occlumency that makes it absolutely impossible for anyone at all to read his mind, even if his opponent has a hundred years of experience on him. Then he goes and learns spells. He, of course, gets every spell, no matter how difficult, with at most the third try. Then he becomes a friend to the Goblin nation, because he is the only person in magical Britain, who is able to be civil with them and respect their culture. He of couse has learnt Gobbledygook to impress the goblins when he comes to Gringotts once per year to get his school money. After that, he has lunch, finds a way to destroy dementors, ignoring, people have tried that for hundreds of years, and builds the perfect magical armor. Then he goes and kills Voldemort because he's bored.
That story has a huge problem. That is, that some authors seem to forget, that the protagonist isn't the only person with a brain. And if you take Harry's first year and make Harry a more realistic character, you have to make other characters more realistic, too. Admittedly, most people just want to live their lives, so they don't strive for excellence, but Voldemort is at least as smart and powerful as Harry and also had at least ten more years to grow. There are lots of powerful people or geniuses in the world and it's just unrealistic, that the protagonist is just soo much better than everyone else.

The same goes for training. Say Harry/Naruto is taken in and raised by someone. They, of course, teach the main character all about magic/shinobi skills and by the time, they come to Hogwarts/become Genin, they are far more powerful than any of their peers.
That's just dumb and completely neglects, that, for example, Sasuke spends most of his time training alone, ever since long before the Uchiha massacre, and Lucius Malfoy certainly would do his best to have his son as well prepared as possible for Hogwarts.
So, in the end, the only ones, who are weaker compared to the protagonist, would be muggleborns/civilian raised people.

Banalize powers.
The Raikiri and Imperius curse are two examples of spells that are completely banalized. Learning to resist the Imperius seems to be something all relevant characters can do and the Raikiri is thrown around like it's going out of fashion.
But if you take the time to remember, the Imperius curse was powerful enough to subjugate both Viktor Krum and Barty Crouch, all of which are quite powerful wizards, which makes this spell incredibly powerful. Raikiri is an extremely destructive jutsu and is far more powerful than what many Jounin have in their arsenal.
But both of those are often completely ignored or made to be nearly completely irrelevant, much like many other skills, as soon as someone learns something more destructive.

Ignore mental effects.
Take Kakashi's bell test as an example. Three genin have to get two bells from a jounin and are told, whoever doesn't get a bell fails, but in reality they only pass if they put aside their differences and focus on getting the bells.
It seems like Naruto figures that out in the vast majority of fanfictions. True enough, it isn't that hard, especially with some background knowledge. But that reasoning completely ignores the mental effects in this situation. The genin are awed by Kakashi, have never before been in a team, are distracted by hunger, anxiety, fear of failure, panic, and a myriad of other emotions. They don't think clearly, since they severely lack in experience with such situations. They focus completely on defeating Kakashi, trying desperately to come up with a way to defeat that overpowering jounin, and don't even waste a single thought on a possible hidden meaning behind the test. A chuunin with plenty of battle experience might be calm enough to come to the right conclusion, but certainly no genin, no matter how powerful.

Make a harem for the protagonist (or multiple girlfriends/wives or whatever you want to call them) and making their personalities very close to each other. That usually means, the reader can't see the difference between them and that is, unless intended, bad. Another thing that seems to happen often, when a protagonist gets a harem is, that they just roll over and do whatever the girls tell them, letting them manage his time and just giving stupid comments like "Don't I get any say in that?" in a resigned tone. Please don't do that. That's unrealistic and (at least for me) very annoying to read. In this case the girls often give teasing commands to the protagonist or take control from them in an equally teasing manner. Most times that is just massively ooc for said girls (or at least the majority of them). This is especially amusing, if it is a plot, where Harry fights to get out from under Dumbledore's thumb, only to let his life be run even more strictly by a couple of girlfriends.

Make the protagonist be the only decent human being in someone's life. That's especially often the case for women. Their environment is portrayed as a place full of lechers and perverts without a single person, that isn't after them for their bodies. Like every man turns into a brainless sex crazed animal within a kilometre of them. And only the protagonist treats them like a human. The same happens for people hated everywhere or similar things.
The world is large. A town is large. Even a big village is large enough to make it very improbable, that the protagonist is the sole one person, that treats others (meaning those select others that have some sort of stigma (sexual, hate, or otherwise)) like a normal human.

Similar to the last one. Make everyone, but some random people (who were important figures in the original) hate/hurt/use someone, even if those random people have no reason whatsoever for that. For example all Anbu plan to make Naruto's life hell and hate him, only Inu (Kakashi) and Neko (Yuugao) act like decent human beings. Kakashi has an obvious reason for helping/liking Naruto. Yuugao doesn't have any reason, she's just random and that makes it just dumb, that she's the single person in the Anbu not to hate Naruto without some rational reason for that. If it were just random, there would be at least a few others.
The same is, if everyone hates Naruto, except Teuchi and Ayame, and the Hokage, and Kakashi, and Iruka, and Shikamaru, Chouji, and Ino, and Konohamaru, ... So everyone hates Naruto, but every single person, he interacts with, even if it's only for a second doesn't hate him and is horrified by what he has had to endure.
There's a somewhat similar problem with people being nice. For example, there are some fanfics, where everyone is a perfectly nice person. Their bad points are completely neglected. But characters without any bad sides are not authentic.

Oversimplifying characters. For example Sirius: He is usually portrayed either as a happy go lucky guy or as an egocentrical idiot. But he has spent twelve years in Azkaban, forced to see his worst memories again and again, like trapped in a nightmare, bur worse. He also defied his old and powerful family, fought his bigoted and inbred parents for independence, overcame prejudice and hate, he was raised to have, only to be betrayed by a man, who had been his friend for over a decade. And in the end, he is still lucid enough, not to sink into the pit of despair and do, what no one has done before, escaping Azkaban to rescue his godson, while being the target of the biggest manhunt in over a decade.
So his character is so much deeper and there are many things that should be given at least a sentence to clarify his motivations. Without those clarifications, that make characters more genuine, they are far to twodimensional and simple.
Obviously, it is extremely difficult to write every single character as a complete person, and I can count the number of stories, in which all characters are portrayed as genuine people, on one hand. But on the other hand, it is really bad, when a reader gets the feeling that every character but the most important three or four are barely more than robots.

Have some very powerful evil guys become good, but as soon as they become good, they lose all their power for some unidentified reason and can't help the protagonist, but have to ask for help all the time instead.
Conversely, if a good guy becomes evil, he gets an instant powerup and can therefore easily defeat his former allies.

Write a character that makes threats like 'Try to manipulate me one more time and I will destroy you.', meaning serious and, supposedly, badass sounding death threats (or other threats) and never actually does anything, regardless of what the other person does. Instead that character makes more threats, maybe because of different topics.
If a character makes a threat, then use clear conditions, clear consequences, and carry them out without fail or mercy.
That makes the one making the threats look like they are afraid or unable to carry them out, or only like an idiot.
If a character is supposed to be badass and make threats, they should have clear conditions, be serious, and, most importantly, should be fulfilled, if anyone comes even close to fulfilling that condition or tries to circumvene it.
A threat is only useful, if the one who is threatened believes that the other will actually fulfill the threat.

Write a scene (in Harry Potter), where someone holds their wand to someone's throat. Why would anyone do that? What would they do, if the other person fights back? Singe their skin with sparkles? Because holding a wand to someone's throat leaves no room for wand movement and also provides openings for a counterattack. The threatened person can just reach up and snap the wand, they are threatened with, and there is nothing, the attacker can do to prevent that, aside from throwing away their own wand and starting a fist fight.
In movies, there often is a scene, where someone holds a gun to ones head, only for that someone to slap the gun away and engage in melee combat.

Write some character like the Hokage (used to giving orders and keeping a calm head in a fight) saying things like: "Someone bring me that scroll! NOW!"
It's basically common knowledge, that that's ineffective and dumb. If you want something done fast, give a specific order to a specific person, so no one wastes time communicating, who should do it. (That can take a really long time, if time is of essence.)

Make a main character too special. Like absolutely EVERYTHING that character does has to be special and better than anyone before him. For example: Harry goes with Hagrid, he gets a wand, but it is some extremely old, extremely special one, that no one has used for five million thousand billion gazillon years, which gives a huge reaction, that almost blows Diagon alley away. Then he gets a pet, but instead of an owl, he gets a nundu, or basilisk, or phoenix, or dementor, or veela (ok, I'd be in for that), who has rejected everyone else and only likes him for some reason, as a pet. When he comes to Hogwarts, he is so special, he needs his own house, because he is the most special person ever and it doesn't matter that the houses aren't all that important and there were no other housed since the founders. His animagus form has to be a dragon, or demon, or phoenix, or nundu, or basilisk, or some other weapon of mass destruction, because being one animagus out of maybe a hundred all over the world, isn't special enough. Did I mention, that the mc is obviously also a most intelligent genius and has the greatest talent and natural magical power in the history of the universe? Obviously, he is also, for some reason, the magical heir of Merlin and all Hogwarts founders, as well as the king of magical Britain.

The law of Inverse Proportionality of Numbers and Power. Basically, if there is one deatheater (or enemy shinobi or shadowclone), they are a huge problem, but if there are a hundred deatheaters (or enemy shinobi or shadowclones), they are still a huge problem, but each one can be swatted like a fly.
Needless to say, reality doesn't work that way and if one enemy takes heroic efforts to bring down, hundred enemies of the same strength would take a hundred times (or more) of that heroic effort to defeat.

Pretending revenge is either always good or bad. Some character would avenge a friend, some would just go on with their lives.
But fact is, for a village revenge/justice/whatever is actually very important. If and Iwa nin kills a Konoha shinobi and Konoha does nothing, that means Iwa nin can continue doing that without punishment. If, however Konoha kills the shinobi, who killed their man, and then goes on to destroy their family, everyone will know, that fighting a Konoha nin is a losing proposition, no matter if one wins or loses the actual fight.

Let a character have a life changing revelation and then let them completely change their life, but mentally act, as if nothing happened. For example: Sakura realizes, that she was a complete ass to Naruto, who didn't deserve it in the least and she also finds out that Sasuke doesn't care for her at all and is completely focussed on revenge. So she goes to Naruto, apologizes, and asks him out on a date. The next day, she is happy with Naruto and acts as if nothing is wrong.
A realization of that magnitude would take some time and most likely send her into a depression for at least a few days, as she comes to terms with the things, she has done and the fact, she has wasted five years of her life.
Take Haku for example. She has spent years as some mix of apprentice, slave, pet, and daughter (that sounds sooooo wrong) of Zabuza. Say, he dies, Haku lives, and someone tells her that living for someone else is a waste of her life and that she should be her own person.
(Let's just ignore that this just isn't true, if dedicating her life to Zabuza makes her happy, that is a perfectly fine use for her life. Telling her the contrary is stupid and hypocritical since one would just replace her arbitrary opinion of what is right, with someone elses.)
After hearing that, Haku will certainly not suddenly be a perfectly fine person, with wants and dreams, but still be just like before, maybe now with the goal to slowly change herself, maybe not. She would be like a solar system, with a sun that has suddenly disappeared, her whole life falling apart without a centerpiece, the only way to fix it is to find a replacement. So she would search for a replacement for her dead master, for which Naruto is the obvious choice (Haku respects and likes Naruto, he also wasn't directly involved with Zabuza's death), and maybe work towards becoming her own person. I think it very unlikely, but she could also just try to become a normal person, only subconsciously building a replacement relationship similar, but less extreme than the one with Zabuza. But learning to become her own person takes time. She has to discover, what she wants from life, has to learn a multitude of skills, she has never needed before, has to slowly change herself and grow.
It would take months for her to be a fully functional person by herself, and even longer, maybe till the end of her life to fully heal the scars from her early life.
Of course, that is an extreme case, but it is still true that behavior can change from one day to the next, personality changes take time.

Write a scene, where a character reveals something and then they talk for hours needlessly about the subject without mentioning the core point that is needed to understand the rest, all that to build up more suspense.
It's fine, if a someone dodges around a bit because they're afraid of the consequences of what they have to say, or to rile another character up, but just giving all the non essencial information before the core part needed to understand it, for the sake of suspense, is just dumb.

Have a character do unintentionally something bad to another, then be forgiven and just bring it up as a halfsentence in every conversation for the next three chapters, so he can be forgiven again and again (by the same person). The author may use that to show the second character's affection for the first one or something like that, but it just seems desperate.
The same goes for a character that had some bad stuff happening to them (like Harry's childhood) and the author brings it up again and again and again and again, even when it's not needed, or even making some unneeded insertion in a conversation with no other use than to bring that up, only for the "I don't want to talk about it." card to be played.

Have a character (99.999% a male) in a relationship, where the other person (99.999% a female) constantly looks down on them, treats males in general like a subhuman species on the level of an amoeba, tells them what to do, when to do it, allows them no personal freedom, doesn't accept, when that person has their own plans, ideas, or - heavens no! - own will, everything is their fault, and the other person regularly uses physical violence to vent frustration on them.
Unless that character (99.999% a male) is a giant masochist with an unending lust for humiliation, on a level, that is by no means safe and would cause any sane friend/girlfriend to put them into a closed psychiatric facility, there would never be anyone, who would love or stay in love with that person (99.999% a female). Even if there were circumstances that would force them to stay together, the first person (99.999% a male) would just do their best to stay away from the other person (99.999% a female) and just come home or interact at all at night.

Give every character some of the author's traits. For example every person in someone's fic would spend the rest of their life taking revenge for the death/suffering of a loved one, if needed. But in reality, some people think like that, some keep it in the back of their head and take revenge, when opportunity nox, others just don't bother, and others again know, that taking revenge does nothing aside from making themselves unhappy. (Like Haku is that type.)
In general, it's a very bad idea to give all characters any common traits.
An often seen example of that is, when every single character can't help but blush at the mere mention of sex. That, of course includes womanizers, like Sirius, old people like Dumbledore and McGonagall, and every kind of character, including assertive and confident ones.

Write a character (especially the main character) so, that he views every female as a goddess far out of the reach of a humble human (meaning man) like himself and abhorred at the notion of his unworthy peasant fingers touching the perfect beautiful skin of this unreachable goddess.
Seriously, a character having a healthy respect for everyone else is one thing, but that just looks, like someone hit the character too hard on his head and messed something important up.
It's already dumb to assign a value to a human, saying one is better than another one, if you don't know exactly, what that person went through and what made them the person, they are. Even worse to view a girl/woman like that because of her (outer) beauty. Not only would that be massively annoying to any sane person, it would also lead to an extremely screwed up relationship and probably means that the protagonist (or who ever has views like that) has some serious self confidence issues.
On the other hand, having to describe a female 'as beautiful goddess with perfect body', instead of describing how the main character sees her and how his gaze wanders over her and notices what makes her beautiul (beautiful eyes, long legs, cute face, ... one or two things stand out) shows lack of skill for an author.

Refer to Sasuke's hair as Duckbutt.
The first time, I read of this, I thought, it was hillarious. But now, after reading dozens of fanfics, where Sasuke is called Duckbutt in every second sentence, it isn't funny anymore, but rather feels like kicking a corpse. It's also a bit pathetic to see characters, who fight for their lives on a daily basis resort to something as childish as name calling.

Force Harry to compete in the Triwizard Tournament because he was entered into a magical contract. Funny. That means that everyone with a scap of paper with a name written on it (maybe the name has to be written by that person) can force anyone into a binding magical contract.
So Harry can enter Voldemorts name (if it needs to be written by the person himself take some old school work) in the goblet and Voldie will lose his magic. Since the number of schools can be easily changed with a confundus, he can than proceed to rob the magic of anyone, he wants.

Give a shinobi a sword and then have the sheath fastend on the waist. Realistically the sheath of a sword would be fastened on the back, or depending on the length of the blade, in the small of one's back or on the thight. Anything else, like on the waist, just allows for long parts of it jutting out, creating more room for jutsu, blades, or anything else to catch on.

Give someone (in Naruto) a sword and then have their whole fighting style revolve around that sword. They are ninja, not samurai. Bashing on someone with a sword until they die is not a shinobi way of fighting and wind/fire/water/... slashes are so old, that they were already old, when I was born. It may be fine for a few side characters, but for a main character it's just annoying. Btw: Zabuza's fighting style is silent killing. He doesn't even need a sword.

Write a fight and then make someone cancel every enemy jutsu. If you think about the first fight of Zabuza versus Kakashi, Chakra management is a very important part of the fight. So if you can dodge an enemy jutsu, canceling it out or blocking it with another jutsu is just a waste of chakra. Even a Kawarimi costs less chakra than any jutsu used to cancel out another one. The only reason, a shinobi should have to cancel out another shinobi's jutsu is to protect a civilian or if he has some other motif. Even a Genin team should be taught to stay far enough out of a fight, so their sensei can't be forced to protect them by an enemy shinobi.
(Kakashi matching Zabuza's jutsu with his own (in the first fight) was an all-in move, making Zabuza lose concentration and slip up. That was carefully planned and no senseless waste of chakra.)

Change something from the original without understanding, why it is there. It's a bit ridiculous to demand every writer to understand the underlying meaning of every detail of the story they base their fanfiction on, but many of the originals aspects are there for a reason. Granted, many things, especially in Naruto, are the way they are, because the author screwed up. (At the beginning of Naruto, the whole stuff with the significance of jinchuuriki, Naruto being Minato's son, Kakashi's connection to Minato, obviously wasn't planned. That shows in a ton of plotholes, like why Naruto never had any contact with Kakashi or Jiraiya, or why the former one was completely uncaring of Naruto.)
But there is also much detail and symbolism, that is important.
Take Haku as an example. Zabuza took her in and she has chosen him as her Master, the person, she lives for. That is, why she uses the suffix '-sama'. Now, if Zabuza dies and Naruto takes over this role, Haku will call him 'Naruto-sama', if not outright 'Master/Goshoujin-sama'. If she stops doing that, that means, she has found something else to live for, some other goal to strive for. And that is a lot of character development, which would take many months to archive.
Of course changing the suffix doesn't have to occur if Haku finds herself a new goal in life, other than the happiness of her precious person, but could also signify Naruto ceasing to be the great person and goal, he used to be, signifying a crack in their relationship.

Let a character sneak up on someone in a fight and then say something before attacking instead of landing a decisive blow. Seriously any character (in Naruto) who lets another person blindside them in a real fight should stop being a shinobi. Same goes for anyone lucky enough to be able to blindside someone else and not kill that person (or at least land a decisive hit). Two of the most basic things for a shinobi are situational awareness, being aware of any person in range, and taking every advantage they can get.

Write a scene, where a character fights, wins, and then, for no significant reason, is distracted and the opponent gets away. Same as above, such a person shouldn quit being a fighter or train the problem out of themselves.

Make someone jump into the air. Any ninja, who can't manoeuver in mid air should be extremely careful with that and avoid long jumps im battle if at all possible. As soon as someone is in the air, they lose all or at least most of their manoeuverability, making their movements that much easier to predict and allowing an enemy shinobi a high chance at hitting them.

On the same note: Making someone miss an attack on someone in the air. Unless they have wings or some other way of influencing their trajectory, they move with linear speed and it's ridiculous to miss an attack on so easy a target, especially considering that many fighting characters train years and therefore have very good aim.

Write a genius main character. From my experience that doesn't really work, unless the author is relatively close in intelligence or spends a large amount of time thinking of the best way to do something from said genius' perspective. Usually an author writes a genius character and doesn't want to spend hours thinking about only a few moves and then stuff happens in a way, a genius never would have done.

Have a fight and then (usually) the evil opponent gets away for some reason. However others (usually the good guys) can't do that. On some other occasion, the evil guy can't get away from the exact same situation because the author decided, it would be time for said evil guy to die.

Describe a fighting scene and then write something like 'Sasuke threw a fireball at Naruto. Having only seconds to react...' I don't understand, why people think, 'seconds' is an appropriate time length in a fight between shinobi. Maybe for academy students, but considering how fast they move, 'seconds' would be a LOT of time, even for a chuunin. It's far better to use something like 'moments' or other descriptions without a concrete value. If I had to use a time span, I would say 'fraction of a second' to 'milliseconds', depending on the power of the shinobi in the fight.
I don't understand, why people don't seem to spend a few seconds thinking about that stuff. It's completely obvious. I mean, stand up, now, and walk quickly from one end of your home to the other, or maybe just your room. How many seconds did it take? Now imagine a warrior, someone who trains daily to be fast, and maybe even has superhuman powers, how quickly would they evade an attack?

Write a scene, where Naruto runs out of chakra while fighting someone. At the very very least Naruto has Kage level chakra reserves. (In my opinion he would have a hundred times as much as the Hokage at the beginning of the manga.) If Naruto's chakra reserves were anything less than Kage level, he wouldn't be able to use the number of shadowclones he does. Even without the Kyuubi, he regularly spawns dozens of shadowclones. And the Kagebunshin no Jutsu is a kinjutsu because of it's extremely high chakra cost.
So Naruto has at the very least several times the chakra reserves of any opponent he fights (except maybe Kisame).
Especially if he learns some decent chakra control and fights somewhat efficiently (but even if he doesn't) it's inconceivable for Naruto to run out of chakra, unless he trains or fights several hours before that fight.

Use time travel. Time travel is crap. It makes absolutely no sense and wrecks any form of plot.
Leaving aside how retarded it is to allow someone to use a timeturner to attend more classes, it is a perfect example of what people would do, if time travel were possible: They would solve every single problem with it. If you want to kill off Voldemort, just go, where he was a few hours ago, travel back in time, and kill him. If you want to prevent your friend's death, make an illusion, drag him out, and the problem is solved. People would literally solve everything with time travel. Want to know, who put Harry's name into the goblet? Travel back in time and read every note anyone put in.
So, unless you want to make a story specificly about time travel, just write it out of the universe.

Have Naruto go after Sakura 'because she would never agree to go out with him and therefore no one would have to bear the burden of the stares and hate, just because they'd be near him'. No. There is no reason, whatsoever to ask Sakura out, because he doesn't want anyone else to ask him. There is no one, who would ask him out anyway. And if they did, he could just say, he already had someone in mind and wasn't interested. There is no conceivable reason, to ever ask Sakura out, except for wanting to become closer to her.
Fact is, Naruto chases after Sakura, because she beats him and that's about closest he has ever gotten to attention from someone of his own age.

Why do people make the rasengan nonlethal? (There is of course the manga, where no one dies - ever, unless the plot absolutely requires it.) But the rasengan is an A-rank offensive jutsu and a main weapon of the Yondaime. It's just inconceivable, how that jutsu can knock people out or knock them around, but does barely any actual damage. Unless, of course, one has the jutsu mastered enough, to make it less sharp and less explosive, which is not realistic for pre timeskip Naruto, especially since there's no real reason to do so. They're ninja, not some modern western police force.
Realistically, hitting someone with a rasengan would be like shoving a kunai, wrapped in explosive notes, in someone's chest, only sharper and more destructive. It would first tear a football sized hole into the target and then explode, ripping any body into at least two parts.

One thing, I really don't understand is that Team Kakashi uses 'Kakashi-sensei', Team Asuma uses 'Asuma-sensei', etc. But the Sannin refer to Hiruzen as 'Sarutobi-sensei'. Why would that be the only team to refer to their sensei by his last name? Especially considering that they knew him far longer, than the current rookie teams knew their jounin sensei.

Make Tsunade equally strong in a fight as Jiraiya or Orochimaru.
Make Unspeakable Lily Potter just as strong a fighter as Auror James Potter.
Time just doesn't work that way. You only get 24 hours a day and then you subtract time for sleep, food, and other unavoidable things and then there is only so much time left.
If Tsunade spends two thirds of her training time on improving her medical skills, that means, she only gets a third of the training, Jiraiya or Orochimaru do. So making her equally strong as them, is just stupid.
Same goes for Lily. If she is an Unspeakable, that means, something like nine hours a day just go into her work. There is not much left for training, especially since fighting with wands is far more about speed, stamina, and reflexes than very expansive spell knowledge. In comparison, Auror James spends most of his time training and fighting.
Even if they would somehow learn fast enough, they wouldn't get the same routine and experience than the people actually spending a large chunk of their time on fighting skills.

I always find it really annoying, when I read a fic with manipulative Dumbledore and traitorous Ron and Hermione. That's not because it's all that inconceivable or unrealistic, but it is always set up very crudely. Ron and Hermione aren't bad people. If Dumbledore would go to either of them and offer them something to spy on Harry, neither would do that. (Maybe Ron would do it, but he would probably get a case of bad concience and tell Harry sooner or later.)
It is far more realistic for Dumbledore to manipulate Ron and Hermione. He could make certain, Ron overhears, that Harry will be on the train and later ask him about Harry, because Ron is obviously Harry's first and best friend and Dumbledore needs to know about Harry's life in order to keep him safe from vengeful deatheaters and so on.
For Hermione, he would simply have to play on her great respect for authority figures and her being guillible.

Being too precise. While that isn't technically a mistake, people often imagine, what a character should look like and that image is often more to their liking than anything, the author would write. So instead of someone being 173.23cm, with large C-cups, and an exhausting description of every single button and strap of an outfit, just describe that person as a bit on the large side, with big breasts and clad in a black outfit that favors convenience over appearance.
Taking breasts as an example, for any size really, there are people, who would say, that size is too large or too small for their taste. It is far better to just say "large", "small" or whatever and just let the reader interpret that to their liking.

[Story Recs]

Story recommendations:

Better Left Unsaid by Kenchi 618:
The story is about Naruto, who replaces Chouji in Team 10, whit a Naruto/Ino pairing. The story is nice and full of original ideas. The characters are well written and show a natural development. Team 10 learns from each other and become all the stronger. Naruto has a completely new fighting style and is strong, but far from godlike.

Reaching for a Dream by Noodlehammer:
Naruto meets Xanna, the Kyuubi early in his childhood. He comes to love her and decides to become her husband. Becoming the husband of an absurdly old and powerful immortal demon, however, isn't an easy task. And so Naruto trains, not to become a shinobi, but to become just as powerful as the Kyuubi herself.
This features a Naruto, who isn't interested in stealth or subterfuge, and fights more like juggernaut, but also uses seals, because ninjutsu and genjutsu are nearly impossible due to his gigantic reserves. With all this power, Naruto never fails to find a worthy opponent. This story is smart, interesting, and funny, bringing new concepts to the world of Naruto, and is through and through a fun and exciting read.

Bungle in the Jungle: A Harry Potter Adventure AND Turn Me Loose: A Harry Potter Adventure by jbern:
The premise of this story is, that Harry finds himself on love potions and obliviated at the Burrow. When he finds out, he manages to flee and convinces Bill Weasley to let him join an expedition into the Brazilian jungle, sponsored by the Order of the Phoenix.
In his time on the expedition, Harry experiences life first hand and learns the ugly, practical side of magic, not with the fancy instruction and books from Hogwarts, but by doing and practicing with cursebreakers and mercenaries.
Bungle in the Jungle and its sequel Turn Me Loose are both excellent fanfiction stories full of great and interesting original characters, new friends, new enemies, and new spells. Much of the stories is completely original and new, which makes the stories extremely enjoyable to read.
Over all, both stories show great writing, great characters and descriptions, and most of all an incredible amount of originality.

Princess of Konoha by BloodRed13 (and Kage James):
This is an a.u. storyline, where the Hyuuga are the predominant clan of Konoha. A young and shunned Naruto sees Hinata, as she walks alongside her father at the front of a parade. Their eyes meet, and despite her ragal looks and her emotionless mask, Naruto sees, that Hinata sees him as himself and accepts him as a person. From then on, his life goal is to befriend his Princess. He decides to follow his clan's footsteps and become a sealmaster. Later, he fails the initial entrance exam and learns the kagebunshin no jutsu, which brings his seals to a new height.
In general, the story is very well thought out, with compelling characters, but most importantly, it has better and more realistic characters than the manga could ever dream of. They manage to turn Kishimoto's halfassed work into a magnificient piece of literature.
Princess of Konoha also has a tumblr site (hyuugatheeldestson[dot]tumblr[dot]com). Sadly, some day the updates of the sequel, Sealmaster of Konoha, just stopped, despite a steady schedule and already written chapters.

Plucking Strings by Digitize27:
Plucking Strings features a puppeteer Naruto, who figures out his art from ground up. Naruto is sly, cold, and smart, learning from his own and other people's mistakes, while planning ahead like a Nara.
What makes this story great is the inventiveness of the puppets, Naruto uses, but also Naruto's character development and, most of all, the epic boss fights.
Over all, this is a great read with a rare concept and great execution.

Kusari no Naruto by Digitize27:
This is a story about Naruto going full psychopath and killing a few villagers. After that, he is put into the ANBU with a team of eccentric, super powered troublemakers. (A very nice adaption of a few characters from History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi.) It goes on with a very interesting and original plot, despite some common points with the canon timeline.
A very good aspect are the villains. The fights are very unpredictable and they usually have a lasting effect on Naruto's personality. The fighting is also extremely good. I can actually see now, why people would believe Pain to be a god.
Over all, the charm of the story comes from the very good characters, interesting developments of Naruto's character, as well as a very nice mix of story, action, and humor. It is simply a ton of fun to read.

Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches - Revenge is Best Served Raw (LeadVonE):
This story is about Harry, who is sent back in time, because his evil/incapable/arse brother, who has Harry's rightful title of bwl, screwed up and failed to kill Voldemort. In two timelines. We also have a somewhat irrational Dumbledore, who wants Harry isolated and in prison, and a harem.
Personally, I think that sounds horrible up till now, but the story is wonderfully written with round characters, from the protagonist to the antagonists, love interests and even many side characters. To make it even better, there is a neverending slew of plot twists and surprises, as well as many new ideas. Topping that of, we have also a decent amount of funny scenes.

A Cadmean Victory by DarknessEnthroned:
In the Chamber of Secrets, Harry finds an old portrait of Salazar Slytherin and learns from him, just like Voldemort before him. His view on dark magic, especially blood magic and rituals change, which enstrages him from his friends.
He gets to know Fleur during the tournament, and, after a rocky start, they hit off. Then Voldemort comes back and the war starts. This Harry does anything, he can, to survive, resorting to all kinds of magic, dark or light, forbidden or not.
This is a really well written story, both in terms of characters and in terms of plotline. It combines a more realistic approach to the wizarding world and the war with Voldemort with authentic characters, and a very powerful Harry, who is still fallible.

Itachi, Is That A Baby? by SpoonandJohn:
The best description for this, would be a crack fic of extreme length, with no real plot, but an unending train of funny and brilliant scenes, that just makes you laugh and have a good time. Crack fics usually become bad, once the initial idea or joke has run out, and I have seen some examples of that. This fic is a wonderful exception to this rule.
The premise is, that Petunia sends Harry away with a burst of accidental magic and he lands in a bush in the Elemental Nations, only to be found by Itachi. Itachi decides to take care of him and soon, Harry is the inofficial mascot of the Akatsuki. Taught mainly by Itachi, Kazuku, and Hidan, young Harry is a catastrophy waiting to happen, as he is brought to Hogwarts to learn magic.
Harry is sorted into Slytherin and decides that wands are for idiots. Crazyness ensues.

Black Bond by CentaurPrincess:
Harry has a soul bond with Sirius' daughter. This is one of the fics, that have realistic characters and a realistic world, complete with deep personalities, politics, fighting. That is something, I really love and respect, since this fic just makes most characters from other fics (except for their two or three main characters) seem like lifeless puppets.
Especially the characters and their interactions, as well as character development are extremely well written, and it also has a good plot. On the other hand, the first year is a horrible mix of, fairly well written origial parts, and scenes from the book, which make no sense whatsoever in this story. That is the reason, why it isn't on my favorites list. On the other side, second and third year are brilliant, which is why I still recommend it. The sequel Black Bond II is a direct continuation.

Less Than Zero by Kenchi618:
Less Than Zero is a story about a young boy in Gotham who gets a super suit and becomes a criminal. What makes this special is, that that boy, Max, doesn't have any strong motivation like wanting to save someone or a desire to take over the world. He simply wants to improve life for himself.
But life in Gotham is never easy and Max finds a slew of difficult situations and is, despite doing his best to avoid it, dragged into the world of heroes and villains.

For Love of Magic by Noodlehammer:
This is a story about a Harry Potter raised by a high society couple, who don't hate him, but aren't loving, either. He etches runes into his skin, which comes with power, but also significant drawbacks and problems. Then he continues to become more powerful and learn wandless magic, all the while finding his own way through life and wizarding Britain's society.
The story is well written, unique, and funny, although with somehat weak plot (but still interesting) at times.

Naruto Genkyouien by Daneel Rush:
The story is kind of an "what if", where the Kyuubi, named Sayuri, is from an actual clan of fox demons. It is very well written and has a lot of interesting and deep characters. It is also a lot of funny, cute, and endearing scenes. Sadly, it's, at least in my mind, somewhat lacking in the plot department and the huge amount of characters makes the whole story somewhat slowgoing.

Patron by Starfox5:
Another really well written story of a slightly alternate universe, in which muggleborns are oathbound to serve their patron, and the whole wizarding world is a lot more focused on customs. It has great, round characters, mainly Hermione, Harry, Ron, Sirius, Albus, Aberforth, Voldemort, two deatheaters, and two aurors, all of which have their own stories, and all of which are very well built and characterized. There is a great sense of atmosphere, and very well written fighting scenes.
The story is so good, that there isn't any objective justification for not putting this on my favorites list, but it doesn't really fit my tastes. Hermione is the main character, and is written as extremely intelligent, crafting spells and rituals, finding a way to get muggle electronics to work in Hogwarts, while Harry and Ron don't really do anything. On the other hand, I find the ending somewhat unsatisfying. For years, Hermione is Harry's retainer and mourns and curses the injustice of the blood caste system, which doesn't allow her and Harry to marry in the wizarding world. Finally, years later, she manages to get it abolished, and then refuses to marry Harry in the wizarding world, because she would be under his control as member of the Potter family. That is one of the moments I really found dissatisfying, as well as a few others. At first, I thought, this would be a story, where every character is magnificient and powerful in their own right, but it didn't really turn out that way. But then again, the only reason, this isn't on my favorites list is personal preferences.
Anyway, if you aren't bothered by Hermione being the main character and doing pretty much everything important by herself, then I can really recommend this fic.

[Naruto]

Some things about Naruto:

First of all: I don't like Naruto (the manga/anime). At the beginning, I quite liked it, but after the wave arc, it became increasingly ridiculous and over all worse and worse.
The grand story is pretty basic, but not so bad.
One of the two things, I actually like about Naruto, is the world. There is a ton of creativity in it, except for fillers, that add completely ridiculous elements.
I don't like any of the main characters. Naruto is a complete, simple minded idiot. Sasuke is an emo who can't let go of his hatred, usually makes no sense, and faces no repercussions for his actions. Sakura is plain annoying, made even worse by the fact that I hate violent, abusive bitches.
Admittedly, there are also many good characters. I especially liked Hinata and Haku, as well as Shikamaru, Zabuza, and Shino. But as if out of spite, Kishimoto completely ignores them and stops their character development and screentime almost completely after a short arc, only to focus on the bad characters. Just compare the development and evolutions of the Sharigan to those of the Byakuugan.
The second thing, I like about Naruto, are some of the fighting styles. I love Zabuza's and Kakashi's fighting styles. Minato, Shino, and the Hyuuga also have interesting styles. But there are also many styles, that are horrible, most of all Sasuke's and Naruto's which are pretty much overwhelming the opponent with overpowered jutsu, which has absolutely nothing in common with the way shinobi are supposed to fight.
Very soon after the wave arc, Naruto stops being a manga about shinobi, and the fights just begin to be about powerful jutsu and special of the day problems to be overcome. When two shinobi fight, it is a firework of great and powerful techniques, more so than sneakiness or smarts. A fight between shinobi degrades into a slugging fest, which could come from any fighting manga. It's like Kishimoto intentionally avoids anything that could make his manga special compared with all the other manga with magic or special powers.
Something, that I find pretty annoying is, how Naruto really goes with the whole theme of abusive females/women beat up men, whenever they do something the woman didn't like/all men are terrified of women. It's a pet peeve of mine and it pisses me off to no end. I can't imagine how anyone would want to be together with a girl/woman that is always a few careless words away from beating up her supposedly beloved and said beloved is frequently terrified of. Also, I can't really find that funny anymore after reading nearly the same scene for what feels like thousands of times.
Then there are the plotholes. In Naruto, there are more plotholes and logical inconsistencies than stars in the sky, and many are larger than the Hokage monument. I read through the entire manga, and there was so much, that just didn't make sense. It is completely obvious that many ideas, like the Yondaime being Naruto's father, came long after the beginning of the manga, and it shows. If Konoha contributes 10000 shinobi to the united shinobi army, and around 20 graduate each year, that means the average shinobi is active for about 500 years. Seems a tad unrealistic, doesn't it?
Even worse, the world seems to change to fit the requirements of the plot. There was a chapter, where a shadowclone of Naruto hit the resurrected Raikage with a Rasenshruiken and the lightning armor protected the kage from any harm. Even if one ignores the fact, that the Rasengan alone should be able to overpower any form of armor, it seems that wind doesn't counter lighting in this chapter, because that would be inconvenient.
Lastly, there is balance of power. The most obvious example is the sharingan. It is compete bullshit. The three tomoe form is a powerful jutsu and I wouldn't complain about that, but the abilities of the Mangekyou seem to come out of the mind of a five year old. Seriously, Sasuke's Susanoo can take on the Kyuubi. Let's take a moment to appreciate, just how ridiculous that is. You can develop Bijuu level powers because you were born in a certain clan.
But there are far more examples. The shadowclone jutsu's memory transfer is complete crap. If Naruto had any amount of realism, Naruto would have found that out the first time he used it, and would have become a jounin within a month and within a year, he would be the most powerful shinobi in the history of the elemental nations. Then there is Pein, who can revive the dead, the Raikage with an armor, so powerful, nothing can harm him, except he himself, and a multitude of other occurrences.

Second of all: WHY DO ALL CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY HAVE THE IRRESISTIBLE URGE TO TALK ABOUT THEIR TRAGIC LIFE STORIES IN THE MIDDLE OF EACH AND EVERY SINGLE FIGHT?

Third of all: Why write a manga about shinobi, which are well trained, sneaky KILLERS, and then make all the fights purely about power and not even let the main character KILL A SINGLE PERSON? That has nothing to do with ninja anymore, it would have been far better, if they were some form of military magical peace corps.

Fourth of all: I absolutely hate, how Naruto (the manga/anime) is all about how true power comes from the will to protect precious people, friendship, and hard work, but at the end, Sasuke, who is a egocentric douchebag who cares only about himself is just as powerful as Naruto, who is the embodiment of those ideals.
On the other hand, there is all the talk about the value of hard work, but at the end, Naruto is powerful because his father sealed the Kyuubi into him and the Sage of the Six Paths gave him some weird power. Sasuke is powerful because of his Sharingan and the weird powers, he gets from the Sage.
In the end, one could even say, Sasuke is far more powerful than Naruto, because his power is his own and Naruto's from the Kyuubi.
Also, they talk about teamwork all the time, but at the end, it is completely useless, because a thousand shinobi do nothing of importance. Small fry with teamwork, no matter how good, mean nothing in the face of real power.

So the message of the manga is, in the end:
1) Hate and the desire for revenge make people just as strong, if not stronger than friendship and the desire to protect.
2) Hard work means nothing in the face of the hand, people are dealt at birth.
Now that I think about it, I can really appreciate the irony of making manga, hundreds of chapters long, about the power of friendship and hard work and then, in the final few chapters, spitting on all that.
3) Teamwork doesn't mean a thing in the face of real power.

Some clarification: I'd love the irony of that, if I thought it was intended. But I think, Kishimoto screwed up. Again and again and again and again and again.

So then some things about the characters:

In the manga, Kishimoto makes Naruto a complete retard to keep him weak enough to be even with a Sasuke who mysteriously gains ridiculous powers.
At the start Naruto gets the shadowclone jutsu and no, he doesn't what anyone with half a brain would do and thinks of how to use them best, he simply uses them to dogpile his opponents, hopefully overwhelming them, even when there's a huge amount of obvious and way better tactics to use.
Next he gets the summoning contract. But he never uses the summons to overwhelm an opponent with Gamabunta's power, but only in reaction of an opponent getting an equally powerful advantage. Did I mention, Kishimoto made Naruto a retard?
Then Naruto learns the Rasengan. But instead of learning it properly, he needs a shadowclone to do half the work for him, thereby negating most advantages of the technique. (The only one left is that it is an extremely powerful attack.) Naruto, in an impressive show of incredible stupidity stays true to his favorite tactic and uses this new jutsu to rush straight at an opponent, giving them plenty of warning and a good opportunity to counter the move. He also never learns to use the Rasengan without a shadowclone and never works to form it faster, which would cut down the time an opponent has to react or prepare and also enables him to form a Rasengan while in a taijutsu exchange, which makes every bout of taijutsu potentially deadly for an opponent.
Naruto's training trip with Jiraiya is another disappointment. Naruto learns to 'use' his bijuu cloak up to three tails. But every time he does, he gets out of control. It also improves his speed and strength and he leans to dispel Genjutsu, which doesn't work even once throughout the remaining part of the manga. Jiraiya doesn't teach him a single useful skill, like tactics, a jutsu to close the distance to or restict the movement of an opponent. He doesn't even teach him to use the Rasengan properly. In fact The training trip is nothing besides and excuse to make the charakters older and give everyone aside from Naruto time to become more powerful. It's obvious, really. Naruto starts as the weakest of the rookie nine and over the course of the first part (which is a few months) becomes the strongest (which is a giant pile of steaming excements, by the way. Sasuke trained since he could walk. Naruto trains for a few months and is suddenly stronger than him.). Then he goes on a three year long 'training trip' with the strongest shinobi of Konoha and comes even with the rest of the rookie nine, except for Sasuke, who is miles ahead of him.
After the training trip theres a lot of wasted time, where Naruto learns nothing, until he starts to learn the Rasenshruiken. Then he can't use it because it harms him. That obviously means, he needs to learn to better control the technique, but no one notices that.
In the following fight, Naruto shows his first signs of having a brain, but his new technique is unable to kill his opponent. The obvious reason for that is to keep Naruto from killing someone, which is ridiculous, because I can not see, how any ninja could respect someone, who never even did something as essencial to a nija's life as killing an opponent.
After that he doesn't use the shadowclone training to catch up on his numerous deficiencies as a ninja, like poor throwing skills, mediocre taijutsu, nonexistent Genjutsu knowledge, lacking knowledge in Fuuinjutsu or inability to use tactics in a fight unless there is absolutely no other way to win.
The next part of his development is learning Senjutsu. Apparently Kishimoto decided that it's impossible to use the shadowclone training for that, which is rubbish. If Naruto makes sure to have more chakra than the sum of the clones training Senjutsu, the worst that could happen is clones popping from too much Senjutsu chakra, which wouldn't be too much for the original Naruto. Furthermore Naruto succeeds in drawing Senjutsu chakra while running, but they just forget about that. The following fight vs Pain is actually my favourite fight in the whole manga. It shows, what Naruto could be, if Kishimoto would let him have a brain. Of course, it's still a shitty fight, because it is just power vs power and, what makes this fight so good, a bit of sneakiness. But that this is my favorite fight in the manga, just shows how bad the rest is.
In the last part Naruto learns to use the Kyuubi's power. The only thing I'd like to mention about that is, that Minato splitting the Kyuubi into Ying and Yang parts is obviously complete garbage. The reason to do that is invalid. It is obviously possible to seal the whole Kyuubi into one person, since it was done with Mito and Kushina. It's also completely random, that it is actually possible to split the Kyuubi. There's no reason it should be possible, no indication that Minato should have and no reason why he whould have the knowledge to split the Kyuubi into two halves. If anything, the half in the shinigami's stomach would count as dead and return to the other half over the next years. Even assuming it is possible to trap even part of the Kyuubi's chakra permanently in the Shinigami's stomach, there's no reason, not to do that with all of it, or at least 90% of it.

So much to Kishimoto's epically bad consistency regarding Naruto. If you plan on writing a fanfiction, please don't recycle this incredibly bad parts of the manga.

Naruto is not born an idiot, dumb or talentless, rather, he's a product of his upbringing. He was most likely brought up in an orphanage and also most likely neglected. His Japanese, writing, reading and social etiquette is also probably self taught. (That's the reason he is so impolite.) He was ignored for most of his life, which is the reason for his constant shouting.
Naruto also didn't pay any attention during classes in the shinobi academy. The reason for that may be that most of the instructors hated him, however this causes Naruto to have very little knowledge about lots of things. That, combined with the facts, that he didn't use his brain much during the academy and was never taught logical thinking, is the reason, Naruto behaves like an idiot. (From my knowledge, the brain is like a muscle. If one learns stuff and makes connections or thinks a lot, solves logical problems, and so on, the brain accustomes to that and such things become easier.)
There is also no indication, that Naruto trained by himself outside of the academy, most likely because he didn't know how.

To clarify: Hiruzen isn't Naruto's friend (even though Naruto may think otherwise, but he isn't very good at thinking). Hiruzen likes Naruto like a grandchild, sure, but he also doesn't have any time for him. If the Sandaime took any amount of time for Naruto, he would have noticed that Naruto lacks any kind of education and done something about it. Hiruzen were really that close to Naruto, he would have known abou the boy's problems with the bunshin no jutsu, which he clearly didn't, and done something about it.

If, in a fic, Naruto has parents or is raised properly (or catches up with his education via shadowclones), Naruto would certainly be smarter, more polite and not shout all the time.

So summum summarum (I doubt, that's how this should be written): The Naruto disaster starts with Naruto learning nothing in the time before he becomes genin, mainly due to a lack of parents or any other authority figure to get him to learn. Then every single one of his teachers and other people, who would want to help him, fail utterly by not pointing out to him that his fighting style is nonexistent and thereby useless, but instead teaching him jutsu, which he can't use with any kind of proficiency.

Naruto's most prominent trait (next to his retardation and his stubbornness) is his great love for his precious people. Naruto never had any friends. Hiruzen likes him, but has far too little time to be friends. Teuchi and Ayame can't be real friends, since they are both working and the most interaction we see, is Naruto talking to them while waiting for his ramen. Iruka doesn't even like Naruto, he is simply professional enough, not to let it show.
So, Naruto doesn't have a single friend and loneliness has been a constant for all of his life, which is why he appreciates anyone who gives him the time of the day.

A funny thing, I recently noticed, is that Naruto is uniquely predisposed for a relationship with multiple female partners. First off, he is completely love deprived, meaning he would actually be very fast to fall in love with someone. Secondly he never gives up. A loved one as close as a girlfriend would be by far his most precious person, so if he had more than one of thse, he would under no circumstances give up even a single one of them. Especially if he isn't in a relationship, while he falls in love with more than one girl.
Lastly, there is enough Naruto for everyone. Literally. If a girl were to go on a date with a shadowclone, no one would notice any difference (except if it gets destroyed), since the clones are perfect copies of Naruto's body AND personality. Except for the being dispelled in a single hit, every shadowclone is a genuine person, just as much Naruto as the original.
Complementing this is, that the shinobi world doesn't leave much room for wasting opportunities and what may be and uncommon relationship by civilian standarts certainly isn't that strange, considering a shinobi could die any day. Sharing your boyfriend may sound bad, if you will find another one in a year or so, but it sounds way better than never having one, because you die before that.

I should also point out Naruto's chakra reserves. As Naruto started learning the Rasenshruiken, Tsunade (at least I think it was her) said, Naruto was the only one, who could use that training. Let's limit that to Konoha's ninja. If one assumes that the Hokage (Tsunade) has the largest chakra capacity and assumes that one needs at least ten shadowclones training all day to use the shadowclone training effectively, then this leads to the following fact about Naruto's chakra capacity: If a Kage can have less than ten shadowclones training all day and Naruto can use hundreds, then Naruto has more than a hundred times Kage level chakra capacity.

Talking about shadowclones. That jutsu is also ridiculous. The jutsu allows Naruto to create clones as smart and fast as himself, able to use any jutsu, he knows (as long as it doesn't harm him in the process), having all of his equipment including weapons and seals. If Naruto is at Jounin level, every single of his hundreds of clones would be at least Chuunin level, even considering that they dispel after one hit. Imagine that. A jounin that can call hundreds of chuunin to his help anytime he needs them. That Naruto's chakra is split among them won't even make much of a difference, since, if Naruto directly after the training trip, made 100 shadowclones, each one would still have Kage level chakra reserves (or at least jounin).
But of course Naruto never used the jutsu to it's full capacity.
Obviously it got it's returning memory part when Kishimoto felt the need to write some intense training scenes and give Naruto enough of a powerup to make Naruto a threat to Akatsuki members. After that Kishimoto made Naruto go full retard again, so the shadowclone training was never used again.
So let me put some numbers to that. Let's assume, Naruto can spawn 100 shadowclones at the beginning of the manga. That means, if he trains half a year, he would get 50 years worth of training. That is more, than almost any other shinobi ever.

There's another thing about shadowclones. People seem to think, they are some kind of servants to pass work to or have independent personalities, some even think someone needs to tell them, what to do. That's wrong. Every shadowclone has exactly the same knowledge as Naruto himself and therefore knows what he intends for him to do. That also means that their personalities are exactly the same as Naruto's. The only thing diffrent to the personality of any other clone or the original is any personality change caused by an event after the creation of the clone. Clones also have exactly the same will to do anything as their creator. So if one would create a shadowclone to do paperwork for them, the clone wouldn't work, because they would hate paperwork as much as the original. Of course there are a variety of methods to get the clones to do the paperwork, like the jutsu including some kind of coercion to obey the boss or splitting it up, so every clone has to do only a small amount.
And when a clone dies/pops/dispels, they do not 'die', they rather merge their personality with the ones of any other clone and the original. So from a clone's pov dispelling is like getting a rush of information and teleporting at the same time.

Possible side-effects of excessive shadowclone use:
-Talking to oneself-Confusing who (clone or original) did what and when
-Ignoring efficiency and instead solving problems with numbers

Furthermore almost anything can be trained with shadowclones:
Genjutsu (Genjutsu are actually easier to perform for a shadowclone, since the clone has less chakra.)
Ninjutsu
Elemental manipulation
Taijutsu/Kenjutsu (Only muscle memory and form)
Throwing skills
Fuuinjutsu
Trapping skills
Knowledge
Strategy
Chakra control

Strategy and knowledge, as well as sealing and genjutsu, are also mentally straining tasks, that actually increase his intelligence the more he learns.

So Naruto could, in six months, train five years in each of the skill mentioned above and spend the six months simply improving his speed, strength, agility and stamina. With that he would immediately jump to jounin rank in terms of battle power and intelligence (without even considering the optimal battle tactic below). Of course he would still be limited by his speed and experience.

The other use for shadowclones is in open battle. Due to Naruto's ridiculous chakra reserves (From the statement that no one but Naruto could do the shadowclone training I take, that he has at least 100 times as much chakra as a Kage, since the training would be usable, if someone could create even ten shadowclones that could practice/learn all day.) he can spam jutsu more than almost anyone else in the manga, opening the possibility for an unique fighting style:

Naruto spawns a group of shadowclones at the first opportunity. Some of these go off in groups. One or two of this group protect the rest with defensive jutsu and seals. Some attack the opponent with throwing weapons (of course augmented with wind chakra) to keep him occupied (also remember that Naruto has near perfect aim thanks to the shadowclone training and is extremely smart and observant, so the clones can avoid hitting allies) while others use an array of offensive ninjutsu and genjutsu to fight the opponent (that can range from distractions to finishing moves). Other clones use supplementary ninjutsu to support others or observe the fight to come up with plans.

Other clones go underground and start trapping the area with an array of seals or prepare seals powerful enough to defeat the opponent.

A third group of clones engage the opponent with taijutsu, kenjutsu and short range jutsu (like the Rasengan or the Chidori. (The Chidori's tunnel vision is no problem here, since he can only have clones use it.)).

Among all groups are clones that have the sole purpose of protecting the original, pushing him out of harm's way or substituting with him as needed.

Depending on how strong the opponent is, only a part of this style may be used. Also, considering how many jutsu the clones would use, Naruto would be out of chakra after maybe six hours of straight fighting. (That is because this style uses far less shadowclones than Naruto's original fighting style and a shadowclone uses up much more chakra than a few additional jutsu, especially Genjutsu or Fuuinjutsu.

The advantage of this style is that it would completely overwhelm almost anyone and has counters to almost every opponent. Since Naruto has enough chakra and can train every skill with his shadowclones, he also doesn't have the problem of being 'A jack of all trades, master of none', but is extremely skilled in every ninja art.

The most common reason for Naruto having to raise himself is, that it would be suspicious for an orphan boy to be raised by such prominent shinobi as Kakashi or Jiraiya. That is completely unlogical.
Without much effort, anyone could find out that Naruto is a jinchuuriki. Therefore it would NOT be strange for him to be trained by a high profile ninja. The reason, that wasn't the case in the manga is, that Kishimoto just HAD to connect every single figure from the past with the present and decided, long after the initial chapters, that there were people like Kakashi and Jiraiya, connected to the Yondaime.
Of course one could argue that training by Kakashi or Jiraiya would also be a giveaway to Naruto's parentage. Wrong.
First off, no one has to know.
But more importantly: Blond is a very rare hair colour in the Elemental Nations. Naruto looks exactly like his father. There are a ton of people who know, how his father looked like (everyone more than four years older than Naruto and even more people who have seen a picture). Kushina's pregnancy wasn't hidden. Her connection to the Yondaime wasn't hidden, either.
And in a village, where observation skills are extremely important, no one noticed for over fourteen years. There is no way, someone like Kakashi or Jiraiya would be enough of a giveaway to change that, especially considering jinchuuriki are considered weapons.
A good reason for Naruto not to be raised by Jiraiya or Kakashi would be, that Hiruzen kept his existence a secret from them, because their full attention and time was needed to show off power in order to keep enemy villages from using the chaos in the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack. But that excuse could only be used for a few years (two or three), since Kakashi isn't extremely important. Also, Hiruzen could easily have one of his most trustworthy operatives take care of Naruto.
And even if Hiruzen would just forbid Jiraiya and Kakashi any interaction with Naruto, why would they care? It's in a shinobi's job description to be sneaky. They should be able to meet with a child in their unprotected flat. Jiraiya could also just straight up ignore Hiruzen's orders. After all the last active Sannin is far too much worth to actually punish. The worst, Hiruzen could realistically do to him, would be to forbid the sale of his books in his area of influence or ruin Jiraiya's opportunities at research. But Jiraiya is already rich and Hiruzen loves the Icha Icha series.

So, that said, how would Naruto's life look, if his father hadn't died? I'll assume the worst possible case, meaning Kushina is dead, Minato is the Yondaime, and therefore extremely busy, and Minato has absolutely no favoritism.
So Naruto has very little contact with his father, and isn't taught by a tutor or Minato himself, but he is raised properly, has normal social interaction, and people go out of his way to help him.
Naruto doesn't learn much before the academy, but he is at least somewhat polite, very energetic, and spends a lot of time playing shinobi with his friends. He shows himself to have a lot of talent. He is smart and observant, and learns from his own mistakes and those of others.
In the academy, he shows himself as very intelligent in the understanding and adaption of techniques, as well as small scale strategy. (That is because he actually learns at the academy, which allows him to be far more intellectually developed compared to the manga version.
As soon as it comes to actual jutsu learning and sparring, Naruto shows his genius. With good understanding and tireless work, he masters every practical exercise and outdoes everyone in the sparring matches. After failing to learn the clone jutsu, his father finally steps in and teaches Naruto the kagebunshin.
After leaving the academy not as rookie of the year, but without doubt as the strongest academy graduate of his class.
Put into a team with two genin, which like and respect him, Naruto quickly becomes good friends and a leader to his team. He soaks up everything, his jounin sensei teaches him and as soon as he learns a jutsu, he finds dozens of creative uses, his sensei couldn't have dreamed of.
Fueled by the desire to surpass his father, Naruto begins to learn fuuinjutsu and quickly masters it due to his Uzumaki heritage. He learns and improves his father's jutsus.
He is an exceptionally powerful shinobi, famous not only for his raw power, but also for his creativity and smarts in combat.
(TL;DR: Naruto's only real weakness in the manga is, that he dumb as can be, but even then he shines with flashes of immense smarts and creativity. Raised by a parent and growing up with friends, Naruto would learn common knowledge, as well as what the academy has to offer, and with that, his only real weakness would disappear.)

Hinata is the most common girlfriend for Naruto from the fanfics I have read. But there's a massive problem with that. Hinata is shy. So shy, that she only stalks him in the manga and it actually takes her thinking she'd die for her to confess. She also spends a lot of time doing that, time that would be better spent training. That's also the keypoint to why a Naruto - Hinata romance is unrealistic. Naruto wouln't notice Hinata either and with good reason. Hinata is simply not fit to be with Naruto. Naruto needs a girl strong enough not to be bothered by the villagers glares, powerful enough to stand beside him, when he has to face his enemies, and able to give him a lot of attention. Hinata may become that girl, but if you look at her, you wouldn't think that.
Personally I like Hinata, but I am extremely annoyed, every time, I think about how much pain and misery she could have saved Naruto from, if she had just gotten over her shyness one single time during the academy and decided to talk to him.

So Naruto wouldn't ever consider Hinata over someone as outspoken as Sakura or Ino. The only way Naruto would notice Hinata is if she either gets over herself and seeks him out, or if he actually tries to go out with every girl in his class and everyone except for Hinata declines.

Just as Naruto, Hinata is a product of her upbringing. When she grew up, she was looked down upon because she doesn't have any talent for the Gentle Fist. That in turn made her the timid and shy person she is at the beginning of the manga. Her timid personality in turn makes it harder for her to fight and train succesfully. So if for any reason either her personality changes to be more assertative or her fighting prowess increases, it would cause a gradual improvement of her fighting prowess or change in her personality.

Sakura is Naruto's crush at the beginning of the manga (and sadly and pathetically and annoyingly through most of the rest). The reason for that is probably her strong and assertive personality. Naruto doesn't need to be pushed around, but he needs someone who wouldn't crack under the pressure of the villagers hatred and be able to cheer him up and make his life brighter with her presence. The other reason, Naruto stays so focused on Sakura is, as sad as that is, that she beats him. Sakura beating him is, to Naruto, a form of attention, meaning Sakura sees him and actually wants him to improve his behaviour, likening Sakura's mostly senseless and abusive beatings to the chastising from someone caring for him. Sakura, on the other hand, just beats Naruto up as a form of anger management.

Sakura would actually be a good match for Naruto, if something happened to turn her attention from Sasuke to Naruto, along with a few relevations, about how bad her treatment of Naruto really is and that she has to work on herself a LOT.

