Saving Grace
Characters/Pairings: Sakura-centric. Vaguely future Kakashi/Sakura, and vaguely past Kiba/Sakura. Naruto, Sasuke.
Warnings: …Let’s see. Sexual innuendo, dark and disturbing content, and the narrative character going insane. Oh, and character death.
Summary: After a disastrous mission, Sakura must fight her ghosts as she slowly slides into insanity, while attempting to discover the person responsible for the disaster.
Comments: This is much darker than I usually like, and I’m hesitant to rec it because of that. As a general rule of thumb, I feel profoundly discomfited when the narrative character is going insane. But…it’s also very well-written and well-done. The author is apparently a nursing student, so she get a lot of the details of Sakura being a medic-nin right that a lot of people would just gloss over. A lot of the characterization, in Sasuke in particular, is a great deal darker than I’m used to seeing, and a lot less optimistic, but it fits the mood of the fic. And I’m fascinated in seeing what on earth is going to happen. It’s just not usually my type of fic.
Multi-chapter, incomplete.

A Willing Walk in Hell
Characters/Pairings: Orochimaru/Kabuto
Warnings: Dark graphic sex. Iffy consent. How old is Kabuto, anyway?
Summary: Kabuto meets his new master in the woods one night.
Comments: A nicely done view of the dynamics of Orochimaru and Kabuto’s relationship. Dark and incredibly fucked up. And I find the fact that Kabuto chooses to submit to Orochimaru important in that he still has a choice. While Orochimaru mostly just uses him. Huh. I’m kind of tempted to write out a long and boring essay on Kabuto and Orochimaru’s character dynamics now. Because this is mostly how I view them, but not quite.
One-shot, complete.

Reasons Not To Go To Sleep
Character/Pairings: Koteshi/Izumo
Warnings: None
Summary: Koteshi and Izumo are never apart.
Comments: For some reason unbeknownst to me, this is one of my favorite pairings in Naruto. And this is a nicely done pair of short ficlets dealing with their relationship. It’s just…it’s incredibly sweet, in a more than a little dysfunctional way. And I have a fondness for sweetly dysfunctional relationships.
Pair of loosely related one-shots, complete.

Fascination With Powerful People
Characters/Pairings: Orochimaru/Sasuke. In a way that is probably no more suggestive than canon.
Warnings: Um. Orochimaru warning?
Spoilers: For up through the end of the second test of the Chuunin exams
Summary: Orochimaru is drawn to power, and to the promise of power.
Comments: A nice, dark vignette on Orochimaru and his reflections on what draws him to Sasuke. It’s nicely done and I like what really caught his attention about Sasuke.
One-shot, complete.

Three Aspects of Teamwork
Characters/Pairings: Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke, probably gen, though.
Warnings: None
Spoilers: Haku arc spoilers, I guess
Summary: “Before everything started to go to hell, or maybe just as. They were almost a team, but not quite; and then Sasuke died.”
Comments: I like this. It does an excellent job of showing the dynamics of their relationship early on, while still keeping them as a team. Sakura’s still obsessed with Sasuke, but she does care for Naruto; Naruto’s just happy they’re both here; and Sasuke finds their presence to be comforting. And I liked the bit of foreshadowing at the end.
One-shot, complete.

Forfeit
Characters/Pairings: Team 7-centric. No pairings.
Warnings: None
Summary: Team 7 is growing old, but the effects of a ritual with Kyuubi’s power echo.
Comments: Wow. I’d read the prologue for this a while ago, didn’t particularly catch my interest. But with the first chapter up… I’d say this story has the most potential of any of the stories I’ve been reading. It feels like it’s building up to be an epic, and an interesting epic, and God I want more long plotty fics. (Otherwise known as epics).
Notes: I don’t know if I’m going to be reccing much today because I decided to try making pumpkin pie from scratch. And I mean buying the damn pumpkins and making the puree myself from scratch, scratch. So I doubt I’m going to be online enough to search for fics.
…Especially since I have two midterms and a decent start on a major project due this week. Why am I making pumpkin pie again?
Multi-chapter, incomplete.

Stepping Back
Characters/Pairings: Tsuande, Orochimaru
Warnings: None
Summary: Tsunade examines herself without her genjutsu of youth, and contemplates immortality.
Comments: This is something I’d been half-wanting to see for ages, but no one was writing this. The two of them are excellently characterized, and it just makes me think more about Tsunade’s reasons for keeping her appearance young, and just how much appeal Orochimaru’s immortality would have for her. And any fic that can make me think makes me happy.
One-shot, complete.

Unexpected
Characters/Pairings: Vaguely Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke of some sort. Kakashi, Tsunade.
Warnings: None
Summary: Sometimes, you have to betray one family to preserve another. Sakura and Naruto abandon Konoha for Sasuke.
Comments: I debated briefly on whether I should rec this, but god, Tsunade breaks my heart in this. And it’s very well done, without making the mistake of softening the characters past the point of reason. There are consequences to their actions, and that’s what I see too rarely in fics like these.
One-shot, complete.

Death Of A Soul
Characters/Pairings: Sakura, Itachi.
Warnings: None
Summary: The village of Konoha believes that Haruno Sakura is dead. But instead, she has been kidnapped by Uchiha Itachi.
Comments: Yeah, basically your standard eventual Sakura/Itachi fic. But unlike most the other fics along these lines that I’ve read, boggled at, and mocked mercilessly, this is well done. It keeps them all reasonably in character, even Itachi (who is in my experience usually the worst butchered in these fics). It’s just well done, and it’s a fic that I can see an awful lot of potential in, even though it seems to be dead. Alas.
Multi-chapter, incomplete.

Special Relationships
Characters/Pairings: Hinata, Neji, Naruto/Sasuke, Sasuke, Sakura, Kurenai, Tenten, Kakashi/Iruka
Warnings: Um. None?
Summary: Hinata misunderstands the nature of Naruto and Neji’s relationship. Which indirectly leads to the formation of the Special Relationship Appreciation club for the female shinobi. And there is much appreciation of the gay male ninjas.
Comments: …No one can write crack quite so well as insaneidiot. (…Look, that’s her actual lj name. Don’t blame me.) It