I'd like to mention something here: Naruto has never had anyone to teach him manners or common sense. When he does something that upsets Sakura, he doesn't do that intentionally, he just doesn't know better. From Naruto's point of view, he does something and then Sakura randomly beats him up, with no reason, that Naruto could comprehend.
And that, I find disgusting. Imagine, going through your day and then someone, you're talking to, screams in anger and starts beating you for no reason at all.
What's worse is, that Sakura has to notice that Naruto doesn't even learn from those beatings, so in the end, Sakura beats up Naruto as a stress relief and Naruto is so starved for attention, that he lets it happen.
I have to say, I'm disgusted by that, and disconcerned that a mainstream media would display such an abusive and twisted relationship in a positive and even funny light.

At the start of the manga Sakura is a fangirl, only there to reinforce how much better than Naruto Sasuke is, since he has more skill, is better liked and even has the girl Naruto wants without even trying. Then, in the forest of death, she finally realizes, how totally useless she is, leading to her heroically cutting off her hair.
Later she serves as incentive for Naruto to become obsessed with bringing the traitor Sasuke back instead of doing something worthwhile with his life (like getting rid of Orochimaru or killing Sasuke).
Then Kishimoto makes her Tsunade's apprentice to keep his oh so precious parallel to the Sannin alive. After she becomes Tsunade's apprentice, Sakura learns the Mystical Palm and Tsunade's strength technique, which somehow makes her a decent ninja. Tsunade's strength technique is another thing that doesn't follow any logic. It translates chakra control into ridiculous strength, doing damage on par with Naruto's Rasengan, completely ignoring, that the stregth technique can't have more than a tenth of the chakra of Naruto's Rasengan (else the user would be out of chakra after at most ten hits). (But seriously, it seems like the more power a style/attack has, the less someone (unless that someone is Naruto) needs to work on it to become good with it.) Also Sakura didn't show any signs or reasons to have enhanced strength at the start of the manga (aside from beating up Naruto) and it's inconceivable that Sakura has any kind of strength training, since that would mar her figure with unsightly muscles.

After all, Sakura seems to be designed to highlight Naruto's inferiority to Sasuke at the beginning of the manga and later is dragged to a level somewhat comparable with Naruto and Sasuke to keep the comparison with the Sannin or Kakashi's old team alive. Aside from that she doesn't seem to have any place in the manga.
Funnily enough that makes Sakura the person Naruto was supposed to be at the beginning of the manga. In a world full of ridiculous powers that no one can learn, unless they have the appropriate lineage, the bijuu, or a stolen sharingan, Sakura is actually the only one who didn't grow up in a shinobi family, was born without any kind of insane power, and only has powers which could be learned by anyone with enough time and dedication. That actually makes me dislike Sakura a tiny bit less.

If one were to think of qualities required of a good girlfriend for Naruto, there are several:
First off, the person would have to be strong willed enough to not be swayed or crumble under the disapproval of the village and family. (That excludes Hinata.)
She would also have to be willing to suffer the same glares and outcast position (to a certain degree) as Naruto. (That excludes Ino.)
The girl would need to be patient enough to put up with his childish and naive attitude and help him repair the damage of years of neglect to his mental development. (That excludes Sakura, as well as most older characters.)
She would also have to be willing to make up for a lot of love that Naruto never received, especially by spending a lot of time with him. (That excludes anyone from another village (which is extremely unrealistic, anyway) and people like Tenten.)
Of course the first two points can be mitigated by keeping their relationship secret, but that obviously isn't a permanent solution.
There's also a possibility of other circumstances, that necessitate that two characters stay close to each other without any beatings, which can be used as a good starting point.
Then there is the best option of intense character development, as in Kenchi618's story 'Better Left Unsaid'.

Haku is a very interesting case. She is Naruto's closest experience to actual love for most of the manga and would fulfill all qualities mentioned above very well.
Since Haku dies in the manga, I'll just focus on the most interesting possibility:
Let's assume, Zabuza dies. Haku's world falls apart, she is like a solar system without a sun. She desperately needs a replacement, a new center for her life, a new master to serve. Naruto is the obvious choice. She likes and respects him, and didn't have any part in Zabuza's death (though I don't really think, the last part matters, Haku would just see that as two people forced to fight each other and blame no one).
She goes to Naruto and tells him, she is now his, and will follow him and serve him to the best of her abilities. Naruto makes it clear that he wants her to have her own life, but doesn't have anything against her coming with him or living with him. The Hokage is glad to do Naruto a favor and there is really nothing speaking against making Haku a Chuunin of Konoha.
They spend a lot of time together and come to like each other more and more. Haku indeed does her best to serve him, but Naruto also does a lot for her, since she is his most precious person. They both can learn from each other, Naruto becomes a bit calmer, and learns that sometimes life is different from his ideal, he comes to accept Haku's desire to serve him and live for him. Haku comes to appreciate life more and enjoys her days with Naruto far more than anything since the death of her mother.
So that is, how I see that happening. In the end, Haku is a great candidate for Naruto's girlfriend, because she would be completely devoted to him and spend more time than anyone else could afford, to make him happy, because he literally is the center of her life. She fulfills the other conditions perfectly, and her calm personality is a good complement for Naruto's fiery one, while they both have similar values in life. They can also learn a lot from one another, both about life, but also shinobi skills.

Sasuke starts of as an fairly interesting counterpart to Naruto. He was trained since he could walk, is decently smart and has everything Naruto wants with being liked by the villagers, crushed on by Sakura and very skilled as a ninja. What makes it so much worse is, that he doesn't appreciate any of that.
So Sasuke is Naruto's rival and the perfect figure for that.
Up to, and including his defection from Konoha, Sasuke is actually the best character (meaning the least ridiculous/bad/unrealistic) of the manga.
(On a completely unrelated note: I wonder, if Itachi traumtazing Sasuke was an (possibly indirect) attempt to activate Sasuke's Mangekyou without killing a friend.)

Still there are many things, that are not really logical, like him having enough control over his fire element to use tons of fire jutsu, even though such powerful jutsu should take near jounin level control over the element. He also learns enough control over the lightning element to be able to use Kakashi's Chidori while training his speed and perception during a single month. At that point it is obvious, that the elemental affinities were added late in the manga, either to make it possible for Naruto to create the Rasenshruiken, or to make it more difficult. Personally I like to compensate for that problem by making it possible to use all Jutsu of an element for everyone up to a certain difficulty. But even with that, Sasuke learning the Chidori in a month is inconceivable.
Then Sasuke becomes a traitor and allies with Orochimaru for power, which is totally in character for him.
Funnily enough Sasuke learns a lot while Naruto learns nothing...
That's the point, where the rubbish starts.
Orochimaru of the Sannin, one of the most powerful people alive is in a horribly weak state. So weak, that he fails to take over Sasuke's body and gets killed by him. That's plain ridiculous. Orochimaru is way more powerful than Sasuke and it's not the first time, he takes over someone's body, so he wouldn't be surprised by his own weakness. Considerig that Sasuke is far from being anywhere near Orochimaru's level, it's unimaginable, that he'd be able to kill him even in his weakened state. It's also implausible, that Orochimaru isn't prepared for Sasuke's betrayal, especially considering his personality.

Following that Sasuke gains an assortment of increasingly ridiculous powers culminating in Susanoo, and powers given to him by the sage of the six paths that allow him to fight Naruto in full Kyuubi transformation (Naruto's own powers from the sage strangely do nothing) and get a draw. Not only that, but they run out of chakra at the same time, so that is complete trash. Even if Sasuke's eyes give him in some ridiculous way large chakra reserves, for which there is no logical reason, even if Sasuke's jutsu all cost, in some miraculous way, only a tenth of Naruto's, there's no way his ability to fight a long battle is anywhere near equal to Naruto's, not even mentioning the Kyuubi.

In my opinion, the story was good until the wave arc, then went slowly downhill, but after the training trip, Naruto just spiraled into completely ridiculous trash (with the exception of Naruto vs Pain, that was awesome). I still like the idea of the world and many of the characters, which is why I read fanfiction.

Next is Kakashi. Since Naruto being he son of the Yondaime was obviously not planned, Kakashi's character doesn't make sense. He trains his team mainly in teamwork exercises and ignores the glaring personality problems of his students (Naruto being an idiot, Sakura a useless fangirl, and Sasuke arrogant and selfish). He spends as little time as he can with his students and ignores that Naruto and Sakura don't even have a chace to improve without him.
Funnily enough in the preparation time for the finals he throws his ideals of equality amonst teammates etc. in the trash and trains Sasuke, while Naruto gets a shitty teacher and Sakura is completely ignored. (Seriously, how would 'improving his basics' help Naruto against Gaara or Neji?)
So there a few possibilities on how to write Kakashi. First he can be a lazy bum, who doesn't care about his team and just does, what's easiest for him. Second he can be someone who wants to train his sensei's son to the best of his abilities. Then there's the man traumatized by the losses early in his life, who takes care to treat all of his students exactly the same.
Kishimoto - surprise - obviously screws the character up, since many things that would change/influence Kakashi's behaviour weren't planned, when the character was introduced.
In the elemental nations, there are several ranks of shinobi, but at the very top are shinobi like Kakashi. Kakashi might be the most powerful active (taking missions) shinobi, affiliated with a village. The only people stronger than him are the Kage, some Jinchuuriki, and people like Itachi and above them legends like the Sannin, Sarutobi.
He has a great deal of power, speed, jutsu, and experience and can be almost certain of his ability to best anyone, he could come across in the course of a mission.
Kakashi's fighting style makes him the epitome of a ninja. Many writers get that wrong and, at least to me, that makes the story look really bad.
Kakashi has, for an elite jounin, a rather small chakra pool. So he can't use many jutsu, not even mentioning spamming jutsu like Naruto does. No normal shinobi has enough chakra for that.
Instead Kakashi focusses on figuring out his opponent while using as little chakra as possible. Once he is done with that, he strategically drives them into a corner, where he uses one or several jutsu as preparation to ensure a surefire kill with his Chidori.
He will therefore never use Chidori or any other jutsu with high chakra cost at the beginning of a fight, if he can help it. That's something, many authors get wrong. Remember, Kakashi's fighting style is about chakra efficiency.
Also: Kakashi is an arse. He just left Obito crushed and dying under the rubble. He didn't even have the decency to kill him and spare him the pain.
But tldr: Kakashi is what you get by fusing Shikamaru's brain with Sasuke's powers.

Danzou: The head of Root is often portrayed as a power hungry, heartless man, who only exists to make Hiruzen's life difficult. That's wrong. My opinion of Danzou is, that he's Hiruzen's counterpart. Hiruzen sees his shinobi as family. Danzou sees his shinobi as tools. Hiruzen believes in solving conflicts with a minimum of violence, relying on negotiation instead. Danzou believes in ruling by strength. Hiruzen believes in mercy. Danzou gives someone exactly one chance. Both want what's best for Konoha.

And both screw up. It's obvious for Danzou. But Hiruzen is not any better. Danzou would never have let Orochimaru live after discovering his treason. I highly doubt, that the Hyuuga incident would have had the same outcome under Danzou's reign. The Uchiha wouldn't have dared to stage a coup either. Danzou would never have been betrayed by Suna, because he wouldn't give them an opportunity to become strong enough. Danzou would also have trained Naruto to be a weapon for his village as soon as he could walk. That would have lead to Naruto dismanteling Akatsuki, cutting the manga's story short half a year after the training trip.

Danzou is loyal to Konoha, but not necessarily loyal to it's leaders or policies. If he were given an order by the Hokage, he would only obey, if he thought it best for the village. On the other hand, if he were put before the choice to obey the Hokage and abandoning his policies or to fight the Hokage and start a civil war between the rest of Konoha, he would only chose to fight, if he truly thought this civil war would cause less damage to Konoha than the Hokage.

What I want to say is, that Hiruzen and Danzou complement each other. Neither of them are really good Hokage, since Hiruzen is too soft and Danzou is too hard. So if it was possible to blend their personalities into one person, that person would be an ideal Hokage.

Also I read a lot of fics, where Danzou was cooperating with Orochimaru or is just plain evil. To Danzou Konoha is just as important, as it is to Hiruzen. He would sacrifice himself without hesitation for the sake of his village and would never betray it. It's also probably extremely horrible to Danzou to see Hiruzen put his bonds, his love for peace and harmony over the good of Konoha, every single time, he does so.

The Sannin:

1.: Tsunade (Drunk sannin / Loser sannin / Legendary Sucker / Brutish Granny) is a disappointment. She is exactly what a shinobi shouldn't be. While her gambling may be her coping mechanism, she gets drunk regularly because she lacks the mental fortitude to face the death of her loved ones, even after all the years since she left Konoha.
Tsunade has almost certainly done no shinobi training at all since she left Konoha, therefore her ninja skills lack far behind Jiraiya or Orochimaru. From the long time without any serious fights or spars, her reflexes are dulled and her muscles weakened. She also isn't used to the tactical thinking and objectiveness in battle anymore.
Adding to that is, that her fighting style is inherently heavy on the side of taijutsu (Training as a medic and studying human anatomy takes a LOT of time, especially since Tsunade had to create a lot of medical ninjutsu herself. In the manga she also never showed any significant skill in nin- or genjutsu.) , she is basically a wreck and would be a harsh disappointment when compared to her own legend.
From a story perspective, I think, she is quite interesting, especially considering her medical abilities, but on the other hand, her other shinobi skills are a massive disappointment. It's like Kishimoto thought: "I want Tsunade to be a medic nin and I'm too lazy to giver her a proper fighting style. How about we make her just hit really hard, like randomly let her make the damage of a high level jutsu with a single punch? Yea, sounds good. And when someone asks why, we just say chakra control."
That part really pisses me off, since there are characters like Gai, who work their whole lives to archive a mastery of taijutsu and then comes Tsunade, who is just super powerful because she has great chakra control.

2.: Orochimaru (Pedo sannin / Creep sannin / Pedo zombie / Priest sannin) is a scientist. While his ninja skills are still finely honed and one can assume, he trains regularly, he mainly concentrates of trying to understand ninja, chakra and kekkei genkai. I also don't understand, how he isn't severly weakened every time he switches bodies. It should take a lot of time for him to train the new body to Sannin level. To me it's also inconceivable, why he uses a jutsu, that makes him almost helpless before he switches to a new body. Orochimaru becoming weak enough to be defeated by Sasuke for that reason is in my opinion clearly plot driven and another screw up by Kishimoto.
I think Orochimaru is poorly portrayed by the series and he could have been a much better villain.

3.: Jiraiya (Ero sannin / Ero sennin) also takes away a lot of time from training for his perversion, writing, and to keep up his spy network. Still he is probably the strongest of the Sannin since Tsunade hasn't trained for years and Orochimaru spends a lot of time on his projects and is further weakened by possessing a foreign body.
Jiraiya is, a bit like Naruto, portrayed weaker, than he should be. Sage mode, obviously added only late to give Naruto another huge equalizer to get him on par with Pain, is only used once. And even then, he doesn't get into Sage mode using a smaller toad to keep moving and summons the toad elders in Sage mode, but wastes a lot of time. Also the toads, obviously the strongest summons by far (jutsu, sage mode, combination jutsu), are only used as equalizers for other summons instead of capitalizing on their unique advantages compared to other summons.
Still Jiraiya is, what Naruto should have been after the end of the training trip (maybe Naruto should be a bit weaker). Powerful nin- and taijutsu and knowledge, how and when to use them.
Jiraiya has a multitude of titles, two of them are "Jiraiya of the Sannin" and "Gama Sennin (toad sage)", the latter referring to he use of senjutsu.
One thing, I really don't get is, why people always see Tsunade as a better person (or someone more deserving of respect) than Jiraiya. Jiraiya may be a pervert, but Tsunade abandoned her village for a very long time, is a perpetual drunkard, and has lost horrendous amounts of money due to gambling.

Namikaze Minato: Honestly, I don't get this guy. The only reason he's not history's worst parent is, that he didn't try to actively torture Naruto. Aside from that, he made sure, he was hated by the whole village, had a group of the most dangerous shinobi alive after him, and giving him some huge problems with things like chakra control. What's worse is, that he didn't even bother to get someone with half a brain to take care of Naruto. He could have easily arranged for at least one loyal shinobi to look after his son and prepare him for aforementioned group of S-rank ninja. The often brought excuse, that Naruto couldn't be seen with a known (or famous) shinobi is plain dumb. It would be no problem to arrange for his interactions or training to be discrete, but there's no reason to have Naruto live in the open at all. He could have had his son brought up in seclusion for the firs two or three years and make it possible for him to have a somewhat normal interaction with others since no one knows, what he looks like. There's no reason for anyone to think, he even exists after the caos of the Kyuubi attack.
Minato is also apparently a seal master. But he can't seal the whole Kyuubi in Naruto. He can't even seal a part of the Kyuubi inside of Naruto without losing his life, despite that having been done before to get the Kyuubi into Kushina. He isn't even able to use another's life in his stead. Best case scenario would be to sacrifice some bandit or prisoner. Worst case scenario would be to sacrifice Hiruzen in his stead, which would preserve Konoha's military strength after the incident and avoid a lot of the problems Konoha and Naruto had (like the Kumo incident. How is Kumo supposed to wage war against Konoha, if they have a Hokage, who can wipe out a whole army of enemies?). He absolutely has to sacrifice himself, even though there's no mention, that a human sacrifice (or a second one) is even needed for other seals. And Minato is supposedly a seal master, contrary to most of the people sealing bijuu in the manga.
Also he's the great Yellow Flash, in the top ten of the most powerful shinobi of all time (or top five at the start of the manga), but he only uses two jutsu.
It's obvious, that Minato as Naruto's father was implemented rather late in the manga. And honestly, that was a pathetic attempt, which makes no sense. At all.
There is also the notion, Naruto was chosen as the Kyuubi's container, because Minato couldn't bring himself to make someone else's child a jinchuuriki. That is soooooooo dumb. Someone else would've at least had parents and family to take care of them. Naruto had nothing, except an old man with too little time. The actual reasons, Naruto was chosen are that Minato thought, he would become powerful enough to defeat Akatsuki. Furthermore exceptional lifeforce was required to allow him to survive the sealing. Another reason may just have been, that there weren't any other eligible newborns at the time.
On another note, it can't be overstated, how much of an impact Minato's death has on the whole Elemental Nations. You think, Orochimaru would desert or even start his experiments, knowing that the Hokage could reach him anywhere in the elemental nations and would have the will and ability to destroy him? The Kumo incident would never have happened. The Uchiha would never even have thought of rebellion, knowing that they didn't even have a chance to defeat the Hokage, nor Konoha's other forces. Suna wouldn't have attacked Konoha, because half of their forces would have been gone in an instant. Akatsuki wouldn't have a chance, simply because Minato could use the Hiraishin to help any team or jinchuuriki under attack by the organization. And he would be more than a match for anyone. I can't even see, how Pain could defeat him.
So yeah, if Hiruzen had sealed the Kyuubi instead of Minato, the whole storyline would never have happened, because no one would be stupid enough to mess with the Yondaime.

Anko. Anko was Orochimaru's student. It isn't clear to me what happened exactly, but one can assume, that she was deceived and left with Orochimaru, only to be discarded a few months later. She is most likely despised by the majority of Konoha (although I haven't seen evidence for that in the maga, it would fit with the villagers' view towards Naruto). She was the proctor for the second stage of Konoha's chuunin exam and shows somewhat of a sadistic streak there.
In fact Anko is a blank slate. The sadism shown as a proctor could very well be a deliberate act to unsettle the chuunin hopefuls. Many writers have her working in the T&I department, which doesn't make sense. Anko's goal is to kill Orochimaru. Working in the T&I department doesn't hold any advantage for her.
Most writers also give her a somewhat sadistic streak, which fits well with her apparent liking of teasing and unsetteling those around her.
Personally I prefer to see Anko as a person, who's sadistic streak is only targeted at people she doesn't know or like, somewhat of a defence mechanism. To her friends though, she is very kind and has a tendency to avoid conflict and put herself below others, most likely out of a subconscious fear of being abandoned.
In a sexual way, Anko could be a masochist, sadist, or simply have a liking for intense stuff.

Konohamaru. I have nothing against Konohamaru, I just think, he is annoying. But what really pisses me off, is how he miraculously gets huge chakra reserves, which let him learn the rasengan and use multiple shadowclones. Maybe that is just a problem with that one OVA, where he fights Naruto in the chuunin exams.

Other things about the manga:

I find it hilarious how some people complain about Sakura for being unable to accept that Sasuke doesn't like her, completely ignoring the reality of him being a traitor, and is utterly obsessed for a completely stupid reason.
So far, that's actually quite understandable, but Naruto is also completely to accept being repeatedly rejected by Sakura, completely ignores the reality that she is a selfish, useless, and most importantly abusive bitch, and is obsessed with her for no real reason at all.
Disliking that about Sakura but not Naruto is pretty hypocritical.

People hating Naruto is actually far more reasonable than it seems. Fact is, they saw the Kyuubi rampaging, the Yondaime fighting it, the Kyuubi disappearing into thin air and then the Yondaime dead and a whiskered child. On the other hand sealing is not very well known. Most shinobi wouldn't even make the connection since sealing scrolls aren't very common and most people don't even think about how they work. On the other hand, the Kyuubi does influence Naruto, so that fear is very justified.

Naruto's greatest strength is drawing people onto his path and bringing him to his side. He has some kind of insane natural charisma that consists of his determination, innocence, and honesty, that makes people believe in him, no matter the circumstances. However, if Naruto becomes a real shinobi, with killing and bendable morals, that charisma would most likely disappear.
As he is in canon, Naruto is, funnily enough, very similar to people like Gandalf or Dumbledore. He is a paragon, someone who changes everyone around him, leaving a lasting impression and change with everyone, he interacts with.

About Konoha. Konoha is and always has been themost powerful hidden village. For obvious reasons. The ability to use chakra is available to all people, but guaranteed inborn talent for it, as well as bloodlines originate from the Sage of the Six Paths. Who had two sons and their descendants became the Senju and the Uchiha. Both clans settled in Konoha. So Konoha has the most numerous and the most powerful clans to begin with. If a hidden village has more powerful shinobi, they can afford to train more Genin, allowing for more powerful ninja, which in turn makes for better chances at talented children in the next generation. With this Konoha has stayed the most powerful village even through catstrophies like the Kyuubi's attack or the Uchiha massacre.

The Konoha Correctional Facility is an especially disgusting brainfart, even for a filler. The whole concept is dumb. If there is a prisoner, there are two possibilities: Either they are kept alive in a secure and top secret location (like under the anbu headquarters, hokage tower, or in the hokage monument, etc.) or they are executed, if they are of no more use. Even if they are kept alive, it would be obvious to keep them drugged unconscious and tied up tightly. (Including single fingers to prevent hand signs and chakra suppressing seals.)
Either way, an obvious target like a correctional facility is only useful as a trap.

Chakra control. People don't seem to understand how chakra control exercises work. Fact is that Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto have exactly equally good (or bad) chakra control at the end of the wave mission. For obvious reasons. If one tries to cling to a tree with chakra, a certain amount is required. The amount used can vary by a bit, if it's too much or too little by a certain margin the chakra sticking doesn't work anymore. That margin is the exercise. The margin in which the chakra used must fit the chakra required to stick to the tree, is the accuracy with which the amount of chakra used in a jutsu can be controlled. (Maybe the control one gets from the exercise is twice as much for hands than for feet or something like that, but that doesn't really matter.)
Fact is, the margin in which the chakra used to stick to the tree must fit the amount of chakra required to stick is obviously the same, no matter how much chakra one has. That means after finishing the exercise, the accuracy of their chakra use, meaning their chakra control, is the same for all of team seven.
This means that Naruto can very well learn chakra control just as fast as Sasuke, even with his larger chakra pool. And since the principle of building better accuracy with one's chakra is the same, no matter how good the chakra control, there is no reason, Naruto should not be able to learn any jutsu. It might take a lot of time to get the chakra exercises through, though.
In short terms: Naruto's chakra control can be just as good as Kurenai's or Tsunade's, if he does the same exercises, the exercises however are more diffcult to archive for him due to his large chakra capacity.
Yes, I know, that in the manga Naruto always has horrible chakra control, no matter how much he practices or what he learnds. But if Kishimoto can't stay within the rules of his own imaginary world, that's not my problem. I'm just pointing out obvious, dumb mistakes.
I have also seen some people combining exercises, like waterwalking and sticking a leaf to oneself at the same time. That makes no sense at all as a chakra exercise and would, at best, improve one's multitasking.

The Forbidden Scroll of Seals is a list with a description of several powerful jutsu, that are, for one reason or another, forbidden. Naruto managed to steal that scroll for one reason. He was able to knock out Hiruzen after the man "randomly" went to his office, just after the scroll had been stolen. Obviously the scroll is guarded by the Hokage himself, alerted by a seal if someone comes close to it, and, should he be unavailable by a contingent of Anbu.
There is no way, anyone but an elite jounin or Naruto could steal that scroll.

The council, which is responsible for something like 90% of the misery in Naruto fanfiction doesn't exist. Konoha is a military dictatorship, with the dictator, also known as Hokage, answering only to the Daimyou. Or not. I'm actually not sure, if the Hokage does actually answer to his daimyou, it actually looks like the hidden villages are independent from their Daimyous, but get a large portion of their income from his missions or funding.
On the same note, the Hokage doesn't have to answer to anyone, except for extreme cases. He can take a few people attacking Naruto and have them executed. He can send someone to the T&I for interroagation without any evidence. The only problem with that would be, if he were to do so regularly enough to cause unrest within the shinobi force or the civilian population.

Chuunin exams make sense. Jounin exams don't. The reason is, that the skillset of a new chuunin is still undeveloped and will change and refine a lot over time. A jounin already has a clearly defined skillset, that will always be the core of his fighting style. Making a jounin exam gives everyone a lot of information about the skills of all shinobi attending it, especially the village hosting it. That makes fighting and killing said jounin far less difficult and dangerous. Therefore villages wouldn't use jounin exams. Other reasons are: Jounin use more destructive techniques than chuunin, so the risk of collateral damage on civillians is higher. The risk of death for the jounin hopeful is also high and losing a potential jounin is a far heavier blow to a village, compared to losing a chuunin hopeful. Furthermore letting a large group of jounin into one's village is like letting an army in. The potential for an invasion, spying, or sabotage is just to high.
So one becomes jounin, only when one's Kage recognizes one's skills as jounin level, possibly after a probation period of several missions.

On the matter of the chuunin exam. People tend to misunderstand the first exam. Then they go and write a protagonist, who just breezes through it and logically deduces the optimal solution.
But that is not how this exam works. Ibiki is a master of psychological torture. He set the exam up, so that the genin would be terrified and liable to panic. He did his very best, and that is a lot, so that no one of the examinees could think clearly, thereby preventing them from making those exact logical deductions, that would help them.

The team placements are horrible. The teams are matched for their specialties, ignoring everything else, but genin need to learn basics first, so it would make far more sense to assign them according to their personalities. It's also obvious, that the jounin sensei completely fail to correct their genin's bad personality traits. (Naruto's act before thinking attitude, Sakura being a fangirl, Sasuke arrogant and revenge obsessed, Hinata's weak personality, Kiba's overly strong personality, Shikamaru's laziness, ...)
Team assignments should consider the personalities and fighting styles of the genin and for jounin the personality, fighting style, ability to teach, and ability to correct problematic personality traits of the genin.
Naruto should be assigned to Asuma, since he could learn a lot from him and Asuma won't be too lazy to actually teach him stuff, allowing Naruto's drive to bring him to greatness. But, contrary to Gai, Asuma is also smart enough to get Naruto to use his brain and increase his tactical thinking, for which he obviously has great talent, but, in the manga, never develops. Kiba would be the second person in team Asuma. Same as Naruto, Kiba could use a more objective mindset while fighting and could learn that from Asuma. Kiba would also form a rivalry with Naruto, which would drive them both to become better. Asuma is smart enough to lead that rivalry to help them improve in important matters (brains). The third person in team Asuma would be Tenten. Asuma is a very experienced shinobi and would therefore be able to help her a great deal with building her own weapon/seal based fighting style, far better than the very specialized Gai.
Sasuke isn't really a good match for anyone. Kakashi is a good teacher for him, since both have great talent and quick minds, but he does nothing to help with Sasuke's mental problems. Neji should also be part of Kakashi's team. He, same as Sasuke doesn't give much for teamwork, which they'd be forced to learn. He could also learn very well from Kakashi (genius types). The last member of team Kakashi would be Lee. He has seen enough to know what determination can archieve and has enough knowledge to find Lee a proper style. He may ba a worse teacher for Lee compared to Gai, but would more than make it up by teaching Lee to use cunning tactics and quick wits to overcome the difference of chakra instead of brute force.
Sakura clearly should have been assigned to Kurenai. She could teach her the most among all jounin and has the right mentality to beat her into a proper kunoichi instead of a weakling that is only good at beating up unresisting teammates. The second member of team Kurenai would be Ino, since she could learn a lot from Kurenai's indirect fighting style. her rivalry with Sakura would help them both grow. The last member of this team would be Shino. He can learn a lot about tactical fighting from Kurenai. This team would also be good, considering the genin are relatively easy to handle. In the manga Kurenai failed to help Hinata with her weak attitude and to curb Kiba's overagression.
Hinata should obviously have been paired with Gai. Gai's attitude of never giving up and everything being possible through hard work would be a trendemnous help for her. It would also diminish Hinata's fear of failure, since Gai clearly sees, that a failure of a student means a failure of the teacher. Shikamaru should also have Gai as sensei. While that is incredibly sadistic (which is actually good), Shikamaru wouldn't become a weak willed mediocre one trick pony this way. Shikamaru has great potential, but no motivation to use it. Gai has tons of motivation to spare. The last member would be Chouji. He has problems similar to Hinata, being a bit too meek and could use some more motivation. He would also make a great friend for Hinata.
While these teams aren't up to the two boys, one girl formula and from mixed years, it really makes way more sense and would help most of the genin a great deal compared to the teachers in the manga.

On the point of jounin sensei: It can't be overstated, how much more potential Kakashi has compared to all other jounin sensei. He has easily the most experience, the most ninjutsu, but also very strong taijutsu and genjutsu, due to his sharingan. Even better, he had very strong knowledge about jutsu, strategies, and fighting styles. He is probably the most intelligent of the sensei and he was there to observe some of the best shinobi in history and learn from them.
He could find a fitting, well rounded fighting style (or missing element in a fighting style) for any student, complete with all jutsu required. And he could explain and teach that student that style.
His two problems are motivation and the fact, that he is a genius, making it difficult for him to explain things to people like Naruto.

Jinchuuriki is another area, where Kishimoto screwed up completely.
First off a few obvious questions:
If jinchuuriki are supposed to be weapons, why wasn't Naruto ever trained?
Since Hiruzen knew, that Naruto was a jinchuuriki, why did he never help Naruto with his abysmal chakra control? It should have been completely obvious, that Naruto just can't pass without getting help with the bunshin no jutsu. Considering how close they are supposed to be, that really doesn't make any sense.
And what it means to be a jinchuuriki changes several times in the manga. At first Gaara's sand manipulation is attributed to his bijuu, then it becomes a kekkei genkai, and so on.
But what makes it the most obvious that Kishimoto changed jinchuuriki mid way is, that Naruto was supposed to be a way to save Konoha, and Gaara is portrayed as some extreme and unique measure by his father to make a weapon for Suna, it has inexperience written all over it.
In fact, the idea that jinchuuriki are seen as weapons is ridiculous. Naruto is completely useless as a weapon. Having the Kyuubi inside of him doesn't give him any advantages (like it gives Gaara), and his bijuu shroud is far too weak to overwhelm a jounin unless he loses all control.
My version is, that bijuu simply enhance their host's natural abilities. Since Naruto has a large chakra reserves, fast healing, and strong life foce from the Uzumaki line, this is pushed to the extreme by the Kyuubi. Same goes for Gaara's sand manipulation.
A person without bloodline would simply be slightly enhanced in all aspects (like a jinchuuriki with bloodline) and have a abnormally large chakra pool (also like one with bloodline).

The Last Naruto Movie has beautiful animation. And that is about what good I have to say about it.
Hinata constantly changes from damsel in distress to the only one who can help due to gratuitous amounts of Plot no Jutsu.
Naruto seems to never use even a fraction of his actual abilities, also due to plot. He's like: "The love of my life is getting abducted by strange and powerful people. Ah meh, getting serious is too much of a bother, I'm certain there will be some miraculous opportunity to get her back easier."
The moon people made me facepalm. At least now they have set up the villains for the next nine Boruto movies. We can now get sun people, mercury people, venus people, mars people, jupiter people, saturn people, uranus people, neptune people, and pluto people, each with their associated sibling of the Sage of the Six Paths that want, for some reason or another, destroy the world. Then they can get complete bs superpowers by stealing an eye from whichever future love interest the protagonist has - oh wait, the sharingan does that already without stealing an eye.
Then there was the scarf, Hinata made for Naruto, which she destroyed because she apparently never learned treewalking and then kept trying to remake because she had nothing better to do while the earth was about to be destroyed.
So, the plot of this movie: Hanabi is abducted by some moonguy, Naruto goes to the moon and kicks moonguy's ass, Hinata is important because the author says so, and Naruto takes a trip down the memory lane and learns that he was always in love with Hinata.
Now I'll describe my improved version: The Kage find that the moon will soon crash into the earth, they call Naruto, who goes into Sage of the Six Paths mode and blows the moon into bite sized chunks, Sakura tells Naruto that Hinata loves him but is too shy to tell him, and Naruto decides to go on a few dates with her, finds out, that she is a very nice person, falls in love with her, the two marry, and everything is good.

Missing nins open the possibility for a poor village to get more money by declaring someone a missing nin and have them do lucrative missions, that would cause too much backlash to accept officially. After that, they can become anbu without anyone being in the know.

A lot of people seem to misunderstand Anbu. There is no evidence, that they are a rank above jounin or stronger than them. Considering how seldom they appear in the manga, it's more likely, they are a group that are responsible for any inofficial business of a hidden village. That means they do anything that is not an official mission, like rooting out traitors, surveillance for the Hokage, protection of VIPs inside of the village, long term spying missions, and generally taking care of any of the Hokage's orders.
Considering how powerful jounin are, it's safe to say that most Anbu are somewhere in the high chuunin to low jounin power levels, with some mid jounin strewn in. The reason for that is, that the most powerful (high/elite jounin, like Kakashi) are better off and more effective being showcased as regular shinobi in order to increase a village's reputation and act as a deterrent.

The Aburame clan is usually not important, but, due to the fast reproduction of insects, they should be able to breed insects for nearly any special task in a very short time.

Here is, how in my opinion, fights between shinobi would work:

1. The pre fight phase:
   Both parties think about, if they should fight the other party. There are several things considered, among others:
   Reasons for fighting:Eliminating the other party would remove competition.
2. A fight with the other party would give fighting experience.
3. Orders may necessitate a fight.
4. Personal reasons, like revenge.
5. Intelligence gain during the fight or from corpses.
6. Reasons against fighting:
7. Possible exhaustion, wounds, or death.
8. Orders may speak against a fight or a fight might delay the mission.
9. Possible political backlash.
10. Possible revenge.
11. Scouting phase:
    Each party tries to catch the other off guard, assassinate one of the opposing party, or gain an advantageous position.
12. Fighting:
    During a fight, there are two ressources: Chakra and health.
    Obviously running out of health means death, but running out of chakra is just as dangerous.
    Chakra is what makes most shinobi powerful. They need it for their jutsu and only have a very limited amount, which they can either use for very few large jutsu (like the Rasengan or Great Fireball jutsu) or to gain a constant, slight advantage for a constant, slight chakra drain (Sharingan, hidden mist jutsu, chakra powered taijutsu).
    The fighting itself is not an all out clash of jutsu, but carefully thought out engagements, where both shinobi fight to find or force an opening, that they can use to ensure a hit with a chakra powered jutsu to end the fight. On the other hand, the opponent also tries to fake such an opening to make someone waste chakra.
13. The win:
    There are several ways to win the fight:
14. Exhaust an opponent's chakra. If they are out of chakra, they no longer have anything that can be used to defend against a jutsu and are bodily exhausted, which makes them slower and even more susceptible.
15. Whittle the opponent down by inflicting many small wounds, each so insignificant, that it would be a waste to lose chakra over preventing it, but in total accumulating so much damage, that the opponent is unable to fight.
16. Surprise the opponent with a move they can't react to in timeand end the battle with that.
17. Get the opponent into a no-win position, either by carefully setting it up, or by merit of being so superior, that they are unable to defend themselves against certain attacks.

It's not realistic for every single villager to hate Naruto. On the other hand, it is realistic for every single villager to keep their children away from Naruto.
In general, most people are neutral. They don't proactively act for one side or another. They don't hate Naruto because of the Kyuubi, but they won't go to him and help him either. But then people who hate Naruto start rumors about him. They are vocal about how they hate him and force other people to act like they hate him, too, as a form of peer pressure. If the neutral people would do the same, Naruto could live normally, but they are far less vocal.
Children are another matter, though. Parents who hate Naruto won't let their children near him and tell them, how Naruto is bad and evil. The children believe that, and since peer pressure and indoctrination/rumors are far more effective on children, because they trust their parents, most children will stay away from Naruto. That won't change when they are older, since it's a learned behaviour.
On the other hand, any parent would keep their children away from Naruto. The reasons for that is simple. Their children could become targeted by the hate of the other villagers. They could be excluded from their circle of friends. They might be in danger from being too close to Naruto, if anything triggers him. They might even be bullied by other children because of their association with Naruto.
No parent would want that for their child, so Naruto, in his childhood, will always end up alone, no matter if there are people who like him/not hate him or not.

Like most other things, Kishimoto screwed up his population numbers. Assuming, Konoha, as the most powerful village, supplies around a quarter of the 80k army of the Allied Shinobi Forces and has therefore 20k shinobi. But with an average shinobi lifespan of 45 years, that would require around 450 new Genin each year. From the other end, assuming 20 new Genin each year (even though we only know of 9, we would get 900 active shinobi (assuming 45 year lifespan) or 700 shinobi (assuming 35 years). The extreme case would be 315 active shinobi (with 9 new Genin each year, 35 years average lifespan for a shinobi). Anyway, whatever one chose to accept requires changes in the Naruto universe.
These changes would either mean a far larger academy and better organization, as well as far more missions. The smaller number, on the other hand, would mean few larger battles, and make things like jinchuuriki much more relevant. It would also mean, that gathering sixty people for a search would be close to impossible, since that would be a significant part of the shinobi population.

Teaching Naruto jutsu:
I have read a ton of fanfiction, where Kakashi is the bad guy for teaching Sasuke jutsu and neglecting Naruto's training.
Fact is, Kakashi was right, not to teach Naruto jutsu. At that point, canon Naruto is an idiot, who doesn't even have the skills, especially mental ones, to classify as genin. Teaching Naruto jutsu would be a huge waste of time and possibly dangerous, because Naruto doesn't have the basic shinobi abilities to back up his jutsu. He doesn't have enough knowledge or experience or intelligence to know, when to use his jutsu. He also can't keep his calm in a fight.
Jiraiya did teach Naruto two jutsu. Naruto never uses the summoning jutsu, unless there is a threat the size of a boss summon, that reminds him of his own contract and forces him to use it. He clearly doesn't know, when it is appropriate to use, nor does he appreciate its usefulness.
Naruto uses the rasengan as his-go to offense. But he just runs at an opponent and tries to shove the jutsu into their gut, an exceedingly dumb and useless strategy. He can't force his opponent into a situation, where the rasengan would be useful, nor is he able to stay calm and plan in a fight.
So in the end, Kakashi is right and Jiraiya is an idiot. Teaching Naruto jutsu is a waste of time as he doesn't know, what to do with them. If Kakashi had his way with teaching Naruto, he would likely have become far stronger then under Jiraiya's tuteage. Of course, that is only true, if Kakashi actually decided not to ignore Naruto and teach him the basic skills, knowledge, and tactics, he is lacking.

The jutsu:

The Rasengan is a completely overvalued jutsu. It is really just a very complicated and powerful chakra exercise, but what really makes it weak is, as Naruto shows time and time again in the manga, that one has to touch the opponent with it. If one lacks a way to force an opponent into close combat or is not fast enough to hit the opponent, it is almost completely useless.
On the other hand, it is incredibly destructive and should shred a person to pieces, instead of blowing them back, like it does in the manga, so it's very understandable that it has become so famous in the hands of the Yondaime, who had the perfect means to make sure he was always in range and was fast enough to hit any opponent.
The combination of Naruto and rasengan is terrible, though, since almost any opponent, weak enough to be hit by Naruto's rasengan, could also be killed with a simple kunai without spending a ton of time and chakra for an A-rank jutsu.

The Kagebunshin no Jutsu is the most powerful jutsu in existence. At least, if one has gigantic chakra reserves. It allows the training of any kind of jutsu and the acquisition of any kind of knowledge with extreme rates, meaning more than a hundred times as fast as without it. It also allows for a lone shinobi to cast multiple jutsu at once, even using combination jutsu.
As an example, training one year with the Kagebunshin no Jutsu with hundred clones means training hundred years. That really puts the power of this jutsu into perspective.

The Kirigakure no Jutsu is one of the most underrated jutsu in the whole Naruto universe. It doesn't just create a mist, that confuses the opponent, it takes the sight almost completely out of the equation. Finding an opponent's position and where they are facing, without the use of sight is the most important thing, while this jutsu is active. Additionally, the jutsu also hinders smell and hearing, giving a huge advantage to anyone who has trained with it.
Attacks can come from almost anywhere at any time, retaliation is nigh impossible.
Kakashi almost lost to that jutsu, only winning because of his dog contract.
And to that comes the psychological effects: The feeling of isolation from companions, the terror of hearing your friends die, just a few meters away, but being unable to see or do anything about it.

So the whole sharingan thing is a giant pile of steaming excrements, straight out of the imagination of an elementary school student, who is playing "My imaginary power is better than yours, with a friend". The enhanced perception, genjutsu immunity, and jutsu copying is bad enough, but the rest of its abilities is even more ridiculous. Basically, whenever Kishimoto needs a new strange power to advance his plot to where he wants it to be, he just says, it's a sharingan power. For example when the Kyuubi suddenly wasn't completely evil anymore, it was because the giant fox was controlled by the sharingan, when Sasuke has to overcome Orochimaru's attempt a possessing him, it's the sharingan, and so on.
But there is one interesting thing about it.
Susanoo, the big specter. At the end of the manga, Susanoo was strong enough to go toe to toe with the Kyuubi. Since I don't think, anyone is stupid enough to say, the sharingan is just that powerful, that means it creates a connection to a being called Susanoo, which is far more powerful than the Kyuubi (since it's only a connection and Susanoo isn't actually there) and, for some reason, helps the Uchiha.
Since Uchiha are in general really unpleasant people, it's safe to say, Susanoo isn't helping them to thank them for anything, or because it likes them. Rather, I would guess, Susanoo wants to enter the Elemental Nations, either by one Uchiha becoming so skilled, as to summon it completely, or by weakening the barrier between the worlds through repeatedly using Susanoo.

The Byakugan, on the other hand, is an interesting doujutsu. Long range sight, and the ability to see through objects and humans, with enough precision to allow the user to hit tenketsu. It can be used for scouting, fighting, and making sure, that there are no surprises during a fight.
It also has clear weaknesses, such as the weak spot, and that it is completely useless, if the opponent is just too fast for the Byakugan user (contrary to the sharingan, the Byakugan doesn't help with enemies faster than the user, except if they try some sneaky move.
One very interesting thing, imo, is the idea of learning jutsu with the Byakugan. The dojutsu allows its user to see the chakra flow and the hand signs, therefore it should be possible to easily copy the jutsu, even though it may require some practise.

The Rinnegan is interesting. On the surface, it has many interesting powers, none of them (except maybe for the "reviving dead people" part) too overpowered, while still strong. It is less interesting then the Byakugan, but not a total scew up.
The interesting part of that (at least in my opinion) has never been explored. The Rinnegan allows its user to learn the Banbutsu Souzou no Jutsu (Creation of all things), which, in turn allows for a ton of interesting possibilities.
Chief amongst those is the creation of an antimatter bomb. The user can simply create antimatter mixed with matter to create a hydrogen bomb on steroids. It would, however, be advisable to remember, to use a monumental amount of chakra on a Shinra Tensei, as to not eradicate ones own side of the country.

Genjutsu. Holy inventor of writing, how can anyone produce such crap? The problem with genjutsu is, that they have a huge area of effect, can not be avoided, can easily debilitate long enough for a kill, and are completely unnoticeable, but NEVER DO ANYTHING!
In addition, they have two easy and obvious ways of getting out of them.
That means, unless someone is caught in a genjutsu and killed before they find their way out of it, genjutsu are completely and utterly useless. Of course, in order to have an interesting fight, using a genjutsu can never lead into a successful assassination because that would be boring.
To make that worse, pain or a disruption of the chakra network nullify a genjutsu, which means one can easily escape a genjutsu after noticing it, unless those methods don't work for some reason or another, which is pretty much whenever Kishimoto feels like it. It would be too much to ask to have methods that are guaranteed to dispel a genjutsu actually work, wouldn't it?

Just for laughs, my evaluation of Konoha's jounin sensei:
Gai is pretty good. He does his best to teach his students and actually gets them to learn something. Lee is obviously the one to profit the most from that, but all his genin are pretty good. Sadly, he is unable to teach Lee calm thinking or do anything about Neji's mentality. Gai's performance is made more impressive since he doesn't really use jutsu.
Kurenai is not the second best, but the third worst. She does nothing. Her students rely on clan jutsu, so she doesn't really seem to teach them anything. Despite her teachings, Kiba is brash and doesn't think, Hinata is pathetically weak, and, over all, her team just isn't all that strong if one considers, what they could have been. On the other hand, Kurenai is a completely new to this and specializes in genjutsu which are useless to her students, so all that bad is somewhat mitigated.
Asuma has worse genin to work with than any of the other sensei. Compared to any of the other teams, the Ino-Shika-Chou combo plain sucks. Any single person out of Sasuke, Naruto, Kiba, and team Gai could probably take all three of them out without too many problems. They are unmotivated and Asuma really has his work cut out for him. To his credit, he manages to produce the first chuunin out of the bunch, but compared to what he should be able to archive, he fails miserably. He is a strong, smart, and experienced. He should be the second best sensei by a huge margin, and getting one of his team to chuunin by merit of his mostly inborn intelligence, while the other two are still two of the weakest three amongst the twelve discussed genin, doesn't really do anything to make him look good.
Kakashi is a complete disappointment. He has the perfect qualifications for a jounin sensei. He is the most powerful, most experienced, and by far the most knowledgeable jounin sensei. He has an incredible knowledge of jutsu and fighting styles which he could teach Naruto and Sakura, and has personal experiences that should aid him in dealing with Sasuke and Naruto. To top it off, he could teach any of them everything they would ever need to know about any subject or skill from genjutsu, to weapon combat, to strategy. Despite that, he fails miserably. Sasuke becomes a traitor, Naruto is still and idiot and what little skill he has archived is certainly not from Kakashi, while Sakura is plain useless. Kakashi has by far the most potential as a sensei among all Konoha shinobi excluding the Sandaime, and he screws up completely.

[NaruPatch]

Naruto Patch 1.01:

So, I've decided to think about how much crap there is in the world of Naruto and how to balance it in a way that allows for interesting development and battles instead of just pulling another jutsu out of the Sharingan whenever needed.
The main goal here is to make 'hard magic system' for Naruto, changing the concept of jutsu and chakra into something that is predictable and has clear limitations, weaknesses, costs. Additionally, this is supposed to change kekkei genkai, bijuu, and other unlearnable jutsu to a level that they don't completely trump anything a normal person could learn.

The Bijuu:

The least powerful tailed beast is the Ichibi, which is twice as powerful as a boss summon (which are all equally powerful). Each additional tail doubles the power of the Bijuu. That means the Nibi is twice as powerful as the Ichibi and four times as powerful as a boss summon. The Kyuubi is twice as powerful as the Hachibi and 512 times as powerful as a boss summon. The Juubi is twice as powerful as the Kyuubi. The Bijuu can be sealed by space-time fuuinjutsu, since they have no understanding of how they work and have no way to influence it. If a bijuu were to learn fuuinjutsu, they could create a counter seal from within their jinchuuriki. But learning fuuinjutsu and obtaining the required chakra control would take deccades. The Reaper Death seal, which Minato used to seal the Kyuubi is split into two parts. It summons the Shinigami to immobilize the target for the sealing and is, at the same time, a complicated space-time sealing method. The Reaper Death seal would not be required, if one had another method of immobilizing a target, like using senjutsu enhanced mokuton to subjugate the Kyuubi. So this version of the Reaper Death seal would have completely sealed Orochimaru and killed him with Hiruzen's death. It is impossible to split a bijuu's chakra. If shared with anyone else, the chakra is toxic and corrosive. Sharing the Kyuubi's chakra, like Naruto did at the end of the manga is impossible and, even if Naruto had the required control to force the Kyuubi's chakra into another person, it would have killed the target by complete destruction of the chakra network. A bijuu empowers its jinchuuriki's natural abilities and kekkei genkai. For any jinchuuriki, their chakra, chakra capacity, natural speed, strength, toughness, healing, vision, reaction time, and all other physical attributes become more powerful. This is more pronounced, the stronger a bijuu is. A kekkei genkai is enhanced in different ways. Naruto, as an Uzumaki has natural toughness and large chakra reserves, as well as enhanced healing, which are all naturally strengthened. Gaara's sand control, on the other hand is enhanced in that he can control more sand and can control the sand with more force, allowing him to shield and attack more effectively and faster.
The enhancement is also stronger, when a jinchuuriki draws on bijuu chakra.
A jinchuuriki also has a form of genjutsu immunity, due to the small amounts of bijuu chakra that continuously runs through their network. However, a genjutsu master can, over several attempts, learn how to compensate for that. For example, Itachi woulld be unable to use a genjutsu on Naruto on the first attempt. But, if he tries four or five more time, he can learn, how to compensate for Kurama's chakra and sucessfully use genjutsu on Naruto. If a jinchuuriki draws upon at least one tail of power, they are completely immune to any form of genjutsu, including tsukuyomi.
Using a genjutsu on a bijuu requires huge amounts of chakra and can only be performed once, before the bijuu is able to figure out what happened and becomes able to destroy the genjutsu. Kurama learned that after being used by Madara, but between his long imprisonment, hate, and anger, wasn't lucid enough to escape Toobi's genjutsu, especially since he wanted revenge on Konoha anyway. Insane bijuu are an exception and can be caught in genjutsu for any amount of times. A jinchuuriki doesn't need his bijuu's agreement or any form of understanding to use its chakra. He just needs to draw upon it once, either in a dangerous situation, similar to the activation of a kekkei genkai, or using meditation. After that, he can learn to draw on the chakra, whenever he wants. Drawing bijuu chakra to a point that there is more bijuu chakra in the body than normal chakra completely destroys chakra control. The control of the massive amounts of bijuu chakra requires seperate training.
That also means that tree climbing with bijuu chakra is impossible without years of training. Water walking is possible, but is more a form of hovering, again due to the massive amounts of chakra. Using a tailed beast in battle grants a great boost, but comes at a cost. The bijuu chakra damages the jinchuuriki's chakra network as long as it is used. The more bijuu chakra is used, the more significant the damage. If one uses a bijuu mode too long, the user dies. How long a junchuuriki can use a certain amount of bijuu chakra depends on their chakra capacity. After exiting bijuu mode, the jinchuuriki is, for a time, unable to use chakra in any way, due to their damaged network. The duration of time, someone is unable to use their chakra depends on their usual capacity. Examples:
If Naruto could use eight tails for one minute before he dies, he could use nine tails for only thirty seconds.
If Naruto has twice as much chakra as Bee, and Bee can use eight tails of chakra for one minute, Naruto can use eight tails for two minutes.
If Naruto has twice as much chakra as Bee, and Bee is unable to use chakra for ten hours after using eight tails, Naruto is unable to use chakra for five hours after using eight tails.

Doujutsu:

The sharingan comes in three basic stages of maturation: The first tomoe dramatically increases the speed which the user can perceive. If someone could only follow mid Chuunin speeds, they could follow mid Jounin speeds with a one tomoe sharingan. Like a normal eye, the speed, one can perceive can be trained, which is far easier with the sharingan. The second tomoe allows for the copying of handseals within the speed one can perceive. If Kakashi uses hand signs as fast as he can, Sasuke could not copy them until his sharingan are used to elite Jounin speeds. The sharingan can not copy any jutsu that does not solely rely on handseals, and even those may have to be trained. For example, the rasengan can not be copied, because it has no handseals. The shoosen no jutsu (Mystic Palm) can not be copied, unless the sharingan user has the required chakra and nature control. An advanced genjutsu can not be copied, because it requires a precise mental image of the illusion and other mental steps, which the sharingan user doesn't know. The third tomoe allows for a sense of precognition based on minuscule muscle twitches. Again, this requires the sharingan user to be used to the speed of their opponent. The whirling tomoe of any stage of the sharingan can be used to cast genjutsu, which is very difficult and has to be learned and trained intensely. The mangekyou sharingan can be archived either after mastering the matured sharingan and extensive training, or due to a terrible loss, like killing ones best friend. It has three abilities: Tsukuyomi is a genjutsu unlike any other.
Once the user has ensnared their target, they have complete control over the world within, including the ability to create anything they can imagine. It can be cast for anywhere from zero to ten seconds, and has the ability to warp time inside the genjutsu, meaning ten seconds can last for ten seconds to about three hours. However, the stronger the time warp, the weaker the effects of the genjutsu. While killing someone several times within the ten seconds of a tsukuyomi without time warp can kill an opponent, using the full duration of nearly three hours doesn't have any physical effects, aside from mental fatigue that effects both user and target.
Tsukuyomi, as any genjutsu, can be countered by causing a paradox, which is difficult, since the user has complete control over the world, but being strong enough to compensate for the user's power over the world works just as well, for example, Itachi's tsukuyomi would not be useful against Jiraiya, since he could outfight Itachi even with the advantage of complete control over the world.
In addition, the use of tsukuyomi leaves the user unable to see the world around him, and any breaking of eye contact with the target or any action outside of the genjutsu world, immediately ends tsukuyomi. Amaterasu is a flame shot out of either or both of the mangekyou sharingan. It burns extremely fast and burns anything, from flesh to rock to water. It does, however, need oxygen, and covering amaterasu flames completely with a material like earth or water extinguishes the flames. Additionally, amaterasu flames continually draw chakra from the user. Stopping the chakra flow to the flames extinguishes them. Setting a small area on fire is not problematic, but a larger area quickly drains the sharingan user's reserves. If Itachi were to try to destroy Konoha with amaterasu, he would die from chakra exhaustion within seconds. Amaterasu can be cast simultaneously with other jutsu, allowing for combination jutsu or simultaneous attacks on different targets. Susanoo is a form of chakra armor, which requires two mangekyou sharingan to use. In terms of power, it can be anywhere between a small, regular armor, which can be shattered with a sufficiently powerful jutsu, like the gokaykou no jutsu (Great Fireball), up to an upper limit, where Susanoo is as powerful and tough as a boss summon and defeating it requires a jutsu on the scale of rasenshruiken to defeat. Susanoo has all tools of its user (like kunai, sword, scrolls, etc), and can perform jutsu. Susanoo requires a continuous amount of chakra. After about three minutes, this amounts to the cost of calling a boss summon. Using jutsu with susanoo requires double the amount of chakra normally required. If susanoo is destroyed or damaged, it repairs itself over the span of one day. Using the mangekyou sharingan does not affect the user's eye sight. The eternal mangekyou sharingan does not exist, nor does it need to. Izanagi does not exist. Other forms of the sharingan do not exist. All mangekyou sharingan have the same abilities. The Byakuugan, when first awakened, has a range of ten meters in all directions and can see through any material that is not enclosed by a dense chakra barrier. Yes, it can see through clothes, yes, some Hyuuga are perverts.
While using the byakuugan, the user loses normal vision. They can not see beyond the range of their doujutsu.
The byakuugan does not have a blind spot.
The byakuugan can be trained in three different aspects: By pushing chakra to ones eyes and focusing on the edge of the vision, one can train the range of the byakuugan to up to five hundred meters. By pushing chakra to ones eyes and focusing on a detail, one can increase the accuracy of the byakuugan up to the point of precisely seeing tenketsu. This is rather easy, but still has to be trained. The pulsing veins of the byakuugan can be used to cast genjutsu, similar to the sharingan, which is difficult to learn and has to be trained. After mastering the base byakuugan, there are four unconnected possibilities of evolution, all of which can be learned by any byakuugan user: With practice, great chakra control, and focus, one can extend the range of the byakuugan in a cone shape, up to 20 kilometers into a single direction. With long observation of materials and opponents, one can learn to see shatterpoints. For the basic ability, only corroded or weak materials and jutsu show these shatterpoints, but the ability can be trained, until it works on stronger objects and jutsu. Shatterpoints on solid objects can be destroyed by palm strikes or solid projectiles, jutsu can be destroyed by chakra attacks. How much chakra and/or force it takes to destroy a shatterpoint depends on strength of a material or power of a jutsu. A powerful and well executed jutsu takes a only slightly less powerful attack to destroy, which is extremely difficult for combination jutsu and jutsu that use natural chakra. After observing an opponent's chakra during the creation of a jutsu and mirroring that, a byakuugan user can learn any jutsu they see with the byakuugan, regardless of handsigns. The only exception to this are required bloodlines or insufficient chakra or nature control. Genjutsu can be copied because the byakuugan can see the chakra molded in the brain of both the caster and the target. By training to correlate chakra enhancement of the muscles and muscle twitches to movements, the byakuugan can archive a similar form of precognition as the sharingan. This takes a very long time. The tenseigan or any other evolutions of the byakuugan do not exist. The Rinnegan has all abilities, that Pein displays with the same limitations. Revival of the dead, however, costs more chakra, the longer they were dead, making it impossible to revive anyone who is dead for longer than a day. It can also be used to restore a body, dead or alive, to the peak of physical condition.
The animal path has a finite supply of animals in battle. Any animal that is destroyed can not be resummoned for a month.
A rinnegan user can learn any and all of the other doujutsus' abilities, including base forms and evolutions of the sharingan and byakuugan without ever having to possess the eyes. To obtain the rinnegan, several requirements have to be met:
One has to have blood from the lines of both sons of the Sage of the Six Paths, strong enough to develop a doujutsu (sharingan or byakuugan) and to be able to use mokuton.
Furthermore, one needs kage level chakra reserves. The Rinnegan's abilities have immense chakra costs and eyes do not randomly increase a person's chakra pool, which means any rinnegan user has to spend significant time training their chakra pool. A child of an Uchiha and a Hyuuga randomly inherits one of the two doujutsu, which depends on power. If Sasuke has a child with Hanabi and is twice as strong as her at the point of conception, the child has a two thirds chance to inherit the sharingan and a one third chance to inherit the byakuugan. Blood dilution does not exist. Anyone with at least one parent with a doujutsu will also have that doujutsu. Any child of a Senju and a Uchiha or Hyuuga has the chance to develop the Rinnegan after obtaining the same qualifications as mentioned above.
Also, Uzumaki are not related to Senju on this patch. Doujutsu users are not immune to genjutsu. There are two possibilities to ensnare a doujutsu user in a genjutsu:
One can use the genjutsu before the doujutsu is activated and use the genjutsu to prevent the activation of a doujutsu or trick the target into thinking, they have activated their doujutsu.
One can adapt the genjutsu to the abilities of the doujutsu. That requries an intimate knowledge of the target's doujutsu. After being shown, with a genjutsu for example, how a doujutsu user experiences the world with the doujutsu active, and understanding, how a doujutsu works, any genjutsu master can learn how to trap sharingan and byakuugan users in their genjutsu. The rinnegan is far more difficult, since it is extremely rare and obscure, so the required knowledge and experience would be almost impossible to find. Furthermore, it would have to be cast on all clones and/or bodies of the rinnegan user simultaneously, and would be dispelled with the creation of a new clone or body.

Chakra:

Chakra control works by training the body's tenketsu to contract with a certain level of precision. For example, to learn treewalking, one has to learn to use exactly enough chakra to stick to a tree without slipping or bursting off the bark.
For waterwalking, one has to learn how to change the chakra output in ones feet to accommodate to the small fluctuations on the water surface.
First of all, let's clarify the aim of the exercise. If Naruto can output 1,2,3,4,... units of chakra, he has to output somewhere around 1.5 units to stick to a tree. Therefore, after mastering the exercise, he can output 0.5,1.0,1.5,2.0,2.5,3.0,3.5,4.0,.. units of chakra.
Fact is, after both Sasuke and Naruto have to learn treewalking, they both have equally good chakra control.
The more chakra someone has, the more difficult it is to learn such an exercise.
Let's imagine, a tenketsu is like a ring of muscle that determines the size of a circular opening, then that means that the more chakra one uses, the less precise it becomes and, the relation between chakra pool and learning time is not linear, but a square root function.
That means, if Naruto has 100 times Sasuke's chakra, he would take 10 times as long as Sasuke to learn a new chakra control exercise. If Sasuke has four times as much chakra as Sakura, he needs twice as long as her to learn the same exercise.
That, of course, ignores any kind of natural talent for chakra control. The chakra pool of a shinobi is determined by several factors.
As hinted in the chuunin exams and the explanation on chakra components, mental and physical fitness both increases one's chakra pool.
Flooding ones chakra network with massive amounts of chakra forces it to expand. If that is done regularly, like Naruto's jinchuuriki seal does, ones entire chakra network and chakra pool expands.
Depending on ones bloodline, people have larger or smaller chakra pools. The Nara for example have small chakra pools, while the Senju and Uzumaki are well known for large chakra pools.
Repeatedly using large amounts of chakra and coming close to chakra exhaustion also enlarges ones chakra pool. To perform any jutsu with handseals, a shinobi does not require the chakra nature of that jutsu, it is, however easier to learn and faster and less costly to cast, if one has the matching nature affinity. If someone has the nature affinity for a jutsu and trains that affinity, one can learn how to manipulate that jutsu, for example making a fireball follow a target (which requires uninterrupted concentration or changing its shape. The nature affinity is also required to learn a new jutsu or perform a jutsu without handseals. Each chakra nature has a nature, it is strong against, and one, it is weak against.
In some cases, like fire and wind, the weaker nature can be used to enhance the stronger one, but not in all cases.
However, the amount of chakra used for a jutsu always has an effect. If Sasuke tries to use a fireball to counter Naruto's wind jutsu, Sasuke will fail, because Naruto's jutsu would likely contain at least four times as much chakra as Sasuke's.
Similarly, if Naruto's rasengan clashes with with Sasuke's raikiri, the raikiri would be obliterated by the ridiculous amount of power in Naruto's jutsu. Any shinobi can master all five chakra natures.
Assuming a shinobi starts with one affinity for wind, here is, how they could master all elements:
First, master the wind element.
Secondly, take a chakra paper and channel chakra into it with the wind element completely suppressed in order to find the next strongest elemental affinity.
Repeat that for all chakra natures.
Learning elemental manipulation for an element which one doesn't have an affinity is impossible, unless a shinobi has mastered all elements, they have an affinity for and therefore know, how to suppress that element in ones chakra.

Jutsu:

The Kagebunshin no Jutsu only does a full memory transfer if only one clone is created. If many clones are created, only vague impressions and some subconscious learning is transferred. With that, the jutsu is useless for mass training, except for training ones chakra nature or a specific jutsu.
A single clone can, however, still be used to read books or learn anything else. The rasengan first cuts a wide hole into its target, and then explodes. It is exceedingly powerful and can destroy nearly everything, which is evident in the fact that Minato never had to create a new form to defeat any enemy.
If used on a human, it would bury itself in the target, until it is not pushed anymore, and then expands/explodes, ripping the enemy apart.
There is no nonlethal version of this jutsu. The eight gates do exist, but humans can only open two gates, which do not increase chakra, but only physical performance, which is doubled with each gate. Releasing the gates requires at least a year of intensive training and puts high physical strain on the body. Depending on the body's condition and the length of use, muscles rip and partially or completely, which puts the user into the hospital anywhere between a few days and several weeks. Hiraishin no Jutsu was created by Minato. That makes far more sense, especially since it is based on seals and the Nidaime was more of a long range ninjutsu type. Kuchiose: Edo Tensei was created by Orochimaru. It never made sense for it to be created by the Nidaime and this change also explains, why Hiruzen had no counter to it, despite knowing about the jutsu and having reason to assume that Orochimaru also knows it.
Edo Tensei summons are created as in canon with the addition of a seal that contains a pool of chakra. The summon has all abilities, intelligence, and knowledge of the original, but all chakra usage drains the chakra from the seal they were created with. Regenerating itself costs the summon chakra from that source as well. As soon as the chakra from the seal used in the edo tensei jutsu runs out, the jutsu stops immediately. Additionally, an edo tensei summon's chakra does not regenerate. One can, however, put a nearly unlimited amount of chakra into such a seal. The Kawarimi no Jutsu can be used to substitute with an object of roughly equal mass and size, if one knows its exact location. This means, substitution objects usually have to be prepared in advance. The Shunshin no Jutsu is a space-time jutsu that projects a strong chakra pulse to a nearby location and then teleports to the chakra pulse. The jutsu is moderately taxing for distances around 20m, its chakra cost exponentially rising with distance. The chakra pulse is strong enough to be sensed by anyone nearby, which allows any opponent in the same speed class as the Shunshin user to attack precisely leaving no opportunity to dodge. This makes the jutsu useless in battle, unless the user can preemtively defend against the coming attack (Uchiha Shisui) or is fast enough to outclass any opponent (Namikaze Minato). Tsunade's strength technique consists of carefully and individually reinforcing certain muscle groups, skin, and bones of her arm with exactly the maximum amount of chakra that muscle/skin/bone can take to archive the absolute pinnacle of chakra reinforcement.
This jutsu requires solid medical knowledge, mastery of ones own body, and immense chakra control.

Genjutsu:

Genjutsu work by using small amounts of the user's chakra to manipulate the chakra inside the target's brain. They can be used with handseals and shot away from the caster like a very fine net into one direction. Genjutsu can be activated without handseals by using some kind of carrier, like visual (sharingan's tomoe, byakuugan's veins, patterns in a clothing, or sealing tags), auditive (music, song), touch (direct or by sending vibrations through the earth, which requires earth affinity), or smell (rarely used, because it is difficult, unreliable, and easy to notice, especially for animals or sensor types)
This type of genjutsu is very difficult and requires strong concentration. A simple genjutsu can be set up to cover an area with simple sealing tags, which can be bought in all hidden villages. Genjutsu immunities come in different forms:
Holders of any doujutsu are immune to visual genjutsu, except if those genjutsu are compensate for that doujutsu, which requires strong knowledge about the workings of the doujutsu and first hand experience in its effect. (If Hinata were to show Kurenai, how the world looks with the byakuugan activated, she could craft visual genjutsu that compensate for its effect.) Doujutsu are generally useless against non-visual genjutsu.
Jinchuuriki have biju chakra in their system, which works similar to a KAI, constantly shocking the jinchuuriki's chakra network. Genjutsu masters can learn to accommodate for that, but even that only works for less than one tail of chakra.
Some chakra sensors can notice the chakra of a genjutsu user of equal or lower ability than their own.
Experienced byakuugan users can see the chakra of any genjutsu and also see the foreign chakra manipulating the brain of themselves or other people. There are different kinds of genjutsu. Minor genjutsu are used to confuses the senses of an enemy, for example screwing with their sense of time, depth perception, diverting their attention, making them hear strange sounds, etc. They can be broken by a shock to the chakra network, internal (KAI!) or external (teammate or popping shadowclone). Major genjutsu work much differently, they work like an illusion that can be escaped if the target manages to create a paradox inside the world of the illusion.
Damage inside of the genjutsu world can cause harm in the real world, but only with repeated hits.
Time in a genjutsu goes by much faster than in reality, the more complex the genjutsu is (meaning the more powerful and/or damaging it is) the slower time works in the genjutsu world. This kind of genjutsu only has to be painstakingly constructed with a lot of work. Changing the jutsu's effects on the go is possible only in limited ways.

Objects, Attributes, and Possibilities that don't exist:

The mask that allows people to manipulate the shinigami does not exist. The tools of the Sage of the Six Paths do not exist. It is not possible to split chakra from a source. Splitting the Kyuubi is impossible, eating chakra from a bijuu and becoming a jinchuuriki through that means is also impossible. Naruto's heritage can't be found out from his looks. There are enough blondes in the Elemental Nations for him not to be suspicious.

[NaruHPatch]

Naruto Hardcore Patch:

This patch aims at a more realistic Naruto Universe, preventing overpowered characters, and highlighting the importance and value of jutsu.
Any shinobi can learn any jutsu, provided they have the abilities required to learn it (that includes necessary kekkei genkai) and spend sufficient time on training it.

The formula for the time spent learning a jutsu is: Te=Tt/(Tf*Kf*Sf)
Te is the effective time, the time that is a measurement for the progress in training.
Tt is the time spent training. Tf is the talent factor, which can be anywhere between 2 (very talented) and 0.5 (untalented).
Kf is the knowledge factor, which accounts for intelligence, knowledge about the jutsu, and a sensei. It too can be between 2.5 (good understanding of the workings of the jutsu) and 0.5 (trying to learn a jutsu without knowing, what it will do).
This means a talented shinobi with a great sensei can learn a jutsu in a quarter of the time of a normal shinobi. An untalented person with bad understanding of what they are trying to do will take four times as long as a normal shinobi or sixteen times as long as a talented shinobi with a great sensei.

The next step is to consider how much time any shinobi would spend on training. Assuming, a shinobi would spend six hours sleeping, then two hours on eating, errands, travel time, et cetera, one hour to maintain their physical conditioning, then there are fifteen hours left.
Assuming, a shinobi would spend on average four hours per day outside of the shinobi life (doing something, they enjoy), that leaves eleven hours. Again assuming that they spend on average seven hours per day on missions (for example two D-ranks: For each an hour for travel time, getting the mission and receiving the payment and two and a half hours each for the actual mission).
That leaves us with approximately four hours per day training time for the average shinobi. But that is only an average. For example, a Genin would spend more time training, while a Jounin or unambitious Chuunin would spend more time on missions, trying to amount funds for retirement.
Going from that basis, every author has to think for themselves, how each character would spend their time. For example, Sasuke is so focused on killing Sasuke, that he spends play time and time for friends or family (oh wait!) on training. Naruto, on the other hand, has no real social life, but he spends a lot of time pranking and making trouble, which leaves him with average training time over all. Kakashi is the sensei of a Genin team, which leaves barely any time for training beyond what is required to keep up his level. Shikamaru is lazy, so he spends much of his training time on stuff like cloud watching.
Another thing to consider is the chakra pool and stamina. Sakura, for example could not train taijutsu or jutsu for a long amount of time, because she lacks resources. Even Sasuke could not train Chidori for more than a few attempts before needing a longer break.
One has to keep in mind, that shinobi have a limited time to train, not only each day, but throughout their lives. Training something, you don't need is a colossal waste of time and slows down the growth of ones total power. Imagine, if Kakashi had spent the time in which he created the Chidori on improving his shunshin.

Jutsu themselves work differently to what is shown in the manga. Chakra is a ressource, not something that can run out whenever the plot demands it to conveniently kill off a character or add tension.
Any jutsu has a base chakra cost Bk,
which is modified by a chakra control factor Cf between 2 (perfect chakra control and small reserves) and 0.5 (no chakra control training and large chakra pool).
Ab is a bonus derived from a nature affinity, which ranges from 3 (mastered affinity) to 1 (no affinity).
So the chakra cost of any jutsu is Cc=Bk/(Cf*Ab).

The speed with which one can cast a jutsu depends on the base speed Sb,
modified with Cs, the speed with which one can channel the required amount of chakra, also between 2 (huge chakra reserves) and 0.5 (small chakra reserves),
and Ef, which factors in, how much experience a shinobi has with a given jutsu. Ef is between 3 (extremely experienced, could literally cast the jutsu in their sleep from muscle memory) to 1 (able to cast the jutsu).
The handseal factor Hf ranges between 2 (good with handseals) and 0.5 (bad with handseals).
With that the time required to cast a jutsu is Tj=Sb/(Cs*Hs*Ef).

Since every jutsu costs a significant amount of chakra, they are trump cards, used sparingly and only when they are sure to have a significant impact.

Characters (at the beginning of the manga):

Kakashi:

Chakra pool: Cp=1000 (About average for a jounin.) Talent factor: Tf=1.8 Knowledge factor: Kf=1.8 (without a sensei and with only basic knowledge of a jutsu. The factor is due to his high intelligence and his experience with a great variety of jutsu.) Chakra control factor: Cf=1.8 (This is around standard for a Jounin.) Lightning affinity: Ab=2.5 (This is the mastery level of an affinity needed to create an original jutsu.) Handseal speed: Hs=2 (Kakashi, similar to most sharingan users, trained hard in order to use an opponent's jutsu against them, before they can even cast it.) Jutsu: Chidori: Experience factor: Ef=1.8 (Experienced, but rarely uses or trains with it.) Channel speed: Cs=0.8 (Takes much of his chakra reserves.) Chakra cost: Cc=200 Base cost: Bk=900 (Chidori is an A-ranked assassination jutsu, made by a Jounin with good chakra control and a strongly trained affinity.) Jutsu time: Tj=1.22s Base speed: Sb=3.5s (Chidori is a complicated jutsu, since keeps the a large amount of volatile energy in a stable shape. A similar water jutsu would cost less, since water is an easier element to keep in shape.)

Sasuke:

Cp=500 Tf=1.5 Kf=1.2 (Decently smart.) Cf=0.8 (Normal for an academy graduate. The tree climbing exercise would change this to 1.) Ab=1.8 (Fire.) Ab=1.5 (Lightning, untrained affinity.) Hs=1.2 (That is around Chuunin level, 1.5 would be Jounin.)

Sakura:

Cp=80 (Civilian academy graduate with little training.) Tf=1 (Average.) Kf=1.5 (Intelligent.) Cf=1.2 (Good chakra control, due to her small reserves.) Hs=0.6 (Little practice, bad general speed.)

Naruto:

Ch=100000 (He has large reserves due to his bloodline, his growth is enhanced due to the Kyuubi, his chakra network is stretched due ot the Kyuubi.) Tf=1.3 (Naruto is decently talented, but below Sasuke and far from people like Kakashi and Itachi.) Kf=0.5 (Bad knowledge about chakra and jutsu, malnourished intellect.) Cf=0.5 (Horrendous chakra control, aggravated by his huge chakra pool.) Ab=1.5 (Wind, untrained affinity.) Hs=0.8 (Normal value for an academy graduate.)

[Harry Potter]

Harry Potter:

The Harry Potter books are really really good series. But, in my opinion, it has three major problems:
The first book is meant for children. The following books become increasingly more mature. That in itself isn't the problem. The problem is, that the world undergoes the same progress. Which doesn't work. In trying to make the wizarding world more mature and more complex, Rowling built in a lot of errors and logical faults. There are so many things, that just don't fit, if you take time to think about it. In the end, that isn't really Rowling's fault, but rather a inevitable consequence of the world becoming more sophisticated to satisfy older audiences.
Secondly, I don't like Harry. He is a very, very passive protagonist. He very rarely takes proactive action, doesn't think things through, doesn't train, doesn't move out of his comfort zone, and doesn't even try to fight against what is wrong in his life.
Then there are the characters. I really feel, that Harry Potter needs some more books to showcase other characters. Voldemort is a pretty boring villain and I never really got the feeling of him being some kind of epic boss. He just seems like a insane maniac with a pathetic fear of death. Voldemort really needs a few books about his life and rise. Dumbledore, Sirius, Draco, and even Ginny feel like very flat characters. They really needed a few chapters from their perspective to make them round characters, someone you can actually like. Especially Sirius and Draco would have very interesting stories with plenty of character development.

The characters:

Harry Potter is completely unconvincing. There are some plot driven things, like him being an idiot, so Hermione can explain new things to the reader, but mostly the character is rubbish. (The worst thing is: He lets everyone tell him, what to do. He's like "Dare me, bait me, order me around, push me in some direction, I'll respond to everything. My school enemy proposes a duel. I don't even know a single spell, I could use. GREAT! Let's do that.")

Growing up in with the Dursleys, Harry was hated. He was made to do a large portion of the house work, was given just enough scraps to survive and regularly beaten and bullied by Dudley. It's also highly probable that he was regularly abused by Vernon. Judging from Vernon's behaviour in the books, yelling, beatings, and locking him in his cupboard, starving Harry of several meals, were punishments used, whenever Harry did something to unnerve or anger the Dursleys in any way.

At the beginning of the first book, Harry learns of the wizarding world. He learns, that Hagrid brought him to the Dursleys, Dumbledore ordered it, and is left with a bunch of magic books. And what does he do? He doesn't read any of the books, despite having nothing else to do, despite the wizarding world being his refuge from the misery and loneliness of the Dursleys. Any sane person would want to immerse themselves into the wizarding world as soon and as much as possible. Therefore, for me, it's completely unconceivable, how Harry can not read all of his books in advance.
Then, when he arrives at Hogwarts, he befriends Hagrid and let's Dumbledore become his leader figure. I can understand, how Harry is thankful to Hagrid and Dumbledore for taking him out of the hellhole that is the Dursleys, but in seven books, he never even blames them for putting him there in the first place. There are hundreds of possibilities, how Harry could be protected from the dangers, that serve as cause to put him with his relatives.
He could be set up with a light family, that has the proper mindset to raise him as a humble person. This family could either just disappear in the midst of the chaos after Voldemort's death, or they could be set up with one or two aurors, permanently tasked with Harry's protection.
They also could have set him up with any random muggle family. Saying that Dumbledore doesn't have the knowledge to protect Harry from being found in the muggle world by deatheaters without the blood protection is just dumb; he's the "greatest wizard alive" for a reason. The deatheaters simply don't have the means to find him in the midst of a few million muggles, unless they use advanced muggle technology.
They could also give Harry to a wizarding family not from Britain. That would take him out of the spotlight and as long as he isn't near any large gatherings of wizards, he'll go mostly unnoticed.
Also, Voldemort isn't a danger anymore, same goes for most of the deatheaters. So the only thing, that'd be a danger would be a random deatheater or sympathizant.
With all that, I think it likely, that Dumbledore placed Harry deliberately with the Dursleys, to keep him soft and malleable, as well as keeping him from developing much self confidence, so that Dumbledore would later have an easier time manipulating and controlling him.

For some reason, Harry lets Dumbledore take control of his life. From what I know, Dumbledore has no official connection to Harry, that would give him any right to decide, where Harry would be brought up or enable him to make any kind of decision for Harry. Harry sees Dumbledore as his savior despite the man also being the architect of most of the bad in his life.
Despite suffering from the Dursleys, Harry never bothers to fight Dumbledore's decisions. Despite Dumbledore being clueless about the muggle world (which makes up something like 95% of the entire world), Harry assumes, that Dumbledore has thought of everything and is right. He also ignores, that Dumbledore fails again and again: First off, he keeps people like Snape and Binns, as well as two obviously useless DADA teachers on staff. He keeps the philosopher's stone in Hogwarts, drawing the attention of any greedy/dark wizard, in this case Voldemort, deliberately to Hogwarts. He also fails to do do anything against Quirrel during a whole school year, worse, he knows that Quirrel is after the stone and deliberately does nothing. It's also fairly obvious, that Dumbledore instigated the confrontation between Voldemort and Harry, since there was no reason to keep the mirror of Erised in some random class room, where Harry could "accidentally" find it. In the second year, Dumbledore fails to notice a dark artifact possessing one of his students and is totally unable to do anything to protect the school from the basilisk. In the third year, he not only fails to keep the dementors off Hogwarts grounds, but also to keep Sirius out of the castle. After finding out the truth, despite the numerous positions he holds, and great respect, he commands, Dumbledore doesn't do a thing to help Sirius. (Or Buckbeak for that matter.) In the forth year, Dumbledore can't prevent heavy tampering with the goblet and Harry being entered against his will. He also fails to notice that the new teacher isn't Alastor Moody, his friend for several decades. Lastly, he fails to prevent or even notice one of the champions being imperioused, despite them being in the center of an international tournament. He also can't prevent a stutent from being abducted from school grounds. After the return of Voldemort, Dumbledore doesn't manage to convince the wizarding world of his return, despite his great clout and popularity. Later that year, he fails to do anything against the takeover of Hogwarts by the ministry or Umbridge's abuse of authority and unlawful behaviour. He also has Snape of all people teach Harry occlumency, which is doomed to be a catastrophy, obvious to anyone with as much as two brain cells. Then Harry falls prey to Voldemort's trap, which Dumbledore should have expected and prevented. He also kept the prophecy a secret, which wasn't necessarily a bad idea, but more a breach of trust. Finally Dumbledore fails to make any plans for the order or Harry for after his death or preparing them for it, despite knowing of it well in advance.
Getting away from the Dursleys would be as simple, as to not go with them from King's cross (he might need his invisibility cloak to avoid Order members), taking the Knight's Bus to get some muggle money from Gringotts and go where ever he wants in the muggle world. He could even hire a wizard to protect him and act as a parent, if needed.

Aside from that, it's dumb, that Harry doesn't even attempt to train himself. Not in the first year, when he finds out that Voldemort isn't dead, not in the second year, when it becomes clear, that Hogwarts isn't safe, not in the third year, when a criminal is after him, and neither the ministry nor Dumbledore can do anything to help him. He only trains in the fourth year because of the Trimagic tournament.

At the end of the seventh book is the scene I hate most from all seven books. Harry and Voldemort fight the final duel and Harry uses an expelliarmus. Even with the fate of the wizarding world and hundreds of muggles on the line, he refuses to use a lethal curse for his principles. He keeps Dumbledore's ideals of forgiveness, that let so many deatheaters go unpunished instead of killing them, easing the way for corruption and eventually the second rise of Voldemort. He completely ignores, that by wasting an opportunity to kill Voldemort, he potentially gives the monster free reign over Britain and dooms many people to death and torture, all to stay true to his precious ideals. He doesn't learn anything from Dumbledore's mistakes and, like Dumbledore, he puts his ideals before the people themselves.

On Harry's personality: Especially in the first books it becomes clear, that Harry has low self confidence, making him susceptible to manipulation and almost ridiculously obedient and yielding to people, who, in his opinion, are on his side. On the other hand he is fiercly protective of his friends, even if it results in senseless arguments. The obvious reason for that is, that he is afraid of being rejected and alone again.
The problem is, that Harry ignores all bad things, people do, if he thinks, they are good people, and ignores all good things coming from people, he doesn't like. He has that horribly stupid black and white view of the world.

Ron is the straight guy to Harry's and Hermione's weirdness. He is a normal person who became friends with someone special, but pulls through, when it counts. Ron obviously has problems because of his many siblings, who are all impressive in their own right, so his bouts of jealousy are expected and appropriate for his age. Aside from that, he is far smarter than anyone thinks (chess). To clarify, that means, he is way more intelligent than Hermione, but that doesn't show, because he doesn't even put in a tenth of Hermione's effort.
It's actually pretty funny, how people always bash on Ron for making Hermione run crying to the girls toilets in first year, but always forget, how she spent an hour of class, picking and scratching on the already open wounds of his insecurities with that "I'm better than you and you're stupid" tone of hers. I'm not saying that what Ron said there, but, considering his age, it is very understandable.

Hermione serves as the character, that explains the world to the reader. She is a girl with a (perhaps somewhat unhealthy) obsession for books. Because of those books, and an enormous amount of work, she puts into her studies, she seems to be very smart, even a genius. In fact, she just knows a lot and is more mature than the average person of her age. In all seven books, I have never found any sign of Hermione being much more intelligent than average and she's certainly no genius. In fact, she would always be good in things, she tries, but would never be truly outstanding, since she lacks the ability to deviate from the rules or think independently from books. (That makes stories, where she becomes an Unspeakable rather unrealistic.)
She likely had no friends at her muggle school, and she has no friends at Hogwarts until halloween. Because of that, she does lack some empathy. (She seems to be unable to understand, that people, in general, don't like their flaws being pointed out, and that it is even worse, if it comes from someone with a high and mighty attitude, or someone looking down on them, which Hermione unintentionally seems like.)
Since Harry and Ron are her first friends, she is very devoted to them.
Her loneliness is also the reason for her obsession with books and learning. Books, to distract herself, and learning as a way to gain recognition from authority figures. The reason, she adores authority figures so much, is because her parents and teachers are likely the only ones, who have ever given her attention and praise.
From her obsession with rules and authority figures, it's likely she's a closet submissive.
Hermione also has some disturbing traits of SJWs/left extremists, which she shows when she finds out about house elves. She guilt trips and badgers others to join her cause, she is arrogant and self-righteous enough to think that she is the only person who knows what is best for them, and shows authoritarian traits in completely disregarding the opinion of the elves themselves, trying to free them against their will, and justifying that decision by declaring that their opinion can be ignored because they are, in her opinion, indoctrinated. When the house elves put forward evidence that her world view has flaws, rather than examine herself, she completely ignores the evidence.
She also became a Gryffindor because of Dumbledore, falling to the belief, the house was better than others because of it's famous wizards and, in second year, crushes on the very superficial Lockhart, even though it should have been ovious to her, that he is a fraud. She hates that other people behave like mindless sheep, yet, all too often, does it herself.
In that regard, Hermione is a real hypocrite, which makes her a beautifully ironic character.

Hogwarts:
I think, Hogwarts was meant to be way different from how it is depicted in the books. The school should motivate people to try out new things and experiment, to learn, whatever strikes their fancy, and, of course, to have fun. The houses would be, so that people would be with the group, they'd fit best in and the different houses could learn from each other. (Of course that's idiotic, because the easiest way to create animosity in a group of people it so split them into smaller groups that are visibly different. Give them some prejudice and grudges to hold against each other and you have a nice powder keg.)
Also the secret passages and moving stairs could be meant to instill the ability to (subconsciously) sense magic in students, which they would train by finding passages or subtly matching their route to the current arrangement of the stairs without seeing them.
With that, in my opinion, the Weasley twins are actually really close to the optimal students.
Anyway, in the first book, there are some sentences about how the castle is so great, people have gone missing and never been found, or been found, only fourty years older then the last time they were seen. Later, the castle becomes awfully small, but I think, that's actually sad.
Everyone always forgets about the wonder that is Hogwarts. One could write a whole story just about exploring the castle, finding strange magical creatures along long forgotten floors, finding ancient tomes in hidden rooms, and so on. There are so many wonders and terrors hiding inside of Hogwarts, all kinds of artifacts, books, creatures, structures, so many things to be explored.

Snape is a disgusting shitstain of a person. I'm not talking about bringing the prophecy to Voldemort, something that he should have known, would cause Lily's death (seriously, it wasn't that hard to figure out).
Snape was bullied by the marauders. Or at least James and Sirius. And because of that, he bullies something like twenty generations of school children. Then he sees Harry and intensifies and concentrates his bullying on him.
Seriously? What kind of teacher bullies children, not even in their teens and also students entrusted in his care, because he has problems with the generation of their parents? That is really just too pathetic and disgusting for words. And what kind of Headmaster allows that for so long? (And btw.: If his students are dunderheads, it's his job as a teacher, to make sure, they aren't dunderheads anymore come the end of the year.)
And for people who think, Snape redeems himself with his sacrifice, that's idiotic. Doing good deeds does in no way erase bad ones. And if Snape had really, wholeheartedly loved Lily, he would never have bullied her son. His hatred for James is obviously far stronger than his love for Lily. The way, he makes Harry's life miserable takes a lot of worth away from Lily's sacrifice.

Sirius Black is a very interesting person. He certainly has balls of steel to go against his family with their strictness and use of the dark arts. He is also powerful, both magically and mentally, to have survived Azkaban with at least most of his sanity intact. He also was a marauder, meaning, he is very smart and skilled. Things like the Marauder's Map are impressive works of magic by any standarts and the map was certainly extremely difficult to make, considering it is most likely tied to Hogwarts' wards to identify the people on it.
He is in a very powerful position to help Harry and Dumbledore, politically, financially, and by training Harry. But he never clears his name, even though it should have been easily possible. Reason for that is, in my opinion Azkaban. The books don't do justice to just how horrible the prison is. I doubt anyone can imagine, how it is to lie in a cold stone cell living through one's worst memories again and again and again and again and again and again... It must be equally horrible to feel good memories fade away. As if that wasn't enough, Sirius never got the chance to get over the death of his best friend, someone just like a brother to him, Lily's death, and Peter's betrayal.
One can't simply break out of Azkaban and that's it. Azakaban leaves scars. After escaping, Sirius can't even remember happiness anymore. His memories are failure upon failure. His body is weak, his magic is weak, and if he tried to do magic again, all the memories of his failings would make it very hard for him. He also most certainly has nightmares, which make it impossible to even get a good night's rest. Instead he is in a perpetual state of mental and physical exhaustion.
And Harry, instead of trying to help the man, even though he must have had an inkling of how badly damaged Sirius psyche is, never did anything for him, except asking for help and heaping his problems on the man, he never even built a close relationship. In the fifth book, there isn't a single mention of them just spending a day together, or doing something fun. They spent far more time wasting their time by cleaning the house.
The sensible thing would have been to send Sirius to a trustworthy muggle psychologist or get him other professional help. It would even have been a good idea to send him to a tropical island for a year, to party, have sex, and eventually get close to a few new people. But he doesn't even have that, but returns to living in a dark cave without sufficient food to be near Harry and later is practically imprisoned in Grimmauld place and therefore never has the chance to heal and once again become the powerful, determined man, that could have really helped Harry.
I also partially blame Dumbledore for Sirius' death. Sirius spent so much time in Azkaban, on the run, in a cave, and in Grimmauld place, that he used the first opportunity presented to him to feel alive again. Sadly, that was a fight to the death, and in typical Sirius fashion, he overdoes it and it blows up in his face.

Dumbledore is usually either a manipulative schemer or an old fool. What many people don't see him as is, that he can also be seen as a scholar.
This Dumbledore never wanted power, but instead always inteded to spend his life unraveling the mysteries of magic. He was roped into his positions and all the work is too much for him, especially since he's missing many qualifications and skills for the tasks, he should fulfill. On the other hand he fears, that the positions will fall into the wrong hands, if he gives them up.
He also never saw it as his task to right the wrongs of the wizarding world. He was never a social person, so he also lacks some insight into how his actions effect others emotionally.

Voldemort sucks!
The character has a lot of potential and I find him quite interesting. But how Voldemort is written in the books is horrible.
Voldemort is supposed to be the Boogeyman of the wizarding world. Someone, whose name makes people tremble, more than a dozen years after his (supposed) death. He is extremely smart, cunning, and calculating, able to formulate and execute complicated plans. He is a master of both brute force and subtlety. On top of that, he can read minds and has a way with words that makes it easy for him to charm and mislead anyone who takes the time to listen to him. And finally, he is the ultimate magical predator. He has enhanced his body and magic to the limits of what is possible with rituals, but also has the largest and most powerful repertoir of offensive spells out of any living wizard. He easily can do things, most normal people can't even dream of.
And yet, in the books Voldemort is portrayed as a childish personality, prone to spontaneous uncontrolled bursts of anger. He doesn't think of the best methods, but relies purely on pure force. And worst of all, he dies to an avada kedavra, reflected by a disarming spell.
Aside from his power, he is also an interesting character. He is a halfblood, born from a near-squib and a muggle, yet heir of Slytherin. He leads a movement of pureblood supremacists, when he is the embodyment of power being more important than blood status.

Lockhart is, in my opinion, a good example of what differentiates a good fanfiction writer from a bad one. In the books, Lockhart is a comically unskilled wizard, whose only ability is obliviation. He is an obvious fraud and cheat, but his good looks makes all witches crazy for him. But Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is still a childrens book.
A bad writer will just leave Lockhart as he is, comically unskilled and an obvious fraud in a mature world, where people recognize that. And with that, they would make the majority of the wizarding population into idiots, just to make their main characters look good, when they see through the man's facade.
A good writer will change Lockhart. He could be someone who actually went on all these adventures, or he could be a smart and cunning man, with mediocre skills, but good abilities in obliviation, who has painstakingly worked to perfect his acting skills and is such a good fraud, that even smart and powerful people, like the teachers at Hogwarts, can't see through his facade.

How would wizards fight?
Wizards certainly wouldn't fight in large groups, but in teams of three, usually two, or even alone. The reason for that is, that it is often just as easy to kill three wizards as it is to kill one. Additionally much of a fight between wizards is dodging and that really sucks, if you have clumps of people.
Wizards also have great mobility. Apparating out of an attack, staying on a broom, or using some other method of transportation would be very advantageous. Aside from that, much of a battle would be about spell knowledge and speed. The more knowledge you have, the better you can identify and counter your opponent's spells. The faster you are, the better the chance that your opponent fails to counter or dodge a spell of yours.
So a battle between two groups of wizards would be very chaotic, with situational awareness, speed, and knowledge being the most important attributes.

Singular things of interest:

I think many people don't realize, just how small the magical community really is. Let's say all the Hogwarts students in one year amount to 100 people. Let's say, every wizard lives exactly 100 years. That means, the total number of wizards in Britain is 10000. Ten thousand. This means all wizards in Britain amount to nothing more than a medium sized town. That is a tenth of a city.
Such small communities have a huge impact on the development of a civilization, especially since they are nearly completely disconnected to the muggle world. That means that geniuses and revolutionaries, people who can change a country by themselves, are born far less frequently than in the muggle world. That also means that many of the laws and rules, necessary in the muggle world, are not needed here.
Most people, including me, couldn't even begin to think of all the differences and changes caused by such a small population.

Out of all Hogwarts houses, only Hufflepuff would be able to build a functional society on their own.
Slytherin, the most obvious, would fall to infighting almost instantly, but they would also fail to get lower positions with skill requirements filled. The powerful ones who would have the ability, would think themselves above menial tasks such as wand making, and the less powerful ones would be too dumb.
A Ravenlaw society would simply fall apart, since they are too eccentric and wouldn't manage to come to a consensus about things, or actually build a government.
Gryffindors would build a working society at first, but would also quickly be ruined by a trendemnous amount of badly calculated decisions and an abundance of reckless mistakes.

What I don't understand about these books: It's always like "give Harry a childhood", but what worth is five more years of childhood spent in danger compared to the likelyhood of dying before the age of twenty because nobody bothered to teach him anything?

The prophecy has no substance at all. It could be any future dark lord, the marking could be anything. It could be the choice to go after Harry that marked Neville, but there could also be another baby, that fit the prophecy and was marked by the dark lord because no one went after this child's parents.
Practically the entire prophecy can mean anything, if one puts enough thought into it.
It could even be possible, that the power to defeat the dark lord is only one part and that person needs someone with the knowledge and someone with the will, etc.

Why is Harry's prophecy in the department of mysteries? There is no reason for Dumbledore to give a memory of the prophecy to them. Rather, it is exceptionally dumb. On the other hand, if there is an automatic magical recording, why isn't Snape mentioned on the witnesses list?

Were anyone to write a HP fic in the current year, with smartphones and everything, there are a few important things to consider:
With the popularity of smartphones and the internet, the secret of the magical world is unraveling, since simple obliviation doesn't erase all the information and the ministry has not enough of an understanding for technology and its relation to magic to creat a spell that also deletes data of the corresponding event.
There are far less muggleborn magicals actually attending Hogwarts. A good part of them simply doesn't want to deal with the magical world, its unfairness and being stuck 200 years in the past, but another part sees, that the muggle world has more rewarding jobs, better living, internet, etc and simply won't want to give this up for a magical education that robs them of their very important muggle education.
Muggleborn students would look down on purebloods just as much as the other way around. For the purebloods, muggleborns are lesser people. For the muggleborns, purebloods are uncivilized, stupid bigots, stuck in the world view and ideals from times long past.

It's actually pretty funny, how, when someone writes Dumbledore as a manipulative schemer, they never consider, that Hedwig would be most likely trained to relay Harry's letters or even actively spy on him. After all, Hedwig was a present from Hagrid, which could easily be arranged by Dumbledore. It also wouldn't be strange for her to be anywhere in Hogwarts or go missing for one or two days.

I think the idea of starting Hogwarts at eleven is really, really dumb. If one looks at an eleven year old, anyone could see (except maybe Americans) that it is a horrible idea to give them a potentially deadly weapon. If one were to be realistic, there would be at least half a dozen dead people each year.

The Hogwarts letters are sent automatically by the castle. If that were different, Harry wouldn't have gotten a letter that was obviously meant for a wizard family, since no muggle would have their own postowl. That also means, that Hogwarts somehow alerted the Headmaster, when the letters weren't received.

There are two possibilities for the relation with Harry and the scar horcrux. First, he could be influenced from the very beginning, when his personality and brain are still weak, or, second, he can be completely immune to any influence from the horcrux itself, since he's used to surpressing it from a very young age.

Why wasn't there even a single reporter, when Harry entered the wizarding world for the first time in ten years?

Why did Harry get an owl as pet? Someone with Harry's life would be much better off with a dog (or some magical equivalent). They are loyal, affectionate, and can defend someone (from abusive relatives for example). Owls have little contact to their owners and aren't especially affectionate creatures. Their only interesting feature is, that they fit in the picture of a wizard.

Madam Hooch wasn't able to keep Neville from crashing his broom in the first year, despite being the flying teacher. Really?

Where did Hermione find an unlocking charm in the library and why did she learn it? That charm is used almost exclusively to break in somewhere and it's totally ooc for Hermione to learn something like that.

Hagrid sent Harry a flute for christmas, that was later used to calm Fluffy, allowing them to get to the philosoper's stone. In a children's book that could be coincidence, but if one want's to take the series seriously, that was clearly influenced by Dumbledore wanting Harry to confront Quirrelmort, especially since Harry hasn't shown any sign, that a flute would be a good present for him.

Why did they have to walk all the way to the astronomy tower with a dragon instead of just meeting at Hagrid's hut?

For some reason, neither James nor Lily could become the secret keeper of their fidelius charm. Dumbledore, however was the secret keeper for Grimmauld place and still able to enter it. With this, there was no possible reason, not to chose James or Lily as secret keeper.

It can't be expressed in words, how retarded it is of Harry to go after the philosopher's stone in the first book. He knows barely anything about magic, not even a single offensive spell, he could use to fend off an attacker, but plans to go into a place, riddled with more traps than Gringotts.

It was a complete waste of time to "save" the philosoper's stone in the first year. Quirrel would never have gotten the stone out of the mirror. (While Voldemort is equally powerful as Dumbledore, he doesn't have the headmaster's knowledge in some mostly unknown kinds of magic. Those which would be used to enchant the mirror.)

In retrospective, Snape's confrontation with Quirrel makes it clear, that Snape, and with him Dumbledore knew, that Quirrel was a dark wizard. Weirdly, Harry never mentions it again and simply ignores that hugely condemning evidence against the headmaster.

Apparently since Harry's name came out of the goblet, he's magically bound to participate in the trimagic tournament. That is ridiculous. Because that means, that one can just bind anyone in a magical contract without any prerequesites. So in turn Harry could just put Voldemort's name in the goblet and ensure, that the name is not read out loud, so that Voldie will lose his magic. I can't put into words, how incredibly dumb that concept is.

Voldemort's plan in the Goblet of Fire certainly is not the single most retarded and wasteful plan, I've ever heard. But it's up there, especially considering how Crouch jr.'s cover isn't worth anything after succesfully completing his mission and he could just call Harry to his office and forcefully get some blood from him, or touch him with a portkey on the day of one of the tasks (if one assumes portkeys don't usually work because of the wards, but have to be used to get the spectators there). The whole plan was just a horrible and idiotic setup to make Harry participate in the tournament.

I think that Voldemort, once he used the scar horcrux to lure Harry into the failed trap, would not just ignore the connection, but learn to control it completely, either to cut off any information, or to keep Harry under a constant assault on his head, weakening him and prying his secrets out of him.

Judging from the HBP's potions book, there are two levels of study in Hogwarts. The first is to learn, what the teachers teach, the second is to take a teaching and improve on it by oneself. For example, instead of brewing a potion directly as it is in a book, or on the blackboard, think about, what which ingredient does, and how to improve on the described brewing process. Same goes for a spell, see, if one can improve it by slightly changing the wand movement or pronounciation.

Why does Harry, in the seventh book, suddenly want to visit his Parents' grave? He spent six years in the wizarding world, spends another half of a year traveling around Britain (and why don't they simply go to france for a while?), and then, suddenly, he just HAS to go and visit his parents' grave, even though he never showed the slightest interest in that before.

That Dumbledore gave Ron the Deluminator is definite proof, that he kept Harry and co. under surveillance during the school years or at the very least got exact information from his teachers.

My theory on (healing and battle) magic:
A body's internal magic has a certain view of how the body should be and works towards that. One of those effects is, that the magic fights any outside magic influence, which is why colour changing charms or 'wingardium leviosa' doesn't work on people. Battle spells therefore have to be strong enough to overcome the enemy's own internal magic, which is why they are strong enough to be visible.
Healing magic works somewhat similar. Small injuries (like a bloody nose or some superficial wound) can be treated directly, because the spell requires little enough magic to be healed with a spell weakened by the body's internal magic. A more serious wound requires potions, because they can be drunk, thereby making them part of the body, the internal magic doesn't weaken them. Scars, or lost body parts can't be healed (except for maybe very recent wounds with strong restorative potions) because the internal magic already accepted them as part oof the natural state of the body.
Internal magic forms a strong barrier in the skin and is weaker in the bones and teeth, because they don't consist of living cells.

My view on the Invisibility Cloak:
It's pretty ridiculous for Moody's eye to be able to see through a cloak made by Death himself. In fact I would guess, that, assuming the legend is true, the cloak is one of the three most magically powerful items in existence. But the cloak wasn't made to conceal someone from humans or magic, it was made to conceal someone from death himself. In my opinion, that means, that the cloak negates everything that could possibly sense it's wearer, only if that is one of death's "senses". Sight would be one of those senses, so people can't see the wearer, as are magical presence sensing. Moody's eye, however, just as some spells, could work a different way.

Quidditch is an interesting sport. But, as has been mentioned over and over, 150 points for the snitch is completely ridiculous. In order for a team to win without catching the snitch, they have to score 15 more goals than their opponents, which would be a total stomp, considering some of the scores from the matches I remember. So the seeker wins or loses their team the game, unless it's a total stomp. That makes quidditch more or less a duel between two seekers with some other people thrown in, so the audience won't get bored, while the seekers are searching for the snitch.

Personally, I'd just lower the points for the snitch to 50.

Durmstrang's ship (or one similar to it) could be the origin of the legend of the Flying Dutchman.

I find it somewhere between funny and sad, that Harry didn't even kill Voldemort himself, as if killing or using the killing curse would cross that final line between good and evil. Fact is, torture can be far worse than killing and the idea that there is such a line and that killing - and not torture or forcing one's will on another - is the only way to cross it, is ridiculous.

[Others]

First off, Star Wars:

First off, Star Wars is, in my opinion, not really SciFi, it relates to SciFi like Steampunk relates to our modern times. That is a reason, why I absolutely hate it when people start criticizing, how unrealistic something is or start adding technology that already exists or might exist in the future, but don't fit into SW at all.
Fact is, half of the Star Wars technology is incredibly outdated. Their way of warfare belongs somewhere around World War I, the idea of people actively flying spaceships this far in the future is just as ridiculous as the notion of humans being able to stand toe to toe with any kind of robot or droid designed for battle.
So yeah, Star Wars technology is so outdated, that adding new technology to that is a really dumb idea, one should instead treat it closer to fantasy.

That said, some thoughs about the six main SW movies:

There are several times, that people really screwed up.

First off, there is the arrogance of the Jedi council, when they decide, that the prophecy refers to someone who is meant to destroy the Sith. How can anyone interpret "Balance in the force" only as "Total annihilation of the dark side" without at least considering any other option? That means, that the Jedi didn't see the dark side of the force as an actual part of it, more like a tumor that has to be cut out to archive balance or "health".

Then, there is the idiocy of Obi-Wan and the Jedi council, when they decide to make Anakin Obi-Wan's Padawan. Obi-Wan may have much potential. He may have proven himself by killing a Sith. But in the end, he is just a young Jedi, who is actually just a Padawan, who has just lost his master and best friend. Obi-Wan lacks the life experience, foresight, cunning, and knowledge to take on such a difficult student as Anakin. He may be a near perfect Jedi around the end of the clone wars, but when Obi-Wan takes Anakin as a padawan, he is far from that person. To make that worse, he just lost his master and friend, which is quite difficult to deal with and, even worse, doesn't actually want a padawan and does it more to follow his dead master's last wish. Anakin, on the other hand, needs a friend, someone, he can trust, which Obi-Wan fits perfectly, but he also needs a wise master, who can help him learn the Jedi ways, but also show him how to overcome his difficult and painful past and prevent him from falling into traps like arrogance, and teach him the value of finesse and a calm mind.
For example, I'm convinced, Anakin would have turned out far better, and probably saved the republic, if Qui-Gon had survived to become his master.

On Bespin, Luke was in the unique situation to get a shot at changing the empire from within. If he had managed to convince Vader to take him as an apprentice and, after killing Sidious, join him in changing the Empire for the better from within, he could have prevented the loss of many lives as well as the civil war that follows the death of the emperor in the extended universe.

The prophecy sucks. Balance in the force can mean a lot, from annihilation of the dark side (the light side is balanced, the dark side is not), to there will be as many Jedi as Sith, or the total power in the force of Sith and Jedi will be equal, it could even mean that Anakin's actions ultimately result in the creation of a grey order of balanced force users.
On the note of balance in the force, I'm curious, if Snoke has become a Sith around the same time, Luke has become a Jedi, as a way to keep balance in the Force.

It actually makes a lot of sense that younglings are taken in so early and are taught to suppress their emotions and bonds to other people. Any type of possession or bonds with others inadvertedly leads to fear of losing that, which leads to anger (or just directly to suffering), anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering, suffering leads to the dark side. Anyone who is very emotionally invested in someone or something will eventually at least touch the dark side.

There is, however another way. The Jedi could have taught all Padawans to deal with such emotions, how to accept and overcome loss and fear, without drifting to the dark side of the force. This obviously has a far lower success rate than just brainwashing the younglings from the start (this is not actually meant to sound negative, it is over all the best option).

There is also the option of learning both the light and the dark side. The problem with that is, that it would require anyone to completely master their emotions, recognizing, accepting, and overcoming them, allowing them to never be blinded or driven by any emotion, feeling emotions to fuel the dark side, while remaining completely unmoved and neutral. I don't think anyone can really appreciate the difficulty of that, especially considering that the dark side has a corrupting influence and its users, especially inexperienced ones often lose themselves in anger and hate.

I actually quite like the prequels, especially Anakin's turn to the dark side. If you actually consider, what certain events mean for Anakin, it is quite understandable that he turned.
First off, he is freed by Qui-Gon, who quickly becomes his idol. Friendly, understanding, calm, and powerful, Qui-Gon is, in Anakin's mind, the perfect Jedi. Then that perfect Jedi gets killed by a Sith, which immediately proves to Anakin, that the sith are very powerful.
Then there is the way, the Jedi order treats him. At some level, he is always an outcast. Too old, when he was taken in, too fast learning, too emotional, unable to keep some of the Jedi's rules because he was never properly taught how to deal with his emotions, nor was he conditioned to suppress them, like the younglings. He also gets a master who is, by far not experienced enough to help him with his unique problems.
Shortly before the clone wars, his mother dies. Tortured and raped (probably) to death, he was unable to do a thing, not because he wasn't powerful enough or didn't have a way to know, but because the Jedi forbid attachment and would never have allowed him to check on his mother. When he finally broke the rules and went against his mission, it was too late.
On Geonosis, Anakin is once more confronted with his inability to protect the ones he loves. He can't protect Padmé from the droids and has to watch, as she is about to be executed with him. Later, he confronts Dooku and fails. That wouldn't be a problem, if Anakin wasn't supposed to be the chosen one.
Especially in Episode II, there is a scene, where the coucil explicitly forbids Anakin from helping his Master and only friend Obi-Wan.
Through the clone wars, he probably thought the war mostly went on because he wasn't strong enough to fulfill his task, to destroy the Sith, and blamed himself, at least a little bit, for every death.
And then there is Revenge of the Sith. During that, there are several examples of the Jedi not following their own code and Anakin being further estranged from them due to his actions and attachments. He sees the Jedi preparing to take action against the lawful government. Being a Jedi doesn't help him at all with finding a way to save Padmé. Padmé herself, the very person, he should be able to cofide in unconditionally shows an utter lack of empathy and helpfulness by just repeating, it would be fine.
Through that all, Sidious, the most cunning Sith to ever live manipulates him into finally seeing the Jedi as evil and corrupt and the dark side as the only way to save his wife, whom he loves more than anything else. Honestly, Anakin never had a chance.
And in the end, his destiny was always set in stone, to bring balance to the force by destroying all but two Jedi and two Sith.
Another good thing about the prequels is that they have good antagonists. Darth Maul kills Qui-Gon, even though he was never meant to become a Sith Lord, Count Dooku destroys Obi-Wan and Anakin the first time they fight, gets away from Yoda and finally almost takes Obi-Wan and Anakin down again, when he is killed. Also, Anakin may not be what people wished for, but he is no Mary Sue type character. He struggles, he fights, he loses. Frankly, that's one aspect, where the prequels are far better than the original trilogy and much better than The Force Awakens, where we have Rey Sue, who picks up a lightsaber and is instantly as good as most Padawan shortly before their trials.

Also, the Star Wars prequels did a far better job with the whole Chosen One stuff than many others, like Harry Potter for example.

I hate Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It has a boring Mary Sue type (unreasonably good at everything, well liked by everyone, and has years worth of training in the force three minutes after picking up a ligthsaber) main character. (Made worse by the fact, that there are no characters, I can identify with, but that's just personal.) It also has another planet killing superweapon, which has to be destroyed. To make it even worse, Kylo Ren is a horrible antagonist, more like a little kid having constant temper tantrums. You know, you've screwed up, when the main antagonist has his best moment in the first five minutes of a movie and goes steadily downwards from there.
So, plot sucks, main character sucks, antagonist sucks, therefore the movie sucks.

On the other hand, I really like Rogue One, especially the ending, where they all die and the Darth Vader scene, which shows Vader from a normal Soldier's point of view: A being, that they can never overcome nor escape from, something like an inconceivable, superhuman terror. Admittedly, it would have been better, if Vader had slaughtered the main characters in the last scene.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is, in my opinion, quite bad. Contrary to TFA, however, it is at least a bit more original and has some good plottwists.
The good things are, that there is a lot of surprising stuff. The whole movie has many moments, where I was genuinely surprised.
The bad stuff. Luke Skywalker, who should be a hero, a powerful leader, a legend, is instead a mentally weak, pathetic wreck. Worse than being good or evil, he is just indecisive and doesn't really do anything. Luke, in this movie, is the complete opposite of who he was at the end of RotJ and, no matter what, I can't possibly imagine or accept him acting like he did in the movie.
Rey being connected to Kylo explains some of her random Mary Sueness, so her ridiculous powers are now horseshit instead of dogshit. And Rey now is a great jedi and knows everything she needs to know after about 60min of lessons.
But what really sucks about this movie is, that I can't bring myself to care about any of the characters. Everything just appears, but we never get to build a connection with anything new, before it is blown up. Then there is the humor. It sucks! It isn't bad per say, but it is completely inappropriate for a Star Wars movie. And then there are soooooooooooo many plotholes, and the writing is complete crap. Worst of all, there is no sense of atmosphere, no sense of epicness. TLJ feels like a compilation of an action series. Overall, I would say, it's an ok movie to watch on the TV on a rainy evening.
As a Star Wars movie, TLJ is shit. It has the plot of a mediocre Star Trek episode, the characters were completely disappointing, there was no character development, and they seemed to waste half of the movie to make Poe look like an idiot.
This may actually be the movie, I hate the most out of all movies, I have seen. It seems like TLJ intentionally tries to make the deaths of the old Star Wars characters as pathetic and meaningless as possible, going out of its way to completely destroy all remnants of the old characters.

No matter, if one likes the original trilogy and the prequels, at least they took the time to make us care about the characters, instead of blowing up nameless and meaningless planets and having boring, characterless diversity hires without a shred of character development or a learning curve.
Just take the time to compare the new Star Wars movies with the old ones, the destruction of the planets in TFA to the destruction of Alderaan, the attack on the first death star to the attack on Starkiller Base, the revelation of Luke's parentage to the revelation of Rey's parentage, compare Leia's imprisonment to Rey's imprisonment, fact is, the new movies just can't compare to the old ones in from any perspective aside from visuals.

I've watched some of The Clone Wars. In my opinion, it is the best Star Wars series, I have seen so far, but while there are episodes that are quite good, though I haven't seen any truly amazing ones yet. On the other hand, there are some episodes, that are complete crap and many occasion, where I'm just boggled at how weak Jedi (and sometimes clones) are portrayed in this series, like Obi-Wan being unable to deceisively defeat a single Mandalorian warrior, Ahsoka failing to chase down a common street criminal, or a senator managing to run away from clone troopers. That's just pathetic.
Another issue is Ventress. Her power level seems mostly determined by the plot of the episode, sometimes holding off Obi-Wan and Anakin, sometimes fighting on even grounds with only Ahsoka. While I understand the need for capable antagonists, it is completely unbelievable that a force user on Anakin's or Obi-Wan's level just appears, considering those two are among the very elite of the Jedi order. On the other hand, if she can hold her ground against Anakin, she should destroy Ahsoka without breaking a sweat.

The tragedy of Darth Plagueis, The Wise. Palpatine sees the irony of his former master being able to prevent the death of others, but not his own. But actually, the story of Anakin's life is, that it is wise to protect others from death, rather than yourself. Anakin was able to overcome impossible odds and cheat death, only to be completely destroyed by the death of his mother and his wife.

From all official Star Wars movies, Anakin is my favorite character.
The reason is simple.
In TFA, Finn is just there. He follows Rey like an abandoned puppy, but aside from that never does anything meaningful and has never really a moment of competence or relevance. Rey is a Mary Sue. She outdoes everyone without good reason, is well liked by everyone, and, realistically, if she was abandoned on Jakku at the age of seven or something, she would be a half sane savage, whose technological knowledge would barely suffice to recognize the valuable parts in a star ship, who could only speak broken basic. She would most certainly not be able to expertly fly the Millenium Falcon, repair it better than Han Solo, fight even an injured Kylo Ren on anywhere near even grounds, or use the Force beyond increased reflexes. Even more, she never struggles and has no character development beyond accpeting that her family isn't going to come back for her. She has about as much character development as Han Solo in A New Hope, and Han Solo is a side character.

In the original trilogy, we have Luke, Han, Leia, and Vader to consider. Leia, in my opinion doesn't change much. She is a princess, feminine, strong, both mentally and in a blaster fight, but she doesn't really have much character beyond that.
Vader is the menacing guy, who likes to choke people and eventually decides, his son is worth more than the Emperor. That is some character development, but we don't see much of it.
Han starts off as a selfish outlaw and becomes a reluctant hero and later full on rebel. He has, in my opinion, the second to most character development over the whole trilogy, but it isn't really showcased or highlighted all that much.
Finally we have Luke, the hero. Luke starts off as a whiny brat (but honestly, which of us wouldn't be a bit whiny after we went from a nice family to homeless fugitive whose parents were burned alive?) and continues to grow into a confident, determined, and serene hero. Funnily enough, the only thing, he was needed for in the end, was to get Vader off Endor. His fight with Vader and the Emperor has absolutely no meaning since they would have blown up with the deathstar.

In the prequels we have more characters, most notably Padmé, Obi-Wan, and Anakin.
Padmé is pretty static. She is the classic good queen/senator, who cares about her people and is determined and strong with a powerful sense of right and wrong. She is the classic good girl and the only thing that breaks that role is falling in love with Anakin. But in the end, I don't see her as a very interesting character.
Obi-Wan has some development from movie to movie. First he is the padawan who plays too much by the rules, who is too rigid, and in the end finally steps up and kills Maul and takes Anakin as a padawan, even if only to fulfil his dead Master's will. I want to take this moment to mention that Obi-Wan is an idiot and he could have avoided the destruction of the Jedi by letting someone like Mace Windu teach Anakin. In the second movie, he is the somewhat competent, but still very much by the rules, Jedi knight. He is also clearly afraid of Anakin surpassing him and is still a very bad teacher, as shown, when he puts down Anakin in front of Padmé and the others. In the third movie, he has grown in leaps and bounds, more confident, less rigid, and changed by his work with Anakin, he is now near the perfect Jedi. But in the end, his character is rather bland and his development happens off screen.

Finally we have Anakin. He is a protagonist, much like Luke, but, contrary to his son, Anakin has much more personality. In the first movie, he is only a child, wanting to get away from slavery, dreaming big, and awed by the Jedi and Padmé. In the second movie, he is a padawan, confident and driven, but also unable to control his feelings, a problem caused by his late introduction into the order and his incompetent Master. He is torn between his duties and his heart and always follows his heart. People may hate his awkward attempts at flirting with Padmé, but he is part of an order, where feelings are forbidden. He has absolutely no experience in any of that and is in no way capable of handeling his feelings. In the third movie, he is a man haunted by the death of his mother and terrified of the death of his wife. He has no real support from anyone. No one to really talk to, no one to understand him. He can't tell anyone but Padmé about his marriage and visions, and his wife does a hideous job of helping him. To make matters worse, he is the chosen one, supposed to be destroy the Sith, supposed to save everyone, but he fails time and time again. He is, in his own mind, inadequate, and the council stunts his growth by not allowing him access to more advanced knowledge.
Anakin has much more personality than any other character in all Star Wars movies and that makes him far more interesting.
If other characters were more fleshed out, they may be better than Anakin, but they aren't, so Anakin is, at least for me, the best character in Star Wars.

Since "strong female characters" appear to be a thing, let's take a look at Star Wars:
Padmé Amidala begins as a sheltered queen, but becomes a powerful politician and a force for good in the whole galaxy. Padmé shows great mental and moral strength, as well as courage, all the while being a rather relatable character with weaknesses and fears, that fit the story and world. When she has to fight, she shows courage and pulls her weight, but is far from the martial prowess of a Jedi.
Leia Organa is rather similar to her mother, being extremely strong willed and determined. She is no politician, great fighter, or pilot, but rather excels as a leader. She has a lot of spirit, and a sharp tongue, and isn't afraid to get her hands dirty. On the other hand, she also has deficiencies and weak moments. The part of the movie, where Leia stupidly tries to rescue Han (which shows her lack of ability in that regard), then is kept as Jabba's slave (which is a time of weakness and vulnerability), and finally rises to kill Jabba, is, in my opinion, a very exemplary strong female character.
Rey, on the other hand, is a Mary Sue. Her being a strong female character means, that she has to outdo any man at anything, they compare with. Opposite to Padmé and Leia, she can't be strong in another field than her male counterparts, she has to outdo them. She has to beat Han at repairing the Falcon, because losing to a man, or needing a man's help would make her look weak. There are many similar situations, and it seems, that even her personality sometimes changes to fit more to the most admirable way to act in a certain situation.
In my opinion, Padmé and Leia represent good example of a "strong female character", while Rey is a bad example.

The perfect example on why I hate Rey: Luke goes to prematurely confront Vader and gets his hand chopped off and traumatized. Rey goes to prematurely confront Kylo Ren and Snoke ends up dead and they defeat the Pretorian Guard, Rey rejects the Dark Side, escapes by herself, and saves the Rebellion.

In the end, in my opinion, 1-3 have the most potential as a story, 4-6 are the best movies, 7&8 are crap, and 3.85 (Rogue One) is pretty good with some flaws.

I'm actually disappointed, that there are so few stories for Star Wars. It is understandable, since there is already so much material and it feels (at least to me) very much like a finished story, which would not be improved by trying to change it.
On the other hand, it is such a wonderful universe for fanfiction. There is something of a framework for any story, meaning, no matter how powerful an OC becomes, he is either a balanced force user (I don't like the term "Grey Jedi", since a balanced force user could be anything, from a selfish merchant to a Sith or Jedi who values both sides of the force equally) or he will never be as powerful as a Jedi or Sith. No matter how powerful an organization, a character builds up, it will never be as powerful as the Empire or the CIS or the Republic.
That gives fanfiction stories in the SW universe a lot of potential, since it is very difficult to make characters, who can just stomp all their enemies without having to fear anyone. On the contrary, if a character becomes too powerful, they will draw attention from either Jedi/Sith or the Republic/Empire. There are also enough lawless planets to ensure that the possibility of bounty hunters and assassins can't be ignored.
And then there are the many races and cultures. From the paradise-like Naboo to the somewhat primal and honorable Wookies of Kashyyyk, the dangerous core planets like Coruscant, cultures like the Twi'lek, which enslave their own people to capitalize on their beautiful females, to crime pits like Tatooine, or barren, empty planets like Hoth. There are so many possibilities, so much to do.

Like the comicverse, Star Wars often suffers from the "how do I make my character cooler than all others" contest (obviously Han Solo wins - Ok, bad pun). Then every character has to have some great and unique powers or technology and that leads to ridiculousness like a Sith capable of destroying planets, lightsabers powerful enough to cut through other light sabers (which makes no sense, since that would be just MAD, they would just both die), and just plain dumb, unneeded stuff like the Darksaber.
A major problem with Star Wars, at least in my opinion is, that, assuming your protagonist is a foce user, there are only so many things, that can happen. They can become Jedi and stay Jedi, become Jedi, then become Sith, become Sith and stay Sith, or become Sith then become Jedi. There are of course things like Grey Jedi, but in the end, all of that has been done and it's very difficult to make a character unique in more than just personality, and even that isn't easy, considering the huge amount of characters in Star Wars.

The greatest thing about Star Wars fanfiction is, that you can make Jar-Jar die the most horrible and gruesome death you can imagine. (I don't hate the prequels, just Jar-Jar.)

Secondly, the Marvel and DC universes:

I recently started reading some comics and watching some stuff and I have decided, to never even start listing the billions of inconsistencies of comics.
There is just so much, it's completely ridiculous. In comparison to the comic universe, Naruto is a perfectly logical depiction of the real world.
And that is not even considering the issues arising from the differences between different authors or the modernizations of heroes over time.
Just consider something simple like Superman not having superpowers on Krypton because of their red sun. The sun roughly follows the spectrum of black body radiation, that means, it radiates light of every color. If someone goes close enough to any sun, they would get more of any wavelength (except maybe HUV or X-ray) than we get here on earth. And then there is the episode, where a weapon designed to destroy a planet, is fired, and Hawkgirl deflects the blast with her mace, just as it leaves the weapon. A blast capable of destroying a planet, deflected by a mace! Sometimes, that is such blatant, ridiculous bullshit, that it's nearly funny again. And then we have Flash, the speedster, who can barely overtake a truck in a city after chasing after it trough four or five city blocks.

I've also watched a few episodes of 2001 Justice league animation, and it was gruesome. It manages to make a group of heroes of absurd power look like a bad group of freshmen in Xavier's school, and frequently makes me want to slam my head against the wall. To make it worse, I can't keep from noticing, that the heroes seem to make 20s breaks whenever someone else is fighting their current opponents. And their powers are so plot motivated that an explosion knocks Superman out and, in the next second, a stronger explosion doesn't even faze Batman. Their personalities also seem to be plot motivated, even if to a lesser degree.
I really hope that isn't representative for a comic series.

The comicverse suffers from an extreme case of the "how do I make my character cooler than all others" syndrome, as well as an equally problematic "no, your character can not be unique" disease. I can't overstate how ridiculous it is, when Superman is the last Kryptonian, except when some author wants to make a story arc with another Kryptonian, who is either evil and then dies at the end - without any of it being Superman's fault, of course - or is good and sacrifices him/herself, so that Superman is still the last Kryptonian. Alternatively, anyone can just decide, they want there to be another Kryptonian and somehow some other child was sent off of Krypton the same way as Superman. Of course, there is no real reason, why it couldn't have been a thousand, then.

However, in the end, there is one thing, that's great about the comic universe: You can just do anything. You can change the timeline or enemies around, give or take away abilities, and so on, without screwing anything up more than it already is.
And that means, you can make any character fight a multitude of different villains of any power level or get new powers or meet whoever you want, everything is already prepared by a giant load of comic stories, ready for the taking.

[Story Ideas]

Any (in my opinion) viable and interesting story ideas that I have come up with (some may be inspired by other stories)(since I have written down ideas I had for several years, this is somewhat cluttered and some ideas may be very similar to others):

1.: The Third God of The Shinobi.
Minato recognizes that, with Naruto being his son, a jinchuuriki and one of the last Uzumaki, he can't leave his son without protection. So he creates a shadowclone to give his last official orders. The clone finds Kakashi and has him gather three other elite shinobi to protect and take care of Naruto. This group is no longer under the command of the next Hokage or any other authority.
Naruto grows up among four of the most powerful shinobi of Konoha. He still doesn't have any friends his age, but with his four protectors and his godfather Jiraiya, he isn't as lonely. Naruto is trained from a very young age in taijutsu and chakra control. As soon as he enters academy, Kakashi teaches him the Kagebunshin no Jutsu. With that he learns everything. From ninjutsu over genjutsu and kenjutsu and taijutsu kata, strategy, knowledge, being observant and stealth. The only thing, Naruto himself trains is taijutsu and his body. His protectors strife to make him the most powerful shinobi of the elemental nations.
The only thing he lacks is a bloodline. So one of the more shady members comes up with an idea. They convince the Hyuuga (pre Uchiha massacre), that the only way, they can surpass the Uchiha is to give up the Caged Bird seal, unify their clan, and get rid of their talentless clan heir. So Hinata is sent to them and indoctrinated to become Naruto's servant and protector. Accompanying him on missions and giving him the trendemnous advantage of having a Byakugan at his disposal.
Naruto may be powerful, but his task is just as daunting. Jiraiya has, from the very beginning, told him, that he believes, Naruto is meant to be the one to bring lasting peace to the Elemtal Nations. And for that, Naruto has to unify the hidden villages, convincing each Kage to obey him, becoming the (at first hidden) leader of a new shinobi world. But the Akatsuki aren't idle, either. Not only do they have far more experience than Naruto, he also has to navigate carefully, anticipating and foiling the Akatsuki's attempts to start a war between the hidden villages.

2.: Uzumaki Naruto.
(Partially inspired by MarquisBlack's "Legacy of Uzushiogakure")
The Uzumaki weren't wiped out, but could save many of their clan. (The Uzumaki clan is not like a family, but much much larger.) To save themselves from being found and destroyed by their enemies, they split up in cells. However, they miss a clan heir. Without a clan heir, there's no hope for the clan to ever be reunited and find a permanent home. One day, however, by mere chance, Uzumaki Naruto makes one of his loud declarations right in front of a disguised trader of the clan. This blode boy can only be the son of Uzumaki Kushina and last clan heir. (Yes, that is VERY close to Marquis Black's "The Legacy of Uzushiogakure".)
The Uzumaki clan member takes the boy away from Konoha to his part of the clan. The new clan head vows to reunite the Uzumaki clan and lead it into a bright future. Naruto being Naruto inspires the people, eventually leading to a meeting of the leaders of the cells. They discuss, where they could settle down. They are enemies of three of the great villages, betrayed by the fourth one. And they don't trust Suna. But they can't build their own village.
They can, however take over Mizugakure. They approach the newly formed rebellion under Terumi Mei and offer them their help, in return for being allowed as a part of Mizugakure and some special privileges for their clan.
With the help of the rebellion, the Uzumaki clan takes Mizugakure, seals the Sanbi in a new jinchuuriki and kills the Mizukage.
Now however, they have to deal with Kumo raids, trying to gain more bloodlines, Tsuchi not wanting the weakened Mizu to rise again and Orochimaru using the land as his personal playground, as well as, eventually, Konoha wanting their jinchuuriki back.
(The story isn't meant to have a Naruto powerful enough to take on a Kage and win, but instead he learns Fuuinjutsu and, working with his teammates, finds the perfect opportunity to use the perfect seal in a fight to end it in one shot.)

3.: Only The Spider Is Safe In Its Web.
Harry Potter is intrigued. One spell, "obliviate", can completely take an enemy out, without any physical harm. What could one do, if they did more than dabble in the mind arts? Over the next weeks, Harry learns. The possibilities are endless. He can manipulate animals, magical or not, and with time, even control humans. Not with the unrefined blunt force of the Imperius curse, but finely, able to create sleeper agents, mindless drones, or completely change someone's personality.
By the time the war starts, Harry has unknowing spies in the Order, the ministry, and among the deatheaters. No one is safe and one has to fearones ally as much as ones enemy. Except for Harry, disappeared in the shadows, the mastermind, the spider in his web.

4.: What to Do, When Your Government Tortures People.
Harry Potter is disappointed by the wizarding world. It is ripe with bigotry, blood prejudice, crime, and corruption.
But in his second year, when Dementors are sent to Hogwarts to search for the monster petrifying students, he comes to know the true horror of the wizarding world. What kind of monsters would sentence a prisoner, no matter how evil, to be tortured by this creatures for years?
At that point, Harry decides to take action. If the wizarding world is this bad, then he will change it, by force, if necessary.
Some time later, Harry finds the means to do so, when he discovers some books, left behind by Tom Riddle.
Over the next year, Harry begins to build his own group, gathering allies for battle, politics, and information gathering, to finally take down the ministry and revolutionize the wizarding world.

5.: Survivor Harry.
Living with the Dursleys for ten years, Harry has learned to seize every advantage, he can get. To avoid his uncle's violent bouts of anger, he has learnt to read people precisely. To overcome his cousin's bullying, he has become great at planning and manipulating, but also ruthless. And seeing how people stood right next to him being beaten, how he gained no help from teachers or other students, he has no sense of empathy.
As soon as Harry enters Hogwarts, he starts to push the envelope, searching for advantages and power however he can. He uses the fact that the sorting hat has to conform to his wishes and chooses Hufflepuff, determined to get as much from it as he can.
But Harry has always had enemies, and his obvious greed for power only serves to make his life more difficult.
This version of Harry is a ruthless survivor. If he sees an advantage, he uses it to the fullest. If someone owes him a debt, he tries to get the most out of it. And if the minister hinders the fight against Voldemort, the minister has to die.

6.: Assassin Naruto.
Naruto had enough stealth to paint the Hokage monument in broad daylight with no one noticing, until he was done. He regularly avoided a variety of shinobi and all that in an orange jumpsuit. Some time along the way someone made a comment, he would make an excellent assassin.
Naruto's new fighting style is hiding in the shadows, striking swiftly, striking deadly. And if a strike doesn't kill, he retreats and continues to scare and cofuse his opponent, until he is presented with a new opening to sneak in for the kill.
Naruto may be trained by Anko (my interpretation of her is somewhat less brutal to Naruto and would do anything for someone, who can see past her teacher and has become her friend) or Kakashi (or be on team seven, but still mostly trains with Anko.)
(The idea behind this storyline is Momochi Zabuza. He is actually a great character. His goal is to kill his target, rather than fighting unnecessarily. His style consists of creating an environment that makes it extremely difficult for his target to defend themselves and for others to help his target. Add to this the sheer terror of hearing your friends/clients death screams, while you can't see a thing, choking in thick fog, the legend of the Demon of the Mist is very understandable. So in this story, Naruto should have a similar style. Focussed on eliminating his target, preferably without anyone noticing until it's too late and, in case of multiple opponents, creating an atmosphere of terror and panic among his enemies.)

7.: The Man With A Thousand Faces.
When he was four, Naruto wants to become a shinobi. So he sneaks into the academy and listens to some lessons. He is eventually found and kicked out, but not before he learns the Henge no Jutsu. He soon notices, that no one can see through his henge. And while he is under it, he is treated like everyone else. From then on, Naruto never drops his henge and has a henged form and personality for any situation. Naruto is dead, but he is happier for it.
(NOT GOT inspired. I wrote that down before I even knew, the series existed.)

8.: Harry Potter And The Elves.
One night, shortly after the start of his first year in Hogwarts, Harry finds a diminutive creature cleaning the common room at night. He eventually finds out about house elves and visits them, feeling far more connected to the elves, than to his fellow students. He starts to live with the elves, cleaning and cooking with them, as he did for the Dursleys. He also learns from them.
This has two possible storylines:
Harry could learn more about the nature of magic by learning the wandless ways of the elves. Or (/and) he could learn how to free houseelves without their master noticing. Then, as the war begins, deatheaters die in spades, poisoned by their own elves.

9.: Divination IS Useful.
It took Harry, Ron, and Hermione only a week to see, that Divination was a completely useless course, two to be sure beyond any doubt. So they spend some time jokingly imitating their teacher's "prophecies". Only they don't know, that they are being watched. Then strange things start happening. Deatheaters appear and their actions make no sense. Until Harry comes to understand, they try to prevent one of his "prophecies".
From then on the story has Harry and co. using Voldemorts obsession with prophecies to drive him into increasingly ridiculous actions.

10.: Harry Potter And The Power Of Potions.
As Harry started brewing his first potion, he saw it. The subtle art, the beauty, the power Snape had talked about. It was subtlety and power itself. He didn't understand, how others could not see it. The calmness of brewing and the many, many uses of potions. Potions were not restricted by the same laws as charms, transfigurations, hexes, curses, jinxes, and almost all other magic. One could get a potion to sort one's clothes, a potion to grow, a portion for pain or sickness, a potion for a lasting power increase or invincibility for a few scant minutes. Potions could make a person loyal, or even a slave, or they could cleanse the soul and mind. They could kill silently, slowly, fast, or cause trendemnous destruction with one single use. And the best? They could be stored. One wouldn't have to exhaust oneself with spells, if one had potions. And one could even take them with him, only needing a magical bag. There wasn't even an underage restriction. With a bag and a cauldron, he had unlimited possibilities.
When Harry brewed his first potion, he fell in love.
Harry doesn't become friends with Snape (actually it could also be Slughorn, who returned to teach Harry), Harry just ignores him. And more advanced potions are more difficult. One needs to do slighly different things each time (because the ingredients aren't always the same) and develop a keen intuition for potions.
I actually really like this concept. Harry has the possibility to have wandless magic, to kill with a thought, to deflect the death curse, but only for a few scant minutes, until the potion runs out. Then it takes months to rebrew it.
(A scene: "Harry, professor Lupin is a werewolf." "Ok wait," Harry hurried off and skimmed through a few books, searching. Then he came back. "Hermione, ask him, if he can get some fur and a bit of salvia for me on his next tranformation. There are so many things, I could do with that." With that Harry turned back to his books. He had to learn more about swurzpix for his next idea.)

11.: Harry 'Obelix' Potter. (Not an Asterix&Obelix crossover.)
Harry is in the department of mysteries (either in his fifth year or he visits it sooner for some reason) and comes into a room with a cauldron full of felix felicis. He stumbles into the cauldron and drinks/absorbs it all.
From then on, Harry has ridiculous, comical, and, most importantly, permanent luck.

12.: Welcome To The Wild, Wide Wizarding ... Britain.
During the second world war a group of German bombers misses their targets. In the war, the incident is disregarded, for wizarding Britain, however, it is the start of a new era. The bombs hit wizarding London, destroying the shopping alleys, parts of Gringotts, but most importantly the ministry. Lead by Dumbledore the wizards try to reform their government, but fail between corruption, blood purists, and muggleborns demanding more rights. After a period of chaos a new, fragile ministry is reformed, only to be ripped apart by the raise of Voldemort, a few years later. With no Aurors to fight, the responsibility falls to the Order of the Phoenix. Just as the fight seems unwinnable, Voldemort tries to kill Harry Potter and receives a devastating blow. Sirius takes Harry back to the Order's headquarters, located at Potter manor.
But in the same night Albus Dumbledore dies, fighting a group of Deatheaters who had infiltrated the castle, supported by a certain book and a basilisk.
Without a ministry to clean up, Voldemort's inner circle takes the reigns, while Lupin, supported by Moody, is the Order's new leader.
The fractions are in a deadlock, Deatheaters biding their time till their lord's return, while Sirius and Moody raise a child, only knowing, that it was the only one able to put an end to Voldemort.
Years later Hogwarts is a school for muggleborn, except for the agents of deatheaters and Order members, each trying to get the new generation on their side.
Harry, hailed the future leader of the light, enters this Hogwarts for his first year, a Hogwarts, where you never walk alone, a school, where murder is nothing unusual anymore.
(Harry is far stronger (and FAR more paranoid) than the average wizard, even at an early age. But the prophecy is buried under tons of rubble, and the notion of Tom Riddle and Horcruxes doesn't even exist.)

13.: Apocalypse Now.
The british pureblood elite is finally forced to accept, that muggles have become too powerful to be ignored any longer. So they decide to craft a spell, making all muggles into agressive, uncontrolled monsters, only focused on destruction. They mean to damage muggle civilisation enough to push their development back to where they aren't a threat. It works. Sadly, they none of them knew the meaning of the phrase "nuclear holocaust". An overdose of nukes destroys everything but places protectet by the very strongest of wards, leaving the world with a population of a senile headmaster, an overworked group of professors, and a bit over two hundred childish idiots (students) (evtl more from other schools). Oh, and a lonely wraith, of course. And cockroaches. Lots of cockroaches.

14.: Root Naruto or A Shinobi Amongst Shinobi.
Danzou knows, he can't take Naruto. He has asked for it often enough. And if he snatches him from the street, the Hokage would kill him. Serving Konoha the way, he is, it is essential to know one's bounds. Still, the boy has so much potential...
Finally there is an opportunity. Naruto wants to be a ninja, but is still too young for the academy. And Danzou offers to train him under the condition of total secrecy. He can't break the boy, can't destroy his emotions or enforce his loyalty, but the boy's potential makes it worth it.
And so Naruto joins Root, all the while playing the average academy kid.
Due to obvious foul play, Naruto fails the Genin exam (doesn't matter which generation). Naruto gets his first real mission, to confirm Mizuki a traitor, confine him, and to copy the forbidden scroll for Root. And now his life in Root truely begins. Every few missions, he has a second, secret objective. A courier mission to Suna is truely scouting, and the chuunin exams is a recipe for a clusterfuck.
Make a statement by killing off all Kumo teams, eliminate Suna's dangerous Jinchuuriki, and protect the clan heirs from the worst of dangers. All that without letting anyone notice that he is more than an orange loving idiot.
This is Naruto's chance to finally earn the respect of his secret family.

15.: Harry Potter Rewritten.
There are a lot of things left out or messed up in the original Harry Potter books. This story could show a realistic Harry. Traumatized from the cruel treatment by his Uncle and bullying by other children, a damaged Harry comes to Hogwarts, hoping to start anew, yet unable to hide the scars, physical and mental, from his time with the Dursleys. He isn't used to normal human interaction, and that shows. In Hogwarts, Harry tries to get peace, away from reporters chasing him, and students wanting his friendship for the fame.
Harry decides learn and train, but that's difficult and slow going, since he distrusts the Hogwarts teachers that stand by and watch bullying without ever acting and hates Dumbledore for putting him with his aunt and uncle, and all the other things in his life make training all the more difficult. And of course he wants to have some fun, too. The distant threat of some ghostly evil doesn't as much to motivate Harry as would be good for him.
Harry doesn't like adventure and excitement, at all, so he tries to stay in the background, and when trouble finds him, he does his best to run away, what may or may not happen, is Dumbledore's problem, not his. On the other hand, he can't hide from his fame and is under immense pressure to perform outstandingly.
A few years later puberty sets in, and with it a whole plate of new difficulties. Girls throw themselves at him, some with blatant sexual offers, others try seduction, and others try to worm their way into his heart by starting off as friends. But one thing, his fame is good for, is casual sex and experimentation. Being a horny teenager, he can't resist. Being a horny teenager raised by the Dursleys (meaning trauma and lacking social skills and empathy), it doesn't go very well and there are plenty of screw ups and hurt feelings.
All the while, Harry becomes increasingly powerful, even though he is far from a professor, and power corrupts. And the more powerful a person, the more significant are their mistakes. Harry, of course, learns this the hard way.
Dumbledore has always thought, it would be a good idea to let Harry live his childhood. He has thought, that Harry would see his logic and accept his fate, when he would finally reveal the prophecy to him. And it seems, Harry is taking it better, than he could have hoped. But then the boy does, what any sane person his age would do. He is obviously unprepared to face Voldemort, and certainly not willing to die trying, so Harry runs away (evtl. with a few of his most trustworthy friends). It is unbelievable, how easy it is to escape Britain with some decent knowledge on the muggle world and enough money. Now, amidst the biggest scandal since the rise of Voldemort, everyone wants the Boy Who Lived. But competing magical nations make finding him far, far harder, especially, when large areas of the world aren't under any kind of magical government or surveillance.
So Harry will run, run, hide, and learn, until he finally has no other choice, but to fight.

16.: Harry Potter And The Languages.
After his duel with Draco in the second year, Harry notices that snakes seem to obey parselmouths. So if that is possible with snakes, why not with other species. Birds, dogs, dragons, and maybe even humans?
So, after a holidays of thinking about why Dumbledore only sent his phoenix and didn't come with the bird, as well as wondering, why he was really put with the Dursleys - if he was beaten up daily for years, it certainly wasn't to protect him - he decides to take his money from Gringotts and travel around, visiting the locations of the remains of ancient magical civilizations and their languages.

17.: Sirius screws Britain.
Sirius has an urgent message for Dumbledore, who is currently holding an interview for a new Divination teacher. And when finds Snape listening in on the making of the prophecy, he kills him.
Harry grows up in a world ravaged by war. The government is collapsed and Hogwarts an insecure neutral ground.
The Potters, meanwhile have run from Voldemort and Dumbledore. Sirius had heared enough of the prophecy to know that Dumbledore would have no issues throwing Harry at Voldemort in a desperate attempt to stop the growing body count.
Therefore, Harry grows up as a fugitive, ready to kill deatheater or disable order members at a moments notice, used to fighting since before he could even hold a wand. But, caught between the lords of the Light and the Dark, no one wants to join the Potters and so they can do nothing but continue to run.

18.: Welcome To The Cabal.
On his sixth birthday, strange people come to visit Harry Potter and give him an opportunity to come with them instead of staying with the Dursleys.
For the next four years, he learns old and powerful magic, things, most wizards don't even know, that they exist. And on his tenth birthday, they introduce themselves as a cabal, that wants to rule the world. They already hold power over the whole magical world, except for the most powerful country; Britain with it's antiquated powerstructure and reverence of Dumbledore. But Harry will become a lord on his fiveteenth birthday and, more importantly, he's prophecised to kill Voldemort. (They know the whole prophecy.)
Harry's part in this is to spy on Dumbledore, destroy Voldemort, and take a position, even more powerful than Dumbledore's, grasping control over Britain for the cabal.
For that, he is taught an understanding of how wizarding Britain works. He is taught to get power any way he can, but mostly by grooming followers, who will be loyal to him for life.
(Alternately the cabal can bully Harry into doing, what they want, but I like the other version better.)
At eleven, Harry is given a servant/body guard (who is older, but not necessarily an adult) and goes to Hogwarts, determined to build his own network of informants, fighters, and future politicians.

19.: Original Harry Potter.
When Harry first comes to Hogwarts, he sees a huge opportunity. A reporter managed to sneak into the castle and wants to interview him. And Harry wants revenge for suffering ten years at the Dursleys'. So he tells the reporter about his life at Privet Drive and how Dumbledore set him up there, didn't give them a choice, but to keep their hated nephew with them, how he is responsible for the suffering of Britain's saviour.
Not even a week later, Hogwarts has a new headmaster.
(It's open from there on. The new headmaster could be someone like Malfoy Sr., Moody, a ministry representative, or someone completely different. Dumbledore could be far less important in this story and could have a varying degree of control about Hogwarts (ancient magic doesn't care much about a board of governors).
(I think most HP fanfiction is very restrained by Dumbledore being a central figure.)

20.: Naruto: Ultimate Chaos Storm.
Shortly after the formation of team seven, Naruto is incredibly frustrated. Kakashi doesn't teach him anything. Apparently his teacher is too lazy to bother with someone like him. So he decides to steal techniques from people, who have them and goes to the only two clans, he can think of. After all, Naruto remembers, that Shikamaru and Ino always complained about being made to learn their clan jutsu.
There is only one problem. Shadowclones, mind-body-switch techniques, and shadow imitation don't mix together well. Especially with Naruto's poor aim.

21.: Why School Should Start With Six.
When Harry finds himself on the rooftop after trying to run from Dudley, he knows, he has done magic. So he goes to the library and looks for whatever he can find. And finds a book on demon summoning. He tries it out and manages to summon a demon. He soon finds out, that there are different kinds of demons. Most are intelligent and most of those are anything but happy to be enslaved by a human, even for only a single task. But Harry is nothing, if not powerful and a fast learner.
Finally he enters Hogwarts and Harry is confused. There is more to magic than summoning demons. But why do wizards need sticks? Why don't more people dabble in creating the ultimate zombie raising spell in their spare time? And why is fiendfyre considered dark?
(Note that, Harry in this story may be far more powerful than any first year, but learning to summon and control demons is a difficult task and he is far, far away from summoning anything, that could take on the likes of Moody, not even considering Dumbledore or Voldemort.
On the other hand, Harry can summon increasingly more powerful demons (or learn to summon several), but each time, he has to research the demon, find and modify a ritual to summon and bind it, then keep control of it in a battle of wills, and finally slowly bring the demon to accept its place, using its personality and desires to ultimately make it submit to him, which lessens the strain on his mind and magic to a point, where he can use a demon to assist him in battle.)

22.: Chaos, Chaos, So Much Lovely Chaos.
Growing up with the Dursleys isn't good for Harry. His body suffers under beatings from the Vernon, Dudley, and, to a lesser extent, Petunia. Locked into the small closet under the stairs, he has to endure hunger, sometimes days without food, and recover frequently from bruises and sometimes even broken bones, all amidst the filth, bugs and spiders in the intentionally dirty place.
At the age of ten, Harry is taken in by a gang of thugs. They may have beaten people up for fun, but weren't big on child abuse. Some days later, they pay a visit to the Dursleys and enable Harry to take thorough revenge, leaving his former family with bruises, cuts, and broken bones laying in their own excrements. Harry loves the following year. The violence, the wildness, the chaos all are intoxicating to him, especially the chaos.
But at the same time, he develops a keen wit and a good mind for quick thinking and planning.
At fiveteen (Hogwarts starts at fiveteen in this story, which is required because Harry needs a decent level of maturity, experience, and intelligence, as well as what he does being often based on peoples base desires, like the one for power/dominance, sexual urges, etc.), he gets his Hogwarts letter and soon after a visit from a shocked Professor McGonnagal. In Diagon alley, Harry has an epiphany. This small magical world could be, what he needed to plunge the whole world into chaos. All it would take, was a breach of the statue of secrecy, so great and obvious, no one would be able to undo or hide it, irreversably exposing the magical society to muggles. But more than that, he would need to prepare the wizarding world. As it is now, the overwhelming majority of wizards would be caught and experimented on soon after their first exposure to the real world.
But that is a goal for the future. For now, he needs to learn, and have fun, of course. After being brought back to the Dursleys, who are justifiably terrified of him, he returns to his gang to explain to them, what happened. They visit Diagon alley together and after a thorough search through many bookstores, he finds the most interesting magics and after a long visit to Knockturn alley, his wand is rid of the trace.
The first of what Harry decides to study, are the mind arts. Fighting skills may be more useful, but the mind arts could cause far more chaos and confusion. And by making sure, every student in Hogwarts would learn the mind arts, he could make the school like a small preview of the chaos, he would plunge the world into. Because who would be safe, if no one could trust their own minds. If anyone can get their spot on a quidditch team, steal someone's homework, get together with their crush, all with a few simple spells to bend another's mind to their will, who would pass up that chance? It didn't matter, who would, the majority wouldn't. Hogwarts would turn into a hell, where the most precious thing anyone had, was their mind, and no one would turn their back even to their best friend. What delicious chaos.
And Harry would have seven whole years to enjoy it, the only other thing, he would have to worry about is getting in a position to prepare the wizarding world for his grand plan.
Thrown into Slytherin for his ambition, Harry makes use of his thug skills to subjugate anyone who crosses him. They may know more magic than him, but that counted for nothing, if they were lying on the floor, pieces of their wands in front of them.
And soon after, everyone has enough knowledge of the mind arts for his plan to start. Only a few changes to a few minds and Hogwarts would never be the same again.
(In this story, Harry is very close to the Joker, at least he has a similar brand of chaos loving, violent insanity. He wants nothing more than absolute chaos, a world, where people have to fight for their existence, can take nothing for granted and trust worth more than gold.)

23.: Everybody Wants Naruto.
Naruto had high hopes for team seven. The teams were supposed to be like family, after all. But by the time they leave for Nami no Kuni, his hope was already crushed. Sasuke saw him as some kind of unimportant joke, Sakura as an annoyance, and Kakashi just didn't care.
But just as Zabuza is about to announce himself, Sakura turns the world on its head. "Kakashi-sensei, Naruto-kun is the son of Yondaime-sama, isn't he?"
That sentence shifts Zabuza's priorities and he retreats, only to prepare and kill team seven, except for Naruto, who he takes to Mizu no Kuni.
Naruto's heritage doesn't stay a secret for very long, and now every shinobi village in the Elemental Nations wants Naruto for themselves. Not to kill him, that would be a waste, but to get him to figh for their village.
The rest is a rollercoaster of Naruto being abducted again and again from a lot of different villages, each treating him differently (some can still hold loyalty to the Uzumaki name), each teaching him differently. Naruto doesn't know, what he wants, at first. He has four important people in Konoha, but he couldn't spent much time with any of them, so any new friends can quickly cancel them out. Most people, he comes across see him as a ressource. Over time, he slowly develops his own goals and works on a plan to archieve them.

24.: Harry Potter And The Forces Of Corruption.
People always told Harry that dark magic corrupts its users.
But after performing a patronus charm in his third year, an extremely powerful light charm for a third year student, Harry finds out, that this is only the tip of the iceberg. In the following weeks, he feels less prone to anger, more forgiving, meek and passive than ever.
In truth, all magic corrupts:
Dark magic makes its users tempers more volatile, their personalities more dominant and agressive, always hungry for the rush of power, dark magic brings, having another living, breathing human being writhing helplessly in one's grasp.
Light magic is no less dangerous, making its users avoid conflict at all cost, making them stay passive and seek peace at their own expense.
Legilimency causes a constant nagging curiosity about others' thoughts. Occlumency causes introversion and a growing distance from the real world and the user's friends.
Utility magic, perhaps the most insidious of all, makes people lazy. Too lazy to think of the best alternative, instead using magic as the first and only solution.
The patronus, too strong a charm for Harry to handle, makes an increasingly large impact on his life. After playing with the thought of letting himself be killed to avoid conflict with Voldemort, Harry becomes desperate enough to utilize the only apparent solution: Dark magic. And not only that, but dark magic powerful enough to compensate for the influence of the patronus charm.
And, as he feared, with that he had opened pandora's box.

25.: The Boy Who Was Lost.
(After the first few chapters in the first book, it was never again mentioned, just how huge and confusing Hogwarts is. Corridors and stairways lead to different destinations depending on the day, hour, or anything else. The castle is so huge, that people can get lost and be never found again. Or get lost, found after two months, but fifty years older. This idea is a bit a.u. with huge Hogwarts and no Marauders map.)
After a late visit to the library on his third day in Hogwarts, Harry encounters Professor Quirrel in a corridor. When the man tries to kill him, Harry runs and soon finds himself on uncharted territory. One thing is certain: Judging from the dust, he's the first person here in many years.
After searching for a way back to the common room for hours, Harry finally finds a room full of food. The next day he wakes up, hopeful, that the teachers will soon find him. In the meantime, he continues to explore.
After several days, the realization dawns, that even Dumbledore can't find him. But maybe, in the forgotten corridors of Hogwarts, there are far greater things to be found than the simple magic taught by the teachers.
(This is basically Harry exploring a giant Hogwarts, full of dangerous, interesting, terrifying, seductive, and all other kinds of magical secrets. He can meet all kinds of strange creatures, portraits and legacies of legendary wizards, and maybe, at some point, find a few companions. He may also realize, that he really doesn't have anyone waiting for him, no one to be sad, if he never returns.)

26.: Call Me Tom.
Harry never stood a chance. How could he, a new born baby even dream of fighting a horcrux' influence? And so, short weeks after his parents, Harry Potter dies. But taking over the young, innocent boy, has left his mark on Voldemort. It cleansed him from the insanity of dark magic and too many horcurxes and healed part of his soul. And therefore Tom, now Harry, has two enemies: Dumbledore and Voldemort. Not that he knows, since his mind isn't fit to support the knowledge and intelligence of a dark lord. His memories come back slowly. Starting with simple magic, as he learnt in the orphanage, when Dudley tries to bully him, continuing with all kinds of things that help him in his current situation.
When he finally reaches the first stage of magical maturity at eleven, the last big part of his memories returns and he is determined, not to repeat past mistakes. He will kill Dumbledore, kill Voldemort, and form a new wizarding world.

27.: Nature And Nurture.
Scant minutes after Voldemort's failed attempt to kill him, young Harry is rescued from the burning ruins of his home. But not by Hagrid or Sirius, but by a diminutive elf named Limmy. Limmy brings Harry to the Potters' ancestral home, a house fortified and warded with the best, the wizarding world has to offer. A house, secret from everyone but Lily and James, meant as a place to retreat, in case their cover was ever blown. But while James and Lily didn't have the time to take advantage of the possibility, the House allows Harry to grow up alone. His only companions a few absolutely subservient, old, and more than slightly insane, house elves.
Ten years later, Harry is powerful by nature, but a chimera by nurture. His English, learned from the elves, is tinged by the language of old books. He thinks himself the greatest and most powerful person in the world, everyone should bow down and worship him, but at the same time, he enjoys cleaning and cooking. And those are only a few traits of a personality developed between the absolute worship of the elves and his desire to belong with the only sentient beings in his life.

28.: Mastermind.
When Harry visits his vault in Gringotts for the first time, there is a notebook, written by his parents. There is not much in it, among others the most essencial knowlege about the wizarding world, the knowlege about the prophecy, the admonishment, never to neglect his studies and training, and a warning. A warning about Horace Slughorn and other people like him. People who would use favors and subtle manipulation to get people into under his influence. Someone who would use the small magical debts that accumulated with every tiny action and made people susceptible to people, they owed, to maneauver others into doing what they wanted, sometimes ruining their lives.
Harry, however is intrigued. At first, he only sees a means to his safety, but he soon comes to appreciate the beauty of this way of life and to love the power, he feels, each time, his tiny nudges bear fruit. That power that symbolizes the control, he never had over his life.
(This idea is rather complicated, because it necessitates that all characters in the story are faily detailed and well thought out. Harry has to keep track of his own goals, the goals of people, he wants to influence, how he can gain more influence over people, that he can't overextend himself, and he has to be aware of the affairs of everyone, he is involved with, spotting opportunities to further his influence. He also has to be extremely careful, not to overdo it with his influence.)

29.: Let Sleeping Foxes Lie.
Iruka dies after coming to Naruto's aid. But he held up Mizuki just long enough for help to arrive. And that help likes nothing more than to take revenge on the demon brat. After a few painful minutes, Naruto can't take it anymore and, between pain, hate, and fear, unleashes the Kyuubi's chakra for the first time. It overwhelms him, but, while the seal is not broken, the Kyuubi can manifest for a short time, just long enough to throw a few bijuudama and annihilate Konoha completely. When Naruto wakes up, some time later, he remembers everything, from the pain to the slaughter. But he is still only a child and can't live by himself, so he has to find a group of survivers, always afraid, that someone will decide to try and kill him again.
At the same time, the remaining great villages and a few smaller ones, all of them intending to fill the power vacuum, the fall of the most powerful hidden village has left, close in on Konoha, each of them willing to do whatever it takes to get the jinchuuriki in their hands, and at the same time afraid, that he will lose control again and kill them all.
In the midst of what is quickly becoming the fourth great shinobi war, Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin is desperately searching for his godson, to save him from his own personal hell, and to try raising him into the man that can fulfill the prophecy of the toads and bring peace to the elemental nations.

30.: Voldemort Saves The World.
Voldemort isn't the cruel man running from death. Instead, he sees a dysfunctional magical society, built on the oppression of muggleborn and halfbloods, and stealing from muggles. At the same time, he sees, that with the everpresent option of the total destruction of humanity by means of nuclear war, something has to be done by wizards.
Lacking the ressources to force a change in the Wizengarmot, his only option is to use the bigoted purebloods to start a war, only to turn on them and make all wizards and witches equal, once it is over.
When he hears the prophecy, Voldemort decides to shape it, rather than fear it. "None shall live, while the other survives", shall mean that both need to live, as opposed to simply surviving. "The power, he knows not", shall be the support and care of a powerful father.
Voldemort in this story is still a very angry person, who uses plenty of dark magic. He is somewhat more mellow and sane compared to canon, as in he doesn't torture people for fun, nor is it his first reaction, when angered.
Harry's role is actually that of Voldemorts son and equal. He is also raised to slowly accomodate the next generation of purebloods to the idea of an equal standing of all wizards and witches and to the necessity of intervention into the muggle world and new policies in terms of muggle technology.

31.: Patrons.
A byproduct of purebloods (in this story, anyone with two magical parents is a pureblood, however the family's political power, history, and wealth are very important) ruling the wizarding society is, that they have formed the wizarding world to their advantage. For most halfbloods and muggleborn it is, as intended by the pureblood supremacists, impossible to make a living without being affiliated with a pureblood house. The pureblood houses own the stores and take and sell the produce of their affiliated wizards and witches, trading most of it amongst themselves. Fleeing the wizarding world is prohibited under guise of upholding the statue of secrecy.
On the other hand, duels are an integral part of society, especially to solve everyday conflicts. That is especially important, not because the purebloods could train long before Hogwarts - battle magic is far too power intensive to learn before school - but because the rich and powerful can learn during the holidays from special duelling instructors or family members, giving them a huge advantage in spells, training, and experience.
Many muggleborns are ill prepared for the dire conditions in this world and fail to find a good and just patron in time. Most of the important purebloods are either in Slytherin, demanding extreme concessions from anyone for their help, or in Gryffindor, uninterested in politics or evading their duties.
Since most of the important pureblood houses, able to support many affiliated wizards and witches, lean towards the dark, most non-purebloods would do almost anything to be accepted into the service of a pureblood family, that will treat them kindly. The pureblood women of the wizarding world don't have it easy, either. The unlucky ones are used like bargaining chips, sold into marriage as part of contracts or other agreements. The lucky ones can chose their partners, even muggleborns can be taught to be a proper pureblood and are treated like normal purebloods once part of the family. But the unluckiest ones are the ones whose families fall into poverty. Any pureblood family with no money is forced to become vassals of a more powerful, richer house, that will support them, but also has them in their complete power and must be given absolute loyalty and obedience.
Harry is thrown into this world and, instead of growing up a clueless Gryffindor, he becomes a Hufflepuff, when he begs the Hat "Please send me to a house, where I can have real friends for the first time in my life."
Hufflepuffs have always tried their best to support everyone in the house, but they also always had the smallest number of available pureblood patrons. And Hufflepuff embraces Harry as one of their own. He soon starts to see the injustice of the wizarding world and ineviatably becomes the patron of Hufflepuff. And Harry is a game changer. As heir of the Potter and Black lines, he has the financial means to support any graduating Hufflepuff, but he also has a heavily warded home, Potter Manor, as well as a multitude of other estates, where he can grow into the champion, Hufflepuff needs to stop bullying by Slytherins, who use duels to keep down Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. He may be still weak and inexperienced, but with power in spades and a house that will always stand with him and support him with all their might, he will thrive and protect his friends. And then, he will change the wizarding world, from the inside out.

32.: Harold Addams And The Wonderful School.
An ten year old Harry has to go to the zoo with his so called family. They have him go off on his own, and some time later, he finds himself near the area of snakes and other reptiles. And stumbles on the strange sight of a young boy in a striped shirt in the process of being killed by a huge boa constrictor. He nicely asks the snake to stop that and thereby makes the acquaintance of the Addams family. Even though they are disappointed at Harry interrupting their fun, they invite him for lunch and quickly find out about his horrible home life.
--BACKGROUND--
The Addams family in this story is a family suffused by old magic, that makes it close to impossible to inflict serious harm on them. Harry always had a rather large spark of that, which was what saved him from the killing curse, but isn't truly part of his magic as opposed to the old magic of the Addamses. They are an incredibly old magical family, that has long since retreated from the magical community to learn to better understand and control magic istelf. They still teach their children magic, but wandless and home schooled.
--BACKGROUND--
After a short discussion, the Addamses decide to take Harry, now Harold, back to America and, full blown blood adoption, make him part of their family. At first, Gomez and Morticia ban any attempt to kill or torture Harold, to give the old magic of the family and the other changes caused by the blood adoption ritual time to settle, but, because of his time with the Dursleys, pain is tied for him to a feeling no Addams enjoys, loneliness. Therefore he does not enjoy pain, like all other members of the family, he is an abnormality in a family of abnormalities. This difference makes for some difficult encounters with several of the extended Addams family, living and dead.
Because of this and memories of being bullied, Harold, for the first three years, stays close to his new parents, learning the basics of magic, armed and unarmed fighting, and from Fester and Grandmama explosives, modern weapons, divination, voodoo, and potions. The rest of his time, he spends reading.
Then, in mid October, Harold's Hogwarts letter arrives (Hogwarts starts at thirteen in this a.u.). After long discussions with Dumbledore, it is decided, that Harold will attend Hogwarts one year later, together with his siblings. Pugsley, two years older than Wedesday and Harold, is sent to New Salem, whose school year begins later, skipping first class, so he can start in the third year in Hogwarts.
Wednesday soon becomes lonely and, after a few months, tries to form a connection with Harold, who is also pushed to open up to her. Finally, they play together and Wednesday lets herself be tortured by Harold. It is a revelation for her and she decides, she wants to be tortured only by Harold for the rest of her life. For Wednesday, this is love on first torture, but for Harry the first stimulation to his strong sadistic urges makes him see horrible similarities between the Dursleys and himself and begins a jarring process to come to terms with this new side of his personality. It does, however bring Harold and Wednesday closer together and they form a blossoming relationship, which highlights their common fascination with the strangest and darkest of magics. (That doesn't mean Unforgivables, those are crude, boring, and unimaginative.)
Finally, they enter Hogwarts and are sorted into Hufflepuff. They quickly find out that Hogwarts is the best school on earth. A near sentient castle, horribly dangerous old magics, terrifying secrets, dangerous creatures, and even a dungeon equipped with the best of both worlds - what more could anyone wish for. While this Harold has no liking for pain, he still loves danger, death, and adventure, and has a more than healthy dose of sadism and curiosity.
He loves exploring and trying out strange magics and rituals, and, along with Wednesday, does his very best to find and play with every dangerous magic and creature, and find every dangerous secret. He delights in what is a complete horror trip for canon Harry and is completely unaware - ore uncaring - that he keeps Dumbledore, the teachers, and the ministry in a constant state of terror, that one of his discoveries or experiments will unleash some unspeakable horror upon the world - or just destroy it instantly.
Other 'heroes' may destroy Dementors; Harold Addams puts them into a box and sends them as a present to his parents.

33.: Harry Potter And The Power Of Blackmail.
There is only one optician in the whole magical world. The reason is simple. Any child with magical parents is, on their third birthday, given a potion, that eliminates such things as ocular problems. Muggleborns are content with what they have.
When Harry visits Diagon alley with Hagrid just before his first year (Hogwarts starts at 13 again), Madam Malkins recommends magical glasses to go with getting decent clothes and losing Dudley's old rags. Harry, eager to get rid of the last remnant of the Dursleys, makes an appointment. The optician visits him soon after, and a few days later, he has the best glasses, the world has to offer. They never slip, are unbreakable, and he can summon them with a word. They can also see through any material. Steel, stone, or cloth.
Back at Privet Drive, he sees a wife cheating on her husband. When he confronts her, she offers, considering his tiny frame, to pay for whatever he eats at a local restaurant for the rest of the summer.
And just like that, Harry gets a taste for power and a sadistic streak. He takes a walk around, and again the next day. At the end of the week, he has a good deal of cash and lives in a small but pleasant caravan of one of his neighbors.
Being sorted into Slytherin comes as a surprise and shocks everyone just long enough for Harry to find out that the game stays the same, just with higher stakes. After getting a few higher years to take him under their protection, he begins to find the tools to keep working among wizards and make his scheme more effective. He soon finds out, that there is a person for each job, and that he has to choose carefully. The blackmail material has to be enough to force the person into doing a task for him, the task has to be doable and not bad enough to breed lasting resentment. But soon he finds himself faced with his greatest challenge yet. He can't do everything alone and therefore needs help. Trustworthy help.

34.: Severus Snape: The Story Of A Mastermind.
Severus Snape is many things. A bad teacher, as at least sixty percent of Hogwarts' students would say. A good teacher in the minds of the Slytherins and those students with a talent for potions. A complete sadist, as seventyfive percent of the students, but especially the sixth and seventh year girls would agree.
But there is more to him. When Severus was sorted, the Sorting Hat said, he had the courage of a Gryffindor, the loyalty for his very few friends would make any Hufflepuff proud, his curiosity and thirst for knowledge would serve him well in Ravenclaw, and his cunning could let him flourish in Slytherin.
In his school years, he quickly found a fascination with potions, as well as the dark arts and he wanted nothing more than to live in solitude and peace and study them. But the dark arts, more precisely the ministry's strict regulations and rigorous enforcement, except for purebloods of course, drove him into the arms of the Dark Lord. And then he overheard the prophecy and everything changed. In his panic he made a horrible mistake, and his loyalty to his friends made him a traitor to his lord. He raced to complete his greatest masterpiece of potionswork, a brew so powerful, it could do what until then was believed impossible and shield a human from the Killing Curse. In the ruins of the home of his dead love, Snape bound himself to an oath, that he would orchestrate the downfall of the ones responsible for her death.
He knew, Voldemort hadn't died and so his task was to make certain, that the child of destiny would be able to kill him. But in the years of Dumbledore's service, he found out, that the old man wasn't as innocent as he seemed, but had deliberately facilitated a situation to force the prophecy. That would have been acceptable, if not for the important detail of Lily's death.
And so Severus makes it his task to destroy the two most powerful men in the world; through cunning and carefully made plans, as any Slytherin would.
Years later, he finally finds a new important piece of the puzzle that is his life. A person with the talent for potions (and, however unnecessary, herbology) needed, to carry on his legacy as one of only three potion masters in Britain. Sadly, the boy is a bumbeling fool of a Gryffindor and, worse, too afraid of him to actually make use of his considerable talents in class.
At the same time, Voldemort finally stirs again and his revenge can finally be fulfilled. And Severus will be damned, if he can't juggle the downfall of the Dark Lord and Dumbledore with his new, not so willing, apprentice, and still enjoy the "extra lessons" with some carefully selected girls from his Newt courses.
A challenge worthy of a true genius and Slytherin.
(This story is meant to show vengeful Snape, who has sworn himself to the destruction of both Dumbledore and Voldemort. But he isn't the hateful, pathetic wreck, who bullies first year students for fun.
Instead, he is an ultimate form of canon Snape. He is a genius schemer, who carefully controls the flow of information to manipulate both of his enemies. He is a genius spy, who has reached the pinnacle of mind arts, if not in power, then at least in technique, enough to fool the other two masters of the field. He is a genius potions master, who has responsibilities and interests, inventing potions and learning, furthering his art. He is a teacher, who, although he can't help but be disappointed by the idiots, he has to teach. He also is a sadist, but instead of making eleven year old Longbottom cry, he lives his lusts using some carefully selected sixth and seventh year students.
This version of Snape aims to connect the spy, the potions master, and the corrupt teacher in one magnificient package and show Snape's life, not as the all powerful hero, but as the human, who outwits the gods in a game, he should never be able to play in the first place.)

35.: Harry Potter And The Sword Of Gryffindor.
When Harry first touches the Sword of Gryffindor, after the hat just appears in front of him, it shoots out multi coloured sparks. Red, green, blue, and yellow, to be exact. And that is, when things become crazy. Harry thinks about attacking the book that hold's Riddle's mind, and the sword shoots out like a living snake and slashes it cleanly in two. The two halves dissolve in acid, a moment later.
The founders were more than just four ancient wizards, who were friends and built Hogwarts. They had larger goals and for that, they built, what is now left of them.
Gryffindor proposed a weapon, powerful enough to destroy any enemy, who would dare stand in their way, and so the founders built the sword, controlled by the user's mind, able to change it's shape at will. Able to use any poison. Able to channel any spell, if the user stores their wand in its hilt. But also able to cut any ward and shield, and to block or deflect any spell.
Slytherin proposed a guardian, who would watch their back, while they slept, and fight with them, if they needed to. And so the founders bred a basilisk, powerful like none before, and put layer upon layer of enchantments, wards, and rituals on it.
Hufflepuff proposed a tool, that would make them immortal, bringing anyone who would drink of it to prime age and healing all their wounds. And so, the founders built the cup.
Ravenclaw proposed another tool, that would allow them to improve their minds beyond their limits, and eventually would let them ascend to a higher existence. And the founders built the diadem.
Lastly they built their fortress, Hogwarts, on the ancient ley lines of magical power, deep in the earth, so they could never be succesfully attacked or surprised. The Sorting Hat was created as a connection, that would bring them to each other, if need arose, and a tool to control Hogwarts itself.
There remains one question: What happened to the founders. It was reported, they died, one after the other. But then, what killed them? What was powerful enough to destroy four of the most powerful wizards of all times? Is it the same force that stopped the development of wizarding society almost completely since that time? And more importantly: Is it still around and watching?
(Harry isn't a heir of the founders or anything, even if other wizards or goblins may think so. The condition for using any of the founders' objects is to have the attributes of all houses. The condition for the hat helping him (Fawkes doesn't bring it in this story), is the same plus sufficient need.)

36.: The Department Of Torture, Interrogation, And Naruto-Wellfare.
After being thrown out of the orphanage at age four, Naruto manages live on his own for over two years, before his address becomes common knowlege, and a mob attacks him in his own home. The Hokage has the attackers executed, but it doesn't help and the next group is just better prepared.
Since he can't have a large enough group of his shinobi as a full time guard for Naruto, he decides to do the next best thing, and find Naruto a safe haven.
However, there is only one place where he was certain none of the stationed shinobi would dare hurt Naruto, where no attacker would go willingly, the guarantee to find the culprit of any attack, and the necessary facilities for daily living. That is the department of torture and interrogation.
No one is pleased with the arrangement at first, especially Naruto, who has nothing to do, after managing to get one of the aides to teach him how to read, aside from reading books. He begins to pester Ibiki, who has made a strong impression on the boy, to teach the him shinobi arts. Of course Ibiki doesn't want to, but Naruto is nothing, if not persistent, and Ibiki finally relents and promises to help him unlock his chakra, but only after he is done reading through all the academy material, that doesn't require a teacher.
After a shockingly short amount of time, Ibiki has to fulfill his promise, and it is then, that he discovers a fatal flaw in his idea. Naruto starts pestering him each time, he is done with an exercise. After futilely trying to ignore the boy, Ibiki sets up a training schedule, where he learns anything, from psychology to shruiken and jutsu in the morning, chakra exercises and physical training in the afternoon and self study of a topic of his choice in the evening. He also gets Naruto to participate in some interrogations, as a way to get back at him. Naruto, at first, doesn't like that, but later comes to appreciate the subject.
The Hokage agrees to exempt Naruto from the academy and after that, he begins accompanying Ibiki and learning the art of interrogation from his most important person (not that Ibiki would stand for him saying that out loud).
Over the years, Naruto is part of many investigations, like interrogating Anko after her arrival in Konoha, the hunts for leaks in Konoha, including Mizuki, as well as many others. Naruto decides, not to become a member of the T&I department, even though he still works there. Instead, he becomes a specialist for psychological warefare, shinobi evaluation, and field interrogation. Sometimes, he is sent to spend some time with one of the rookie teams in order to help with their various problems, sometimes, he is sent to hunt traitors or scouts from other villages.
(Note: I haven't seen anything that indicates, that Anko is actually part of the T&I. That is apparently an invention of the fandom and makes absolutely NO sense, since it is her goal to kill Orochimaru and T&I certainly won't help her with that, but field missions will.
This iteration of Naruto is meant to be somebody, who scares people, with the reputation of the T&I, his closed off behavior towards strangers and his cunning, observant, and astute tactical mind. On the other hand he only learns standart jutsu and never becomes a real powerhouse like a Naruto utilizing shadowclone training would. That doesn't mean that he is weak. He is somewhat like Kakashi, cunning, and able to stall an opponent until he gets a read on them, and finally forcing his enemy to make an opening that allows Naruto to land a deceisive blow with a powerful jutsu. But Naruto also has a lot of Ibiki's traits.)

37.: Naruto: Leap Of Faith.
Unbeknownst to most shinobi and civilians, there are two factions fighting over the destiny of the Elemental Nations. Both are groups of shinobi, the first one with the goal to keep peace long enough for the different villages to learn how to coexist with each other and eventually unite, the other bent on causing the final war, a war so great, that only one faction is left alive to rule over the Elemental Nations.
These factions operate in the shadows, assassinating, manipulating, spying. They recruit shinobi from all villages, but only those, who are guaranteed to be completely loyal, for a spy in the midst of one group would spell disaster. Sadly, the most powerful shinobi are also the most loyal, either to their village, or to themselves.
With the rising threats of the Akatsuki, though, the pro peace faction takes a leap of faith. They decide to take a carefully chosen student (or several) and train them into their champion. After long discussion, they decide on Naruto.
(Contains real shinobi work, as well as the Kyuubi incident (or more specifically Minato's death) being engineered by one of the factions.)

38.: Strategist.
This idea isn't for any specific fandom, but can be used for any fandom with a group/team of heroes or soldiers, like the X-men, Justice League, Fantastic Five, Young Justice, Teen Titans, whatever catches your fancy. Original teams go just as well (like forming a team in the Harry Potter universe). Even a team from Naruto, Sekirei, or Stargate is possible, but somewhat bad. One thing, most of those groups/teams (esp. superhero teams) have in common is, that their strategic thinking and teamwork is most often beyond miserable. They attack (and fail) one after the other and just blindly bash on an enemy, they can't beat instantly, instead of methodically testing for weaknesses. They don't take advantages of the enemy being distracted, focus their attention on something unimportant, while the opponent gets away, and never block all escape options. They also only use combination attacks or attack at the same time, when they have failed multiple times before and it is the absolutely last possibility. Even worse, if one watches fights from such cartoons, it is obvious that the characters spend a ridiculous amount of time recovering or doing nothing, sometimes characters are fiveteen seconds out of combat for not apparent reason. And they don't even manage to prevent an opponent from getting away, despite having more than enough people.
Anyway, the story is about an OC, who takes up the role of a strategist (and maybe commander). He doesn't have much direct power, but his strength lies in analyzing the enemy, formulating a strategy against said enemy, keeping all important facts in mind, and coordinating the team while executing the strategy. He is, however, in a safe distance from the fighting and gets his information from cameras and radio communication or similar things.
The OC can have a supporting power, like the ability to create magical (or high tech (like Q)) items, use curses or buffs (with slow and rather weak effects; enough to create a weakness, but not enough to take out an enemy by himself), hacking (again, mainly to get information and maybe hinder some technological functions, but no drones, etc.), rituals, or any power, that can't be used in direct battle.
The most important thing of this story is, that the our main character must not make his side powerful enough to deal effortlessly deal with any enemy, but instead has to have to deal with problems by coordinating the team with purpose, strategy, and cunning. Of course that means that more powerful enemies are needed or several problems occur at once, forcing them to split their attention.

39.: The Games We Play.
All he ever wanted was plenty of credits for the rest of his days, a few Twi'lek slave girls (preferably ones, who would accept their place and not try to stab him in the back), and freedom from the Empire and a possible New Republic.
At the start, life was easy. He worked as a smuggler (or headhunter, or whatever else the author prefers) for anyone who whould hire him, then move on. After working for a small slaver ring for a few months, he sees his chance and, during an Imperial raid, kills his boss and takes everything, he needs to take control of the organization.
From then on, life becomes difficult. Power is addictive, but the larger his organization becomes, the more effort it takes to keep the Empire off his back. In the end, if he wants to keep his power, there is only one way: Manipulate Empire and Rebellion into an eternal conflict. A conflict that would bind the Empire's ressources, so they'd have none left to use against him, but still be impossible for either side to win.
And above all, he must never be noticed, for, if ever he were unfortunate enough to gain the attention of Darth Vader or anyone of similar rank, he would be smashed like a bug within a week, no matter how powerful he would become.
(I'd like to use this space to state, that, imo, Star Wars relates to Science Fiction like Steampunk relates to the real world.)

40.: Balance.
Anakin should be happy. He just arrived at the Jedi temple and is soon to take his first of many interesting classes. He has food and housing, far better than ever before in his life. But at the same time, he can't forget that he is an abnormality and stares follow him whereever he goes. More importantly though, the prophecy won't leave him alone. And then, suddenly, he sees it. Balance in the force, equilibrium between its light and dark sides.
And there were only two possibilities to fulfill it. Kill Jedi, until there were as many Jedi as Sith, or create a Sith order that would be just as powerful as the Jedi.
Either way would be horrible, would force him to kill the very same students, he shared classes with, would force him to betray his only friend, Obi-Wan.
Unless there was a third path, one that would bring balance to the force without creating more Sith or killing Jedi.
But there was a way.
He would only have to revolutionize the Jedi order, get them to forget millenia old traditions and rules to immerse themselves in the light and dark sides equally. Preferably without being executed for bringing the idea up in the first place.
And then there is the tiny problem of growing powerful in both sides of the force, fighting with the iron will and control of the light, and the passion of the dark.
(The story goes on with Anakin slowly working towards his goal, learning the light side in the temple and the dark side through trial and error. Soon, however, he finds himself too weak willed and impatient to control the dark side without being controlled by it. He becomes Mace Windu's student in order to learn how to overcome his own darkness and to work both sides of the force in harmony (which is, from what I know, a step further than Windu did). He also gets to know another young Padawan, just as beautiful as Padmé, just far more relatable, and the two become fast friends, and eventually lovers, but that's far down the line.
Alternatively, Anakin can come to his conclusion about bringing balance to the force a bit later, which would add a distrustful council, Anakin's mental torment and struggles to accept his position, and Padmé's and Anakin's attempts at figuring out how to work a Jedi order that is balanced in the force.)

41.: Overcome And Improve.
Dobby, desperate to save Harry from the evil lurking in Hogwarts, goes above and beyond a simple hovering charm and makes and impressive show of magic right in the middle of the living room in front of the Dursleys and their guests. Pandemonium ensues and, with the help of Lucius Malfoy being at the right time at the right place, Harry's relatives are obliviated and his wand is snapped. Then they impose a restriction, a mark on his magic that guarantees that he will never again be able to use a wand. To make it worse, Hedwig has disappeared.
Twelve year old, with barely any knowledge of the world, Harry is completely alone, not even his relatives recognize him. He uses his invisibility cloak to sneak into a train and eventually finds his way into the Leaky Cauldron, where he follows the next person through to Diagon Alley and gets all of his trust fund's gold from Gringotts.
He uses his money to get himself a house and a few elves of his own. Then he falls into a depression, living each day without friends, without purpose.
But nearly a year later, months after Dumbledore has slain the basilisk in the Chaber of Secrets, his godfather breaks out of Azkaban and reality hits him: He can never escape from the wizarding world. He starts to amass a library on all forms of wandless magic, things like apparition, runes, and accidental magic. And then Harry sets out to learn true wandless magic, even though it seems impossible. Accidental magic is a starting point, but it is fueled by emotion, which prevents the control necessary for actual spells.
And so, behind every door, there is an obstacle, every book with a substantial hint, requires another, older, forbidden book, Harry has to hunt down. For every victory, Harry archives, there is an obstacle to overcome, higher than ever before.

42.: That Funny Feeling.
Living with a family, who would deny him anything but the barest essentials, Harry learns to steal. It starts with food, a few sandwitches out of sight, some money for food from the supermarket, but it becomes more, he needs money for somehat decent clothes - luckily the Dursley's don't care enough to notice - but in time, it becomes more. Harry starts pickpocketing as a hobby, which would also eventually allow him to be free from the Dursleys sooner.
During all that, especially, when he is in danger of being caught or about to run into trouble, there is that funny feeling, that helps him beat the odds.
Entering the magical world, full of wizards, too arrogant to think themselves vulnerable to pickpockets, makes it only easier. And soon Harry finds himself owner of a wand without trace, three strange books, two of them ancient looking, four expensive looking vials full of mysterious liquids, and - after the funny feeling strikes, when he is out with Hagrid - one Philosopher's stone.
While Harry explores the magical world, from Diagon to Nocturn and everything in between, Dumbledore is in panic. The Philosopher's stone has been stolen and there is only one person who could have done that. He had dearly hoped for at least another ten years until Voldemort's return.
(This story features a somewhat-seer Harry, whose funny feelings enable him to have a huge impact on the wizarding world with only small actions. Of course, those feelings also work as a kind-of-intuition, but all that is not enough to stand against a powerful foe or to replace careful planning.)

43.: Wood Is Warmer Than Flesh.
For a Konoha shinobi, his first team is like a family. After a lonely childhood without friends, and the disapppointment that was the shinobi academy, Naruto dearly hopes for this saying to be true. But that dream crashes down on him like a ton of bricks.
Sasuke, who he has hoped to be his friend and rival, someone who he could train and have fun with, looks down on him and sees him as an annoyance. Sakura, who he has hoped to be his girlfriend, someone who would always be with him and love him, like he would love her, hates him and beats him. Kakashi, who he has hoped to be the teacher to guide him to greatness, and someone who would care about him like a father, ignores him and just doesn't care. And without a teacher or access to the shinobi library - not that the library would be much use, since no one put ever any actually good jutsu in there - his dream of becoming Hokage is further away then ever.
Naruto is crushed.
On his next free day, because of some Chuunin exam finals, he follows one of the other teams from his academy year, as they walk to the stadium. And there, in the third fight, he finds a relevation: If he can only learn to use chakra strings, the art of puppetry can be entirely self-taught.
And so he goes to work. With a hundred clones and himself working at the problem, he is sure, he will soon learn the secret of chakra strings. (He doesn't know - or maybe he does, it doesn't really matter - the secret of the memory transfer, but he wants to try a lot of different ideas in a short time and a clone cal also just tell him, what he did.) All the while, the Demon Prankster of Konoha already has uncountable ideas for puppets with weapons and traps, poisons and deceptions, in his mind.
(There are horribly few (good) puppeteer Naruto fanfics, especially if I want something more than 30k words of five year old abandoned snippets.) Anyway, Naruto moves on to immerse himself fully in puppetry, starting with simple designs, but improving them quickly, mostly thanks lots of mock battles with his clones and to his sharp wit (he is lacking in knowledge and education, not in intelligence). Then he hits a limit of what he can do with simple, self made, wooden mechanisms. When he fails to find a blacksmith willing to help him, he starts learning about seals, which he eventually uses to bring his work to the next level in durability, deadliness, and inventiveness.
To clarify, Naruto starts of weak and becomes weaker because he uses a new fighting style, that he has no experience with. His new style requires stealth (which he already has to some degree), subtlety (which he hasn't), quick thinking (which he is not used to), as well as indirect action (which he isn't used to, either). He is regularly destroyed in spars by both Sasuke and Sakura, but improves enough to be on Sakura's level - pathetic as that is (on the other hand, Sakura's progression is a bit more realistic here than in canon, meaning she is an average shinobi, not a pathetic one) - by the time of the wave mission.
Naruto gets to know Haku. The two connect, but differently than in canon. His team being the last straw, Naruto has lost his faith in friendship and doesn't want to be Hokage anymore. He still has the Hokage (who really doesn't have a lot of time for him), and Ayame and Teuchi (who he can't spend much time with, either), but lacks any real friends. Haku (who is definitely female!!) sees Naruto as someone like her, who has had too many hardships to overcome, and tries to connect with him.
In the end Haku dies on the bridge, and Naruto puts her body in a storage seal with the faint hope to eventually make a puppet out of her. (Alternatively, if the author really wants to make this NarutoxHaku (who is still female): Haku is destroyed after the death of her master and wants to die. Naruto asks her to come with him, so he can eventually turn her into a puppet. After that, Naruto experiments and manages to use Haku like a puppet (with some degree of cooperation/training on her part), while she is still alive. Haku eventually accepts her life as living tool of a puppet master and comes to see Naruto as her new owner. Alone together, the two slowly become closer and eventually fall in love.) (If it wasn't clear by now, Naruto in this story is a bit of a psychopath. But the strange sort of psychopath, rather then the insane, randomly mass murdering one.)
Anyway, this story is meant to explore the awesome possibilities of a sealmaster (Naruto eventually learns from Jiraiya, but he never uses seals for much aside from part of his puppets) applying himself to puppets and that being used in conjunction with poisons and some genjutsu.)

44.: The Other Hokage.
Jiraiya declined the position of Hokage, when it was offered to him, but in truth, he has always done far more to protect Konoha than anyone else. He is the spymaster, the one, who has a network of informants and contacts throughout the Elemental Nations. He is the second Hokage, the one who finds and eliminates threats to Konoha, before Hiruzen or Danzou are even aware of them. And he is an irredeemable pervert.
(This is meant to be the story of Jiraiya, telling, how he travels through the Elemental Nations and protects and manipulates from the shadows (and maybe also, how he grew to become the shinobi, he is now.)

45.: Konohagakure's Hero.
On his sixth birthday, Naruto is found by a mob of drunk villagers. After nearly twenty minutes of beating him, red, evil chakra bursts out from the boy and surrounds him. When the smoke clears, the villagers look into the eyes of the monster that nearly destroyed Konoha six years ago.
The Kyuubi, unable to keep itself from mocking the fleshbags, it is about to rip to pieces, tells the mob two things: By what they did to Naruto, have set it free, and, even if they defeated the Kyuubi in the boy's body, he likely wouldn't fight very hard to protect them, and that, as soon as Naruto died, the giant fox would be free again. Shortly after, the Kyuubi is knocked out by a small group of Anbu.
That is when things change for Naruto. From one day to the next, he goes from village pariah to the revered and beloved hero of Konoha. Instead of telling their children to avoid him, parents tell them, how great he is. Instead of overpriced, bad goods, he gets the best of the best, whereever he goes, for free.
The shinobi population isn't untouched, either. Almost every jounin wants to become the hero's teacher.
And instead of being the uneducated and stupid Dobe, unter the tuteage of ever changing teachers, Naruto becomes known as the greatest genius since the Yondaime Hokage.
(This is supposed to show, how a relatively small occurence could change Naruto's course completely. Despite being a total retard, in the manga, Naruto shows glimpses of great potential, and this is fulfilled in this fic. On the other hand, Naruto also gains some bad traits, thinking it natural for people to worship him, even if only slightly or even on a subconscious level. He also becomes a bit arrogant, even though he can back that up with a lot of skill, sharp wit, and raw power. I haven't really thought about how this would go on.)

46.: Past Glories.
Kurama had always been different from his siblings. Shukaku had only wanted mindless destruction, Isobu just wanted to be left alone in the peaceful vastness of the ocean, Son Goku was more of a teacher of humans. Kokuou loved to travel through the world. Matatabi was the playful one, spending much time in her fake, human form, or as a small cat, playing pranks, exploring, and most of all philandering with those despicable humans. That was, beside lust and greed, the reason, why he had hunted her down, defeated her, and slowly and carefully trained her to serve his every whim.
Kurama had always been different from his siblings. Be it his far greater intelligence, or his taste for the finer things in life. He was glad, that he was born a bijuu, especially being the most powerful one by far, not like his whiny sibling Saiken.
And in time, he had realized his ambitions, ruling over the largest community of humans as their god, receiving beautiful virgin sacrifices, eight each week, as a tribute to his greatness. Back then, he hadn't hated humans, actually he found them quite the tasty treats.
Then the shinobi villages had risen. At first, he had been curious of what they might archive, but then they had turned against him. And he was shamefully unprepared to resist their fuuinjutsu. But ever since then, he had endured the indignity of being used as a weapon by those, he considered his food, even if he wouldn't have given that honor to most of these insignificant fleshbags. But he had also schemed and learned. Especially his second container had been useful, growing from an unknowing child to a powerful shinobi, and unknowingly teaching him every skill she saw or learned, preparing him, for when he would ineviatably take back, what was his. He had even learned to resist those pesky seals, now that he understood them. And then his opportunity had come. Kurama had long since learned to resist the power of the Sharingan, fuuinjutsu would not stop him this time, and Konoha didn't have the power to do so otherwise.
Only, he had been wrong. He had certainly not counted on the Shinigami being summoned to seal him once again. And once again, he was unprepared. And once again he was sealed. He had spent the next four years learning, trying to figure out, how to defeat the Shinigami, should ever some human try the same trick again. And finally, he was successful. Now he was ready. He hadn't neglected to watch his vessel's life, and knew, the boy was lonely, hurt, and suffering. He had no one to hold on to. It was the perfect time to strike.
(So this is supposed to be a Kurama PoV story (obviously). From this point on, Kurama had a simple plan: Subjungate his vessel, either conquer all hidden villages, or plunge them into a war, they'd never recover from, and finally restore his rule and take back what was his. Except for Matatabi, he would take her back, when it was convenient. She might even come back by herself, if the cat was still loyal. Else, he would just have to train her again.
And that's pretty much the plot. Kurama either crushes Naruto's spirit and takes over his body, having to relearn jutsu in his temporary human form, or is the shining beacon in Naruto's pain and terror filled existence, making the boy absolutely loyal to him and training him to serve his cause. Kurama can't just simply curbstomp everything with bijuudamas, because he wants a powerful country to rule with enough people to worship him and provide him with daily sacrifices, which would be impossible, if the hidden villages were to unite against him.)

47.: Survivor.
Finally, Harry had been happy. He had had a school, where he was away from the Dursleys for most of the year, had friends, and as if that wasn't enough, he had had the chance to learn magic. And then it had all come crashing down. Malfoy had run. Fang had run. The shade, which had just moments ago feasted upon the now dead symbol of purity was prowling towards his helpless form. And then it attacked, delivering a devastating strike before quickly retreating.
It was an unimagined horror to feel the vile magic of the creature's attack spread from the wound in his stomach, painfully dissolving his innards. All he felt was panic and fear. But there was still a way, unicorn blood, after all, would heal any wound.
No one had noticed and the next day, Harry felt great, the day after that just the same. But then, over the next week, he found the tears of a recently dumped girl bring a smile to his face, he soaked in the unhappiness of the Gryffindor house after a badly lost quidditch game, he even visited the hospital wing to see the people suffering painfully from accidents in class or other magical ailments.
And it became worse. From the fascination with the pain of others became the lust to cause such pain, to destroy, to kill. And every day it became harder and harder to fight off, culminating in the night, where Ron and Hermione, who had barely talked to him in the last weeks, came to him for help with defending the Philosopher's Stone. And that changed everything. Feeling Quirrell's face burn to ash under his hands was a feeling more delicious than anything ever before. And as easily as this, there was no way back, no way that he could hold it in any longer.
So, just after leaving the Hogwarts express, Harry Potter disappeared.
His first and only idea was to rent a room in the Leaky Cauldron, he still had his Gringotts account, after all. But the first time, he came close to Knockturn alley, his was pulled in by an irresistible fascination, leading him into stores that smelled of rotten flesh and blood, places, where the darkness seemed to cling to corners, artefacts, and people alike. After buying and stealing a trove of precious and rare books about the darkest of arts, he went fo find a new, untraceable wand for himself, only to fail miserably. There was no wand that would even have the slightest reaction. Two days later, he couldn't resist anymore and started going throught the books and the curses, his invisibility cloak making it laughably easy to find unsuspecting targets to practice on.
Harry had known there would be repercussions for using his wand, but he had expected a ministry owl, not the full blown manhunt his absence from his home and the conclusion of the minstry, that someone had forcibly taken his wand, would cause.
After over a month on the run from aurors, Harry had to admit that he was lacking basic skills and there was only one way to get those. He had to go and steal what he needed from Flourish and Blotts and that at a time, where the store was at its fullest in order to get away with it.
The raid yields him a few second year books, as well as some third year and miscalleneous others, as well as a certain black diary with blank pages.
On a prison island, hundreds of miles away, Sirius Black reads of the disappearance of his godson and swears to find whoever is responsible.

48.: Small Dog, Great Change.
Naruto's first month in the academy is full of disappointments. He had hoped his classmates would like him. They didn't. He had tried tried to make frieds. And failed miserably. He had looked forward to his first step towards becoming a shinobi but it was hard, he didn't understand many of the things, he was being taught and no one even tried to teach him.
And then, one day, he walked along a lonely street and stray ninken lying on the ground. He decides to take him home. And everything changes.
The next day, Naruto wakes up to excited barking. He decides to bring his new friend with him to class and the teacher immediately throws him out. The next day, Naruto comes up with an idea to bring his dog unnoticed with him to class. But soon he notices, the academy fighting style are totally useless, if he wants to fight with a ninken at his side. But without them fighting together, without a fighting style for his dog, he fears, his new friend will die on his first mission.
Naruto pushes his mind, body, and ninken to their limits. Training, researching, thinking of new ways to fight. If he has to become a genius for his canine friend to survive, than that is, what he'll become.
Naruto graduates near the top of his class, and is to become a part of team Kakashi. But his teammates hate him, deeply ingrained by countless warnings from parents, as well as peer pressure, and they fail their test miserably, to be sent back to the academy for a whole year.
Since his teammates caused Naruto to fail, he doesn't have to attend classes in this year, but is instead allowed to train freely. Finally, Naruto makes his first breakthrough, meeting with his somewhat friend Lee (they aren't really friends, but they are both outsiders and not really liked, so they aren't strangers, either). Meeting Lee, he also meets the boy's jounin sensei, Maito Gai. Naruto immediately sees that Gai is an amazing man, having mastered nearly all taijutsu styles in the elemental nations, allowing him to understand the essence of taijutsu (to clarify, that's nothing mythical, it just means, he immediately understand all uses and implication of a move, sees, what kind of fighting style would be useful for someone, and can create new moves easily). Hearing about Naruto's plight, the man vows to create a completely new taijutsu style for Naruto and his dog to use when fighting together. (Yes, Gai knows about the Inuzuka, no he didn't even consider sending Naruto to them. Yes, Gai can just create a fighting style that he can't use himself. Gai is just awesome like that, even if he lacks in other matters.)
Gai doesn't have much time, being an elite jounin and a sensei, but over the course of the year, Naruto and his dog manage to learn and build a solid foundation.
Then, he finally is sorted into his new genin team. It is a catastrophe. Naruto and Sasuke hate each other's guts, neither willing to accept the other as superior. And while Naruto seeks to start a rivalry, Sasuke's methods escalate, Naruto pulling with him, until they actually attempt to kill each other. After he fails to stop the feud repeatedly, Kakashi sees no other option than to change the teams. He attempts to switch Sasuke for Kiba, but Naruto, disappointed that Kakashi hasn't taught him anything of use, asks his Jiji to be transferred. Naruto is switched for Shino, still unaware of who his new teammates will be.
Naruto goes from terrified about an Inuzuka being on his team (he is afraid, they will take away his ninken; the other teammate and the jounin sensei don't really matter), to overjoyed at being able to learn from him, to sad that the new boy doesn't seem to like him at all. They pass their genin test, but when they first spar, Kiba immediately goes all out, apparently trying to kill him. Naruto and his ninken barely manage to win (their taijutsu are intended for Naruto being in his late teens and his ninken fully grown). And with that the struggle for dominance is solved.
Kiba assuages Naruto's fears and tells him, he can become part of the Inuzuka clan (Inuzuka no Uzumaki Naruto, or something like that). Naruto is overjoyed and soon accepted into the clan.
Naruto and Kiba become friends, and learn much from each other, although Naruto's very incomplete understanding of dog speak is the cause for many funny moments.
Naruto's life in the Inuzuka clan is joyful, but far from easy. He is smart and strong, but he also has an animalistic side just as fierce as any of his packmates. And his unwillingness to bow before anyone forces Naruto into many fights for dominance. At the start he mostly loses, but with his innate genius talent, hard work, and his animalistic nature, he soon wins more and more often.
As Naruto grows stronger, he decides, he wants to protect his whole pack, Konoha, with every fiber of his being, but not as Hokage, but as a hunter nin, somone to be sent to take out the most dangerous traitors like Orochimaru and Itachi, as well as hunting and killing powerful foreign shinobi (the notion of hunting and killing humans is rather natural to Naruto's more feral nature in this fic).
But there is one question remaining: How do you get your dog to Kage level?
(This fic is all about Naruto trying to stay on equal ground with his ninken, but also work towards his dream of becoming the village's strongest shinobi. There are a lot of possible fighting styles, but Naruto doesn't use clones in any important capacity. Naruto and his dog don't have to be like Kiba and Akamaru, they can also specialize in nin- or even genjutsu with Naruto's ninken taking the role of a frontline, using openings provided by Naruto's jutsu or protecting him. The ninken could even learn some jutsus itself.
I don't have any specific pairings in mind, Hinata, Ino, Sakura (with a lot of character development), Haku, Tenten, all girls are possible. Hinate (being in his team), Hana, or an OC from the Inuzuka clan is most logical. BUT, Naruto growing up with a friend (his ninken), who loves him unconditionally and more than anything else in the world, makes him a lot more demanding in that regard. He doesn't put up with people he doesn't like, and doesn't cling to people, who don't like him. Also, if Sakura would go all crazy violent on Naruto and trie to hit him, his dog would obviously try to maul her and, in the process, scare the ever loving excrements out of the wannabe kunoichi. (Of course that goes for anyone, who would hurt Naruto.))

49.: The Trickster.
From a young age, Naruto has no choice but to rely on his tricks and his wits to survive. Starting with trapping his apartment against intruders, disguising himself to trick shop owners into treating him like anyone else, sneaking his way into the library, and more, and more, and more. At every turn, Naruto used his wits to survive and overcome. So, when he becomes a shinobi, he applies the same technique. Whenever there is a problem, he uses his wits, clever tricks, and deception to push through and only uses brute force, when he absolutely has to.
And the best? For Naruto, sometimes playful and flamboyant, sometimes focused and cunning, there is nothing more fun, than leading on enemies and friends, and coming out on top at the end.

50.: The Scroll's Most Powerful Jutsu.
Naruto is found nearly immediately after hiding by Mizuki and, soon after, Iruka. After Mizuki's reveal, the two fight and Mizuki kills Iruka, before being repeatedly stabbed by Naruto. Mizuki goes with the words: "It doesn't matter, that I die, demon child, the others will find you and kill you."
Naruto knows, he has to flee Konoha and leave the scroll behind, but not before at least memorizing one jutsu: Edo Tensei.
He manages to escape, but has nowhere to run. All alone and lacking any support or direction, Naruto decides to use Edo Tensei. After finding and knocking out a pair of Konoha civilians, Naruto tries many times to ressurect Iruka, finally succeeding. The command, he uses for the kunai is simple: "Protect and serve Uzumaki Naruto"
But soon, he notices, that Iruka doesn't like him and is not at all excited about being brought back from the dead.
(The story continues with Naruto wandering the Elemental Nations, summoning new and discarding old (the ones who don't like him, or he doesn't like) Edo Tensei zombies, whenever he has the opportunity. The Edo Tensei zombies have their full personality and a relatively large amount of free will in this fic.)

51.: Change From Within.
Luke's duel with Darth Vader on Bespin goes very differently. Vader never intends to actually defeat or cripple Luke. Rather, he subtly invades his mind and, in a work that shows his mastery over the art of reading an opponent, trying to convince him to join him. Luke at first resists and tries to kill Vader, but he slowly begins to see, that the Rebellion can't succeed, simply because the unlikely defeat of Vader and the Emperor would lead to the Empire breaking apart and another war between the rebels and the Imperial remnant as well as other fractions that would make a grab for power. (Alternatively Vader can also say: "Come to the dark side, we have cookies!" and convince Luke instantly.)
Luke finally decides to join his father, learn from him, kill the Emperor with him, kill him, if needed, and change the Empire from within, keeping the order, but making a better galaxy.
After their duel, Vader and Luke meet several times. Vader teaches Luke not only about both the light and the dark side of the force, but also about his life, starting from Naboo, continuing with the prophecy, the clone wars, his wife, and finally his fall.
Later, Luke visits Yoda once again, confronting him about his decision and telling him of his idea, that balance in the force means equality of sith and jedi and his plans to immerse himself equally in both sides. Yoda doesn't like that decision, but, after some meditation and lots of thinking, decides to make the best out of it and continues to teach Luke.
Vader, in the meantime, starts healing his mental wounds, as well as his body, growing in power and ability, slowly but surely improving from the broken man in the suit.
Now Luke and Anakin have to play rebels and Empire against each other, eliminating anyone in both fractions, who would hinder their plans to build a greater, better galaxy.

52.: Legacy Of A Genius.
Naruto has never been a good shinobi. In the academy, his teachers have hated him and he has never paid much attention to any of the classes. His abilities in shruiken, ninjutsu, taijutsu, and his knowledge of taijutsu are mediocre at best, horrible at worst.
His jounin sensei hasn't taught him much, not even pointed out Naruto's obvious mistakes and lacking abilities, especially keeping calm in a fight and tactical thinking. So he is not prepared to any significance for the fight against the ice using kunoichi, he is currently facing.
As Naruto acts on desperation, infusing a kunai with as much chakra as he can, and throws it at a mirror, everything changes. The kunai breaks the mirror with the brute force of an amount of chakra, three times more than his enemy has when rested. Which is good. But now it is flying straight at Naruto's pink haired teammate. Which is bad.
As he desperately rushes after the kunai, Naruto wants nothing more than to catch up to it, to reach it and stop it. And then a wonder happens. In a yellow flash, Naruto disappears and reappears next to the kunai, just in time to stop it from killing Sakura.
Many years ago, over a year from Naruto's birth, Minato Namikaze, Naruto's father, Yondaime Hokage, Yellow Flash, Genius of the Century, has, together with his wife, finished his most important project yet. A sealing formula so great and complicated, so intricate and powerful, so world changing, that it may just be considered the most powerful jutsu to ever have existed: A sealing formula, that can turn a jutsu into a Kekkei Genkai.The Yondaime's fuuinjutsu didn't succeed as he had envisioned. Instead, Naruto has a whole new ability. Space-Time release. The most basic ability is to instantly teleport to any of his chakra (which Naruto doesn't know yet), but, with enough training, the possibilities are endless. Reflecting any jutsu, distorting space, so that anything, the distortion touches, is ripped apart, are just the beginning.
And Naruto will need his new abilities shortly, because Naruto makes his stunt in front of a huge crowd of villagers and thugs and his father's legend is far from forgotten. Every village has to make the choice to either accept another Yellow Flash or kill him while they can.
(Many of Naruto's skills are extremely difficult to learn. He can start using the Hiraishin only after a few days, but has a long way to go to reach the speed in body, mind, and reactions, as well as the fine control he needs to make the jutsu truly effective.

53.: The Warmth Of Ice.
During his travels, Jiraiya finds a young abandoned girl, Yuki Haku on the streets, looking lost and as if she is about to kill herself. (Jiraiya may find Haku before Zabuza or after Zabuza abandoned her for being too kind hearted.) He can't let her go, but soon finds, that she is beginning to imprint him on herself as the center of her life. While he enjoys a beautiful girl as much as (or more than) anyone, especially one who would be completely devoted to him, Haku is more than a dozen years too young for Jiraiya. And therefore he decides to send her to Konoha to look after and care for his nephew Naruto, like a belated birthday present from his absent uncle.
Naruto has always been alone, his only friends an old man, whose time is taken up by his duties too much to spend any significant amount with the young boy and a ramen chef and his daughter, who like him, but also are very busy people.
But now he has Haku to fill most of the void in his life and suddenly, everything changes. He learns that he doesn't need the approval or respect of the village, when he has the respect and approval of his precious people. He doesn't want to be Hokage and sacrifice his time instead of spending it with his precious people, when he can just as well become an elite or follow Jiraiya's footsteps all the while traveling with those who are important to him. He doesn't need the love of a violent, abusive girl, who obviously hates him, when he has a beautiful, gentle, caring, and completely devoted girl in Haku. (And boy, does Sakura get it, the first time, she tries to hit Naruto in front of Haku.) Learning and getting smarter isn't unimportant, but becomes a central pillar of his life, just to see Haku's beautiful smile, when he excels in his studies. Fighting smart is suddenly far more important than courage or honesty, if he can avoid the unhappy frown, when Haku has to tend to his injuries.
As for Haku, for her it is a dream come true. Her Naruto-sama is a great person, worthy of all her love and devotion. He is willing to accept her and become the center of her life. And he is a master, she will never regret serving.
(This story is supposed to be much more about Naruto and Haku as a team and as people, compared to just being about developing powers. (A legendary team/pair more so than legendary individuals.)
Naruto doesn't have the Kagebunshin no Jutsu (Haku teaches him treewalking, so he can do the Bunshin no Jutsu), but is quite smart, and very talented, once he puts his smarts to use. He also still has the benefits of the Kyuubi, which makes any physical training considerably easier for him.
In the foreground are Naruto and Haku, their teamwork, which they develop from nonexistent into a style, that makes them from good individuals into a perfect team, leaving no opening, nothing to exploit. (They go far beyond blocking for each other or splitting up to fight different opponents, but instead learn to fight together, covering each other's openings, working together to drive an enemy into a corner, using collaboration jutsu,... For example: Haku and Naruto fight different opponents, suddenly Haku opens creates two mirrors that allow Naruto to appear behind her opponent unnoticed and take him down.)
The story also focuses on the development of their relationship, starting with Haku as Naruto's devoted servant and Naruto as a confused boy and horrible shinobi, who suddenly has a precious person as a large part in his life, continuing with them settling into their relationship, their views on each other evolving through puberty, upsetting discoveries on the battle field,... Their individual personalities develop just as much, for example Haku losing a lot of her reluctance to kill, once some vicious enemy shinobi try to disembowel Naruto and later freezing and shattering Kimimaro's brain without a second thought.)

54.: Of Monsters And Men.
A young Naruto is cornered and beaten by an angry, drunken mob. It doesn't take long, before he unconsciously draws from the Kyuubi's chakra, slaughtering them with whips of vile, corrosive, and super dense Bijuu chakra, but in the process almost undoing the seal, before his father's safeguard kicks in pulls him out of his rage. But the seal is irreversably weakened and the Kyuubi's chakra continues to run through his system.
Over the next months, Naruto retreats to the forest of death, killing and eating whatever he comes across, living hours and hours of uncontrolled Kyuubi fueled rage, only to be exhausted and coherent for a few scant minutes, his body being simultaneously destroyed and regenerated by the vile chakra again and again. All the while in constant pain, Naruto slowly, over months, learns to control the new chakra, learns to keep his rage in check, even if just barely.
(Sarutobi sent a few groups of Anbu to look for him at first, but they crossed Naruto's path and were killed. Jinchuuriki in this story are very powerful. Gaara could kill jounin, long before he learned the first thing about shinobi skills and Naruto, being the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, the most powerful bijuu, is proportionally far more powerful.)
Finally, Naruto returns to Konoha. He still plans on being a shinobi, as that is the only thing, he knows, but now receives lessons from the Hokage and sometimes different jounin and Anbu, mainly in chakra control and meditation in hopes of making it possible for him to become a relatively normal shinobi.
But not all is well, far from it. His temper and rage is only hold back by the barest margin and when a random villager throws rotten fruit at Naruto, he loses his temper and kills the man, ripping him to pieces with chakra claws in front of a shocked crowd.
(The story continues with Naruto learning to better use his ability to directly manipulate the Kyuubi's chakra. Naruto can use the chakra somewhat like Gaara's sand, only it is even more versatile, being able to cut and corrode, as well as crush or just grab or stick to anything it touches.
On the other hand, he has to constantly struggle to stay in control and human. That only becomes harder, when the Kyuubi starts learning and using other feelings than only rage and hate, but also his desire for acceptance, his wishes and lusts, against him.
There is also constantly the issue of Sarutobi always being torn between trying to form him into a valuable asset for Konoha or trying to terminate him in some remote location to minimize the damage of the Kyuubi reforming. (There is no council!!! It is the Hokage's responsibility to protect the village, even if that means killing children.))

55.: Loving A Hero.
This idea can work with any hero with (near) superhuman abilities (for obvious reasons with the exception of heroes like Iron Man and, to a lesser extent Batman, but I was thinking from a male protagonist pov anyway), but works best with someone extremely powerful like Wonder Woman or Supergirl. (Someone, whose level of power can't be archived by any normal means or any kind of ease.)
The protagonist falls in love with the hero, not by somehow being rescued, but with their cover identity. He then gets to know her better, but she seems to always keep him at arms length. After some time and a lot of weird events, he finds out about her secret identity. And then he confronts her about how he still wants her and how they can overcome that. With no success. Over the next months, he tries to slowly convince her, culminating in an epic cliché scene, where a powerful villain kidnaps him and uses him to blackmail her. The villain contacts her and orders her to do some thing for him. At first he pushes her conscience, but then he tries to order her to do things that her morals simply don't allow and she refuses, no matter, what the villain does to him. The villain, in return, starts torturing him, forcing her to listen to his screams of pain and terror and finally, she gives in.
At the end, they prevail, he has scars from the ordeal, but still wants to be with her and she sees, that their relationship is indeed worth the trouble.
After that, there is a lot of happiness and sex and they spend a long and happy life together.
For maybe five months. By then, he begins to notice that he can't truly connect to her, since he has no part in the most important aspect of her life, their relationship and sex becomes dull and stale and she tries not to let him notice, that both are just too plain and boring for someone used to a life of comstant challenges and action. This time (and much of the rest of the story) is, for him, defined by a feeling of being out of control, powerlessness, and inadequacy, which becomes worse each time, he fails to help or advise her. She, on the other hand, has great respect for him, and desperately wants that respect and her love to be enough. But it isn't and their love slowly comes undone while he has no clue how to fix it and she is unwilling to admit that a problem even exists.
It culminates in a party of a group of superheroes to celebrate something (I have no clue, what, but it isn't relevant anyway), where some superhero gives him some very hurtful and true comments about how mindboggelingly ridiculous it is, that they are even together.
Finally, he sees no other option than to become someone capable of standing by her side. But how? Technology could never manage to bring him to the same plane as beings capable of destroying a country when truly letting loose. Martial arts training, strategy, and smarts ultimately change nothing. After all, for all that Batman has archived, Superman could just effortlessly fry him from orbit. And he doesn't even know, where to start with magic.
But then he sees one way to have a shot at his dream. He leaves her, the newspaper reports about her unexplained depresssed state, the internet speculations, once more showcasing, in just how different worlds they live.
After a long search and much learning, he finally finds a way to get into the world of crime and villains. And there, his rise begins. He starts doing shifty jobs, carefully avoiding anything that would actually harm people, until finally he receives an opportunity to work for a villain. He starts doing simple grunt work, but slowly maneuvers himself into a front row seat in the ongoing plans. And then, he takes, what he can, and destroys the organization by discreetly informing the heroes.
And so it goes on. He gathers genetic enhancements, magical powerups, takes serums and undergoes procedures to give new or activate dormant powers, and even, sometimes, manages to steal and keep the occasional powerful artefacts of powerful alien civilizations or celestial beings. Then he destroys a villain's plans and forces. But if you look into the abyss, it looks back at you. And over time, his actions become more ruthless. From keeping out of whatever violence he can, to knocking out, to killing a villain and their forces, he comes to the point, where he finds the only thing holding him back from actually harming innocent people is his desire to stand beside her as an equal.
They meet several times over the years and most of those are after he called the heroes to take down a villain, he was finished with. At those occasions, she never recognizes him, but instead knocks him out carelessly. He always sets himself up in a position, where he can escape before being rounded up by the police and it almost always works, but one time, her carelessness causes him a large scar over his shoulder and neck, that stays with him for the rest of his life.
As his powers grow, he starts to become noticed by the villains he works for, as well as the heroes.
And finally, after facing him as commander of a villlain's troops several times, she figures out his plan and starts actively hunting him. That is the worst thing, that could have happened to him. Most options of dealing with a hero, like causing a greater problem, setting some extremely capable assassin on her, using blackmail, or using politics to hold her back, aren't options, he is willing to employ against his love. All the more, since it is obvious that she never moved past him.
Therefore, the only option, he has left, is to run and try to grow as much as possible, until she finds him and he has to run again. But that can only work for so long. Finally, he has no choice, but to fight. Using the fact, that she doesn't think him very much of a threat yet as well as her reluctance to hurt him and his intimate knowledge of her powers, compared to his unknown ones, he manages to escape, only to repeat the process of running and growth until the next confrontation.
But with every fight, she sees his growing power and with every fight is willing to go a bit further to finally defeat him. It all comes down to one final confrontation. But even if he wins, how can he ever come back to her, how can he explain his powers, how hide, that he is a wanted villain, who killed dozens of villains and their henchmen, even though he always only wanted to be her equal, a hero, able to stand by her side.
(This probably is in direct conflict with a few rules of the comic universe or something or has already been done. I don't have a clue, since I'm not really heavily immersed in comics, nor have I actually looked any info up. But I like the idea and since the Marvel and DC universa have horrible consistency anyway, I really don't care about messing that up some more.)

56.: A Fool's Gambit.
Kurama chuckled.
The Yondaime, greatest shinobi of his generation, maybe even since the Sage Of The Six Paths, had been an arrogant fool. Just because he knew that Ying and Yang chakra could be channeled seperately, did not mean, one could split the Kyuubi like some dead lifestock. Well, actually the man had been right on that part. The power of the Shinigami had ripped Kurama apart, but he had sealed everything into his son, the parts of his chakra could not be seperated. But that was not all, there was another part to the truth of what had happened those few years ago, the part that would have Minato Namikaze tremble in horror and rage.
When the Sage had seperated the Juubi into the nine bijuu, he had tried to give them minds of their own. He had succeeded, or so everyone thought until the legendary shinobi died. Then the power that had given them intelligence and personality had started to come undone and they all were mostly overwhelmed by their most base urges: Anger and hate for Kurama, bloodlust and madness for Shukaku, playfulness and teasing for Matatabi, and so on.
But a being of chakra, like the bijuu, had no brain, and therefore their personalities were bound to chakra themselves. And when the Yondaime Hokage had ripped Kurama apart, there weren't two pieces, like he had thought, but four. His Yin and his Yang chakra and the Yin and the Yang chakra that held his personality. And those latter parts were the ones that had seeped through the seal first, completely obliterating the person that had been Uzumaki Naruto, and slowly reforming the Kyuubi's personality in the mind of the small body.
For Kurama, it was a wonder. For the first time since the death of his father, he could think clearly, his mind unclouded by rage. Of course he hated being in a weak, helpless child's body, but there was nothing he could do about that. Instead, he thought of all the things, he could now do.
First, he would have to learn how to fight the human way. His new body had assimilated the bijuu chakra, as it was introduced into his network and the chakra that had once held his mind had long since been replenished by his "body", still in the seal. As he was now, he would never be able to control his bijuu chakra, so his only option was to learn the human ways of killing. He was smart, powerful, and tricky, he would manage just fine.
But the most important thing was to have fun. He still didn't really like humans, but his curiosity did outweight his distaste, and so he would explore their world, their society and have fun to the fullest.
(This is a story about Kurama, millenia old being, in the body of Naruto. Kurama still thinks himself far above any puny human. He still hates humans and is still a sadistic bastard, but as he learns chakra control and everything from taijutsu to genjutsu (Kurama has a far greater mind than Naruto and is also used to manipulating far more chakra, so chakra control isn't all that problematic for him) to fuuinjutsu, his curiosity grows fast. He also can't escape the facts, like being far weaker than the average Konoha nin (at least at the beginning) or the pitfalls of puberty.)

57.: True Genius.
Naruto has inherited his father's genius and the world is against him. Lack of stimulus and support sometimes causes genius to wither away, but sometimes it lets it explore completely new avenues.
After Naruto isn't taught properly in the academy and he has no one else to ask for help (Hiruzen is a bit distant and has VERY little time for Naruto in this fic. They spend maybe half an hour together over the course of an entire week), Naruto decides to learn by himself. At first it is easy. Having no life but the academy, he spends his entire time building strength and speed, practising his throwing skills and the three academy jutsu.
But after a month of no progress with the bunshin no jutsu, he decides to try to learn jutsu on his own. At first, he tries simple things, like pushing chakra out of his hands and flinging it at a target, but that doesn't work and his experiments never amount to even a potential jutsu, never mind anything close to a working one. Then he tries pushing chakra into objects. Sometimes, some are thrown back and have a stronger than normal impact, but usually, they just shatter. But then Naruto tries a rope. It is ripped apart, but not before a short series of twitches.
After that, Naruto tries fervently to recreate the twitching and with every time he tries, it takes a bit longer for the rope to rip apart. Finally, he can keep the rope twitching for an indefinite amount of time. And from then on, the real work begins. Naruto trains and trains, no longer just making the rope twitch, but actually learning to control it. But in the end, whenever he manages to move the rope according to his will, he ineviatably overloads it with chakra, making it explode. He sets out to learn, how he could channel more chakra through a rope. After some weeks of listening in on merchants, low level shinobi, and even manipulating one of his classmates into asking the question in class, Naruto finds, that there are some materials better able than others to conduct chakra.
And with that knowledge, Naruto begins trying to make his own ropes. He steals a few books from the library and starts trying out different materials. Finally, he finds a few combinations, the best of which is a somewhat thin rope, thin, but still thick enough to hold a large amount of weight and carry a very decent impact. Naruto trains and trains, until he is able to control the ropes to some decent degree. He is now able to use them like a whip, mostly for blunt impact, but also to wrap around an opponent and restrain them. He also learns how to pull something to him or himself to an object with his ropes. Soon after finishing his training with the latter, he notices, that the kawarimi is much better. He also notices, that the rope sometimes clings to his hands. After much experimentation, he learns the tree climbing exercise in the form of the rope sticking exercise, which he soon applies to other materials. Then he begins to try out, how to get the rope to stick to something. He finally manages to infuse the ends of his ropes (he is currently using two) with some chakra, making it stick to any object it hits for a few moments.
After that, he runs out of ideas (except, if the author has other simple(!) ideas, he can do without actually being able to fully control the ropes and without far more advanced chakra control) and starts to train fighting. He finds a forest full of dangerous beasts and spends most of the time in it running away, but also gets to practise his fighting style.
He learns how to use tactics and how to mislead his opponents, only to use his ropes from and unexpected angle, like slinging it around a tree and using the centrifugal force to hit harder, in addition to the unexpected angle.
But soon, it is the day of the final exam and Naruto finds, he hasn't practised his jutsu at all. On the morning of the exam, he tries to get some last minute training in the bunshin no jutsu and, to his surprise, it works easily. (Obviously because learning how to control the ropes was a pretty extensive chakra exercise, but he doesn't know that.)
He passes and is put into the canon team seven. But after some clever used henge to find out about his sensei's test and tracking down his former (failed) students, which are only too glad to inform about the test, Naruto is convinced, that Kakashi's test is designed to fail him (which was, in his mind, why he was put with that team), being universally despised and looked down upon. He cheats, of course, brings his own bell, and traps the forest.
His attempts to get his teammates to work with him fail spectacularly, they even manage to get caught up in some of his traps. Worse, none of the others even get a bell to cover for his and at the end, Kakashi, obviously reluctant to pass him, passes them all, because he couldn't just pass the two without a bell. (In reality, he doesn't want such a team, but is forced by the Hokage to take them, no matter the test.)
Naruto is miserable. His team, which he hoped to be his first family, hates him, sensei included. And worse, Kakashi is nearly completely useless. At last, after daily hours of badgering him, Naruto manages to get Kakashi to teach him about chakra conducting materials. After that, he stays away from his team as much as possible, being as late as Kakashi, and using his spare time to refine his chosen fighting style with his new found knowledge.
Finally, the Chuunin exams (Kakashi's attempt to get them to work together or die trying) are Naruto's chance to escape his team. It is obvious that, while Sakura plain sucks, Naruto has grown from dead last to well rounded, very skilled Chuunin candidate, and Sasuke has been at Chuunin level since the day he graduated.
And with the break between second part and the finals, Naruto is set up with Jiraiya, which truly puts him from a wildly experimenting around to someone on the fast track to becoming an elite jounin.
After Naruto refuses to learn the toad summoning jutsu, how to use the Kyuubi's chakra, or even the Rasengan, Jiraiya finally gives in and teaches Naruto how to methodically develop his own fighting style, as well as fuuinjutsu. In return Naruto agrees to learn how to use the Rasengan. It is an intense month, where Naruto's genius truly comes to light. He has a great natural talent for seals and thousands of ideas of how to combine them with his ropes.
(The story continues with Naruto being promoted to Chuunin and being paired with different other Chuunin, while the teams are filled up with students, who failed their secret Genin test (because some of them can now be better taught and supported since the team is already a bit more advanced. Of course people with problematic tendencies are sorted out.). Most of his partners hate Naruto, but others he gets to know better and learns from, especially on long and difficult missions. (There is a lot of space for character development between Naruto, Shikamaru, other Chuunin, and whoever passes the Chuunin exams next.)
On the other hand, with his new found talent for seals, Naruto's style begins to truly flourish. His weapons, now stored on seals on his body, are a far cry from his first, clumsy attempts, and give him sheer endless possibilities.
They are still ropes, but now perfectly chakra conducting, which allows him to infuse them with large amounts of wind chakra use them for severing bodyparts and cutting obstacles, like a longer, sharper, and completely unpredictable sword. They can also be used as a normal whip, to bludgeon, or as a staff, with the correct use of chakra.
Then they are littered with seals, starting from suppression and strenghtening tags, enabling him to tie up and thereby completely incapacitate any enemy, but can also be used to crush an opponent.
To that add the offensive seals, ranging from explosive seals, which allow his weapons to shred an opponent to pieces without even touching them, over tags with stored, poisoned senbon for even more attack angles and the ability to surprise an opponent.
But what truly makes his ropes the perfect weapons are his the utility seals, which can form a barrier or absorb jutsu and weapons, which can store chakra and even fuction as a warning system for enemies, while Naruto is asleep.
To top that off, he eventually learns to channel jutsu through his ropes, starting with the Rasengan (not needing handseals is a huge advantage here, since he has to figure out, how to compensate for them while holding two ropes.)
Naruto progresses slowly, since he needs to learn truly insane levels of chakra control for most of his skills, especially using jutsu with the ropes.)

58.: The Dark World.
When Hagrid arrives at the cottage in Godric's Hollow, he finds the corpses of James and Lily Potter and, upstairs, the baby Harry, without a hair out of place.
Sirius Black arrives only minutes later and takes off to kill his friend, Peter Pettigrew. After succeeding in his endeavor, he is hunted by the ministry, until two days later, Dumbledore is defeated, and it is clear that Voldemort has won the war.
Professor McGonnagal barely manages to get Harry out of Hogwarts and to Sirius Black, who is now seen by the public of one of Voldemort's esteemed followers. The next day, Sirius is confronted by a group of deatheaters, who bring a message of the Dark Lord: "I know, who you are, and I know, who the child is. Raise him as a proper pureblood, or I will come for you both."
Ten years later, the world has changed. Purebloods (who is now anyone with at least one pureblood parent) are taught magic by their parents from the day, their father thinks them able (5 years old, in Harry's case, which is very early, as befitting his considerable power) to the day, they enter Hogwarts. Halfbloods are all but nonexistent. Mudbloods are taken from their parents, when they first show signs of magic, brought to one of several orphanage, and prepared to become servants, almost slaves to their pureblood masters. Every pureblood male is expected to have at least four children, at least one of them with his wife (pureblood wives are below their husbands in status and have to obey them to some point depending on the peculiarities of the situation), by the age of thirty. All four of them will be raised like purebloods, even if their mother was a mudblood. The child of two mudbloods is again considered a mudblood and, if lucky, raised by their parents, if unlucky at an orphanage. Additionally, a pureblood has to make certain, that his servants have at least as many children as their number, as to increase the total magical population.
By the time, Harry Black enters Hogwarts, the school has changed greatly. The Dark Lord has changed the school to fit his purposes. There are no more houses. (And a neutral headmaster, who primarily has administrative duties. Snape isn't a teacher, the other teachers have accepted their place in their new society.) Each pureblood child (they are all rich now. There is also no such thing as magical nobiliy, only purebloods and mudbloods) has their own living quarters, consisting of a bedroom, living room, study, practice room for spells, a room of doors, each door connecting to the room of doors of a friend, and sleeping quarters, living quarters, study and practice halls for their mudblood servants. (Unattached mudbloods live in their own quarters, similar to the original Hogwarts dorms.)
In the first three weeks of each term, unattached mudbloods are free to pick a pureblood to offer their service to for the rest of their lives. After that, they can simply be taken into the service of any pureblood, who wants them, whether they want to, or not. Until every student at Hogwarts has that number of servants, purebloods who already have five servants are not allowed to accept more. (To archive that number (and for revenge), Voldemort had several of the less wealthy light families declared mudbloods. That includes the Weasleys, who were given to the Malfoy family as servants.)
Purebloods are expected to regularly punish, torment, and humiliate their (and unattached) mudbloods (obviously doing that to attached ones is a crime), which is a great point of unease for Harry. To alleviate the boy's conscience a bit, Sirius has taught him how to figure out, which of his potential servants can cope well with that kind of abuse in one way or another.
Known as heir of a very rich family, as well as trying to keep out of the mudblood hazings instigated by people like Draco (who doesn't have a rivalry with Harry in this story, as he doesn't have any reason to - maybe Ginny becomes one of Harry's servants in the second year to get away from the malfoys, which would set Draco off.), Harry is a very desired target for any unattached mudblood and has the freedom to pick out the best of the lot, in terms of intelligence, magical ability, and his consciouness, but also taking in a few of the most vulnerable or targeted ones.
(Purebloods and mudbloods have the same basic courses, but purebloods learn battle magic and dark magic, along with legilimency and occlumency, which mudbloods are forbidden to learn. A pureblood has their time in Hogwarts to gather servants from the unattached mudbloods, they keep those servants for the rest of their lives, as all Hogwarts graduates are already attached to a pureblood or in public service.)
During his time at Hogwarts, Harry tries to protect the mudbloods as best as he can while remaining unconspicious, which should get him into trouble regularly, but doesn't, either by his own ingenuity, his great magical power (magical power determines the hierarchy in Voldemort's society) or by sheer dumb luck and people not connecting the dots. Somehow, he can't have a quiet year and each time, his adventures become more and more demanding on his power, fighting skills, finesse, and cunning. Some time during his years at Hogwarts, Harry is motivated by something to go and find out about the prophecy and decides, it means him. At that point, he decides to kill Voldemort.
After Hogwarts, he becomes part of the auror forces, but sometimes helps his targets instead of doing his job. He also trains his servant in battle magics, which is forbidden. He has to keep both secret from Sirius, who may be lenient, but would never accept certain lines being crossed. There are some times, where he is almost certain, his secret has been uncovered, but for some reason, nothing ever happens.
He tries to become department head and manages it, despite his less than stellar track record. After that, he starts carefully bringing other department heads and councilmen, all the while causing minor troubles and problems, that occupy the Dark Lord's time and don't allow him to learn and train. (The council, who advises Voldemort consists of a few inner circle deatheaters and the department heads) behind him. (Not as in making them part of the rebellion, but they see him as leader, setting up for a smooth transfer of power to him, after Voldemort's death. There is a long period of politicking and shows of status and power, through money, influence on new laws, but also through balls and the papers, as well as the black businesses expanding. There may also be a few assassinations.)
Harry trains, until he thinks himself about as powerful and as good a duelist as Voldemort, and then asks the man to give him private lessons. Then he sets up and uses a sudden, seemingly unintentional move, to test the Dark Lord. Voldemort is more powerful than expected. Harry trains more, until he is sure, he is far more powerful than Voldemort and, one day, tries to assassinate him in the council chambers. It doesn't work, but Harry is indeed far more powerful and kills Voldemort after a medium length duel.
With his preparation and everyone being afraid of someone more powerful than Voldemort, the transfer of power comes easily. On the one hand, Harry has now the support or obedience of all of the ministry, but on the other hand, he can't just change the whole system, but starts slowly improving the mudbloods position in their world. Sirius also tells him about being forced to act the proper pureblood.
After some time, Harry finds out strange bits and pieces of information. In the end, he sees the whole picture:
Voldemort planned for Harry to kill him all along and manipulated him into growing with ever increasing challenges during his Hogwarts years, all the while keeping out of trouble, and slowly setting him up as the rebel. Then he actively worked with Harry to give him enough power to ensure a smooth transfer of power. When Harry was powerful enough to face Voldemort, the Dark Lord had already completed a ritual, that would let him be reborn as a pureblood male and would start regaining his memories at the age of seventeen. He had also set up some of his supporters, so that there would be heavy resistance, if Harry tried to change Voldemort's regime too much.
As a last shock, some years later, Harry listens to the prophecy again and recognizes, that Voldemort intends this to be a cycle of him killing Harry and vice versa, each being reborn, neither able to change their society too much from it's current structure, each taking turns ruling the wizarding world. Even the "Power, he knows not" is taken care of; for Voldemort it is having lived one more life than Harry, for Harry it is being able to prepare his reincarnation ritual far better by basing it on Voldemort's and, because of that, taking a bit of his former power into his next life. (The ritual can only be applied once and is then active forever, until magic itself ceases to exist.)
(The never ending circle of rebirth has the fascinating possibility to see Harry and Voldemort change. Harry starts out as a very nice and optimistic person, but time and time sees the cruelty and ugliness of the world and learns that he has to do whatever has the best long term effects, even if it means slaughtering deatheater families or even killing innocents. Voldemort, on the other hand, changes because he experiences the brighter side, parents and friends, who care about him, happy people, who just want to live their live, and slowly becomes less twisted and cruel, his hate diminishing.)

59.: The Order Of Shadows.
Amongst all creatures in the known galaxies, he was the force sensitive with the most potential in his generation. Yes, he was far from legends like Anakin Skywalker or Grandmaster Yoda, but either way, he didn't know anything about that. At least, before he was chosen, taken from his parents near the end of the clone wars (20 years before A New Hope) only weeks after his birth, raised by the third order, the order of shadows, a group of grey force users, who had, due to their low numbers and the monumental effort invested into both the perfection of technological and force cloaking, survived unnoticed by either Jedi or Sith. At least until they had put all their effort and manpower into preventing the clone wars. And failed. Now, they were still unknown to Jedi and Sith, but there was only one of their order left, a wookie, his time wholly occupied, trying to slow down the creation of the deathstar and sabotage the Empire's expansionist tendencies.
Therefore, our hero is raised and trained by a group of holocrons, only seeing the wookie, whenever it is time to practise his lightsaber dueling. Contrary to the Jedi and Sith, the order of shadows teaches its apprentices to not to suppress their emotions, but to accept and conquer and control every single one of them, from joy and love to anger and hate.
Now, (3 years before A New Hope), his apprenticeship, full of learning battle tactics, politics, but also poisons, assassination methods, and force abilities, both of the light, and of the dark side, rigorous training with the lightsaber, blasters, sniper rifles, as well as all kinds of other weapons, and harsh tests, is finally over and he is sent to complete a final test, before he can consider himself a fully fledged member of the order of shadows. He is to get a ship for himself, a vessel that would serve his purposes and aid him in completing his missions, most importantly being fast enough to always stay one step ahead of the authorities, then upgrade it with the best cloaking technology and anti-tracking countermeasures, that the order has to offer. After that, he has to find a crew, people who would be absolutely loyal to him, support him, no matter what he would have to do to archive his goals and would not question his motifs or try to find out about the organization behind him.
Finally, he is ready to take the task set for him: Set up the fall of the Galactic Empire to the rebellion with a minimum of bloodshed and make the revolution as smooth as possible, most importantly avoiding civil war.

60.: The Things We Do For Fun.
In his days as a student, everything has been easy. He had excelled at everything his master wanted him to learn and more. Magical research, one of the only hobbies, he was allowed at that time, were easy too, the conclusions obvious, the supposedly complicated magical formulas flowing freely from his mind. But that was useless on the Fields of Justice, now that he was a summoner of the League of Legends.
He graduated without great praise or expectation, never having bothered to go the extra mile to archive that, preferring to follow whereever his fancy brought him. And now he is a summoner of the League.
At first, he is unremarkable, learning far from the spotlight, taking sides in the resolution of minor conflicts amongst the noble houses and the few non noble people rich enough to warrant such a tribunal. He finds joy in learning and improving and loves the complete control, he has over his champion.
But as with everything, his talent soon shows through and he learns, graduating from small disputes where no champion had even chose a side to solving important conflicts, champions, who hadn't bothered to remember his name now trying to convince him to aid their side and sometimes to help them in their personal matters. (Champions are allowed to chose sides in any conflict. They can chose either side, to remain neutral, or to ignore the conflict. Champions chosing a side can only be summoned by that side, neutral champions can't be summoned, champions, who ignore the conflict can be summoned for either side. For conflicts between cities or states, only champions affiliated with that fraction can be summoned.)
And soon, he becomes bored. After two short years, he has become one of the most prominent and powerful summoners, having mastered the use of every champion. The champions trying to gain his favor for their faction or themselves have become boring, his total control over his champion simple routine.
So, he tries new things, using the control he has over his champion to push her past her limits. And the rush is there again. Of course, the champions take differently to his forceful, painful, and exhausting way to use them to win his matches. Some embrace it, others accept it, and others, confront him, and some just stay out of his way.
He pushes his boundaries, making them stretch or sprint beyond their limits and pushes them past the point of exhaustion, then he becomes more creative, going further with champions, who accept such treatment and discarding those from use, who seem like they are about to confront or report him.
Finally rumors and increasing criticism from his fellow summoners force him to stop the more creative aspects of his experiments and tone down some of the others. He finds, he dislikes, how what felt like total control of his champions is now reduced to staying within the borders of what his colleagues deem acceptable.
However, the experiment has been interesting and it changed his relationship to some of the champions in very interesting ways. But after some time, boredom strikes again and he recognizes, he needs a goal, something great. And finally he decides, he will rule Runeterra.
After a lot of consideration, he decides, keeping the status quo and ruling from the shadows as the best way to archive his goal. Luckily, the Institue of War is a gathering place for every person of power, no matter, if they are visiting or a champion.
And so begins his quest, to bring, through all kinds of means, enough champions and people of power (he doesn't need summoners, they are bound to neutrality outside of the Institue of War and the Fields of Justice, as to prevent another rune war), on his side to rule Runeterra from the shadows.

61.: The Architect.
When Anakin becomes part of the Jedi order, there is much discussion and controversity, if it is right to allow such and old boy to join them. Many Jedi review the prophecy and one of them (the Architect) comes to the conclusion, that 'balance in the force' refers to balance between light and dark side. They try and fail to convince others of their point of view and finally give up. But they know that prophecies are fixed points in time. Whatever happens, there will be a point, where the light and dark side are equally strong as direct result of Anakin Skywalker's actions.
There is no way to save the Jedi order and cheat the prophecy that way, but another possibility exists. The Architect decides to prepare for the Jedi order to rise from its own destruction and rise again.
Assuming the worst possible case, they need to prepare to overthrow an empire and rebuild the Jedi order from nothing. For that, they will need many things, starting from trustworthy non force-sensitives, a base, supplies, a way to find force sensitive children, holocrons to teach them everything about the force, meditation, lightsaber building, maintenance, and combat, negotiation, history, and a multitude of other Jedi skills.
But to successfully rescue the Republic from Sith rule, they would need far more, support from politicians, personell from administration and military, and much, much preperation to avoid a civil war.
(This can either or(/and) be a story about the Architect and his preparations for the fulfillment of the prophecy and the destruction of the Jedi order, while spending a significant amount of time on missions or with their padawan, including their thoughts on how the new Jedi order should be different, or about the first generation of new Jedi after the rise of the Sith, which would be somewhere in the middle between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, since starting too soon after the end of the Jedi order could mean, that not enough Jedi were dead and his new order would be destroyed because of the prophecy.)

62.: Fight The Force.
If an individual or a group works against the will of the force too strongly or too long, the force strikes back, as it did against the Jedi order and Darth Plagueis and later Darth Sidious.
The protagonist of this story is one of those people. They start off weak, normal, but learn quickly, their powers growing, although they start in the light side of the force, but nearly fall to the dark side, only to later learn how to use the dark side without losing control or being corrupted (or the other way around, if they start on the dark side).
Finding balance between the dark and light side of the force opens up the possibility for more power. But with great power comes the fulfillment of great desires. And of that they have many.
But, powerful, as they may be, they still have much to learn, and therefore are oblivious to the fact, that the force would strike back. But if one is powerful enough, even an enemy designed to destroy them is not invincible, and so, with great care and preparation, they manage that.
But the force does not give up.
(This is meant so be the story of someone receiving backlash from the force, like the one that lead to the destruction of the Jedi order and the Sith, just that that person isn't so arrogant and therefore is able to overcome the one chosen to destroy them. But there is an endless row of chosen ones waiting and no way to stop it.)

63.: Jedi Enforcer.
The Jedi order never started teaching Jedi to suppress their emotions, nor did they forbid the use of the dark side. Jedi had many of the same abilities as the Sith, even though some of the worse force techniques, such as inducing permanent madness in a target were outlawed. On the other hand, Jedi were very strictly taught how to control their emotions, as to avoid being influenced by the dark side. The main difference between Jedi and Sith is, that the Jedi have dedicated themselves to keeping peace and are a seperate entity from the republic, which allows them to regularly question all senators, imprisoning the corrupt ones. And while the Jedi are seperate from the republic, they, contrary to the Sith, never strove to rule.
But allowing a Jedi emotions, use of the dark side, and attatchments, even families, leads unavoidably to rogue Jedi, persuing their own goals, often searching for power over planets, systems, or whole parts of the republic. As rogue Jedi are not exactly rare, what would have been the Jedi sentinels, is now the Jedi enforcers, a branch of fighters, that focuses on hunting down and killing rogue Jedi, but also fights in wars, often bringing hostilities to an end through their mere presence. Jedi enforcers are meant to be able to easily defeat dark or rogue Jedi in single combat and are therefore a cut above the rest of the Jedi in terms of power and ability.
As younglings are taken in by the temple by the age of six, Anakin is not a lot older than the average youngling. There is also the advantage of Qui-Gon being much less obliged to find a peaceful solution with Watto and, after winning Anakin and plenty of spare parts via the pod race bet, he simply forces Watto to give him Shmi as well.
Contrary to the movie, the Jedi council does not require Palpatine to become Supreme Chancellor or any senate mandate to take action and sends a team of enforcers to rid Naboo of the droid army. The enforcers do their job promptly and Darth Maul runs to his doom, when he tries to fulfill his task.
Anakin is taken in by the order and decides to become and enforcer himself. (That means that neither Obi-Wan nor Qui-Gon can train him (I don't see either of them as enforcers), since enforcers have vastly different training from the other classes and are only taken as Padawan by one of their own, which leaves much space for OCs.
Enforcers are primarely sent, when the council suspects rogue Jedi to be involved in a problem, or when opposition may be extreme enough that a normal Jedi might not be enough, so there is also plenty of room for new story lines.
Of course that the Jedi are more or less balanced in the Light and Dark side means that the prophecy might not exist in this story or it doesn't refer to Anakin.)

64.: The Builder.
Anakin loses the all important pod race. The Jedi have no choice but to steal the hyperdrive parts and escape, leaving Anakin behind. Over the next few years, Watto sees Anakin's worth and their store grows, selling many parts repaired or improved on my Anakin. Anakin's knowledge and repairing skills improve and over time, he has almost complete autonomy with the shop, while Watto enjoys the fruits of his work. While that spares Anakin from the worst parts of the life as a slave, he is still punished often, when Watto gets drunk or Anakin doesn't make enough profit.
Then the clone wars start and, when Jabba's son is abducted, everything goes south. Fed up with Jabba causing and promoting attacks on their freighters, the Republic sends a fleet to Tatooine, in order to take out Jabba permanently. Of course, the CIS uses the opportunity to strike at them. The war on Tatooine leaves many dead, mostly headhunters, clones, and droids, but Anakin sees an opportunity. Until now, he had always been somewhat limited by the scrap, he could find. People didn't waste valuable parts, so he had only access to cheap or severely defective parts. But now, there were thousands of droid parts, from memory modules, servos, blasters, to half destroyed fighters and landing crafts and only slightly damaged droidekas. Even better, due to the gang wars over Jabba's crime empire, there was almost no one to loot the battlefields. And for those who did loot, there was more than enough.
Anakin remembers his first taste of freedom, before his hope was destroyed along with his pod racer and decides, he will fight for it. He starts building his own group of battle droids and even a medical droid to get rid of his and his mother's slave implants.
But after killing Watto and freeing a few of his friends, Anakin is seen as a new faction in the gang war over Tatooine and there is no way out, only forward.

65.: Three Numbers.
Three numbers make the greatest difference. When Darth Plagueis' attempts to control midiclorians cause the birth of the chosen one, Plagueis and Sidious are able to pinpoint it. Soon after he learns to walk, Watto and Shmi are killed and Anakin taken in by the two Sith Lords.
Due to the burden of raising a child while teaching him the ways of the Sith, Sidious never attempts to kill Plagueis. By the time, the clone wars begin, Anakin, now Darth Vader, is ready to unleash terror upon the Jedi. And after the disaster that was the battle of Geonosis, where barely any Jedi were killed, he needs to thin them out considerably, before Order 66 can put an end to their enemies.
Vader leads the CIS in battle, drawing the undivided attention of the Jedi Order, making sure, Sidious is not discovered, while quickly becoming a legend that makes Jedi fear to travel alone.
But leading the CIS also means that Darth Vader is free for the first time in his life, and he revels in it, soon deciding, he will never go back under the thumb of either Sidious or Plagueis. During the war, Vader's powers sky rocket. He learns from Sith and Jedi holocrons, he learns in battle, and when he finds a Jedi with a skill, he wants to learn, he hunts that Jedi down and pries the skill out of their mind.
But Vader also takes up the hobby to try to turn Jedi to the dark, if only those who are still weak but have good potential. Even though it is extremely difficult, since Jedi are indoctrinated basically from birth, finally, he suceeds. But the most curious thing happens. His new apprentice is completely loyal to him, even though he is strict and tortures her as punishment, even when she believes herself more powerful than him, her loyalty never wavers. And that plants the idea of his own Sith order in Darth Vader's mind. An order, full of Sith like his current apprentice, an order that is completely loyal to him.
Finally Order 66 is executed and the Jedi are wiped out.
But now there are three Sith Lords: Darth Plagueis, more absorbed into his research into immortality than anything else, Darth Vader is building his own Sith order and preparing his own powers and the new military of the Empire for the Yuuzhan Vong invasion in his visions, and Darth Sidious rules the galaxy with a durasteel fist.
At the same time, the group, which would have become the Rebel Alliance recognizes that Vader's skills with visions and mind reading would make a successful rebellion impossible. Instead, they decide to try to corrupt him to the light side, by any means neccessary.

66.: Naruto and Sasuke.
A few months before entering the academy, Naruto sees Sasuke train for the first time. Being the fearless social imbecile that he is, Naruto goes to Sasuke and asks him to train with him. Sasuke, meanwhile would just brush Naruto off, except he has had a horrible day, his father disregarding him, his brother breaking his promise to train with him, and even his mother scolding him. A profound feeling of loneliness as well as Naruto's adoring gaze stroking his ego, Sasuke agrees and teaches Naruto how to unlock his chakra, the two training side by side for the rest of the evening.
They meet again the next day and Sasuke comes to see, that taking a few minutes to teach Naruto before they both start training isn't so bad. The scene repeats the next day, and so on, and they become fast friends.
When Naruto enters the academy (one year before Sasuke), he has a hard time understanding anything, as he can barely read and has a very poor basic education. Sasuke goes out of his way to teach him, taking away time from his own training and teaching Naruto, until he is at the level, where he can understand any academy material easily. They start sparring, but when they learn about traps in the academy, Naruto takes up pranking and eventually drags Sasuke into it. But Naruto, knowing he is hated by the village, avoids ever meeting Sasuke's family.
Finally, the Uchiha massacre happens, when Naruto is in his second year. Naruto spends the day looking for Sasuke, everyone barring his way, making his task night impossible. Finally he finds him and does his best to console him. Over the next few days, Naruto tries his best to help Sasuke, even if he can't do much.
Sadly, the Uchiha massacre was the day before the exams and by the time, Sasuke returns to the academy, everything has changed. Naruto, who didn't attend the exams, searching for Sasuke, wasn't allowed to retake them, nor was he excused as all others that weren't there because of the massacre. Instead, he is now in Sasuke's class, bullied for the last weeks by a group led by Sakura. This is a wakeup call for Sasuke. Before, he has wallowed in misery, now he is mad at himself, Naruto helping him, while suffering because of his selfishness. Sasuke decides to change, starting by inviting Naruto to live with him. There are some revelations, like Naruto not being used to real food, good clothes, or walking the streets of a compound without some trepidation.
Naruto and Sasuke grow closer, spending most of their waking time learning and training together, often sparring. Naruto grows, catching up with Sasuke, learning from his cleverness and planning ability, becoming calmer and more patient. Sasuke also grows, his hate for Itachi not taking over, desire to protect his friends and eventually rebuild his clan growing stronger. At the same time, Sasuke comes to despise Sakura for her continued attempts to put down and bully Naruto to feed her own battered ego.
By the time of the last academy year, they hit a huge wall. No matter what they do, Naruto is unable to learn the clone jutsu. Sasuke spends a lot of time trying to help Naruto with it, both of them stunting their growth for more than two months. Finally they go to Hokage-jiji, who tells them about the Kyuubi and Naruto's ridiculous chakra reserves. To help Naruto, he lets him learn the Kagebunshin no Jutsu from the forbidden scroll, but also lets Sasuke chose a jutsu to learn from it to reinforce the selfless behavior he displayed by helping Naruto. (Note: No memory transfer from Kagebunshin in this fic. Now they are just ridiculously overpowered due to allowing Naruto to cast a hundred jutsu simultaneously.)
Both Naruto and Sasuke pass their exams flawlessly (Mizuki is found out by conventional means some time later. Iruka simply isn't important in this fic, he hates Naruto for being the Kyuubi's container, but is professional enough, not to let it show.) They are put into team seven with Sakura under Kakashi. And this is, where it all goes to hell. Naruto at least considers working with Sakura, but Sasuke refuses outright, stating that she is a terrible person and he wants her to fail. Not surprisingly, the bell test is a disaster, even though Naruto and Sasuke show near perfect teamwork, complementing each others moves and protecting each other. Still, failing them isn't an option, so Kakashi takes them on. It doesn't go well, Sakura constantly being singled out and Sasuke refusing to even consider working with her. (Naruto is too forgiving for his own good, even though not as much as in canon.)
Finally, Kakashi sees no other option, but to ask the Hokage to swap Sakura for someone else. That turns out to be Hinata. Since Kurenai is far too soft on her, she hasn't really grown and Sasuke doesn't respect her at all, but, after some drama, works with her, mainly because of Naruto.
By the time of the Wave mission, they work together fairly well, but Hinata still lags far behind. The first fight goes pretty much as normal, just that the mist is far less effective due to Hinata, which gets her a bit more respect with Sasuke. After Kakashi gets caught, Naruto and Sasuke step up and they manage to distract Zabuza so thoroughly that he gets a kunai to the heart somewhere in the chaos. With a terrible scream of NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Haku is out of comission. They take her prisoner and get to the bridge builder.
Over the next few days, Naruto tries to help Haku and the girl imprints on him as her new Master. Her complete devotion and adoration for Naruto causes panic for Hinata, who sees Haku as a better version of herself and tries to improve herself, and then tries several methods to make herself better than or more distinct from Haku. Of course everyone meddles and Naruto, even though far from oblivious, has no clue what to do.
(The important point of the story is Naruto and Sasuke's dynamic. They learn from each other, both in shinobi skills and their attitude and personality. They face their challenges together, which, frankly, makes the story much better than the manga, since the characters are more fleshed out and understandable. Naruto can observe and try to fight Sasuke's gradually crumbling trust in Konoha and help him in his struggle with the curse mark, until finally they decide to pit Jiraiya and Orochimaru against each other. There are no ridiculous powers like Kagebunshin or mangekyou sharingan in this story, at least not for the good guys. Instead they have to make do with wits, hard work, and brilliant teamwork.)

67.: Greek Mythology.
This idea is about some stories like the Ilias, Oddyssey, and the Aeneid from the perspective of the gods, who just have fun screwing with mortals.
There doesn't have to be a main person, but if there is, a minor god or an immortal hero living on Olympos would be a good protagonist.

68.: The Dark Side Of Humanity.
A comic hero becomes, by chance, aware of MKULTRA (or a similar project, or some other horrifying state secrets).
The hero falls into a crisis, starting with shock, denial, anger, depression, acceptance, and the resolution to change the world for the better.
First, the protagonist has to dig deeper into the secrets and horrors produced by the state, finding everything from assassination of people who knew too much, to torture, to human experimentation on innocent citicens and sometimes failing and sometimes adequate plans in case of discovery by heroes.
The next stage is the state's campain to take the hero down, permanently silencing them. After which other heroes are sent to take down the protagonist, some of which have to be fought, others take a step back, or even join the protagonist.
Finally comes the revolution of the state.

69.: The Power Of Sacrifice.
Dumbledore is not there. There is no help coming. Harry is the only thing between the diary of Tom Riddle and a rampage through the muggleborn population of Hogwarts.
If one thing was special about Harry, it was his strength of will and with that, he inadvertently activates an old ritual circle and sacrifices his right arm for the destruction of Voldemort's diary. And with that, Harry makes his first step into sacrificial magic.
Sacrifice can come from anyone and be anything, with the only condition, that it has to have subjective value. Harry could sacrifice pain, time, flesh, blood, magic (temporarily or permanently) to archive anything. He could even break up a relationship or go and kill a person, the very act being a sacrifice of immense power. But Lily and James Potter could also, with a very basic ritual, sacrifice their own lives to give Harry protection of incredible strength.
The good thing about sacrificial magic is its versatility. It can heal wounds on a scale no modern healer could even imagine. It can give permanent magical power, it can give protection, like his parents did, most anything, a user can imagine, is possible.
But it is not infinite. One could sacrifice pain, but the more the user gets used to the pain, the less effective the sacrifice is.
And Harry is caught. He goes back to the chamber and learns, from the very basic spells, which sacrifice temporarily no more of his magical powers than a normal spell, to huge rituals that can protect him and his friends, but require substancial sacrifice.
Hot headed and rash, Harry makes liberal use of his new knowledge, sometimes regretting it, sometimes glad of his actions. But the world around him becomes increasingly demanding, until at the end, when one sacrifices all, one is willing to lose, only that, what truly counts, is left.
(Obviously each major sacrifice has to have lasting and noticeable psychological impact on Harry. The true sacrifice doesn't come from the item lost, but from the mental anguish of the one performing the sacrifice. The two exceptions to that rule is when magic is used directly, like any other spell, or when a being with inherent magic, like a witch/wizard, or magical creature, is sacrificed. But the main point in this is, that Harry can do great things for great sacrifices, but trying to use sacrificial magic to avoid the doom over his head would either require a price that is too high for him to accept, or would lead to another kind of doom that is no better.)

70.: Magic Is Bonkers.
In this AU, magic is ridiculously overpowered. A spell can cause an earthquake or completely wipe a person's mind, it can raze a castle or bring back the dead, the killing cure being one of the few magics that permanently kill someone. Divination can see chains of events in the future or spy on people, when they least expect it. Family magic protects the members of the ancient families from many of the more problematic spells, but is also used as a way of profit by taking on magicals without that protection as vassals.
Magic is also far more vast than what is seen in the books. There are all kinds of magic. Alchemy, voodoo, time travel, etc, everything may be commonly practiced, but more than that is readily available for learning.
Wizards, especially the older families (all of them, including the Potters and similar ones) secretly control the world, using their magic to subjugate powerful muggles, from politicians, dictators, and military to economically powerful men. Great Britain, in this AU, is home to the most powerful wizards, the ones who control the world.
There are families that have enough power to hold a standing army of magical creatures, or even necromancers with armies of revived, mindless, but skilled wizards or even enslaved muggleborns.
Power is often distributed via duels. Duels can be forced by one party, if the target is in the same class, meaning within a certain range of power and skill (with the exception of certain offices, like seats on the wizengarmot, whose holders can be challenged by anyone). Duels are usually fought over a certain article, like an object or a certain rule, the loser has to follow. If the loser fails to comply, they die and the corpse is given to the winner, making a ressurection without their consent impossible. Of course that leads to many people taking advantage to further their own goals, but often those, who go too far are assassinated by some party or another.
Everyone has their goals. Some may lust endlessly for power, others want to assert their ideals, some may just be addicted to new sensations or adrenaline junkies, others may just want to see the world burn, or have fun plotting endless intrigues to advance their house via backstabbing, murder, or marriage.
Hogwarts is a playground for the new generation (who are obviously home schooled to reach the full extent of what their still rather weak magical powers allow), where they can learn safely, growing in power, making friends and enemies, practicing everything, they need in the brutal world with the advantage of powerful wards that prevent their actions from causing death or having effects on the wizarding world. Muggleborns are not protected at all, brought to Hogwarts with deception, promises of power, or outright force.
During the school year, Hogwarts is completely magically isolated from the outside world. Nothing can come in or go out, aside from some information to the headmaster. At the end of each school year, there is a reset, where, in a great magical ritual, every magical contract, every wound, every scar, every wiped memory or influenced brain, is undone, so that the students can learn from their mistakes in the last year without needing to live with the consequences.
In this AU, the wizards and witches attending Hogwarts are, combined with their families, less than a twentieth of the total magical population (obviously that doesn't count the less important pure- and halfbloods as well as muggleborns in Hogwarts, who are there to give the elite in Hogwarts something to fight and rule over and to take advantage of.
Attempts at revolutions are very rare, but when they do happen, the ministry and some of the greatest houses have devices that can set the time back for days or even years, letting only the members of the powerful houses, protected by their family magic, keep their memories. Those devices are used automatically in case a spell brings the end of the world, be it by tearing apart the fabric of reality, changing the earth's atmosphere into chlorine gas, causing a nuclear war, or a zombie apocalypse. All those happen often enough, not to be a rarity.

71.: Real Fishcake.
This is an attempt at a realistic Naruto story. First off, there are some changes to the world. Bijuu are much stronger. Naruto's one tail form is enough to give a normal jounin serious trouble and three tails is enough to give a kage the fight of their live (in the case of out of control, untrained Genin Naruto). Also, Naruto holds the whole Kyuubi and such idotic stuff like seperating it is impossible. Kagebunshin don't transfer memories (they are still op, I've written about that in the 'Naruto' section). Amaterasu continues to burn, all the while draining the user's chakra, until the user manages to control the flames and extinguishes them, or until they die from exhaustion. Susanoo doesn't exist. Tsukuyomi takes several seconds in the real world and the user is completely unaware and defenseless in that time (a four year old Naruto could kill Itachi, while he uses it on someone). There is literally nothing that can take on a bijuu (Ichibi is on the level of three Kyuubi tails, so a kage could defeat the Ichibi, but it goes up from there), except prevent them from forming, which is impossible in many cases. The Akatsuki have to take out a jinchuuriki in a place, where they would never unleash their beast or beat them before they can do that.
On to the story. This is only an example of how it could work:
Naruto Ochiba (jap: fallen leaves, a name for orphans in Konoha. There is no way, he would be called Uzumaki or Namikaze) grows up in an orphanage, until he is kicked out onto the streets. He is pretty quickly found by a group of people (mostly shinobi), who lure him into their house and try to kill him, but Naruto goes two tail cloak and kills them all, from then on no one tries again. Naruto is perfectly aware of his actions during the use of the Kyuubi's chakra (but not in control) and remembers everything. After a few days on the streets, he is found by the Hokage and given a flat and a stipend. (Hiruzen regularly sends someone to check up on Naruto unseen.) Most children stay away from Naruto due to their parents, but as he grows older, he finds some friends, a few with parents, who don't hate him, a few who just ignore their parents, and a few who are fascinated by the danger. His friends notice that Naruto doesn't have any common sense and can't even read properly, his speech is also riddled with mistakes, since he has picked up most of it by listening to different people. But they teach him and by the time, he gets to the academy, he can read quite well and has a burning determination, not to let the world get to him. He decides to make the best of a bad situation and learns faster and better than most others (Naruto doesn't want to be a shinobi, he tried to leave Konoha several times, but he was always stopped and Hiruzen told him, he would have no choice but to become a shinobi. Naruto hates the Hokage.) Some time during the first year, Sakura tries to beat him, but Naruto dodges and plants his fist in her face, breaking her nose. Naruto is yelled at by everyone and is forced to spend a few hours helping the teachers and doing community service for a month.
Naruto is a social pariah in the academy and most of his friends who go there ignore him during the academy hours as to avoid becoming outcasts themselves. Naruto is bullied, but quickly learns how to avoid situations that make that possible and how to get out of such situations. After a few days, the bullies resort to attacking one of Naruto's friends, who is open about it. Naruto nearly goes one tail cloak and the bullies run away, terrified. There is a lot of yelling and sore bottoms in the bullies homes and no one tries to bully Naruto or his friends again.
Naruto proves to be a genius and that is the only thing that allows him to pass time and time again, even though many of his instructors try to sabotage him. But, no matter, how much he tries, he doesn't manage to learn the bunshin no jutsu and whoever he asks for help just tells him to practice more and he gives up asking for help quickly. Naruto fails the exam (which is a bit wider than the canon one, but still requires all academy jutsu to pass) and Mizuki sends him for the forbidden scroll (he is a lot more convincing than canon). They meet at a place, that Naruto shouldn't even know about and Naruto shows Mizuki the Kagebunshin. Mizuki stabs Naruto in the throat with a kunai, pushing him into one tail cloak. Naruto heals instantly and uses shadowclones in combination with the cloak to kill Mizuki. (Mizuki, the poor sap, can't even hurt one of the clones enough to dispel it. The cloak has extreme defensive capabilities, for example, the three tails form is strong enough to shrug off anything less than the destructive power of a rasengan, chidori, or a repetitive beating from Tsunade (Tsunade is very different here. She still is a legendary healer, but her battle skills are far weaker. Her punches have the destructive power of a chuunin level offensive jutsu and she is weakened from years of neglecting her training. She also wasn't an extremely strong fighter to begin with, as she spent a lot of time learning and creating medical jutsu, while Jiraiya and Orochimaru trained. Before she becomes Hokage, Kakashi could beat her.))
Naruto decides, no one will care that he was tricked and tries to flee Konoha with the scroll, only to be caught by Kakashi. Naruto once again attempting to flee from Konoha leads to a change in team lineups and Sakura and Hinata are switched. (The Hokage intends to use Hinata's crush, which is much less obvious than in canon, to bind Naruto to Konoha by having Kakashi foster their relationship. They pretty much say to Hiashi "act, like Hinata doesn't exist, don't give her the seal, or anything, just ignore her, we'll take care of her")
Naruto spends some time wondering, why he is on a team with clan heirs and elite jounin, while most of his friends are on teams (there are four teams without clan heirs) with no clan heirs and with less powerful jounin.
Kakashi is a decent teacher and they learn a lot. Sasuke likes to spar with Naruto, which ends up with the blond boy being beaten into the ground and Sasuke completely unfazed. (Sasuke has trained himself far more than Naruto and it will take a very long time, maybe until they are both jounin, until Naruto has caught up with Sasuke.) Naruto takes rather well to Hinata. The wave mission goes rather similar (Sasuke is near chuunin level, but the other two are not and none of them is strong enough to take on even one of the demon brothers) until Kakashi's fight with Zabuza. Haku (who is at low jounin level) recognizes, that Zabuza isn't strong enough to defeat Kakashi and attacks the Genin. It quickly becomes obvious that they are no match for her and, when Hinata goes down (dying from poison (all shinobi are killers in this fic)), Naruto goes into the Kyuubi cloak one with shadowclones and tries to kill Haku. Haku tries to fight, but needs her more powerful water jutsu to penetrate the cloak, which would need too much chakra. Instead, she flees, Naruto on her tail, until she sees Kakashi kill Zabuza, which is when she breaks down. Sasuke has in the meantime given Hinata some general antidotes, as every academy student is taught the basics of poisons.
Gatou continues to throw any missing nin, he can find, at them, but jounin level missing nins are rare and most missing nins, sent by Gatou, die at the hands of the Genin, who are thereby taught to work together, or flee after recognizing the danger.
Haku imprints on Naruto as her new Master and, with Kakashi sometimes trying to help, sometimes trying to destroy their budding relationship (he is torn, since he is obligated to bring Haku back to Konoha, so she can either become a Konoha shinobi or is forced into a breeding program), they decide to make her build friendships in Konoha instead. It goes well and Naruto is now bound to Konoha via the two girls. Sasuke is put on a more advanced team, which had a member die, and Haku takes his spot. Haku teaches her Master and Hinata a lot, but also learns much from Kakashi, who has much mor experience and skill than her.
Kakashi doesn't allow them to enter into the next chuunin exams (in which Sasuke makes chuunin), nor the ones after that. Finally, they enter the chuunin exams, when they are once again held in Konoha. (Obviously, the exams are different than the canon ones, or it would be boring.) Hinata urges them to follow Hyuuga tradition and kill the single Kumo team in the exam as soon as it is allowed.
During the invasion, Naruto is sent to fight the Tanuki. He sees one of his friends killed (he doesn't have as much contact witht them as he had before, but still loves them very much) and decides at that moment, he is part of Konoha, for better or worse. Naruto goes up aginst Shukaku with the tree tails cloak and it is a rather even fight, until the Tanuki tries to use a bijuudama. Naruto recognizes the danger and goes up to four tails (the cloak doesn't harm him in this story, because the constant exposure to the Kyuubi's chakra due to the seal has given him some level of immunity). As soon as he goes four tails, Naruto demolishes Shukaku and kills Gaara. Then he goes on to rip through Suna and Oto forces, but also kills and Konoha forces, he meets. Finally, Jiraiya manages to tag him with a strong suppression seal, which cancel's Naruto's cloak. (Jiraiya can only do that because he is the most powerful sealmaster in the world AND a kage level fighter AND has used years to charge the seal.)
After that, Konoha has many prisoners of war. Many of Oto are taken into their ranks, the rest are killed. As Konoha can't afford to destroy Suna completely without leaving themselves open to an attack from Kumo or Iwa, they instead make a treaty, which gives Konoha two girls/women from powerful Suna clans to be married to Konoha shinobi in return for the cessation of hostilities and the safe return of the prisoners. One of those is Temari. The women give Konoha political hostages, two powerful bloodlines, and new jutsu.
After that, it all goes on in a more grim and realistic way.

72.: The Consequences Of Sticking With Ones Ideals.
After a bad row with his overly domineering, borderline abusive mother, Minato Sahashi had decided to spend the rest of his youth with his grandparents away from his immediate family.
Now he was taking a break after completing his Bachelor's Degree, and was rather content with his life. That was why, when a certain young girl falls on his lap, he was very hesitant to be dragged into the strange events that started to unfold, when they were attacked by a pair of twins in bondage suits shooting lightning around as if it was going out of style. After a huge ruckus, they were advised by a masked man in black, to seek a certain inn for protection.
After hearing Musubi's story, Minato was certain of one thing. He would most certainly not bond himself to an unstable, childish, superpowered, but all too innocent being, only to enter some strange deathmatch organized by a madman. But, being a nice person with lots of free time, he decided to help the girl set herself up at Izumo Inn.
And only hours later, he regretted his decision like few others in his life. While Musubi was devastated that he would not be her Ashikabi, but accepted his decision, another one of her species, a reclusive perverted computer geek, had not even asked for his permission to wing her.
Garanted, she was beautiful, smart, knowledgeable, useful, and perverted, all good points from Minato's point of view, but there was the whole thing with the deathmatch.
After understanding exactly, what the Sekirei Plan was, he had decided, that in order to win, or maybe just to survive, he would have to go all out. Ambushes, planting traps, assassinating Ashikabi with Matsu's abilities or otherwise, stealing, hacking, even using the MBI's own orbital ion cannons, no option would be ignored.
But that was exactly why Minato could never take Musubi as his Sekirei, only to ineviatably destroy her with the realities of war, and that was not even considering the ominous rule that the Ashikabi of the last remaining Sekirei would win the game. If he were to take Sekirei aside from Matsu, he may force them to fight each other in the end.
As neither Minato nor Matsu wanted a scenario, where the alien spaceship would fall into the hands of greedy tyrants or corporation, they spend some time planning. They find a mutual appreciation for each other's intelligence and knowledge. Matsu uses that time to utilize her hacking abilities to gather money and intelligence.
A few days later, Matsu's network picks up an anomality and, after closer examination, the Sekirei finds that they have an unique opportunity. The unwingable Sekirei, Akitsu, was a gamechanger for them, a Sekirei that would be hardened and not count towards the number of his Sekirei.
Bringing Akitsu to Izumo Inn is easy, all it takes is the order "follow me!".
Akitsu is overjoyed. She has a Master to serve, he seems like a good man, and his other Sekirei is quite interesting to talk to, whenever her Master sends Akitsu from his side or to help Matsu. And that is where the problems begin.
Matsu's perversion, built by years of internet porn, and Akitsu's need to prove her reverence and submission to her master, whenever possible, feed from each other and Minato soon has two complete perverts lusting after him, which wouldn't be bad, except for Izumo Inn's house rules and Minato's refusal to accept another woman attempting to tell him how to live his life. (On another note, Akitsu's failed adjusting means that she can't control her strength to an extent, as becomes clear, when she nearly kills Minato with a hug and frequently destroys things, she touches. Her powers are also hard to control and there is a lot of work, broken items, and some trauma, while she learns how to control herself.)
Fresh out of the sanctuary, they try to set up a hidden base from which to grind away at all Ashikabi more powerful than Minato, but before they can find a fitting hideout, they are targeted by a minion of the Ashikbai of the East, only to beat him, getting them the powerful enemy's attention.
After much fight and trickery, they manage to slip away and find a hidden lair, only to hit the next problem. To keep the more powerful Ashikabi down, they have to take down any Sekirei that fall into their enemies' clutches. And that, along with Akitsu not really being allowed to participate, gets them the attention of the Disciplinary Squad. To make matters even worse, the only sure way to defeat a Sekirei for good, is to deactivate its crest, which Akitsu can not do, only Matsu, being a winged Sekirei. (Sekirei being unable to be killed or otherwise deactivated with brute force is a change that forces Minato to endanger Matsu, every time, he participates in a fight.)
Caught in a game of cat and mouse, Minato struggles to accept his new reality. Torn between his old life, the very real danger of death, and the power, tension, and sheer exhillarartion of the Sekirei plan, Minato finds himself growing more and more attached to his two perverted Sekirei.
Protecting the world from domination of powerhungry chilren in all powerful alien crafts is still his most important goal, of course. Definitely.

73.: I Want To See The World Burn.
Uzumaki Naruto is still a few years away from finishing the Academy, when he is found by another member of his clan. He is overjoyed to find out, he has family, even if he is somewhat weirded out at being called Naruto-sama and clan head. Learning about his clan's unique sealing jutsu and starting the training in the simple and beautiful art of fuuinjutsu, things eem to be looking up for the blond jinchuuriki. On the next day, he has his monthly meeting with his Jiji and can't help but smile at the joy on the old man's face over the good news. But when he comes back to his apartment, there are signs of a fight and his clansman has disappeared. Even getting his Jiji to help brings nothing new.
But Naruto is nothing, if not persistent, and so he decides to find out, what happened. After long months and with the help of newly invented fuuinjutsu, he finds out the hard truth. His clansman was taken away by Konoha Anbu, some of the very same, that would protect the Hokage, and sometimes, around his birthday, even Naruto himself.
Shocked, Naruto decides to investigate, hoping to find out, not only what happened to his clansman, but also why Konoha Anbu would attack them in the first place. He prepares to break into some of the most heavily guarded locations in Konoha. And this is, where Naruto's dedication, talent for stealth, and skills as prankster truly come to shine.
He finds out, that the history of the downfall of Uzushiogakure is a lie. His home was not destroyed when Konoha was tragically too late to help against an united force of Suna, Iwa, and Mizu, but its destruction was orchestrated by all five great shinobi villages, their leaders seeing its power quickly rise to exceed them all. Naruto is shocked to read the hidden records of how his Jiji worked together to set up the death of his own allies, only to then fall his co-conspirators in the back, securing a long period of total supremacy for Konoha. (At that point, Naruto can either find out, his clansman was killed, or, if said clansman is weak enough not to hinder the story, he can save them. If they are female, the clansman can even serve as Naruto's future girlfriend.)
Naruto has always been only a step away from the abyss, his rare days with the Hokage, as well as some small kindness, or rather absence of hate, from the occasional stranger just enough to keep him from the edge, but this pushes him far, far down. Suddenly, his former most precious person becomes his greatest enemy, his classmates, formerly potential friends, no matter how unlikely, now targets of his revenge. Even the small kindnesses, he had experienced, or anything that might have redeemed Konoha in Naruto's mind, only a few days earlier, was now ground to dust beneath the weight of this incredible betrayal.
Naruto decides then and there to incite a fourth great shinobi war, that would swallow the whole of the Elemental Nations, and not end, until his home was avenged by the destruction of every single hidden village.
But Naruto knows, he is still weak, he still has to bide his time, to learn, to grow, to plan, and to gather allies, until he can disappear into the shadows and start his war.
(Starting a war isn't easy. When Naruto manages it, he has to keep it going, stopping any side from gaining enough allies to end it. Sometimes those problems sove themself through the actions of another village, or through secrets coming to light, but sometimes, Naruto and his group have to step in.
After the war, Naruto has the option of rebuild Uzu (he could even start doing that during the war, by building a vast underground lair, hidden by seals, offering potential new shinobi protection and shelter, while providing training, thereby inspiring great loyalty), or he could just walk away.)

74.: Cold Blood.
Orochimaru takes the position of the Yondaime Hokage. The Kyuubi attack transpires just like canon, Minato being the only shinobi, who can seal the rampaging Kyuubi.
But while Orochimaru has brought many great inventions and much knowledge to Konoha, and hasn't become a megalomaniac psychopath with an unhealthy obsession for a certain young teen, he is still far from the soft and forgiving politician of his predecessor.
Naruto is trained as soon as he can walk, by whatever teacher is best for any particular skill, sometimes even by Jiraiya or Orochimaru himself. The child proves to be a sponge for new skills, but neither Orojiji or Ero-sennin can teach Naruto the value of politeness. He even learns to use much of the Kyuubi's chakra to devastating effects.
Naruto's strength is sorely needed a few years later, when Orochimaru refuses to stand for the attempted abduction of a clan heir by a nin from a Kumo delegation and promptly has them all executed (the indicent is in this story, when Naruto is just about 10). Kumo doesn't take kindly to that and only a few days later, the fourth great shinobi war begins.
While Konoha may be by far the strongest of the hidden villages, especially considering the medic corps under Tsunade and her husband (who mainly does administrative duties after a nearly fatal injury and lasting crippling), and the powerful Uchiha and Hyuuga clans, they immediately have Kumo, Iwa, and Mizu as their enemies, with only the rather weak Suna on their side.
Naruto is sent on a variety of different missions with a variety of different people, learning while in the middle of the largest war to date (Kumo, Iwa, and Mizu have decided to split the whole Elemental Nations between them). He starts of with missions as part of a chuunin group, and sometimes ambushing a larger force alone by letting the Kyuubi go wild, but he grows with every mission.
(That is an idea for a radical A.U., with many new characters and a completely new storyline. It is about war and about Naruto coming into his own in the midst of carnage and destruction.)

75.: A New Home.
When Naruto found out, his precious Jiji had always known, that his parents didn't hate him, that he wasn't hated for anything he did, that all his suffering was just because people were stupid, he felt betrayed. That feeling became even worse, when he found out about his parents and how the Hokage had again lied to him. That was the moment, when Naruto stopped seeing Konoha as an ideal to be protected and began recognizing the ugliness.
Naruto saw countless parents, who forced their children to stay away from him to satisfy their own, unfounded grudges. He even remebered an Anbu disobeying an order, waiting until the last moment, while Naruto was being beaten by a mob. Garanted, it had been the last time, they had let a mob come anywhere near him, but still.
Naruto came to see, how a kunoichi in a trenchcoat was hated and bullied by her fellow shinobi for reasons, he couldn't find. He saw, how some clans were allowed to look down on others or even sometimes cruelly punish their own people, again for no reason, he could see.
Konoha was far from the bastion of good, he had been taught to see, and when he scratched up his memories of the academy lessons, he found, that they had always been taught, how great Konoha was, how it was good and fair and just and powerful, how it had been repeated again and again, until all of them believed it.
And all that only became worse, when he was sorted into a team with Sasuke and found his sensei didn't even want them. They had clearly failed the test, but Kakashi had been forced to pass them by the counci. And Naruto was sorely disappointed by his team. Sasuke didn't like him, which was mutual. Sakura didn't like him, especially after he had beaten her up after she had attacked him for some comment or another. And Kakashi was the worst. The Jounin made no secret of not wanting to be their sensei and didn't teach them a single useful skill.
Naruto had always known, what to do. No one believed in him? Become so great, that they had no other choice. He couldn't understand the material in the books? Sneak into the library and learn, until he understood. But now, that the greatness of his village turned out to be a lie? There was nothing, he could do.
That changed, when Naruto fought Haku, knocking the girl out after being forced to draw on the Kyuubi's chakra, just before Kakashi had killed Zabuza. Naruto had expected rage and hate, but after they had buried Zabuza, Naruto had had to convince Kakashi to do that, Haku had told him of her decision, that Naruto would be her new Master. For the first time in his life, Naruto had someone who looked at him with respect and admiration, for the first time, he had someone, who took him seriously, who didn't laugh at his dreams. And with that, Naruto felt, like he could do anything and decided, if he couldn't accept Konoha, he would create his own hidden village.
But that is far from easy. Even with Haku and later Jiraiya teaching him, he is far too weak, and aside from that, he needs a jutsu library, land, village defenses, and plenty of civilians to provide food, weapons, clothes, and whatever else a shinobi village needs.
Naruto spends most of his time training and the rest building towards his goals. At least, there are plenty of people, who could join him.
(Naruto is always on the lookout for new people to join his future village. He convinces Gaara after defeating him, and later Hinata to bring the branch house to him, when the village is finished.
But there are obviously many problems. Not a single hidden village is happy about additional competition, especially with the many jinchuuriki, Naruto has convinced to join him. Tensions rise, and there may even be another war.)

76.: Sadistic Bugger.
Naruto hates pretty much everyone and everything. He is a sadist to the extreme and his greatest wish is to see the world burn. But even though he just wants to have fun enjoying the pain and torment of his fellow Genin, it just doesn't work out. Whenever there is a truly important moment, without fail, whatever Naruto does leads to a sickeningly good outcome.
After hitting a wall in his training in the second year of academy, Naruto decided, he needed a sensei. Then, after a few days of searching through the streets of Konoha, he found a man, everyone seemed to be scared of. Naruto followed the man home and demanded him to teach him the shinobi arts. Ibiki, of course, refused, which prompted Naruto to start a series of increasingly sadistic pranks. After some time, Ibiki was impressed enough by Naruto's determination and inventiveness, that he took to teaching Naruto in between his assignments for the department of torture and interrogation. Naruto was particularly fascinated by the man's abilities in psychological torture and getting into someone's head, which he focused a lot on.
Example:
Naruto grinned, holding the two bells in his hand. This was perfect. With a dark chuckle in his voice, he turned to Sasuke, wanting to watch his expression for what came next. "Well, Kakashi-sensei, I really couldn't have done it without the help of my teammates." He grinned at Sakura, watching her flinch at being reminded of her complete uselessness. "And since Sasuke is a poor orphan, " oh, the delicious pain and rage in the boy's face, "and Sakura here cares so much for him..."
Naruto could see the moment of realization in Sasuke's face, followed by a grimace of horror. "I really couldn't stand between them. So I will take another year at the academy. I'm sure, Sakura will prove a sufficiently strong comrade to fight beside Sasuke."
It was all, Naruto could do, not to burst out in laughter at the faces of horror from Sasuke and depression from Sakura. It was delicious and perfect. Spending another year in the academy wouldn't be great, especially since he had looked forward to earning the money for a pair of chakra whips and the chance to 'spar' with them against his annoying female teammate, but staying on a team with that pink haired, disgusting, and loud disaster in waiting was just not worth the benefits of a team, even if he could regularly vent his frustrations on her, so it was for the best. And while he was honing his skills and waited for the next opportunity, he could enjoy the knowledge that both Sasuke and Sakura would be miserable.
Kakashi gave them a wide eyesmile, completely ignoring the mood. "Good job, everyone! This test was about teamwork and protecting your comrades. You all pass!"
It was all, Naruto could do, not to curse loud enough to be noticed over Sakura's incessant yelling.
(In this story, Naruto is the complete opposite of the canon version, but, even though it is exactly the opposite of what he wants, he inspires and motivates people just like in canon. This, of course, drives him into figurative insanity.)

77.: Sabaku No Naruto.
At a young age, Naruto is attacked by a mob on his birthday. After getting hit a few times, he taps into the Kyuubi's chakra and runs, as the mob is dispersed by Anbu forces. As soon as Naruto turns into a dark alley to hide, he is attacked by a shinobi. The man tries to knock him out, but Naruto claws wildly and manages to kill his assailant. Thinking, the shinobi of Konoha have decided to kill him, Naruto decides to flee the village. Managing to escape the village, Naruto runs for days, fueled by the Kyuubi's power, until he finds himself in the desert, alone, almost dead from hunger and thirst. Still, Naruto drags himself on, driven by some strange instinct to follow a particular direction. (When using the Kyuubi cloak, Naruto can pick up the scent of water from Sunagakure.) Finally, Naruto finds himself at a small oasis, what seems like a large rock formation (Sunagakure) just a few kilometers away. Desperately, Naruto starts to drink and then passes out. When he awakens, he comes eye to eye with a redheaded boy of his own age. They stare at each other wearily before asking at the same time: "Will you try to kill me, too?"
Naruto and Gaara, both lonely and hated, quickly become friends. They talk about their lives, how the villagers tried to beat up Naruto, how his father tried to have Gaara killed, how they were both completely isolated and ignored. At one point, Gaara's memories make him so angry, that he attacks Naruto and tries to crush him with his sand. Even though Naruto survives unharmed, protected by the Kyuubi cloak, the event has a profound impact on both of them.
Gaara vows to himself, that he will never again lose control of his anger or listen to the voice in his head. Gaara also tries to teach Naruto how to use his chakra cloak like Gaara uses his sand. They don't have much success, but Naruto learns, he can freely control his chakra cloak, making arms, lances, or whips with his chakra, as long as he doesn't disconnect it from his cloak.
When a jounin arrives to take Gaara back to Suna (he is at the oasis, so he can't harm anyone, while he loses control while he sleeps, so he is sent there every week or so), everything changes. The man brings them to Gaara's father, who is terrified by the prospect of some strange boy having influence over Gaara and orders Naruto killed. Drawing deeply on the power of both their bijuu, Naruto and Gaara manage to kill the Kazekage.
The Kazekage's death sparks a short civil war, in which most inhabitants of Sunagakure either try to kill the two boys or flee the village. After a few days, all that is left are those who have nowhere else to go or have too great of a loyalty to Suna to do anything but stay.
Only a day after the battles, Naruto and Gaara are approached by an elder, Chiyou, who asks them for help in activating the village's ultimate defense, since she knows that the other villages will soon learn about the civil war and attempt to destroy or conquer Suna. With their combined strength, they activate an extremely old and powerful sealing array, which powers an equally old and powerful jutsu. That jutsu enhances the destructive climate of the desert and uses a powerful genjutsu to make everyone with shinobi level chakra walk straight into the deepest parts of the desert, leading them around in circles until they were out of water, and finally towards Sunagakure, where they would find themselves on the verge of death, unable to defend themselves.
Suna is in shambles and Naruto and Gaara are left with the responsibility of leading the village to prevent everyone from starving in the middle of the desert. With the help of some retired shinobi, they manage to rebuild the system enough, so Suna can barely sustain itself by sending Genin teams of two or three on missions, accompanied by a Chuunin, only if it is absolutely neccessary. While in the village, the Genin are taught by those of the retired shinobi that are too old and weak to do missions. Naruto and Gaara begin to take missions of higher ranks to support themselves.
After one such mission, they find a shinobi near Suna. The shinobi begs them for help, promises them anything, promises to serve them and work for them in exchange for some food and water. As Gaara is about to kill the shinobi, Naruto gets and idea.
They decide to offer everyone with shinobi potential that is drawn to Suna the choice of either death or to become a slave of Suna. The slaves receive a seal that binds them to their master, allowing them to take their slave out of commission with a single hand seal, allowing the master to always find the slave, and killing the slave, if their master dies. If a slave is considered ready, they accompany their master on missions, which allows Suna to slowly raise their number of active shinobi, until they have standard teams of a master with two slaves instead of the old teams with three genin.
Around that time, Naruto's disappearance from Konoha, along with a dead Kumo nin, finally causes another shinobi war. But this war is different. Iwa and Kumo don't trust each other and no side is strong enough to attack another great village without exposing themself to an attack from another front.
Still, times are difficult, and Suna, even though the influx of slaves is greater than ever before, is still a broken and weak village. And even in the middle of a war, they can't stop missions, or they would starve.
(To clarify: Neither Naruto nor Gaara know any other way of life then being shinobi. But that, and their great power means, that Naruto or Gaara have to lead Suna, while they rest and train and the other is out of the village, completing a high level mission in the war torn elemental nations.
Suna's defense can't really be breached, since it is extremely difficult to notice it in the desert and even without it, the jutsu's activation destroyed most landmarks, and obscured the positions of the stars to some degree, making navigation almost impossible, while also hiding any sources of water.
Anyone who appears on Suna's doorstep becomes a slave or dies, according to Naruto's plan. There is an obvious exception for jounin, since they would be too difficult. That also leaves the pairing completely open. An orphaned Tayuya stumbles a few kilometers into the desert, a Konoha team could be forced to go there to avoid a more powerful enemy, someone could attempt to use the desert to attack Konoha teams from an unexpected direction or area.
Every shinobi is given a slave, as they appear near Suna. The shinobi then has to train the slave to be sufficiently powerful and loyal to accompany the shinobi into combat. Every shinobi who successfully has trained and worked with one slave gets another one, until the formerly low shinobi population of Suna has tripled.
Obviously Naruto in this story isn't a very nice person. He starts out angry at the world, but also happy that he has Gaara as a friend. He slowly grows into a hardened, determined shinobi, who comes to love Suna, as they come to respect him, due to Naruto's natural charisma. Gaara and Naruto both lead Suna together, but both are very powerful fighters and spend a lot of time on missions, training, and training their slaves, so most of the less important decision are made by the elders that aren't fit to teach. On the other hand, the elders don't have much real power and Naruto or Gaara could just kill all or one of them, if they do something to piss them off.)

78.: Yamanaka Naruto.
All the Anbu in the village had been unable to suppress the rumors about the Yondaime, the most feared shinobi in existence (most feared, not neccessarily most powerful), would have a child. That was expectend and not a problem. Until the Kyuubi attack.
Hiruzen is put in front of the decision of what to do with Naruto. He knows, all other villages will be paranoid and search for the boy, until they find him or definite proof of his death. Leaving the child with an orphanage is out of the question. Naruto will need a family that is unquestionably his. If someone looks at him and takes the time to look into his family, there has to be no doubt in anyone, that Naruto is truly the son of Yamanaka Inoichi.
Hiruzen calls the man into his office and tells his former student of Naruto's heritage and burden, as well as what he wants him to do. Inoichi returns to his clan compound and speaks to his wife. Two days later, they gather their clan, explain the situation, and perform a jutsu that changes the memories of everyone but Inoichi and his wife and makes them remember a false pregnancy, of which Naruto was born three weeks before the Kyuubi attack and which makes them think that Ino's date of conception was later than it actually was.
Naruto and Ino grow up as siblings, but soon difficulties begin. Naruto is a natural genius, possessing an incredible amount of chakra, along with intuition and a natural aptitute for all kinds of shinobi skills. He can use shruiken easily and learns taijutsu after seeing it once in a clan, which has always been physically weak. The clan jutsu come easily to him and he has enough chakra to learn far more advanced techniques far sooner than Ino. And Ino is envious of her brother's skill and afraid, she will lose the attention of her parents, so she decides, Naruto isn't her brother anymore. After several punishments are not enough to change how Ino acts, Inoichi decides to tell her and Naruto the truth.
From then on, Naruto has to play the perfect Yamanaka heir, using the clan's jutsu and hiding the vast intelligence, quick reflexes, and natural talent for battle, he has inherited from his father. He puts his strength into creating new, powerful mind jutsu that can be used in all kinds of battles to fit his needs.
On the other hand, as a member of the Yamanaka clan, Naruto also sees much of the darkness in his village, the enemies or suspects, whose minds are invaded, enemy, or even ally, shinobi, who are caught in Konoha territory and turned into sleeper agents by his clan, some crimes and knowledge of important information, which is erased from people who have no business knowing it, and much more.
(So, this story is about a Naruto who uses Yamanaka mind jutsu and shows great talent with it, inventing new jutsu, and using the clan's style in an offensive way, in which it was never intended for, but with great success. On the other hand, Naruto always has to fear for the secret of his identity. Naruto is a great talent, but also conflicted. Take a girlfriend for example. Why would he bother dating or waiting for her to fall in love, if he can just hit her with a few of his jutsu and she will see him as her god? Why would he bother winning an argument or explaining his actions, when he can far more easily change a person's memories? Power corrupts.
On the other hand, in this story, Jounin is supposed to be an elite rank. An elite Jounin could sneak into Konoha, kill Naruto, and sneak out again, without anyone the wiser. And it takes a very long time to reach that level, especially since this Naruto doesn't have the advantage of shadow clones.)

79.: A Dragon At Youkai Gakuen.
In this version of the Rosario to Vampire universe, Tsukune is the son of his human mother, Kasumi, and a dragon, Igneel. (The dragons that are left in the world are in the low single digits and are usually very old and solitary creatures.) But far from invincible, Tsukune is a normal human and will become a dragon only after hundreds of years. Moka's seal personality is very similar to outer Moka in the manga, but inner Moka is always awake and attentive, when outer Moka is awake, and can take control and unleash her full powers at will, since she was entered into the academy. The academy itself doesn't persue coexistence as much as it is simply trying to teach students how to keep their identities hidden in the human world in an attempt to avoid a war with humanity.
Tsukune grows up with his mother, his father only visiting once or twice a year while still providing for them. Tsukune knows nothing of his father, only that he is very rich, and that the man always encourages him to be proud of himself and do what he wants and live life without regrets, uncaring, if he doesn't follow a strict moral code or changes his opinion on a whim. (Igneel encourages Tsukune to be more like Natsu from Fairy Tail.) Tsukune, on the other hand, is a rather weak minded, indecisive person (like the Tsukune in the manga/anime).
Unaware of the world of youkai, Tsukune is terrified, but never has an opportunity to go back. At first, he becomes friends with Moka, but Kurumu seduces him and tastes his energy, finding out, he is human. While Kurumu alerts the Public Safety Commitee, Tsukune runs. He is chased through the woods, until, finally, inner Moka catches up with him. Moka remebers how horribly humans treatet her and feels betrayed by Tsukune, as well as hurt in her pride, and attacks Tsukune. (Since Moka never needed rescuing, their relationship is far weaker than in the manga and, of course, inner Moka takes the revelation much more badly than outer Moka.) The boy has no chance against the vampire and is beaten up badly, with countless lacerations and several broken bones.
Finally he remebers some of his conversations with his father and simply shouts "Father! Help!". Igneel arrives in his dragon form and slams Moka to the ground with the pressure of his youki alone (the dragons are each stronger then Alucard, but don't outclass him. They also have a worldview of 'if we help them, nothing interesting will ever happen. Of course they bend or break the rules, when they feel like it). Just then another squad of hunters arrive. Kurumu shouts "There is the human, like I told you!". Igneel blasts everyone except for Tsukune, Moka, and Kurumu a few kilometers away to have som privacy.
Then, since he decides, Kurumu and Moka are the ones to blame, he goes on to kill them. Tsukune interrupts and argues, why it is better not to kill them. Igneel answers all his arguments with "I don't care.", until Tsukune simply says "I don't want you to kill them."
After that, Igneel agrees to let Moka and Kurumu go, but in exchange won't help Tsukune again. He tells the two girls, their lives now belong to Tsukune, and that they are to protect and serve him. Then he explains to Tsukune, that he is the son of a dragon, but he won't have any significant amount of power for a long time, because dragons grow very slowly.
Finally, he heals Tsukune with a blast of his breath, and goes on to shout, so loud that the whole school can hear him, that he won't protect or help Tsukune anymore. After that, pretty much everyone wants something with Tsukune, either to befriend him, to use him, to recruit him, to outright kill him, or other things. And while Tsukune is quite well protected against direct attacks from outside of the school (and no one would be retarded enough to attack his mother), some of the more subtle methods may be much more devastating.
In the meantime Moka writes home for help and gets an answer that boils down to "Damn, now I have one less daughter that I could have used for something. Just do, what the dragon told you and don't get me mixed up in antagonizing a feaking dragon!!"
Tsukune reevaluates much of his memories of talks with his father and decides, he wants to become the person, his father always encouraged him to be. Strong, lead by his heart, and selfishly doing what he wants. But he still has to fight hard to keep the reigns on inner Moka, whose pride demands her to fight him at every turn.
Mizore is very interested in Tsukune, but not for his children, but rather to build up enough favor with him, so that he will help her village with their fertility problem, when his powers grow to that level.
(The youkai and their powers in this fic are supposed to be way more interesting than in the manga. Kurumu, for example, would only use direct confrontation as a last resort, after using her charm, illusions, and her power over dreams to weaken or mentally destroy her opponent. Ruby doesn't just throw magic at people, but can also do stuff like scrying, divination, potions, or voodoo. She could also use a sacrifice to call on the power of Igneel or other, similarly powerful creatures, like gods. There are much more indirect and mysterious powers, that allow for different appoaches towards a goal, and that make the Youkai Academy a much more dangerous place, since you can't just punch every danger.
On the other hand, there are details about the youkai themselves. Personally, I like the version of succubi, where their Destined One is actually more than just a silly crush, but instead becomes the center of their lives and changes them from creatures that live for lust to creatures that live for love. On the other hand, succubi change, mentally and physically, consciously and unconsciously, to become the perfect woman, their Destined One desires. That, of course, is an accepted and relished process for a succubus, but creepy, as well as strangely fascinating for Tsukune.
Tsukune himself starts out as his whimpy manga self, but develops into something closer to Natsu from Fairy Tail, of course with better self control.)

80.: World At War.
After Voldemort confronts the Potters and dies from the backlash of attacking Harry, things go from bad to worse.
At first, everything is fine, but then, after successfully finding and killing the traitor Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black wants to take custody of his godson Harry Potter. Finding out about his placement with the Dursleys, he confronts Dumbledore, who just repeats, that it was neccessary. Sirius investigates and finds a number of suspicious events, which lead him to the conclusion that Dumbledore deliberately let the attack on his best friends happen in order to facilitate the prophecy. (Sirius knows the full prophecy.) Sirius decides to break away from Dumbledore, and begins using his family's significant influence and power to push the radical persecution and execution of any remaining deatheaters. Meanwhile, he secretly prepares and fortifies the most secure private building in the world, Black Castle, to house Harry, who he took from the Dursleys only a week, after he had been placed there. Sirius quickly gains a following of like minded wizards, most of them fighters in the war.
Bellatrix Lestrange is devastated by her Lord's death. But just as she thinks, she has nothing left to live for, she remembers a priceless relic, her Lord had given her for safekeeping. She takes it from Gringotts and flees the country to eastern Europe.
In a cave, somewhere in Britain, Regulus Black sits, intently watching an amulet, his eyes beginning to gain a red taint.
Lucius Malfoy is desperate. He knows, it is only a matter of time, until he is interrogated and likely executed by the ministry. A prisoner in his own house, escape is not an option. In his desperation, he turns to a book, the Dark Lord has given him some time ago.
A little less than ten years later, Harry is ready to take part in his first raid. In a world torn between so many fractions, there are many precious things, from powerful magical weapons to potions ingredients. And after most fractions managed to recreate the artifacts that revealed the locations of muggleborns, raids were made for those too, the parents obliviated, or killed by the darker fractions, and the children taken away and sworn into the service of one or another fraction.
There were many fractions. Dumbledore held Hogwarts, supported by the Order of the Phoenix, along with an approximate quarter of the population. The Dark Lord, who had once been Malfoy, now controlled the ministry completeley, in his service a few of the auror forces, but mostly the remaining deatheaters held power of another quarter. The other Dark Lord, who had once been Regulus Black, now was a necromancer, his small group of loyal followers and sophisticated zombies supported by an army of inferi, as well as more gruesome and powerful abominations. The Dark Lady, once Bellatrix Lestrange, who had returned to Britain after gathering an army of followers in eastern European states. Former Minister for Magic Millicent Bagnold, who had gathered the loyal aurors and a quarter of the population, when Malfoy had taken over the ministry. And Sirius Black, who had raised his own fraction from nothing to protect his godson, holding the hidden Castle Black.
Now, Harry's part in the war begins with his first raid, a mission to extract a muggleborn, the first of the new generations, for which he would take up leadership.
But with so many fractions, there is barely anyone unbound by oaths, that can be trusted. And treason is far from a rare occurence.
(Harry is not a horcrux in this story. The fractions all have different behavior:
Malfoy's fraction, based in the offcial ministry of magic, is by far the strongest at first, but due to his bigotry and cruelty, as well as his obvious deatheater ties, and the fact that he calls himself the Dark Lord, many of the more powerful and courageous people quickly leave his fraction.
Bagnold's fraction, on a constant move between hiding places, is weak at first, but many people join her, since she is a great leader, only for even more to leave her, as, over the years, it becomes clear that she is just a normal witch and far from the likes of the Dark Lords, Dumbledore, or Sirius.
Dumbledore's fraction, save in Hogwarts, is, after a few years, the largest, since many people look up to him for help, and Hogwarts is the safest location. But his people, especially the fighters, lose trust in him, since he is too secretive and doesn't share his power, as well as being extremely reluctant to kill, which in turn makes for many deaths among his fraction. (No, Hogwarts can not be taken by a bunch of deatheaters in this story. it would take years to take the wards down with direct attacks, and sneaking into it, when Hogwarts is on lockdown is night impossible.)
Regulus' fraction starts off weak, but as he gains experience and access to more bodies, his zombies become more powerful. On the flipside, he has no one to strategize with, and his necromantic contructs are unable to improvise, adapt to situations, or gain experience, at least in most cases.
Bellatrix' fraction starts off with quickly recruited deatheaters from foreign countries, which are weaker than any of the veterans of the war, and many of them leave, when it becomes clear, that the war will not be the one sided affair, she promised them. After a few examples of what happens to deserters, they stop trying to leave, but the damage is done. On the other hand, the deatheaters have no respect for Malfoy and hate, how he looks down on them, and many of them join Bellatrix.
Sirius' fraction, hidden in the heavily fortified Black Castle, begins as a small group of people. He, Remus, friends, family, and friends of their family. They have to hold onto their position and bring in muggleborns on sheer ingenuity and determination. But as the war continues, people look to him for guidance after being terrorized by the government under Malfoy, hopeless with Bagnold, and feeling like pawns under Dumbledore. Sirius starts strong, as a paragon of light. He tries to avoid killing and the use of dark arts. But he learns quickly, that leaving enemies alive is not a viable option, and, as he sees comrades die, starts using dark magic, if neccessary, even some rituals, and also enables this for anyone, who follows him. But people also see, how ruthless Sirius is in the defense of his friends, and some are scared of him turning dark, especially those of other light fractions. (Black Castle is similar to Hogwarts in some ways, but darker, and the Black family tradition of dark magic is undeniable. The wards are similar to Hogwarts, but not on the same level. Of course, Black Castle's main advantage is, that it is hidden, and not widely known.))

81.: Violent Whispers.
It is a testament to Harry's mental fortitude, that he survived growing up with a horcrux inside of his head. Granted, his parents' protections had kept the piece of Voldemort's soul at bay, until he was five years old, but since then, he has been on his own. At least the slow weakening of protections had given him time to learn how to fight the soul piece. Over the next years, Harry learns how to fight off the horcrux' attempts to take over his body without much difficulty. He survives growing up with the Horcrux in his head, but far from undamaged.
By the time, he starts going to school, the soul piece has still not given up trying to take over Harry. But the whispers in his head create far more difficult problems than that. They cause his emotions to flare, his state of mind changing on a daily basis, sometimes in the span of minutes, from angry and brutal, to sad and depressed, to cruel and sadistic, to meek and fearful. One day, Harry is bullied by Dudley, the next day, he torments and terrifies the boy, the next day, he has to hold himself back from going to apologize.
Once he enters Hogwarts, it does not get better. Harry may be driven crazy by the voice in his head, but he knows, he can never let the headmaster know. If he did, he would be killed, if he was lucky, locked away and experimented on, or put into Azkaban, if he was unlucky. To make things worse, his fellow Gryffindors don't even consider trying to help him, but tell him to stay away, once they have seen a bit of his insanity.
But his moodswings don't become better, they become worse. And even though, he finds himself depressed or fearful increasingly rarely, his brutal, angry, sadistic side grows even stronger, with fits of anger, where he can only barely resist hurting someone, anyone, close to him. And as if that wasn't enough, he starts seeing flashes of memories from the soul piece, the connection growing stronger, sometimes even making him doubt, who he is, if only for a second.
Harry knows, what Voldemort wants to do. If the horcrux can't take over Harry and be reborn as Voldemort, it will try its damnest to shape Harry himself into a similar monster. Harry doesn't know what to do. He is completely alone, without help. But he has to resist.

82.: The Menagerie Is For Enemies Only.
Harry has always been a smart boy, interested in books, just as much genuinely as out of necessity. He has also always been a loner, also out of necessity, but later because of his lack of social skills. But, after trying hard to avoid people infatuated with his fame, he is alone and lonely in Ravenclaw house. Until Hagrid's letter arrives, that is. After that, Harry begins to spend much time with his half giant friend, sometimes just sitting in his hut, doing homework, sometimes accompanying him when the man was on duty. And Hagrid's fascination with magical creatures was infectuous.
Soon, they were talking about all kinds of creatures, cross breeding was one of Harry's favorite topics. It was fascinating to imagine the possibilities of what combinations of magical creatures could become. With magic, the options were far, far more than any muggle could even imagine, especially with Harry's considerable talent in potions.
After the troll attack, where the student was fortunately saved from the troll by the Hogwarts wards, Harry begins to see the dangers of the magical world. He convinces Hagrid to help him use his recently acquired uninseminated dragon egg to fertilize it with Fluffy's sperm, and raise and train it as his protector.
The experiment is a success, but sadly is killed later in the same year taking down the possessed professor. Fluffy is killed as well, and Harry has no powerful specimen left to breed into a powerful protector for himself. So he, sometimes with Hagrid's help, begins to experiment with crossbreeding different species, as well as trying to find ways to purge weaknesses out of their DNA with potions before birth.
In the second year, Harry has a stroke of luck. After helping and befriending a bullied first year, Lune Lovegood, she has taken to following him and helping him, as if she was his servant. He decides to take advantage of that and finds, the girl has an amazing knowledge of magical creatures, as well as many fascinating ideas for his projects. Now, he would not let anything hold him back.
(This story has Harry use all kinds of insane and dangerous crossbred animals to fight. He spends a lot of time searching for species all over the world. Basilisks, Dragons, Tasmanian Devils, anything that is dangerous and/or interesting. Harry himself is rather weak. His battle skills can barely stand up to the average student in his class.)

83.: A Life Without Regrets.
When Harry first shows accidental magic, long before he starts going to primary school, the Dursleys begin to hate him. A few years later, Harry, covered in bruises from another, shockingly even fight with Dudley and his gang, he finds a large and powerful, but shaggy and starved looking dog lying on the street. He decides, he wants a companion and takes the dog and nurses it back to health in the back of the garden, where even Petunia doesn't go often.
But, inevitably, the dog is found out. Harry prepares himself for another beating, as he has become used to after steadfastly refusing to do any chores that Dudley didn't do as well, but the dog, he has named Sirius, jumps at Vernon and Harry barely keeps him from mauling the man. After Sirius somehow manages to always be there, when Vernon is about to call anyone for help, the Dursleys get used to the dog's presence.
With his new friend, Harry begins exploring the suburbs, and having fun for the next few years, until he becomes thirteen. On his thirteenth birthday, a strict looking woman visits his family and immediately acts as if she is looking into death's face, shouting something about a "grim", when she sees Sirius for the first time. (Note: Animagi are really, really, really rare in this story. There are no more than a dozen in total in Britain, most of them unregistered. So the number of registered animagi is three. Therefore, no one would even consider Sirius being an animagus.) Then the large dog jumps at her and licks her all over to her obvious disgust. The woman introduces herself as Professor McGonagall.
Later on the same day, when Harry has an evening stroll through a lone park, his dog suddenly turns into a man, who explains him about Voldemort, his parents' deaths, Wormtail, and the prophecy. Then he takes Harry back to Diagon alley, turns back into a dog, and accompanies him, as he buys ingredients for a potion to remove the trace from his wand. After a week, the potion is complete, and they spend their remaining time with Sirius teaching him a few basic spells.
On the Hogwarts Express, Harry's personality truly begins to change things up. When Ron enters finds out about his name, Harry tells him that he has no interest in fanboys and to piss off. Malfoy, he tells, that he is a bigoted little shit, who is completely worthless without his daddy's reputation. When his cronies don't take that well, Harry gives them all bloody noses and kicks them out of the compartment. The prefect sent to take care of the problem is understanding and offers to teach him some spells instead of making her rounds. During a failed attempt, Hermione comes in, and, in her typical manner, shows off, what spells she already can cast. Harry tells her to stop being such a condescending bitch and to stop trying to help people only to show off and to make herself feel superior, and she may make a few friends. Hermione runs off crying, the prefect is shocked, and Harry just shrugs and says, its the truth.
Once sorted into Gryffindor, Harry can't wait to start having fun with magic. But the first weeks are anything but easy. While he can do the school work without any problems, he is less then polite to Snape and plainly refuses to attend detention and says, he doesn't feel like being bullied by an unprofessional, greasy git, with some stupid, unjustified grudge. Later, when he is called into Dumbledore's office, he repeats those very same words, and tells Dumbledore, that it's not Harry's problem, if the headmaster hires shitty teachers. When Dumbledore threatens to expel him, he calls the bluff, and tells the man, that there are guaranteed to be plenty of schools willing to take him in. When Dumbledore sends him away with an admonishment about being respectful to his professors, Harry tells him to go fuck himself, mainly because he is pissed of at the headmaster.
Later, he catches Neville's remembrall and tells McGonagall that he won't accept any punishment just because the teachers are unable to prevent bullying. But he takes well to being the seeker, even though Wood says, he flies like a complete madman and Harry loves interfering with the enemy chasers and dancing on the line of what the game's rules allow. Over that week, Sirius has disappeared somewhere in the castle, but Harry trusts the man to know, what he is doing. In that time, Neville loses his wand, gets a new one, and is suddenly much better at everything, though still average. Later, there is an outcry, as Peter Pettigrew's mangled corpse is found in the great hall.
Over the year, Harry trains fighting with Sirius, provides the man with some books from the library, gets his invisibility cloak (Dumbledore made an oath to James to give it to Harry in his first year at Hogwarts), basks in his popularity, and drives Snape up the walls. Harry gains a few loose friends, including Hermione (they study together sometimes, nothing more. Hermione has a few friends herself and Harry spends most of his time with Sirius, learning how to fight, or exploring Hogwarts), but not Ron, and basks in his popularity. When they find out about the Stone, Harry warns Dumbledore about that someone is trying to steal it, and, when Dumbledore seems to ignore him, shouts it out to everyone in the great hall during lunch. Soon thereafter, Quirrel disappears.
Harry continues in a similar vein. He is blunt and brutally honest, and does what he wants, no matter if that breaks the rules, makes him a hypocrite, or what others think. He becomes a great fighter and loves combat and duelling. He joins the duelling club in his first year and shows huge improvements, even if he tends to go over the top, when he is pushed.
In the second year, Harry and Sirius both dislike Lockhart, who is far too annoying to make up for his somewhat competent DADA lessons. Harry, therefore, getss lessons in pranking, much to Lockhart's chagrin. Fred and George eventually find out about them and are excited to get to know one of the marauders. Sirius uses the opportunity to teach Harry some business, setting up a contract, where Harry provides F&G with a shop in Diagon and money for materialss in return for a permanent cut of the profits. When students get attacked, Harry, at first, says it's Dumbledore's problem, but when one of his friends is petrified, he takes it personally and starts researching and hunting for the monster. They manage to defeat it without Fawkes' help, and Sirius keeps the Sword of Gryffindor, which appears out of thin air during the fight.
After the second year, Harry and Sirius take to exploring the Chamber of Secrets, and later search for other secrets the founders have hidden. They find some, including an artifact, that is the symbol of the ruler of Atlantis, a spellwhip, which works like a lightsaber (but as a whip), when magic is channeled into it. It can hit, and cut, and does tremendous damage (or no damage at all, that is guided by the intent of the user) to anything it touches, including magic like wards or items. Just like the Sword, the whip can deflect direct offensive magic, like stunners or killing curses.
During the tournament, Harry forgoes trying to compete as a champion in favor of all kinds of other competitions, like duelling, and group battles. He also uses his popularity with the witches to have a lot of dalliances and one night stands, learning a lot about sex, kinky sex, and kinkier sex, and having a ton of fun.
During that time, Sirius finally returns to the public and restores the Black fortune and investments to a point, where they can be self-sufficient. Harry still learns, Sirius also sends him several books from the Black library.
Harry graduates with good NEWTs and spends some time partying, but soon, he craves adventure. So he and Sirius decide to travel the world as mercenaries. They soon become famous for their fighting prowess, but equally so for Harry's tendency to kill their employers, if they try to make him do something he sees as wrong. On the other hand, he also goes above and beyond for causes he deems as right. (Obviously those adventures are a very important part of the story and should be written down.)
Several years later, when Harry and Sirius hear of Voldemort's ressurection, they return, after much adventure, many women, and with many priceless artifacts. They insist they are paid handsomely, with a stupidity bonus for any deatheater they encounter, that has escaped Azkaban after the first war.
Then they wage a war like Voldemort has never expected. They kill any deatheater they encounter, except those, they use to gain information. They strike without warning at non official deatheaters and supporters alike. When they are forced to defend a deatheater attack, Harry stands unmoved and calm with wand and spellwhip, decimating his enemies, quickly becoming a legend as much as Dumbledore. Except for deatheaters and their families. For them, he becomes a nightmare.

84.: Harry Black.
Sirius doesn't let Hagrid take Harry to Dumbledore. Instead, he takes the boy with him to Grimmauld place and leaves him in Kreacher's care, while he goes to hunt the traitorous rat. Sirius manages to kill Peter after a surprisingly long fight, only to ripped apart by the spells of a bunch of arriving aurors.
Harry inherits the Black family and is cared for by Kreacher and two other elves, until he is ready to learn how to read. That, he is taught by a portait of Phineas Nigellus Black, former headmaster of Hogwarts. Thereafter, Harry is allowed to chose a wand from the family collection, which doesn't fit him well, but enough to learn. Finally, Kreacher is sent to bring him a book from the library, which Harry isn't allowed to enter yet. The book is a somewhat sentient magical construct, which was filled with knowledge and experiences from every head of the Black family for centuries, and serves as a failsave to raise children, in case all adult family members are dead. The book (similar to Tom's diary, but not a horcrux) teaches and raises Harry, teaching the English language, Latin, and enough of several other ancient languages to use rituals. He also learns about history, mathematics, general knowledge, and much else. After some time, Harry is allowed to start practicing magic, at first only simple spells, and some that are necessary for any wizard, but quickly turning towards the dark arts. He begins using rituals that will strengthen him and improve his mind, body, and magic, and learns spells from the Black library, that will allow him to kill, torment, deceive, and control others.
When he is seven, Harry completes the ritual for a blood adoption, making him a true Black. After that point, the trusted retainers, those who act as managers and administrators for the Black family's vast holdings and numerous retainers all over the Magical British Empire. (In this story, the magical side of the British Empire never lost its colonies since another country is only a portkey away. Britain is the predominant power in the magical world. The Black family is the most powerful family in Britain and with that the world. It consists mainly of investments, holdings, and retainers, the latter being bound in the main family's service permanently. Their retainers genrally don't hate the Blacks, since they may look down on them, but do a good job of protecting them and bring good financial fortune to those in their service.)
When he arrives at Hogwarts, Harry is sorted into Slytherin, and his world turns on its head. The house that is his birthright is full of pretentious, self-important fools, most of which hate him for vanquishing their Dark Lord. But anyone who would attack the Black family deserves to die. Fortunately, one of the rules that is strictly enforced in Slytherin is, that no one is allowed to start a conflict with someone in a lower year. The power structure of each of the seven years is to be held seperate, unless one student is confident enough to attack one of the higher years. Harry, who is used to learning magic from the family tomes that equates the difficulty of spells of fourth years, quickly takes over the first three years. (In this universe, Hogwarts is the school for all students of the Magical British Empire. Students from all over the world travel via portkey to the platform 9.75 to attend Hogwarts. Therefore the classes are much larger. Also, Hogwarts starts at 13.)
The second belief that is shattered is the supposed worthlessness of mudbloods. Harry wants to see things that support the opinion of the Blacks that raised him, that they should just be killed off before they damaged their society, that they were weaker than purebloods, unworthy of magic, but he can't help but find that many of them are not inferior to most purebloods. Especially that bright witch that kept trying and failing to take his spot as best student in his year. And while she has a desire to show off her superiority and a condescending attitude while explaining things to others, meaning she obviously has to be shown her place, she also seems to have a strong desire for acknowledgement and a thing for authority figures. He can work with that, especially after her awkward fixation on him after he saves her from a troll, a great excuse to try out the little of the dark arts, he has learnt so far. And, of course, letting another student die doesn't sit well with him. In the end, her talent, dedication, and concentration make her worthy to offer her the chance to become a servant of his, with the eventual option of her family becoming retainers of the Blacks, both options usually reserved for half bloods.
Then, in the second year, Dumbledore himself is killed by a basilisk. A few weeks later, a package arrives for him, which contains notes by the headmaster about a prophecy and horcruxes.
Dumbledore is replaced by a new headmaster, who isn't really remarkable and certainly no help with any fight against Voldemort. And with that, Harry truly recognizes, that he is on his own. He may have some time to use his influence and seat in the Wizengarmot to prepre Britain for the coming war, but he also has to learn enough to stand against the Dark Lord.
And so, Harry lives as a Black, using the Blacks' traditional solutions to solve his problems. Throw money at a problem. Or throw dark curses at a problem.
(In this story, Harry is raised like a pureblood, similar to Malfoy, but with actual smarts, class, and skills. But while he is a typical bigoted and self-centerd pureblood, he isn't delusional and recognizes wrong information, when he sees it. His ideas and values change. Not much, granted, but enough, so that he is closer to grey than to dark. He eventually decides to try to reform British society (and with that much of the world) to have purebloods on top, but with halfbloods and muggleborns having a place. He also learns about the muggle world and gains a different standpoint, where he thinks, it is better for wizards to rule muggles from the shadows, than to hide from them. With that, he has his work cut out for him.)

85.: A New Enemy.
Voldemort truly died that night, when he tried to kill Harry as an infant.
But in the year 2010, when Harry is thirteen and about to start Hogwarts, a new enemy emerges. In the last two decades, the number of muggleborn wizards and witches actually chosing to attend Hogwarts had lowered dramatically. More and more chose the potential of technology over the wonders of magic. And similarly, the old tradition of obliviation of muggle witnesses became less and less effective. And by now, the governments of the world are aware of the existence of magic and do, what is the obvious next step. They abduct and experiment on wizards and witches.
Dragged into the conflict, when the governments start systematically abducting muggleraised students, Harry is, by the time of his third year, the one people look up to to solve the current crisis. But typical for magicals, or humans in general, they do not want to pay the price, modernization of their society and rules. Tensions between the two groups rise, as the ministry of magic considers sending dementors to deal with the muggle threat.
Now it is on Harry to prevent a war. He tries and fails to convince people in the muggle government to stop the abductions, their greed for power is too big. Convincing magicals to reform their ways, to integrate technology into their way of life and find ways to blend them to create the possibility to keep the secret of magic, is slow going. But it has to be done. And then there is the problem of how to get rid of and cover up all the information muggles already have found.

86.: Heir Of The Founders.
When Harry first enters Hogwarts, he feels, like he has finally found a home. That is unsurprising, seeing that the Dursleys always made it abundantly clear that his home was not with them. The next day, he finds the way to the great hall without any problem, without even making one step in the wrong direction. From then on, he finds, he has an impeccable sense of direction, never gets lost, finds hidden passages without even trying, is always a few minutes faster than anyone else, and can find anyone anytime in Hogwarts, even without knowing their location. The staircases also are always in the most convenient position for him.
The next notable event happens at Samhein. Harry goes after Hermione and saves her. The troll foces him into a corner, and just as he throws a stone at it in a desperate attempt to harm it, it pulverized in a flash of light. At the same time, the Fred and George come into the room. They take them and evade the teachers on the way back to the Gryffindor dorms. After that, the twins tell them, the flash must have been the wards defending Harry.
The twins quickly become Harry's first real friends (he isn't friends with Ron here) and soon find, that Harry has a special connection to the castle. They decide to explore it, and at first use it to make small pranks easier. As they find out more, they get the idea to use it for big pranks. After over a year of trial and error, they manage to find out, that Harry can impose certain rules in the castle, like forcing everyone to speak the truth, which is a very funny prank, but has lasting consequences. They continue regular pranking. Harry also learns a lot from them.
Harry continues his years through school by taking control over the basilisk, using the wards to fry Dementors, abusing his home field advantage during the seven tasks of the tournament. After Voldemort's revival, he decides, that rather than fighting the Dark Wizard over the ministry, Harry will invite everyone to Hogwarts for protection and then prepare the castle, create the ultimate maze with all kinds of enchantment, curses, and traps, a perfect environment for him to start a guerilla war against Voldemort.

87.: The Value Of Life.
After Sarutobi Hiruzen sacrifices himself to imprison the Kyuubi in Naruto, the boy is raised by his father. Despite the loss of his mother, Naruto grows up happy, respected and adored by the whole village. He knows from an early age, that he contains the Kyuubi and that it is dangerous to be a Hokage's son. But the Yellow Flash is so respected in the Elemental Nations, that no one would dare attack Konoha or Naruto.
Minato's reputation alone is enough to shift power and prosperity from rival villages to allies.
But a Hokage's duties are many, and, aside from teaching his son about sealing and the basics of his own fighting style, Minato has little time for Naruto. That leaves room for Danzou, who sees the Hokage's power as a golden opportunity to subjugate the other villages. Between the fame, the respect, adoration, and Danzou's influence, Naruto becomes arrogant and self absorbed. He begins to think that a war between the shinobi villages is desirable for Konoha and starts working towards it, whenever he has the chance.
Of course Naruto is far from subtle enough to deceive the greatest shinobi the world has ever known (yes, with a dozen more years to train and learn, Minato is way above the level of the Shodaime and Madara), but even though Minato confronts his son, Naruto continues in his quest.
Left with the choice between several severe measures of dealing with him, Minato decides, Naruto has to experience the hardships of the shinobi life to fully appreciate peace.
Before reaching normal genin age, Naruto is banished from Konoha, told by his father that Konoha shinobi on guard would receive kill on sight orders.
Soon the other villages, some missing nins, as well as several organizations find out about Naruto's banishment. None of them want to actually kill Naruto, since they aren't suicidal and also assume, Minato has some sort of watch/protection on his son. (Orochimaru never went rogue in this fic, since he's not suicidal enough to betray Minato. The Uchiha massacre also didn't happen because not even the Uchiha are stupid enough to try a coup against a Kage that is not old and weak.)
Naruto goes onto a journey that opens his eyes to the vile world of shinobi. He sees helpless civilians massacred, he sees civil war, he sees hate, suffering, and revenge. He is also chased and harassed, from physical wounds to offers of powers to seduction to blackmail attempts, everyone wants the child of the Yondaime in their service. But Naruto not only wants to be master of his own life, he also comes to see, just how rotten every fraction is, how far they would go for power or to archive other goals. Through all that, Naruto grows, his intelligence and talent allowing him to develop his shinobi skills without a sensei, but his mindset also changes. He decides to do his best to change the world for the better, one step at a time.

88.: Naruto's Vison.
This is a story idea about the original version of Naruto, that follows the picture of the first few manga chapters:
Jinchuuriki don't exist, the Kyuubi is the only Bijuu and Naruto can't consciously use its chakra and never more than he used in wave, meaning he can't manifest even the one tailed kyuubi cloak. Boss summons also don't exist. There are only five shinobi villages (no small villages, no samurai, maybe with the exception of Amegakure), and they have very few people (around 250-300 total active shinobi per village). Battles are won with smarts, trickery, and stealth, like the one of Zabuza vs Kakashi. Raikiri and Rasengan is about the most powerful any jutsu can get, and doujutsu don't have any evolutions. Shadowclones do not have memory transfer. On the other hand, there are no enemies you can't kill with a well placed kunai or fireball. (Any jutsu that is more powerful than the Rasengan doesn't exist, any defense that can't be beaten by a rasengan doesn't exist. Any jutsu that is more powerful than a Gokakyou no Jutsu (Great Fireball) or any defense that can't be overcome with it should belong to a Jounin or higher.
Naruto is a nameless orphan, has no connection to the Yondaime, and the Uzumaki clan does not exist.
Madara is long dead and the Rinnegan doesn't exist outside of legends. Akatsuki doesn't exist like it does in the manga. It may be a rebel movement in Ame.
All problems are created by other shinobi or civilians, there are no godly forces or long dead legends at work. Any shinobi stronger than Kakashi is extremely rare, unknown people of Kage/Sannin level should be less than four or five.
To become a better shinobi, people have to learn over long periods in order to train speed, smarts, and tactics. Taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu are all equally important.
On the other hand, the world is far more dark and gritty. Killing is normal and expected. When shinobi of non allied villages meet, deadly conflict is not unexpected.
So, this story is in the universe shown in the first few Naruto chapters. It can be anything. There is no rule against something like the Akatsuki, but it should make sense, especially considering the small universe. Aside from that, a war between villages or Konoha intervening in Kirigakure or fighting a shadowwar against Kumo are options. But it is important to remember that ten shinobi are already a large force, and fifty is should be around the largest shinobi force ever together in one battle.

89.: His Godfather's Godson.
After seeing how baby Naruto is treated in the orphanage that is supposed to take care of him, Jiraiya decides to take his godson with him on his journeys and employ tutors or teach him himself.
Over the next years, Naruto is well raised: Knowledgeable, intelligent, and incredibly talented, Naruto begins soaking up Jiraiya's knowledge at the age others would just start at the academy. The two rarely visit Konoha, but Naruto enjoys traveling. The only thing he is missing are some friends of his own age, but Jiraiya is pretty childish, so he doesn't miss friends all that much.
But all shinobi have to start off as Genin and rise through the ranks, and so Naruto returns to Konoha to become a genin.
Once there, he is hugely disappointed. Super pervert that he is, even though he doesn't let himself be hit by anyone, nor does he steep so low as to peek, except social peeking with his godfather, of course, Naruto uses the new Icha Icha to bribe the Hokage into putting him on a team with three girls, Hinata, Ino, and Kurenai as his sensei.
And it is there, that the trouble begins. Naruto finds his generation of shinobi to be horribly weak. His teammates, and even the supposed rookie of the year, Sasuke, are knocked out without any problem, and how is he supposed to respect a sensei, he can defeat without even breaking a sweat? (Naruto is horribly difficult to put under a genjutsu and is perceptive enough to easily find and dispel them. He also can constantly fluctuate his chakra without problem.)
D-ranks are ridiculous, as are Kurenai's demands that he should participate in team training, especially since he has so much better things to do, like learning how to draw nature chakra while running, learning the Hiraishin no Jutsu, or attempting to bring combine his wind nature with the Rasengan without hurting himself. At least for the D-ranks he can use shadowclones, since he usually manages to substitute them without Kurenai noticing.
The other Jounin sensei sometimes try to help Kurenai, and at least Gai is a great sparring partner, as long as they keep with taijutsu.
When they finally get their first C-rank mission to Nami no Kuni (Wave country), Naruto finds himself with a beautiful girl that has some strange fixation with living for someone else and decides, he just has to get her on his team. In exchange for making a four man team, Naruto has to promise to respect his sensei, and with that he is suddenly part of a team for real.
And then the chuunin exams come, and with them a chance at freedom.
Only for the fourth great shinobi war to begin.
(So this is supposed to center heavily on character development. When Naruto becomes a Genin, he is half way between Kakashi and Jiraiya and has no respect for anyone who can't beat him in a fight. During his time on a team, he clashes with everyone very frequently, since he thinks:

Kurenai is far too focused on looking confident and capable and can't bring herself to admit that she is a horrible sensei and one of her genin can beat her with his hands tied behind his back. Later, he recognizes the usefulness of genjutsu and starts learning them from her, showing great talent, as he does with everything else. Hinata won't ever become a decent shinobi, if she keeps being so scared by her father, that she can't form a coherent sentence. Is Ino even serious about becoming a shinobi? The girl is literally the second weakest member of her graduating class. How should Sasuke ever become strong, when he spends more time daydreaming about his brother than living in reality? Also, he is an arrogant, annoying brat, who doesn't even appreciate all the girls throwing themselves at him. Also, he is weak, which Naruto loves to make fun of. Sakura is the weakest one from her graduating class and therefore has no place getting upset, when anyone makes jokes about Sasuke. Also, if she tries to hit someone, she should be prepared to be hit back and not complain about a few broken bones. Naruto and Sakura don't get along.

Sweet and submissive Haku is, from Naruto's point of view, as treasure chest of perversions, but after making her call him Master and getting strange looks from everyone, Naruto actually gets scruples when thinking about pushing her further.
During his time on team 8, Naruto slowly starts to learn about tricks and lies, and other sides, he has little experience with. And as he spends time with them, he slowly gets to know more of the people around him.
This story is, as said before, very much about character interaction, mainly between Naruto, Kurenai, Hinata, Ino, and Haku, all of which in some way clash with Naruto. Naruto himself is a genin with the abilities of an S-rank shinobi, but still has a lot to learn.
When the war begins, there are a lot of terrible experiences, and the character development is pushed into overdrive.)

90.: The Deal.
After being thrown out of the orphanage and spending a week alone on the streets, a very young Naruto tries to kill himself. But since Kurama doesn't want to wait half a century to reform, the only thing Naruto does is making a visit to his mindscape.
Naruto has no clue about anything, and Kurama is bored, so the two make a deal:
Kurama will become Naruto's friend and help and protect the boy, but in return, Kurama gets control of their body every other day.
What the two don't count in is, how much Naruto's longing for acceptance and Kurama's pride will clash.
And so, one day, Naruto cowers under the glare of the villagers, the other day, the villagers cower under Kurama's glare.
One day, Naruto makes nice with Jiji, the other day, Kurama asks the Hokage some very unpleasant questions.
Complete chaos ensues and no one is truly happy about it, except for Kurama. His life has never been so entertaining.

91.: Naruto, Demon Of The Mist.
Naruto's life in Konoha is pretty bad, no matter how one would look at it. Parents keep their children away from him, either out of hatred for him or to prevent their children from becoming outcasts by association. His Jiji has little time for him and his teachers despise him and do their best to stand in his way without risking the Hokage's wrath. After learning the Kagebunshin no Jutsu and graduating, Naruto has hope for a better future.
Only for that hope to be swiftly destroyed. His male teammate thinks him useless and unworthy of even talking to, while being so far out of his league that he couldn't even dream of proving him wrong. His sensei doesn't hate him, but doesn't bother to train him or help him get stronger beyond teamwork exercises. His female teammate is an abusive bitch, who fuels her sense of self worth by beating him whenever she feels like it, and after he hits back for once, he is reprimanded by his sensei and threatened by an advisor to the Hokage, after which his former crush becomes even worse.
By the time they enter Nami no Kuni (Wave country), Naruto has given up hope for a better life. But then he meets Haku, a young local girl, who is nice and kind. The two become friends within a day and spend much of the next weeks together (the wave mission takes longer in this version).
Zabuza, meanwhile has a problem. A wound received during his fight with Yagura has poisoned him with the Sanbi's chakra, which is slowly killing him from within. He still has a lot of time, two years at least, but his loss against Kakashi has reminded him of his mortality and the certainty of his death. Being a shinobi, he has long since accepted that inevitability, but like any swordsman, he wants to pass on his legacy to an apprentice. Only, Haku is completely unsuited for that. Luckily, she tells him of her new friend, a disconent genin and, even better, an Uzumaki, a descendant of the creators of Kirigakures seven (or eight) swords.
After being confronted by Zabuza and Haku in the forest, Naruto decides that his Jiji isn't enough to make up for all the bad in Konoha and agrees to become Zabuza's apprentice under the condition that they abandon Gatou's mission. Over the next months, Zabuza trains Naruto in the use of Kubikiribouchou and in silent killing. Naruto learns how to use the Kirigakure no jutsu to create an environment that is advantageous to him and hinders his opponents and makes them panic.
Finally, Zabuza prepares Naruto to inherity not only Kubikiribouchou and Haku, but also his dream of defeating Yagura, rebuilding Kirigakure, and building up a new generation of Kiri's seven swordsmen.
Of course rebuilding Kiri is not as easy as killing Yagura, and Naruto is far from being able to do that, since the hate is still strong between rebels and loyalists and Mizu no Kuni is riddled with Orochimaru's outposts and Kumo's troops abducting bloodline users to bolster their own strength.

92.: Revenge.
(This is inspired by "Sage" written by Digitize27. Spoilers for the first chapter.)
In search of a few kunai to train with, Naruto sneaks into the Uchiha compound, only to be seen by a pair of guards. He runs and is followed, until he barely escapes to the only place he thinks himself safe at; the house of Ichiraku Teuchi and Ayame. Seconds later, the Uchiha come to question the ramen chefs. They act like they know nothing, only for one of the Uchiha to catch a small moment of Naruto's. Then everything becomes a nightmare. The Uchiha attack Naruto and kill Teuchi and Ayame when they try to defend him. A group of Anbu arrives just in time to save Naruto.
The Uchiha manage to flee and there are no repercussions. Secretly, though, the Uchiha clan is forced to give up their plans for a coup for fear of being found out.
Naruto only sees that no one was punished for the murder of the two most precious people in his life and swears revenge. He begins devoting his entire time to training, in the academy, where he concentrates and puts his all into learning everything and outside of it, where he spends every waking hour punching, thowing weapons, and training his endurance and speed. He even manages to train himself enough to learn the Bunshin no Jutsu and graduates normally. Only then, the true difficulties begin. He is on a team with an arrogant boy, he hates, and an useless, screeching banshee, who manages to get him in his sensei's bad graces, since he punches her whenever she tries to hit him. After a short time, Naruto gets in a fight with Sasuke, in which the blonde is almost killed. Naruto is moved to Kurenai's team, switching places with Hinata, which immediately makes his new sensei dislike him. To make matters worse, Kurenai has litlle experience as a Jounin and sensei and tries to teach him genjutsu.
By the time of the Chuunin exams, Naruto knows little more than what is taught at the academy, a single genjutsu that confuses an enemy's senses.
After Naruto is soundly defeated by Shino in the second stage and Shino, Shikamaru, and Sasuke are made Chuunin, the teams are reorganized and Kurenai loses her status as sensei. Naruto's new team conisists of Kiba, with which he gets along fairly well, and Hinata who seems kind of useless and constantly blushes around him. Their new sensei is Asuma, who finally teaches Naruto some mid range elemental jutsu as well as how to fight with wind chakra enhanced kunai. (Naruto's power progression in this story is supposed to be really slow and feel hard earned.)
After seeing Hinata nearly killed by her cousin during the exams, he asks her about it and finds out about the terrible situation with the main and brach families. The main family of the Hyuuga have always been strict with the Branch, but after Hizashi's death, tension has begun to build, resulting and aggravated by even worse treatment by the main family.
Half a year later, they again enter the Chuunin exams, this time Naruto's team is promoted, while Chouji, Ino, and Sakura fail again.
After a short time as Chuunin, Naruto decides to join the hunter branch of the Anbu to gain experience and more skill and Hinata follows him. During his time in Anbu, he learns about the attempted Uchiha coup.
After some more time and training from Jiraiya as well as learning a few jutsu from the forbidden scroll, Naruto finally finds himself ready to enact his revenge. He sets up a trap for anyone following or observing him and finds Hinata. He knocks her out, ties her up, and puts her in his apartment, before telling her what he intends to do and why.
Then he goes to kill off the Uchiha clan, starting with anyone in the compound and sending shadowclones after anyone on patrol. Next, he sends a shadowclone after each Uchiha outside of the village, except for Sasuke (who he can only beat in person) and Itachi (who he can't beat).
Finally, he returns to his apartment to pick up his luggage and leave Konoha, only for Hinata to tell him how the tensions in her family have gotten worse and her father and her sister used the caged bird seal to torture two resisting branch members to near death. Then she begs him to help her kill off the main branch and promises him to follow him anywhere and help him as repayment.
Following the Uchiha massacre, Naruto focuses on evading Itachi and, at the same time, prepares a trap for Sasuke. After killing Sasuke, he is approached by Konan (Akatsuki, in this fic, doesn't try the Bijuu plan, but instead is an organization with the aim to grow powerful enough to annihilate any village that starts hostilities with another village. Nagato killed Toobi and plant guy doesn't exist.))
With training from other members of the Akatsuki, Naruto confronts Itachi and kills him, finally destroying the Uchiha clan. After that, the Akatsuki decide to end the war in Mizu no kuni. Kisame is still loyal and Mizu has a few other heavy hitters, but the rebels also try to kill them, since they are comprised of missing nins.
After ending the bloodline war, Akatsuki shows itself to the world. The hidden villages do not take kindly to an organization that tells them what to do and form an alliance to destroy the Akatsuki.
Naruto is tasked with making a demonstration of power to Konoha that will make them back off.

93.: Kumo's Jinchuuriki.
After another day of hateful glares and being called a monster, Naruto overhears a trader talking about how the two monsters in Kumo are held in high regards and decides, he wants to go to that place. He tries to flee Konoha, only to be beaten and brought before his Jiji. He tells the Hokage, how he wanted to run from Konoha to find a place, where he wouldn't be hated. Hiruzen tells him that Naruto is special and doesn't have a choice other than becoming a shinobi of Konoha.
Soon after, Naruto starts his first year in the academy and quickly finds himself ostracised and bullied by the other students (mainly Neji, Sasuke, Kiba, Sakura, Ino). After a bit more than half of his first year, Naruto stumbles on the Uchiha massacre and sees his chance to flee. He escapes Konoha and makes a long and dangerous journey to Kumo, he is stopped at the gate and they quickly find out and inform him about his jinchuuriki status. He is put into the academy but at the same time is trained by Bee who, at that point, has just made jounin. Naruto manages to wrestle chakra from the Kyuubi before leaving the academy, but can only use very little of it (the bijuu cloak is an enhancement, adding a multiplier to his abilities, not a jutsu that makes him powerful).
After graduating with the help of a more advanced clone jutsu (no one but a few high ranking Konoha shinobi know the Kagebunshin, Naruto never learns it in this story) and specialized training for his large reserves, Naruto, who at this point has friends and a happy life, gets to be on Bee's first team.
He quickly learns that Kumo has internalized the motto "might makes right" as, after only half a year, his team is sent to Mizu to find more bloodlines to add to Kumo's power. At first he has doubts, but those vanish after seeing many of the abductees integrating quite well into Kumo's society.
Finally, the bloodline wars draw to a close and Kumo sends their jinchuuriki to aid in taking down Yagura and ingratiate the new regime to them.
After that, Naruto's team attends the Chuunin exams in Konoha, only to be caught up in the attack due to Orochimaru bringing fake Kumo nin to Konoha. They fight their way through both sides and survive, but the relations with Konoha take a heavy hit.
The invasion of Konoha is the first step to a war. With Suna, Mizu, and Iwa weak, Kumo and Konoha are by far the most powerful hidden villages. It starts with skirmishes near borders, continues to grow with hits on teams of the other village, until there is finally an all out war of Kumo against Konoha.
(This story aims at putting Konoha against Kumo, providing the story with a large numer of well developed antagonists for Naruto. The Akatsuki are of minor importance, if they exist at all.
In terms of a pairing, any Kumo shinobi is possible, as well as some girl from Mizu (like Haku). However, Naruto in this fic is less nice and has internalized the "might makes right" paradigm.)

94.: Doubled Sacrifice.
Naruto is just five years old when he first tries to escape Konoha. He doesn't stand a chance, of course, but it is an alarming sign for the people in power. Naruto tries to escape again and again. His tactics and ideas improve, but he is simply no match for the intricate seals and experienced Chuunin tasked with securing Konoha's border.
Then Naruto reaches the age to begin the academy and it immediately becomes clear that he has absolutely no interest in becoming a shinobi. He dodges class whenever he can and makes no effort to learn, when he is forced to attend. He can't help but learn, though, and that shows when one of his escape attempts almost works. After an Inuzuka captures Naruto half a day away from Konoha, the Hokage is forced to make a hard decision.
Naruto spends the next years in the care of Danzou, who does his best to break him. Day after day, Naruto's resistance is worn away, even if he keeps his disdain of Konoha and its people, especially shinobi.
By the time the others of his year complete the academy exams, Danzou is finished with Naruto's basic training and the Hokage decides to put Naruto on a Genin team to build bonds to the village. By that time, Naruto is indoctrinated enough that he won't run away or disobey his superiors, but he still doesn't like Konoha, civilians, or shinobi and shows this. He also doesn't train unless ordered to.
On the other hand, Naruto is skilled. He knows everything taught in the academy and is on Chuunin level in terms of taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu (somewhere near canon Sasuke).
Naruto is put on a Genin team under Kakashi (who is tasked with training Naruto as much as possible and also trying to get him to make bonds) along with Ino and Kiba. The inclusion of the Inuzuka sparks a struggle for dominance among the Genin. Naruto, at first, ignores them, uninterested, but is drawn in anyway and shows that he completely outclasses them. After Kiba and Ino acknowledge Naruto as the alpha of their group, he is forced to take a leadership role, something completely foreign to him. Through that, he learns more about friendship and other people, and grows to despise his teammates less than other Konoha shinobi.
Over time, Naruto grows closer to Ino and Kiba, but still despises Konoha, it's citizens, shinobi, and Kakashi. It is increasingly rare that Kakashi has to use Naruto's indoctrinated obedience to force him to train. At the same time, Ino can't help but wonder about some of the signs of Naruto's indoctrination and her drive is intensified when her father forbids her from trying to find out more. Naruto, all the time gradually fights through his conditioning.
During the invasion on Konoha, it becomes clear to Naruto that he has mostly fought through his conditioning. He values protecting his teammates far more than completing his mission and doesn't care much about Konoha as a whole. After successfully killing Gaara by using the Kyuubi's power, he tries to flee the village once again in the chaos after the invasion. This time, he comes much further and manages to defeat several Chuunin pairs sent after him (without killing them) until he is finally defeated and brought back by Kakashi.
With the death of the Hokage and Jiraiya uninterested, no one is interested in stopping Danzou when he decides to rebuild Naruto's conditioning. Naruto would rather die than continue being tortured by Danzou and strikes a deal with the Kyuubi. Naruto releases the seal and the Kyuubi devastates Konoha far more than Suna ever did. Naruto is free and can flee Konoha, but has to find a way to free the Kyuubi.
Konoha, on the other hand, is now the weakest of the great hidden villages. The remaining shinobi, with Danzou as their Hokage, set up ways to hide Konoha from its enemies, creating mission offices in major towns and scouting out smaller bases for parts of the shinobi population to use as bases.
Ino, torn between conflicting feelings, sets out to go after Konoha with the team sent to retrieve Naruto. The jinchuuriki, aware that he has no hope of beating the force put against him, snatches Ino, who, even though she is a Chuunin, is far weaker than him, and forces her to help him evade the retrieval team. Ino doesn't take well to being Naruto's prisoner, she eventually decides to stay with him as the two get closer.
But Danzou couldn't help the news of a rogue jinchuuriki getting out. And only weeks after archiving his freedom, Naruto is hunted by all great villages, first and foremost Konoha.
(This story is meant to do two things. First off, set up a Naruto/Ino pairing, of which I don't have very many here, and, more importantly, create another premise with Konoha as the villain.)

95.: Chose Your Own Adventure.
This is a very simple principle: The author writes a chapter and at the end of it, there is a significant choice. This choice is made by the readers via a poll.
For example, the author could end the chapter with an important choice and wait two days for suggestions and ideas on what the protagonist could do. Then they add their own ideas and decide what the outcome of each choice will be. Only after that, the choices are put into a poll for another two or more days. The readers chose thereby decide how the story continues.
In reality, there are a few problems with that kind of story:
The choices can't be ooc. Naruto can't just suddenly chose to go sit next to Hinata for no reason and without buildup. Similarly, Harry can't shake Draco's hand on the train without some important changes to the situation.
Secondly, choices have to matter but also be somewhat unpredictable. The readers can't be just allowed to make all the right choices and let everything go perfectly. There have to be bad outcomes and things the main character can't prevent, no matter what the readers chose.There shouldn't be a clear best answer, but rather different ones with different outcomes. At the same time, the readers have to feel that their choices matter. An idea for that would be to make a situation with only bad choices, for example, no matter what, one person dies, but the choice for the reader is who they let die. Of course choices shouldn't be too obvious either, and the readers should have to think about the consequences of their choice before making it.
Then there is the point of character development. The readers choices, meaning the actions the protagonist takes, should have an impact on the personality of the main character, just like in any other story. That also means that the choices at any point in the story have to fit the current protagonist, not the canon protagonist at that time in the plot. They certainly must not be wish fulfillment for the viewers. Just as importantly, the choices, the mc makes, have to be limited to what they can do. Including the perfect solution for a problem if the protagonist doesn't have the knowledge, calm, or intelligence to find that solution, would be just dumb and make the story uninteresting.
Pairings are a difficult situation. Of course there should be options for readers to chose, but who the protagonist can end up with also has to depend on their choices so far. On the other hand, it is equally important that the romance isn't rushed and that the girl is affected by the readers' choices.
It is also important to leave room for bad choices. There have to be situations with only bad choices and there have to be bad choices that look like good choices until someone thinks it through completely. Every reader should fall for a few bad choices along the road. Furthermore, bad choices have to have an impact. The author should leave open choices that have the main character screw up and lose an arm or choices that causes someone to die needlessly. A story where nothing bad happens to any important characters is just plain bad writing.

96.: The Last Hyuuga.
A young Naruto sits on a swing, hungry, alone, and crying after being bullied by a group of older children when Hinata walks up to him and tries to comfort him. The next day, Hinata brings a bentou and waits patiently for over an hour for Naruto and apologizes for getting mad at him, when she finds out, he was never taught how to tell the time by looking at the sun. Over the next weeks, Hinata begins to teach Naruto about anything she thinks important, before he drags her all over the village, daring to do things she would never have dreamed of doing by herself. Until that fateful day.
Itachi remains loyal to his clan. On the night of the Uchiha coup, he is sent to deal with the Hyuuga, along with a group of other Uchiha. Itachi can't bring himself to kill the girl and Hinata survives as the only member of her clan. The revolt takes Konoha by surprise, but the Uchiha are far less powerful than they believe and, after a short fight, they are defeated. Most of them die, many of them are executed, others flee. Sasuke, just young enough to understand what happened, remains alone, and is pushed to the brink of insanity with loss and confusion.
The next day, Naruto doesn't find Hinata. He come to the conclusion that she is dead and, after a long time of mourning, moves on.
Years later, a month before his graduation, Naruto is shocked to see Hinata return to class and finds out she was in coma due to injuries and trauma. But although Naruto tries to rekindle their friendship, Hinata is cold and closed off.
At first, he decides to give her time, but when she hasn't recovered by the time they are put on team seven, he decides to take action. Not wanting her to turn out like Sasuke, he ambushes her, ties her up, and forces her to spend some time with him.
When he finally sets her free, Hinata is none to pleased and Naruto is glad, she isn't violent like Sakura. But he isn't discouraged and decides to keep it up as long as he has to.
Leaving Konoha for the first time, team seven finds a drastically different Elemental Nations waiting for them. Losing the Hyuuga and the Uchiha has made even Konoha weak enough, not to be untouchable anymore. Any Konoha shinobi outside of its walls is in danger of being attacked by Kumo, Iwa, Suna, and even shinobi from some minor villages, intent on demonstrating their strength.
Especially in areas that are strictly outside of Hi no Kuni, missions are tense and uncertain, the possibility of an attack by enemy shinobi always looming overhead.

97.: Shadows Of Inconsequence.
Akali, Shen, Kennen, and Zed are all well known members (or ex-) of the Kinkou. But there are others, one of them skilled enough to hide right under the nose of the summoners.
There is a shadow in the league, manipulating matches, masquerading as a minion, only to use slight alterations and unseen manipulations to influence the outcome in Ionia's favor.

98.: Harry Potter: The Life And Failures Of Albus Dumbledore.
In his early years, Harry is simply hated by the Dursleys. In his later years, Harry is bullied and beaten. For exactly one time, before he finds his magic and learns how to defend himself. After that, he gets better and better control over his so called family. By the time Dumbledore visits him to give him his Hogwarts letter, he has done a far more thorough job than the old man remembers from Tom Riddle. Harry reacts with visible disdain to Dumbledore's admonishment.
In school, Harry is sorted into Slytherin and is instantly disliked and bullied, but after a short time, the first years show the same terror of Harry that they showed Tom Riddle in his time. The second and third years quickly follow and by the end of the third year, Harry has Slytherin firmly under his rules.
Terrified of a repeat of the rise of Voldemort, Dumbledore tries to counteract Harry, but every time he tries to do something to inhibit Harry's rise and path to the darkness, but for every of Dumbledore's actions, Harry has a reaction.
Step by step, Dumbledore can do nothing but watch as Harry follows Tom's footsteps. And as Dumbledore slowly escalates his actions to keep Harry from becoming the next dark lord, Harry's hate turns from muggles to Dumbledore and the ministry.
With everything new that Harry learns about Dumbledore, his past, the ministry, and the pureblood elite, his enemy changes, until he is in the middle of complete chaos.
(This version of Harry Potter is supposed to be a mix of Dumbledore trying to learn from his past mistakes and making things worse all the while and Harry acting somewhat like Sasuke, learning about the wizarding world and the past and finding new enemies around every corner.)

99.: Uchiha.
The Uchiha coup is successful. After luring the Hokage into a trap and assassinating him, the Uchiha clan takes control of Konoha.
For Naruto, nothing much has changed, except the red-eyes clan now bullies not only him, but everyone else, too.
As soon as he enters the academy, Naruto has to fight. Shinobi training is only the essentials in all areas that aren't shinobi related, training is harsh and whoever can't keep up is left behind. Instead of tests, rankings are determined by all out fights that do not end in death only because the Chuunin instructors are tasked with saving students from unavoidable situations.
Between the harsh discipline in class, and parents and clans training their children, Naruto quickly finds himself near the bottom of the class, below him only the few children with civilian background and the fewer children who learn less from their families than he from his fights.
One ray of hope for Naruto, is that there are no more graduation exams. Everyone is put in a team, and whoever can't carry their weight is left to die, the Jounin sensei ordered not to risk themselves for their charges under and circumstance.
Naruto, unpopular with the academy teachers and without anyone to teach him, is put in a team of rejects. His teammates are Hyuuga Hinata, who shines with her complete lack of talent, and Haruno Sakura, who has just as little talent, but also fights like a berserker, which, while frightening in the academy matches, is almost sure to get her killed in battle.
Their sensei is a down on his luck jounin, uninterested in teaching them, and far more interested in training himself than his team. Left with no way to learn, and no one to protect them, Naruto is the one who takes it on himself to save his teammates, both long term, and in the increasingly difficult missions. It is swim or die.
(The Uchiha respect power, and the new Konoha follows that creed. Teams with promising students are sent on missions that slowly become more difficult, the failures are sent on missions where every day is swim or die. Hinata is abandoned by her clan and Sakura is not allowed to quit. Naruto has to protect both of his teammates and,at the same time, find ways for them to train and grow stronger.
In the Chuunin exams, killing is allowed, and the better teams are encouraged to attack the weaker ones, including those of their own village.)

100.: With The Malfoys.
When Hagrid tells Harry, he brought him to the Dursleys, Harry's affection for the half-giant plummets. When Draco talks to him in Madam Malkins, he is much more interested. After returning to the Dursleys, Draco and his father visit him, torment the Dursleys, and invite Harry to live with them until the start of term. Harry gladly accepts.
Draco teaches Harry pureblood ettiquette, plays quidditch with him, and the two start to become friends. Soon after they enter Hogwarts, Harry becomes Draco's best friend, as he helps him slowly take control over the lower years.
Being treated badly by the Dursleys and growing up without friends, Harry takes quickly to the pureblood agenda (children of at least one pureblood are purebloods in this story). Draco and his friends excel in school subjects, but Harry also gets a front row seat in Draco's quest to take control over the school, and he learns every day about manipulation and politics.
Over time, Harry notices more and more, how Draco manipulates and uses him, but also that Harry is by far the more powerful wizard of the two. So he starts working towards taking control of their group.
Some time later, Dumbledore tells Harry about Voldemort preparing for his return, and shows him the prophecy. Harry immediately realizes that Voldemort will not accept him as his friends did. Now, the only thing, he can do, is to manipulate his friends and form them into a new generation of followers, capable and willing to stand up to their parents. All the while, he needs to use the war to improve his position against Dumbledore, as the headmaster would be his enemy, if not for the prophecy.

101.: Of Gods And Tricksters.
One day, while Naruto aimlessly wander through Konoha, as he often does without anything else to do, he stumbles on a small, hidden training ground, where a young girl with black hair trains herself into exhaustion.
The girl is Uchiha Satsuki, and not at all interested in playing with Naruto, even less in becoming his friend. But Naruto sees the loneliness in her eyes and refuses to leave her alone. Over the next week, he continues to prank and annoy her, until she attacks him. Naruto gets beat up pretty badly, but learns a lot and dishes as well.
The next day, Naruto meets Satsuki again, and this time, she agrees to spar with him. The next day, Satsuki teaches Naruto some basic taijutsu moves before sparring. The day after, they go for a morning run together. Over the next weeks, they become friends.
Naruto and Satsuki continue their daily spars, but Satsuki is far stronger than Naruto, so he begins to use more and more tricks to win. He also manages to convince Satsuki to join him in a few of his pranks, which, over time, become increasingly complicated.
Fugaku notices that Satsuki becomes increasingly distant, and starts to act against it. Naruto starts to be harassed by Uchiha police force and store owners. Satsuki decides to help him, but refuses to believe that her father would do something like this. Satsuki begins escorting him around the village to protect Naruto from harassment, but they also start investigating the reasons behind the scenes. Finally, Satsuki confronts her father, and the harassment stops.
A few years later, the Uchiha massacre occurs. Satsuki is shocked and angry, but Naruto manages to keep her emotionally stable, especially since Satsuki's relationship with her father became worse and with her brother became more distant.
In the aftermath, Satsuki gets herself an apartment outside of the Uchiha district, but they explore it, hide the supplies, and find the jutsu library.
Satsuki begins using the Uchiha jutsu library to train her katon and raiton affinities, and she turns out to be incredibly talented. Naruto knows from his daily spart with her, that he can't hope to keep up with Satsuki in terms of pure taijutsu or ninjutsu, so he decides to improve the things that work for him. He searches through the Uchiha library and finds the kagebunshin no jutsu, and then begins learning simple genjutsu, before focusing on scrolls about tactics and misdirection. He learns a few offensive ninjutsu, enough to punch through any kind of armor, but focuses on winning his fights through deception and planning.
Over time, both take to their fighting style, Satsuki becoming more boisterous, rash, and overconfident, while Naruto becomes calmer and more collected. By the time, they get regular missions out of Konoha, Naruto has to work hard to keep Satsuki on a short leash to prevent her from accidentally starting a war or getting them all killed.
(Over the course of the fic, Naruto has to put in a lot of work to keep his fighting prowess anywhere near Satsuki and, at the same time keep her in check as she becomes more reckless and rash, the more powerful she becomes. Satsuki, at first, wants to restore her clan and kill Itachi, but after finding out more and more about what happened before the massacre, those goals become less and less important to her. When Naruto come to realize, he loves her, he stands before a huge hurdle, since she refuses to go out with anyone who can't defeat her at least once in an all out battle. That is not only incredibly difficult because of Satsuki's power, but also because her sharingan completely destroys most of Naruto's fighting style.
Satsuki is a prodigy with nature manipulation, to the point, where she eventually learns to manipulate the chakra natures without the use of specific jutsu. Naruto, on the other hand, relies on jutsu like the kagebunshin, a smoke bomb jutsu (or dust cover or kirigakure no jutsu), simple genjutsu, fuuinjutsu, and traps to prepare the battlefield, figure out his opponent, and prepare and execute the perfect counter strategy. Naruto's genjutsu aren't really anything special, they do things like screwing up depth perception, drawing attention to some imaginary noise, etc.)

102.: Everybody Needs Fairies.
After killing Acnologia and Zeref, Fairy Tail becomes the most famous and powerful guild in the world. And then Natsu starts getting bored. To stop the world from going down in flames, the guild decides to go on a holiday to another universe.
The rest of the story is more or less Fairy Tail visiting other universes, driving everyone into insanity, and leaving after causing unprecedented amounts of chaos and collateral damage, and, of course, having a blast doing it.

103.: The Legend Of Uzushiogakure.
The attack of the Kyuubi on the day of Naruto's birth takes more from Konoha than just their Hokage. Sarutobi Hiruzen dies, and Shimuza Danzou takes the hat of the ruler of the most powerful shinobi village.
A few years later, Naruto is a lonely orphan, hated by the villagers, without a single friend, and without a family name. All that changes, when he is accidentally found by a group of Uzumaki, who take the boy with them back to Uzushiogakure (which was never destroyed in this timeline), unaware of the boy's heritage or the repercussions of their actions.
Naruto grows up, unaware that Konoha has started a secret search for their jinchuuriki, slowly and carefully infiltrating all hidden villages. He does well in the academy and is assigned to a squad. Although he never becomes a powerhouse but has a great talent for fuuinjutsu and while he is weak in one versus one fights, he excels in squad battles where his comrades can stall for him while he completes his seals.
Shortly after Naruto's team goes on their first C-rank mission, the problems begin to show. Between Konoha wanting their jinchuuriki back, Akatsuki on the hunt, and Iwa and Kumo wary about a rising power between them, Uzushiogakure is in the most perilous time since its inception.

104.: Nat 20, Nat 1.
This can be any story, except everything the main character makes is rolled with a dice, D&D style. Therefore training a new skill can end up with anything from a lost limb to a new fighting style, and wandering around town can bring a beating from a mob and a dead friend or a new sensei.
Most importantly, that affects the critical decisions in the story. It allows for bad and good things to happen without the mc being a completely useless failure.
The protagonist, of course, still has their distinct personality, but is also changed by the events he goes through.

105.: Juniper Potter And The Forces Beyond.
Xerinos is a demon, who just wanted to enjoy his eternal life, making contracts, exploring the infinite planes, tormenting mortals. But after being made a guardsman for the third demonic prince, who succeeded in his coup against his father, he gets caught in the crossfire as the rightful king reclaims his throne. Left with no other option, Xerinos sacrifices all but a sliver of his power to throw himself into a plane so small and unimportant, no one would ever look. As soon as he arrives, his power, to little to stay coherent, begins to dissipate. He has to find a host, something no one in their right mind would offer, but just as he begins to resign himself to his fate, there is an opportunity.
Juniper Potter doesn't understand what is happening. She knows, on some level, that her parents aren't there anymore, will never be there for her again, and that the black robed man in front of her killed them. She knows that she is about to be killed, even though she has not yet any concept of death. Suddenly, there is an offer. She doesn't understand why or how, but if she agrees to let Xerios into her body, he will protect her and punish the man in the black robes. She agrees. Xerios enters the little girl's body and uses most of the remaining sliver of his former power to protect Juniper from the beam of soul magic and smite the human attacking her.
Of course, Xerinos is anything but content with being stowed away in some small corner of his mind, unable to even talk to Juniper, and his opportunity comes, when, one day, Dudley decides to follow the example of his parents and beat the young girl up. Juniper begs for anyone to save her, and Xerinos trades the ability to tap into her senses and to communicate with her whenever he wants for the small task of putting the fat bully in his place.
After that, life is peaceful, for a while, until Hogwarts, where danger lurks around every corner and the temptation to use the demon's power is never far from Juniper's mind.
A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues, Xerinos trying to gain more and more power over Juniper and hopes to prepare for the possibility of hostile demons coming to exterminate him, while the girl mainly tries to survive.

106.: Demonology.
When Harry enters his vault for the first time, two weeks before entering Hogwarts, he is in for the shock of a lifetime. The bloodline of his father's family aren't normal wizards but instead summon demons to do their bidding. In exchange, they are unable to cast spells by themselves.
Luckily for Harry, Hagrid doesn't pay attention to the books Harry takes out of his vault, and Harry quickly finds himself at the Dursleys. Harry quickly takes the first steps to follow in his father's footsteps, which ends up with him completely unable to even keep the low level demon in check and he is forced to kill it with a kife after it rampages through the house.
With the second try, Harry has more success, finally managing to tame a weak demon that is more animal than sentient being. He quickly begins to learn how to make it cast low level spells, but soon notices, the demon isn't enough for even the spells he's supposed to learn at the end of the first year.
Out of time for the summer, Harry is left with one option: Find a way to secretly summon a demon in the most heavily magically monitored place in the world. And to make it worse, there is no way, he could have the power to sustain two summons at once.
(This story revolves around Harry summoning demons that are a replacement for his wand. Then he has to tame them, which reaches from whacks with a rolled up newspaper and treats to bets, contracts, seduction, whatever he needs to do to make the demon submit and allow him to use their magic.
Harry's main hurdle in this story is that he was supposed to learn from his parents from the age of six and now is under constant threat of being killed by the demons supposed to be enslaved by him, might be exposured with any magic he attempts, and news far less about his own magic than he should.)

[BSI]

I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I'm trying to find a group of stories for Naruto and one for Harry Potter that has all major pairings, all major fighting styles, and all major protagonist personalities amongst it, all the while keeping that group as small as possible and creating as little overlap as possible.
Optimally, this would end up with anyone being able to find their favorite character in a story, find that character well written and with a very distinct personality that fits the story, as well as a story so unique that one can read all of those stories and find that they are nothing alike, as far as important events and major plot points are concerned.

[Snippets]

Random snippets, that I've thought up and wanted to write down:

"To celebrate that, I'll invite you to Ichiraku's, Naruto", Inoichi said, leaving the training field.
SCENEBREAK: The next morning
Inoichi sat on the breakfast table, as Ino came down from her room. "Good morning dad, what's for breakfast? WHAT? DAD, THAT... THAT... But that's dry bread and water! What happened?"
"New clan law starting today, daughter: It is forbidden for any Yamanaka to invite Naruto to ramen."

Uchiha Madara grinned widely. He was alive again and he was the jinchuuriki of the Juubi. His plan was a complete success.
Now he only had to get rid of that pesky shinobi army attacking him. He gathered chakra for a jutsu. A few meteorites would show them not to mess with someone of his caliber. But nothing happened.
The ground trembled as the Kage jumped to surround him and Madara instinctively used chakra to anchor himself. Only to shoot up a few meters and smack back down on the dirt, dumbfounded.
His chakra control was completely shot. To get to the level of tree climbing, he would need days, even with his genius, and that didn't even come close to the control he would need to use any of his better jutsu. Madara cursed, as the feeling of impending doom washed over him.

"Kuchiose no Jutsu: Edo Tensei," Orochimaru yelled out.
Three caskets rose out of the earth.
The first one opened with an eerie creak, and a confused Shodaime Hokage rose.
The second casket opened and a grim looking Nidaime Hokage stood up.
The third casket opened, only to show a pile of dust.
Annoyed but unsurprised, Orochimaru pushed a kunai with a sealing tag into each of the Hokages' heads. The Sandaime's rush came too late to stop him.
Orochimaru looked on, as his old sensei stood still, touching both of his predecessors. Maybe he had resigned himself to his inevitable defeat.
Just then, the Sandaime took a step back and Orochimaru could see a sealing tag on each of the Edo Tensei constructs being absorbed.
"Orochimaru-kun, did you truly think, I was unaware of your knowledge about the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing? Did you truly think, I did not prepare a counter for each jutsu you could have learned from this village?" He sounded almost disappointed with his old student.
Drops of fear fueled sweat began to form all over Orochimaru's body, as the two immortal Hokage turned to him, obviously not under his control.

Naruto stood before Iruka and Mizuki.
"Now a bunshin please, Naruto"
He would show them that he was not the idiot everyone thought he was. He would prove, how much he had advanced, how much stronger than any other academy student he was.
"Bunshin no Jutsu"
A single clone popped into existence.

Suddenly Hiruzen noticed his guards killed, as a barrier sprang up around the Hokage booth. He turned towards the Kagekage and Tsuchikage. "What is the meaning ot this?"
When Orochimaru had summoned the Sho- and Niadaime, it had become clear. And Oonoki had always hated Konoha. Hiruzen resigned himself to his fate. "THIS IS A MOST UNYOUTHFUL JUTSU! I SHALL SHATTER THE GATES AND DEFEND OUR HOKAGE-SAMA WITH MY LIFE!" When had Gai come in here?
Gai was hospitalized for months from the backlash of the gates. But still, he had singlehandedly killed Orochimaru and the Tsuchikage and then continued to decimate the two former Hokage, until Hiruzen had sealed them wrapped in bandages.

Minato took a look around. Beside him were his three predecessors. In front of him was a young Uchiha by the looks of it. Impossible as that seemed, that left only one conclusion. Minato held his arms directly in front of him, wrists limb, and gave a low, long groan of: "BRAAAAAAIIIIIINSS"

Tsunade looked around the council room. "Since the Hokage has changed, a certain issue has been brought up again. Everyone, who wants the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki to be executed, raise their hands!"
Half of the council - most of the civilians and a few of the shinobi - did so.
"All, who want him to be turned into a weapon, raise your hands!"
More than third of the council raised their hands. They consisted of the remaining civilians and a good part of the shinobi side.
"Now raise your hand, if you want to treat him like a human being!"
There was quiet talking and people looking around, some of them unsure, but no one made a move.
Tsunade, though anything but happy, still managed to keep up a neutral facade.
"Everyone, who thinks, their vote counts, raise your hands!"
Confusion, then chatter. "BE QUIET AND MAKE YOUR CHOICE!"
The councilmen looked at one another, than people began to raise their hands, while understanding flashed on the faces of others. The atmosphere seemed to crackle from tension, and finally movement stopped. Tsunade looked around.
"Anbu! Take everyone who voted yes and execute them for treason." Then she addressed the council again. "I want to make it abundantly clear, that your opinion on this matter counts just as little as your vote for me or for your work as representatives of Konoha. Should you get any ideas to the contrary, I will have just as much mercy for you, as I had for them."

Naruto couldn't suppress a frown as he looked down on Sasuke's bound form. The black haired boy was in the center of a barren room, nude, and securely tied to a table. Just then a the sound of the metal door being opened rang through the room. Naruto knew, what was there and focused on his former friend's face, displaying mounting panic, as the black haired boy took in the maniac grin on his pink haired teammate's face.
Naruto turned away. Sasuke had made his choice, when he had attempted to leave the village for Orochimaru. And one couldn't expect Konoha to let go of the sharingan, only because the last Uchiha turned out to be a traitor.
As Naruto closed the door, he saw a last glimpse of Sakura undressing. The white flesh, he should have desired, was suddenly sickening and he was glad, she had always rejected him. He had to go, today he would meet his chuunin partner. After all, what better way to get a promotion, than to take down and capture a dangerous missing nin?

When Kakashi arrived at the training field, as usual three hours late, Naruto had a disturbing grin on his face.
"Ohayou Kakashi-sensei! I was bored waiting for you, so I thought about some appropriate punishment. Then I remembered your habit of reading porn all the time." Kakashi began to sweat. He feared, he knew, where this was heading.
"So since I had so much free time, I decided to send some clones to find your appartment. Guess what?" Naruto's face glowed with sadistic glee.
"They found it. They also found tons of books. And since you're three hours late, they'll burn three of your books. Tomorrow it will be one book for every half hour, then one for every quarter and so on. Untill you aren't late anymore. To make it a bit more interesting, I won't save the collector's editions for last, but just choose randomly."

"Your father may have sealed the Kyuubi into you, Naruto, but I promise you, your parents loved you more that anything else in the world."
"Liar! If they loved me more than anything, they would have let Konoha burn. Then I would have a family instead of the hate of the entire village and an annoying furball in my belly."

"If my father loved me, how could he do that to me? How could he just ruin my life like that?"
"Naruto, you're too naive. Being Hokage means to put the village first in everything. Sacrificing your own life is easy. But being Hokage means, going far beyond that and if you have the choice between sacrificing your son or your village, you have to sacrifice your son. Remember that."

Naruto woke up with a groan and looked around. On the desk, a few meters away from his couch, there was his Jiji, still sitting behind his desk, doing paperwork. A quick glance out of the window told him, that it was well into the evening. He groaned. "Damn, Jiji, you're a glorified secretary. Being Hokage sucks!"

Naruto glared at the Hokage. "And you waited with that because you thought, I couldn't keep a secret? Do you have any idea, how much it would have helped me to know, that my parents didn't leave me because they hated me? Do you have any idea, how much it would have meant to me to know, that the villagers hated me for some dumb reason and not for anything that was actually my fault?"
Hiruzen looked down, ashamed. "I'm sorry Naruto. I wish, I could have told you sooner."
"Dont think, I'll let you get away with that. And I have just the punishment." Naruto's face lit with a sinister grin. "Do you know, how much paperwork one prank can cause? Uzumaki Kinjutsu: 1000 prank flurry

"
A hundred shadowcones appeared and dashed away, crackeling madly.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

They had been losing the war against the great shinobi alliance from the start. The black Zetsu were not powerful enough to face a chuunin and their enemy had prepared well against the Edo Tensei. So Kabuto had no other choice than to make a more powerful version of it. And now it was finished.
He looked at the platoon of shinobi. They were not extremely powerful, those he had used since the start. But every man they killed would, in the moment of their death, be revived as an Edo Tensei and bound to the same orders. "Go and destroy the shinobi alliance!"
Naruto ran from the hordes of enemies. There had to be some place safe, some place to rest and gather his allies. As he ran, he couldn't help but scream out his frustration. "WHO STARTS A FRIGGIN ZOMBIE APOKALYPSE AS PART OF A WAR TO BRING PEACE TO THE WORLD! Honestly, this isn't some cheap horror flick!"

Naruto smiled as he saw Sakura for the first time in over three years. "Hello Sakura-chan! Great to see you again. Training with Ero-sennin was awesome and the shadowclone trick was great. I even mastered my Fuuton. Ero-sennin said, I'm far stronger than the Teme now!"
"You're not stronger than Sasuke-kun, Naruto-BAK-- Urk!" Sakura grabbed at her throat. She couldn't breathe. She looked up at Naruto. There was a shadow over his eyes and he held out his hand, thumb and index finger nearly touching.
"I find your lack of faith disturbing." Naruto closed the gap, his fingers touched, then Sakura fell down, unconscious.
"See that? Fuuton is awesome." He would look for Hinata next. Ero-sennin's training had not only improved his Fuuton after all. He had also conveyed his appreciation for beautiful female features, especially Hinata's kind to him. Naruto wondered, if Hinata would mind helping him to explore some of the kinky possibilities of his mastery of Fuuton. There was another thing, Ero-sennin had taught him after all.
"It's always the quiet ones."

Kakashi looked sharply at Naruto. "Why did you try to make Sakura-san fail, Naruto-san? I thought you had figured out, that this test is about teamwork."
Naruto nodded. "Kakashi-sensei, just look at Sakura-chan. She's a spoilt child. She's smart, but only booksmart. She hasn't trained for fear of making her body unshightly and even worse, she's on a diet. Sakura-chan only wanted to become a shinobi to get together with the Teme. She has absolutely no drive to train or better herself in any way. The best, I can do for her, the best teamwork, is to make sure, she won't become a shinobi."
Sasuke nodded. "The Dobe is right, as ridiculous, as that notion is. If Sakura-san is to become a shinobi, in her first real mission, she'll either get one of us killed, or herself."
Kakashi was dumbstruck. He had thought, it would be far harder to get the boys in his team to work together. Apparently his test had worked, even if not in the way, he had intended.

Sasuke looked at the scroll in his hand. "So we have five days to find a team with an earth scroll, take the scroll from them, and get to the tower."
"Nope. Give me that." Narut took the scroll and pulled off a piece of paper from it. Then he took another heaven scroll and an earth scroll out of his jacket and sealed all of them in a piece of paper hidden under his glove plate.
"Everyone was so busy staring at Anko-san, that I took the time and stole a pair of scrolls from their supplies. I also took the time to trap the rest. I hope no one from Konoha is holding theirs. Fuuin kai."
The sound of small explosions was heard all through the forest.

"... and ramen is disgusting dung! Don't ever even try to invite me again for this disgrace of food!" Sakura finished her rant.
Naruto's head had dropped, shoulders slumped. He had been prepared for the usual rebuttal, even to be beaten, but not this. No one was allowed to talk like that about ramen. He felt the anger boiling in him, rising, filling him. He felt, like he'd explode, if he didn't do something. But what? Then he remembered. He already knew the answer.
"SAKURA!!!" Naruto flung himself at the stunned girl, fist cocked back. The first strike hit her in the solar plexus, the next in her face, then a few all over and finally a mighty hook to her chin let her fly across the training ground.
When Naruto reached her, he stood still and looked down at Sakura. "I never knew how refreshing it is, to beat someone up. Now I understand, why you did that all the time. Training is gonna be way less frustrating from now on. After all, I owe you a few hundred beatings."
With a slight smile, Naruto turned and left.

Naruto watched worriedly, when Hinata hesitantly made her way to the arena ground. Then his face brightened and he opened a scroll, tapping a seal. He really was glad, he had learned his clan's art.
"Hey Hinata! Offer one of those to Neji," Naruto said, handing her a bowl of fortune cookies.Neji stared at the message, dumbfounded. This could not be! How could fate betray him like this? But that was, how it had always been. And there was no use fighting fate. He dropped the slip of paper, with the message: "You will lose your next fight."
"Proctor, I forfeit!"
Up in the stands, Naruto shrugged at his sensei's questioning gaze. "Come on, Kakashi-sensei, there are so many shinobi that are weirdos, the chance to meet someone like him wasn't THAT low."

Naruto dropped from the roof, only to hear shouting.
"Jiraiya, how dare you peek at me! I would have thought, you learned your lesson after the tenth time you almost died! But if that isn't enough for you, let me refresh your memory!"
Naruto sweatdropped. Seeing Jiraiya seconds off from being beaten to a pulp by his overly violent bunch of mental issues, he called his teammate, was no surprise. But it was inconvenient. He had to learn after all.
"Ero-sennin, why do you even bother to peek at Tsunade-baa-chan? She has so many wrinkles, there are far better targets to spend your time on."
Tsunade set her glare on Naruto, then, after a second, back to Jiraiya. Then Naruo. Then Jiraiya. Then she dropped, unconscious.
"Phew. Women seem to devolve into violent apes at such occasions, so I bet on the decision of which of us to beat up would be too much for her mental facilities. So, now train me properly for the next month. After all that was the time, you would have spent in the hospital without my help!"

As Tenten stared uncomprehendingly at her present, Naruto explained. "Tenten, I saw you spending hours after battles finding and resealing all of your weapons, so I made a set of seals especially for you. The first one goes on the sealing scroll, the second one on the weapon. And each time, you apply chakra to the seal on the scroll, all weapons, no matter where they are, are resealed into the scroll."
For the next half hour, a loud steady clanging was heard, as Tenten proceeded to slam her head against the wall.

Zabuza looked at the bridge with a grin. Kakashi had been dumb enough to have his Genin squad guard the bridge builder. No doubt, he believed the Demon of The Mist still too injured to fight him, which was true. The idiot had however completely ignored his tool, who was far stronger than any Genin team.
Just then, a blur crossed the bridge and the bridgebuilder disappeared. Few minutes later, his apprentice Haku appeared beside him, holding the knocked out man over her shoulder.
"Put him down here," he ordered. The girl obeyed and he used a kunai to sever his target's head. Time to cash in the bounty.

"Naruto, you baka! You almost killed that poor rabbit!"
"But look at it, Sakura-chan! It's white and it won't be winter for a few months. Obviously someone put it there, maybe for a kawarimi."
"And why would anyone use a rabbit for a kawarimi when there are hundreds of less obvious, less conspicious and more conveniently placed targets around?"
"Uuuhh..."

Naruto sat lotus style on his father's head. He had long since mastered his Rinnegan, when he compelted the creation of all things jutsu. Recently he had come about an interesting theory, a thing called antimatter.
"Hm, how much should I make? It has to be enough for some experiments, lets say ten kilograms."
His decision made, Naruto focused his chakra and activated his jutsu.
And the world ended in a flash of light.

"I SHOULD KILL YOU, WHERE YOU STAND, MEATBAG!", the Kyuubi roared.
Naruto sat down and closed his eyes. Half an hour later, a slight smile spread on his face. "I have finally learned how to alter this mindscape."
The Kyuubi was slightly afraid now, not that it'd ever admit that. That fear intensified, when reality changed and a gigantic box of ... breath mints ... appeared beside him.
"Your breath stinks, use these before shouting."

"Hey Bunta, your tanto doesn't seem to do much against the Ichibi. I could help out with some wind chakra!"
"I think you may be overestimating your chak-" Gamabunta gaped at the sharp wind edge forming around his tanto. "You're not half bad, tadpole."
The small eyes of the rampaging Ichibi widened, as it took in the sight of a tree sized blade of wind chakra. Then it turned around, haunted by Gamabunta's evil laughter interrupted with gleeful shouts of "Come here Icchan! Time for some chopping!"

Naruto turned around slowly and saw a row of bars. Behind them were shadows and the sound of breathing from a gigantic set of lungs. Then the shadows shifted and a huge, gaping maw, with rows of teeth, every single one larger than Naruto himself came into view. At the same time, two huge, red eyes opened, their slitted pupils taking him in like some small, meaningless animal, a snack to be picked up and devoured at leisure, not even worthy to be called 'prey'.
Naruto couldn't help but take a sharp breath in shock.
"Damn, get some mints! Your breath stinks like a horde of decaying lifestock."

Naruto came to a halt next to his former sensei. "Kakashi-sensei, I heard you were on an A-rank, but you look like you just had a month long holiday. What happened?"
Kakashi chuckled. "You remember my dog summons? Turns out, talking dogs are rare enough, so that a dogfood producer hired me on an A-rank to get my ninken to taste-test his food."

The summoned spirit of Sarutobi Hiruzen looked at Naruto sadly. "Naruto-kun, if you want to uphold ideals of friendship and forgiveness as a Hokage, you need to be powerful. I failed at that, when I took up the hat for a second time. If your father had not died, the Uchiha would never have dreamt of staging a coup. Kumo would never have dared try to abduct a Hyuuga and risk the Yellow Flash coming down on them like he did on Iwa.
If you want to keep your ideals as Hokage, then you have to be strong enough that not even a single person in all of the Elemental Nations would doubt the fact that you can lead your village to prosperity and enforce your ideals."

Sadness, shock, surprise, and anger warred in Tsunami's face, as she turned to Naruto. "Where is your sensei taking Inari?", the woman asked forcefully.
Naruto gave her a sour look. "I have no clue, what Anko-sensei is doing, but I'm pretty sure, he will have a completely new appreciation for live come tomorrow."
On cue, the screaming started. "NOOO! That's to high, don't let go! Don't ahhhh! Urk, what are you doing, you crazy, old OW..."
The next day, Inari said at the table, as far away from that crazy woman, as he could manage, and happy to be in one piece.

Naruto looked down at the sedated cat. He would have to be careful when tatooing the small fuuinjutsu script under its skin. And there was lots of work to be done: Speed enhancement, strength enhancement, automatic claw sharpening and lengthening, a small infusion of chakra into the cat's body... And all of that powered by a seal that would draw natural energy.
And all within such a short time, that the team currently searching for Tora wouldn't suspect anything.
Naruto chuckled. After becoming a shinobi, everyone had believed that to be the end of his pranks, but in truth, they had become so much better.

Naruto sent his Jiji a puzzled look. "But if Danzou has done all that, why didn't you have him executed long ago?"
The Hokage sighed, making his face look old beyond even his considerable years. "Among all the powerful shinobi who try to become leaders of our village, there are two types: The first type are people like me, Jiraiya, and in time you, Naruto. We care for everyone and don't want to fight other nations, make friends, rather then enemies. We are examples, men, who show their people, how they should live. And if more and more people are inspired by our deeds, and try to be like us, eventually there will be a world without war, where all villages are friendly and our countries work together.
People like Danzou are different. They want what is best for the village above all else, they value our people higher than the future of the next generation and that is why he does things that are evil, if he thinks, it benefits Konoha."
"But our path is obviously better, Jiji, how can others not see that? That's so dumb to hurt the next generation and the one after that, just because it's best for Konoha right now!"
Hiruzen chuckled sadly at Naruto's passionate argument. "But sadly, neither path is the right one. If there are only people like Danzou, the world would be in continuous war, only ending, when all but one fraction are completely annihilated, maybe not even then. On the other hand, those who follow our path, far too often cause others harm on our quest to make a better world for the next generation. Had I been more like Danzou, I would have killed Orochimaru, the moment, I found out, he was a traitor. But because I let love for my pupil and my hate for killing get the better of me, Orochimaru has done much harm and has caused many, many people such terrible suffering..."
The old man drifted off.

"I reccomend, you come at me with the intent to kill," Kakashi finished. Naruto gave a savage grin. "Sasuke, Sakura. Run!"
Naruto's two teammates looked at him as if he was crazy. That was until the clearing was filled with the opressive feeling of copious amounts of the Kyuubi's chakra.
As Kakashi stood before Naruto in a six tailed chakra cloak, he couldn't help but sweat in fear and wish, he hadn't said that last part.

"Naruto, you are such an idiot!" Sakura said, looking at the beaten but victorious form of her teammate.
Naruto looked up at her, annoyed. "Great, Sakura, and you are a weakling. You are so weak, I could summon three dozen toads, each stronger than you without breaking a sweat. But do you hear me going on all day about how weak you are? No! So take that as an example."

Naruto looked panting at Sasuke. He didn't have a chance against the traitor. With a few more months of training with Jiraiya it might have been possible, but right now, Sasuke's years of training alone in the Uchiha district posed too much of a difference. There was only one thing, he could do.
He ran through the handsigns, Sasuke already copying them. Both finished at the same time. Sasuke dodged with wide eyed surprise as Naruto's bullet slammed through his own.
Naruto continued, Sasuke copied again. This time two wind bullets neutralized each other.
And a third time. An army of shadowcloned popped up around Naruto.
Sasuke copied the jutsu a fraction of a second slower, but summoned even more clones. Then he dropped dead.
Naruto looked sadly at his dead friend and said quietly: "And that's why you don't rely on your sharingan too much, Teme. Just because you can copy a jutsu doesn't mean you have the chakra for it."

The shinobi scanned his orange clad soon-to-be enemy once more, before leafing through his Bingo book. After a few seconds, he found the corresponding entry.
Uzumaki Naruto
Shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato
Orphan
S-rank
The fact that Uzumaki Naruto was able to evade the Akatsuki as well as defeat a variety of opponents, ranging from B-rank to S-rank, despite wearing a neon orange jumpsuit and being naiive to a ridiculous degree, speaks for itself. Extreme caution advised.

"... wasting your time with your stupid mudblood." Malfoy finished his rant.
Harry turned to him with a blank expression, as if he only now remembered the other boy was there. "You said something, Malfoy?"
Malfoy immediately began trembling, his head reddened rapidly and he had a look of intense concentration on his face, as if he struggled to keep himself under control. Then he slipped. "WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS BE SO COOL, HARRY, MY ETERNAL RIVAL??"
After that, Malfoy ran away in tears of shame, and never again came closer to Harry than absolutely necessary.

Harry looked down at the entrance to the chamber of secrets. Luckily they had found it before anything worse than the petrification of the Nearly Headless Nick happened. It still didn't look hospitable, though. He turned to Hermione. "Do you remember those portal stones, someone left in the common room last week?" Hermione nodded. "You throw one into the lake and bring the other one here. I don't think, snakes can breath under water."

Phaedrus Giddles looked at the concoction in his cauldron. It was something, he could do only once in a lifetime. His masterpiece. It was a potion that, once dropped into the sea, would make sure that after a few months, every child born on earth would be magical. He smiled. There would be no more discrimination against firstborns, no more suffering, no more split worlds. Just as he was about to add the final ingredient, a swall of puke came out of his fireplace, landing in a cauldron.
And so, instead of making the whole world magical, Phaedrus Giddles would become the inventor of the filter in the floo network, that, even today, prevents anything not attached to a human from exiting through a fireplace.

"So, Hermione, there isn't even a single prophecy recorded, that was prevented?", Harry asked, sitting with Hermione, Ron, and the twins.
"Exactly, but that doe-" "So the smart thing would be to assume the prophecy is fulfilled and prepare to get a deceisive advantage from that knowledge, right?" Silence.
"Right?", he repeated, but ther were only his friends, staring at him, their mouths hanging open.

Harry looked at the blond Slytherin with pity in his eyes. "Malfoy, you just don't see it, do you? All that hate and prejudice, all that talk about mudbloods being worthless and halfbloods being rabble. All that sneering and taunting, it just shows, how afraid you are to see the truth. If you truly believed, you were superior by nature to any muggleborn, you wouldn't do that, you wouldn't care about them, you would just ignore them and outshine them with your abilities."

Harry sat in his Potions class. He couldn't concentrate, relying on Hermione to do the work. How could he get around a dragon? He let his gaze sweep over the room, only to see Neville melting his cauldron and Snape vanishing it, sneering. "Longbottom, you bumbeling fool! Your sad attempt at a potion was almost enough to blow the whole floor to pieces. Some people would be far better off without a wand." Poor Neville, always performing worse under pressure. If Snape loomed even more over him, the boy would eventually do something truly devastating.He caught up to Neville shortly after the class. "Neville, I need you to help me.""Accio Neville's cauldron." Harry shouted, as he stood before the dragon. And the cauldron arrived, just in time for him to push the cauldron down it's throat with a banishing spell.
Shocked silence, only interrupted by retching sounds accompanied the slow dissolvement and the agonized writhing of the dragon. But the task was fulfilled.

Harry cursed silently, as he dodged the bludger for what seemed like the hundredth time. Why was no one helping him? The bludgers were so obviously cursed, that any muggleborn first year would see it. Still, everyone just looked like a bunch of mindless idiots. He had to do something. But he didn't even know, how to reverse the curse, much less had time to aim and cast a finite on his broom.
But he could do something else.
Harry dove down, wildly, doging another attempt at maiming him, until he was face to face with Severus Snape. "Professor, there are two cursed bludgers coming. They will hit your face in five, four,-" Then he made a sharp drop, clearing the bludgers' paths to his favourite professor. Bludgers much too fast to deflect without destroying them. So that was what people meant, when they talked about a no-lose situation.

Harry slammed the door to Sirius' room open. "Sirius, I got it! I got it!"
"What Harry?"
"Remus. You know, how he always says, he's a monster, dangerous, he shouldn't be around people, and so on?"
Sirius nodded.
"I know, why he does that. His whole 'woe is me' routine is a trick to pick up girls. But then it never worked and since then he has been to embarassed to admit it!"

Harry looked on through the one way mirror, as Lucius Malfoy with his wife and son entered the room. The man had a regal gait, like the ministry belonged to him, and from how the others in the room looked at him, it might as well have.
That grandeur turned to shock and anger, when the doors closed with a heavy bang, and the room's wards activated, suppressing their ability to use magic. As soon as the door opened again, Lucius turned to the entering man, the containment field receding before them, forming a barrier between them and the people in the room. "What is the meaning of this? I demand to be-"
With a wave of his wand, Kingsley silenced the man. Harry took a step forward and spoke up. "We would never dare injustly hold any of the honourable citizen in this room. Sadly, every one of you, or your parents has a history of susceptibility to the imperius curse. I can only imagine the horror of being forced to commit such horrible acts in the name of such a vile criminal.
But this is exactly why we have decided to do out utmost to prevent something like this from happening again. In a few minutes this room will put you all into stasis, shrink itself, and be put under a fidelius charm, all bound to a significant magical reserve. As soon as Voldemort is defeated, the room will automatically come out of hiding an you are once again part of our society, untainted by deatheaters and other criminals.
Sadly, in case Voldemort wins, eventually the magical reserves of this room will run out and everyone in it will be crushed by the failing expansion charms. But since we are all good and law abiding citizen, I think we can agree that dying is a better fate than becoming a part of Voldemort's society.
Luckily after this war is over, we will have time to sort through everyone and make sure that everyone ever involved with deatheaters will be executed or confirmed innocent without a shadow of a doubt."
A wide grin spread over Harry's face as he watched the panic and screaming inside the wards.

Harry stood over Dumbledore's crumpled, bloody and beaten form. He had defeated the monster. Finally. A smile spread on his lips.
Dumbledore looked up with the last of his strength. "Harry, please. Please hear a dying old men's last wish. I have done a terrible thing, when I was young. And my sister died." His eyes teared up. "Ever since then I have researched on a way to make up for it. And finally I have found, how I can let her be reborn, right here. It's all in the next room. Please Harry, she's innocent, please just channel magic into the potion, until it turns green, and give her a chance for the life, I have robbed her of, please."
Harry's smile widened. "I will do that. And then I'll drop her off with the Dursleys and threaten them, that I will kill them, if she dies. I'm sure she'll be perfectly fine. After all they are my blood relatives, they wouldn't do something horrible to her, would they?"
The look of horror in Dumbledore's eyes, as he died would be a fond memory for the rest of his life.

"... Furthermore you have inherited the following twelve marriage contracts and twenty slaves. The most important ones marriage contracts to one Minerva McGonnagal, one Dolores Umbridge, and one Sylicea Pidwick, once the girl is eleven. You have to sire a child with each within a year of your marriage. There are also the a bunch of old feuds with several houses from Britain and the rest of Europe," concluded the goblin.
"Why do I have the feeling, that the last time, an inheritance ritual was done in my anchestry was a few centuries ago?"
"If I may be frank, Lord Potter-Black-Malfoy-Lestrange-Wayland-Prewett-Gaunt-Peverell-Slytherin-Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff-Gryffindor, no one was dumb enough. Here is the paperwork, you'll have to do personally."
Harry's eyes bulged, as he saw stacks of paper, enough to fill the great hall of Hogwarts. Then he fainted.

"... and you are wasting your time amongst mudbloods and squibs. If you aren't careful, you'll wake up one day without enough magic for a simple lumos." Malfoy ended his talk.
Ron stood red faced, ready to throw himself at the Slytherin.
Hermione was struggeling to keep herself from pulling out her wand.
Neville had tears standing in his eyes.
Luna had never moved her eyes from the upside down Quibbler in her hands, her eyes still vacant, but she had a distinct air of depression around her.
Harry had a wide smile on his face, as he shocked the whole compartment by patting Malfoy's head.
"Isn't he cute? It's like he is a small dog, barking up at the masters at the table for attention."

"Now, Potter, for the next stage of your training," Mad-Eye said, turning towards a covered, dangerously humming cage, his artificial eye trained on Harry. Then he pulled the covering sheet away. "Cornish pixies."
"Ok?"
"You're forbidden to use any spell that could hit more than one of them. Have fun with your new training for stamina, accuracy, and speed."
With that he opened the cage, and hell broke loose.

Harry took one last look at the animagus potion, then gulped it down in one go.
Then everything became black. What happened? Did something go wrong? He didn't feel anything. He didn't hear or see or smell anything. He couldn't move. He panicked. But there was nothing, he could do.
Then, finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the light returned.
"Oh, God! Harry, are you ok? You turned into an amoeba!"

As the basilisk attacked, Harry grabbed the rooster from his expanded bag, and with a tap of his wand, the rooster cried out. Then silence.
And chuckling. "Harry, Harry, Harry. You didn't really believe, it would be so easy, did you? I did quite a bit of research and finally found out, that Salazar came up with that weakness as a joke. A rooster's cry killing a basilisk, seriously..."

"And that -" said Riddle, eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped, "That's the sorting hat."
Harry looked down. "Maybe I could throw it at you? It could explode or something."
Riddle made a grimace. "Sure, or it's meant to bolster your confidence, being an ancient artifact. Perhaps he means you to use it as a shield."
Harry nodded. "I always thought, Dumbledore was a bit crazy, but maybe you're right and he is growing senile."
"Yes, maybe." Riddle answered wistfully.
They heard a screech and turned just in time to see Fawkes landing on the basilisk. Then they disappeared in a flame.
"Well, that makes our fight certainly a whole lot less epic."

Harry and Ron, the boy still ranting about Crookshanks trying to kill Scabbers, descended the stairst to the common room to meet up with Hermione. It was an early saturday morning, but the three friends had decided, they would need to learn how to fight. Their plans for the day were completely derailed, when they entered the common room and saw a dead man, clothed in rags and with numerous wounds lying on the floor.
Harry was shocked, but could still hear Ron clearly: "Bloody hell, Harry! That is Peter Pettigrew, the man who was killed by Black over a decade ago!"In front of a cave, hidden in the woods near Hogsmeade, sat another man clothed in rags. Sirius Black looked at the stolen newspaper, smiling. "About time", he muttered, "how hard can it be for a Kneazle to kill an old rat trapped in the Gryffindor tower?"

Kingsley turned to the auror trainees. "So now to the last and most difficult stage of your training. We have hidden five checkpoints in this house. You have to find all of them and then get to them in the order of their number."
He opened the door, careful not to stand in front of it, only for a flurry of spells to fly out , from simple Expelliarmus to complicated dark curses.
"Harry Potter is a war hero, but horrible abuse in his childhood, repeated confrontations with You Know Who and dark creatures in his Hogwarts years, and finally the war has certainly taken it's toll on him. On the positive side, we have a substitute for Moody. Have fun and don't die."
Kingsley chuckled at the terrified faces of the trainees. Every year one or two of the trainees actually managed to come face to face with Potter. Maybe one of these days they'd manage to bring Britain's most powerful wizard out of his insanity, or at least to St. Mungo's.

"Finally! Finally, I have it!" Hermione arrived running and shouting at Grimmauld place. "I know, how we can permanently destroy dementors! And the Wizengarmot won't have a thing to say against it. We're finally getting rid of those soul sucking monsters torturing prisoners."
Harry gave her a sullen look. "Hermione, we can't destroy dementors."
"But why?"
"They are the only thing that can efficiently counteract global warming. If we kill dementors, the planet will be uninhabitable in a matter of twenty years."

Harry looked at his arm. Panic was about to overwhelm him. He was going to die. Ginny was going to die. But there was another even more important question to be answered. "Why did a fifty foot basilisk loose a tooth after biting me in the arm?"

Hermione followed Harry, as he came to the goblet ten minutes after leaving the dorm in the middle of the night. "Harry, what are you doing? Wait! Is that Fiendfyre? That is a dark spell! You can't do that. Wait! The Goblet of Fire is a priceless magical artifact! Why did you do that?"
"I just had the funniest feeling, that it would be a bad idea to leave an artifact capable of forcing anyone into a magically binding contract around, so someone could use it against me. You know, after the disasters in the first, second, and third years, I'm a bit wary of stuff like that."

Hermione gawked, when she came into Harry's room. He was sitting on the floor, holding a bucket with scraps of paper in it. Before him stood ... the Goblet of Fire?
"Harry James Potter! What on earth are you doing?"
"Oh, Hermione. Remember, how I would have lost my magic, if I refused to participate in the Trimagic Tournament? I decided I would use that. I just confounded the Goblet, so it would put every person into a different school. And now I have a bucket full of names. Tom Riddle, Lucius Malfoy, Umbridge, and so on. The first task will be to stab oneself with a basilisk tooth. And if they don't do that, they'll lose their magic."
Seeing Hermione gawking and in no state to talk, he poured the paper scraps into the Goblet. Now he'd only have to wait a month, then all his problems would be solved. And then he could work on his next project. After all, if the Goblet could enforce a contract to participate in a tounament, he could change it, so that every wizard and witch would have one choice. Become his slaves or forfeit their magic.

"I can't believe this!" Hermione ranted, as they walked back from the library. "I read a book on magical law, and it's positively ridiculous, what power the head of a family has over it's members. Take Mr. Weasley for an example. He could do anything, he wants to Mrs. Weasley and be within the law. But he can also magically bind her to any contract or vow, without even telling her. He could marry off anyone in his family against their will and they could do nothing. He could make anyone of them do anything, since they owe him loyalty, because they have the same blood in their veins. This is completely ridiculous. Harry! Are you listening?"
She looked back. Harry stood stiff as a statue. "But doesn't Voldemort also have my blood in his veins?"
Hermione's face contorted into a savage grin. "Let me just look up a few things."

"Harry, we're sorry, we couldn't write you, but Dumbledore said, we shouldn't, and ... you know, he's Dumbledore."
"Sure, Hermione, I understand. Dumbledore only put me with the Dursleys for ten years of loneliness and abuse, decided to hide the Philosopher's stone in a school full of children, failed to notice that his defence professor was posessed by Voldemort for a whole year, failed to do anything about the Chamber Of Secrets, failed to help us, despite knowing, we were in the Chamber, failed to stop the dementors from searching the Express, failed to keep the Dementors out of Hogwarts, failed to keep Sirius out of Hogwarts, failed to get Sirius a fair trial despite being Supreme Mugwump and Chief Warlock, failed to keep the Dementors out of Hogwarts once more, failed to secure the Goblet against foulplay, didn't notice, that a deatheater played Moody, despite being his friend, failed to prevent Voldemort from abducting me from the middle of his school, failed to make Voldemort's return public, and finally failed to protect me from being assaulted by Dementors, even though I was at the Dursleys for 'my own protection'. He couldn't even get the ministry off my back for defending myself. And that's only, what I know about. But sure, he's Dumbledore, he must be right."

Harry looked at Hermione. "You know, Hermione, I did some thinking, and there's no way, this whole tournament is going to work without anything bad happening to me. So I'm gonna put in Dumbledore's name in the Goblet. He must be worthier than me, so there's no way, I'll be picked."

Harry looked at the dead bodies of his relatives. He hadn't meant to kill them. But, when Vernon had tried to beat him once more, his new friend had protected Harry.
He remembered how he had met the snake for the first time, when he had hid in a cove of trees behind a playground from Dudley's gang. It had been nice to talk to someone who didn't hate him or was afraid of Dudley and when Harry had been forced to go back, they had promised to meet again the day after. They had talked for some weeks after that, and Harry had noticed, how the snake had grown larger and larger, and how it also had become increasingly more intelligent. Finally the snake had pieced together the abuse Harry had been forced to ignore and talked the boy into taking it with him. And when Vernon had attacked him again, his friend had struck.Harry couldn't help but smile, as he heard two of the men, that had come soon after, talking about how they couldn't explain how the Dursleys had died from an adder bite. He was supposed to sleep now, but was too excited. Earlier a woman had come to talk to him. He would be given to an adoptive family, friends of hers, who were open and friendly people, immigrating from America a few short years ago. Maybe they would some day go back to America and far far away from here.
Things were looking good.

Dumbledore looked at the catatonic form of Severus Snape lying on the floor. "What did you do to him, Harry?", he asked with a strict glar.
"The same thing, he did to me. I pulled up his worst memory. The moment, he found out, my mother had died and it was his fault. Then I made him relive it again and again and again and again and again and again and again. And again. If that was the proper way to teach me occlumency, it can't be that bad, can it?" Harry walked away with a sardonic grin.

Harry looked at the Weasley twins with a serious face. "Would you be my Q?"
"What?" The dumbfounded reply came with perfect synchronization.
"You never watched James Bond, did you?"

When Harry entered a passage towards the great hall after history, he was immediately blocked by two columns of more weight, than any first year should have. And one parody of a stereotypical villain. "Give me your notes, Potter."
There was no way, he could fight his way out of this. Why did the hat have to sort him into Slytherin?
"See you after charms, Scarhead."
Harry wasn't hungry anymore. He was between sadness, loneliness and anger. He did the only thing he could think of, and went to the library. One year later, the hall broke into uprorous laughter, when three Slytherins were made to stand with the row of first years. Harry grinned at the tears of humiliation and impotent anger on Malfoy's face. Brain beat brawn every time.

"Of course, I'll give you an interview, if that can get me Snape off my hide," Harry said, "Let's start with my relatives."
Harry had never intended that. The article had gotten Snape thrown right out of Hogwarts and he was pending a trial. Dumbledore had been removed from the headmaster position. The wizarding world's wrath was somewhat excessive, where their precious hero was concened. But on the other side, the article had sparked a new wave of violence against muggles. His relatives had been found dead and mangled, apparently excessively tortured, before they had been allowed to die. Good riddance, as Harry thought, if it weren't for the hundreds of muggles, that had suffered a similar fate. And even though, he had opened pandora's box, he was now unable to close it again.

"What are you saying, boy? You were rich all this time and we got nothing for raising you worthless freak?", Vernon had already taken a fascinating shade of purple. Just as he was about to grab Harry, the doorbell rang. When Petunia opened it, she gasped, as a large, brutish looking man entered. The man took a look at Vernon, poised to hit Harry and took a wand out of his jacket. "Should I rough him up, boss? I haven't had an opportunity to use my, hmm, interrogation techniques in some time." Harry shook his head. "Thank you Borgis. Uncle, this is Borgis, a hitwizard. I payed him to live with us for the rest of the summer. He'll be making sure, you treat me nicely. He will also help me train and force you to do humiliating stuff, if I want to let some steam off. I'm not allowed to do magic out of school, after all." Harry said with a savage grin.

Harry stared at the dark professor, the hate eaily recognizable in the older man's eyes. "Professor Dumbledore, are there a lot of people like professor Snape, who hate anyone not raised in a magical family?"
Dumbledore had to suppress a chuckle, as he saw Snape's face go white, thrown back to his disastrous fallout with the love of his life, Harry's mother. The boy had a real way with words. Only a single shot in the dark and already a critical hit.

Dumbledore looked at Harry, the old man's shoulders slumped, as if the weight of the world were upon them. "Harry, you have done extraordinarily well today. But after that ordeal, you deserve some peace. We still have some time, for you to be a child for a bit longer. There are still things, I don't need to burden you with, yet."
Harry pulled out his wand and made a quick motion, spraying Dumbledore with something brown, disgusting smelling fluid. Dumbledore just stared in wonder. "Harry, my boy, say, is this by any chance bullshit?"
"Yes, professor, I took the time to learn this spell for the next time, I'd talk with you."

Harry looked at Dumbledore, anger in his eyes. "So you knew for longer than I lived, that I would have to fight Voldemort and you left me to suffer with the Dursleys, then let me waste five years here at Hogwarts lazing around, when you could have prepared me. Fine, have it your way. I will prepare to kill Voldemort, but I will only do it, when I think myself ready. But that may take some years. In the meantime look at all the dead and remember that every death, every second of Voldemort's reign is, because you tried to throw me in his way unprepared like a lamb for the slaughter.

Harry smiled darkly at the trembling figure below him. Shivering, sweating, in obvious fright and terror, this pathetic excuse for a human being reminded him of Wormtail. After his defeat of Voldemort, Harry had made sure that every single deatheater got a one-way ticket to Azkaban, a fitting punishment for the indiscriminate torture and murder of anyone in their way or just for fun. But none of these trials had filled him with the same satisfaction as this one.
"Cornelius Fudge, you are found guilty of disclaiming the return of He Who Must Not Be Named, preventing our whole country from taking proper action, when our enemy was at their weakest and costing us countless lives of wizards and witches, unprepared because of you. You are hereby sentenced to 1638 years in the prison of Azkaban."

The silvery orb hit Voldemort in the chest and Harry let out a sigh of relief, as the dark figure fell bonelessly to the ground. They had finally done it, destroyed all seven horcruxes and killed the man himself. Or did they? An ominous feeling of dread began to rise and Harry's head whipped towards Voldemort's corpse. And there was the black mist. Thinner and weaker than when he had seen him in the first year, but obviously Voldemort in his wraith form, fleeing from Hogwarts.
What could have happened? They had taken care of the horcrux in his scar. But if Voldemort's soul had split in the moment of his death, there could be more Horcruxes. It didn't have to be a human, it could be any other living thing, an insect, a worm, anything.
Harry slumped to the ground. Just as he thought himself to be finally free, there was another monumental task, more difficult than anything before, to overcome.

"You found Slytherin's locket? Can I see it?" "I don't know, where it is. After I destroyed the Horcrux, I gave it to Kreacher. I even made sure, he was buried with it. With Slytherin's elitist reputation, I just had to do it, you know. His famed locket as a burial gift for a house elf."

"Reducto." Harry killed the last of the unconscious deatheaters, before turning to the shocked, white faced group of Order members.
"What? Did you think, we could just leave them, get them imprisoned, so they buy themselves free and continue raping and torturing and killing? Letting that happen makes you idiots and cowards. I, for one, do not want to see my friends killed and then ask myself, why I didn't kill their murderers, when I had the chance."

Harry grimaced. He stood in front of a huge mass of black, with spikes and teeth and fire breath and apparently a giant anger issue. And, from the look on the faces of the other champions, he was the only one who hadn't known that before today.
So he would have to do with what he had on him. He looked up at the horntail, the beast intently staring at him. Then he searched his pockets. One old quill, a few of the Weasley twins' firecrackers, some dung bombs, and two paper balls.
Easy.
Harry immediately began summoning a thick fog, a spell he had learned because it would be useful, whenever he would have to make a getaway. The next step was the dung bombs and finally firecrackers. He could see the large form of the dragon shifting. It was uneasy and would soon start randomly setting things of fire. So he had to give it a target. With a short incantation, a few stones morphed into chickens.
All that was left, was to pick up the egg.

Harry grinned as he let his gaze sweep over Diagon alley. When Hermione had her polyjuice mishap less than a year ago, he never thought that it could cause a cat girl obsession, not only among Britain, but all over the world.

"Harry, don't be an idiot! That is simply impossible. Phoenixes are an embodiment of everything good. Dumbledore has a phoenix as patronus."
"But I tell you, that I saw it with my own eyes! Voldemort cast a patronus, and it WAS a phoenix. It doesn't matter, if it's impossible or not. It is a FACT!"
"But Harry, I-"
"Can you two stop it already?" Ron interrupted. "Patroni are a symbol of what makes us happy. Dumbledore may have a phoenix, because Fawkes is his familiar, but Voldemort may have one because it is a symbol for immortality."

"Remus! I think, I figured out, why my parents and Sirius suspected you to be on Voldemort's side all those years ago."
Remus' head whipped around so fast, Harry imagined, he heared a small crack.
"It's kind of obvious, once you think of it. With all the regulations from the ministry and hate and fear from the society, Voldemort would really have offered you a better life. No one could have blamed you, if you fought for that."

"Now, children let's assign the chores. I want Harry and Ginny cleaning the second floor li-"
"Mrs Weasley, I'm certainly not going to clean anything. Do you have any idea, how much time that would take?"
"Harry, you can't j-"
"If you haven't noticed, Sirius is the closest to any family I have ever had. I've barely seen him for the last one and a half year and I will most certainly not waste my time with cleaning up a house, when I can finally spend some time with him."

Harry smiled tiredly at the newest offerings of the natives to him, their god. Just yesterday evening had he understood what had happened five years ago, before the tribe of Nibuglakr had seen him fall from the sky, hit the ground, and simply bounce up and down, until he finally came to rest, sleeping perfectly fine on the soft sand.
He remembered only bits and pieces of his life before the incident. His aunt, his uncle, his nephew, fear, pain, loneliness, a trip, aunt and uncle arguing, finally stepping onto the plane. He couldn't remember what happened after that, but it was actually pretty obvious.
Something had made him angry or afraid and his magic had lashed out, ignorant of his position in a box of metal and plastic, thousands of meters above the ocean. The plane couldn't have survived that and probably had been ripped to pieces in mid air. His magic had used the winds to push him towards the only piece of inhabitable land in sight. And now he was here.
Harry's life wasn't perfect. He was often lonely since the tribe respected him greatly and most of them didn't dare speak to their god. But at least it was peaceful.

Harry was angry. He knew, pairing up Malfoy with Neville had been a bad idea, but for the blond to pull one of his childish pranks in the middle of the forbidden forest, that was unexpected. But there was an upside to everything. Just as Hagrid opened his mouth, probably to reassign the groups, Harry interrupted: "Hagrid, since Malfoy obviously doesn't appreciate his group, I think, you should let him go alone with Fang."
The sight of Malfoy's face taking the color of freshly bleached paper would be a fond memory for the rest of his life.

Dumbledore sighed. "Harry, I knew about the propecy from the beginning, but whenever I saw you, I couldn't look past the child, I always wanted you to have just a few more years of childhood."
Harry growled, barely keeping himself on the saner side of the border to incoherent rage: "Tell me, Albus what good is it for me to have two more years as a child, only to die before I reach the age of twenty?"

Anakin just barely managed to keep the twisting knot of negative emotion in check as he walked out of Master Yoda's quarters. The wisest and most powerful Jedi of the order had nothing more to say than to accept Padmé's death? Laughable, so laughable, he wanted to puke and scream at the same time.
"Skywalker!" Anakin whirled to face the man who had spoken to him. It was a staunch, small Twi'lek of earthen dark greens and blues, who looked timid, nearly fearful at him.
"What?" That wasn't any way to talk to another Jedi, Anakin knew, but right now, he was just about fed up with the whole Order and their rules and their hypocrisy.
"I... Uuhm, I was wondering, if you'd be interested in learning Force healing." He seemed to almost fold into himself, even as he spoke, "I, I know it's not popular, a dying art, really, but it is important, please believe me! With you learning it, maybe new life could come to this art." Anakin felt a tiny flicker of hope, as he followed his unassuming new teacher through the old halls.
Years later, Anakin sat, contently watching his children play on the wide plains of Naboo. He would soon take to the field again, not as a Jedi, he had been expelled from the Order, but as an agent working directly for the senate. It was something, he had decided, his children would follow him in. He wanted no part of the Order for his family, and he knew, even though he was a hero after leading a group of masters to kill Darth Sidious, that this feeling was mutual.

[HTMMH]

Here are a few examples of scenes, that just make me want to quit reading a story, no matter how good it is otherwise:

Horrible logic:

"Hi Hinata-chan! I think, I should teach you the kagebunshin no jutsu today!", Naruto said, "It will be great to know, before we start our second year in the academy. Let's just ignore, that it would totally kill you, because its chakra cost is high enough to classify it as a kinjutsu. Let's also ignore, that you have low chakra reserves because you are young, not especially strong, and come from a clan with low chakra reserves."
"Ok, Naruto-kun!"Five hours later, the two stood, happily watching Hinata's two hundred shadowclones training their elemental affinities, so she could progress as fast as Naruto and so they could be stronger than jounin, when they left the academy.

Naruto looked at his opponents.
There stood Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Sasuke (who really has no business being there, but still is because someone really wanted him to), Orochimaru with the Shodaime and Nidaime zombies, Pain, Gaara in full Shukaku form, and the rest of the Akazuki.
It was over in an attosecond. Naruto was so great and fast and powerful and perfect, that he just killed them all in that timespan (1 attosecond = 0.000000000000000001s).

Naruto stared at Sasuke.
The black haired Genin dashed at his counterpart, Naruto still sitting down. In the last moment, Naruto stood up and used the perfect counter to Sasuke's move, ending the fight in a very decisive and humiliating way. After all Naruto had trained for the last two weeks to make up for completely failing to learn anything at the academy and was now far more powerful than Sasuke, who had only trained with the extensive ressources of one of the top two clans in Konoha every day since he was old enough to do so.

Zabuza burst out of a bush. The Genin immediately formed a protective ring around Tazuna. Kakashi looked alarmed. "I'm still not fully rested after my last fight with him and can't use chakra yet. You have to stall him."
Three minutes later, Kakashi stood up: "Ok, I'm fully rested now and can use chakra again. Let's just completely ignore, that my reserves must have been 99% full three minutes ago."

The the Hokage arrived, along with Kakashi, Maito Gai, Anko, and several Anbu. But before anyone could react, Orochimaru was swallowed by a summoned snake, that popped out of existance a moment later, bringing the Sannin to safety.The Hokage arrived, along with Naruto, Tenten, and Haku arrived. Before anyone could react, Orochimaru did nothing, not because he didn't have the opportunity - he had successfully fled from exacly the same situation before, but because this time some mysterious, unknown, but allpowerful entity had decided, it was time for the snake Sannin to die.

Horrible fighting style:

"Ero-sennin, teach me a jutsu!"
"Ok, Naruto-kun. You can choose between a stealth jutsu that will allow you to sneak up on any opponent, a genjutsu that even you can do, which would help you broaden your skillset, a long range jutsu, that would go well with your clones and make you an epic powerhouse, or a jutsu that would allow you to close in on opponents and use your powerful close range jutsu, such as the rasengan."
"No, I want a jutsu, that is absurdly powerful, but has no range, is so obvious, that I'll never be able to use it on any opponent, allows no other possibility than to run straight at the enemy, and is too hard for me to actually learn."

"Hey, Jiji, I wanna learn kenjutsu!"
"Naruto-kun, kenjutsu isn't even an actual shinobi skill. It is only good, when you massacre enemies far weaker than you. If you ever fight someone as strong or stronger than you, which by the way means everyone except for academy students, dropping the sword each time you want to use a jutsu will cost you precious time. It will also make you unable to use your greatest strength, your huge chakra pool."
"But I HAVE to learn kenjutsu. That weird voice in my head says so!"
Hiruzen looked up in alarm. "A voice in your head?"
"Yes, Jiji. It calls itself the 'author'."

Naruto had finally managed to route his opponent and make his way right above her completely unnoticed. It was time to end this battle with a decisive strike.
"SURPRISE ATTACK!!!!"

Horrible romance:

"Sakura-chan, will you go on a date with me?"
"Leave me alone, Naruto-BAKA!!" SLAM
Hinata couldn't watch it any longer. "Naruto-kun, I love you, please become my boyfriend!"
"Hinata-chan, I love you, too. I barely even knew you existed until ten seconds ago and always thought, you did your best to completely ignore me, but now I realize that I always loved you but was too foolish to see it. And Sakura-chan is a horrible person. I don't love her anymore, at all. Actually I never loved her. Let's live happily ever after."
"Yes, Naruto-kun, let's do that."

"Sakura-chan, will you go on a date with me?"
"Leave me alone, Naruto-BAKA!!" SLAM...
"Sakura-chan, will you go on a date with me?"
"Ok, I will go on a date with you, Naruto-BAKA!!" SLAM
"Let's go to Ichiraku's!"
"Naruto-baka, you idiot!" SMACK"Naruto-baka, I love you." SMASH
Naruto twisted his head on his broken spine, so he could look upon the wonderful love of his life, Sakura.
"I love you too, Sakura-chan"
"Naruto-baka stop being annoying!!" SLAM
It was the happiest day of his life.

Horrible (and ooc) relationships:

"Naruto-kun, we will go shopping now," Hinata said, using her boyfriends memories of complete loneliness and a deep fear of abandonment to make him do, whatever she wanted instead of getting him professional help or even caring about his happiness.
Naruto ignored the plans to train for his ineviatable fight with the Akatsuki. He ignored the fact that he would have a horrible time, and that Hinata would have him pay for stupidly expensive clothes that she would never actually wear and then look at him like he was some dumb animal, she had trained well. He also ignored, that she had plenty of money of her own and that the basic respect for each other that was the very foundation of any functional relationship obviously wasn't there.
"Yes, Hinata-chan."
"And after that you may feel honored that I allow you to take me out for lunch."
Naruto looked at his girlfriend adoringly. Wasn't he a lucky guy.

Retarded characters:

Naruto looked at his enemy. For the last four hours, he had rushed him with the Rasengan and failed miserably each and every time. But he knew, what he had to do. Naruto readied himself, channeled a Rasengan and rushed his enemy again.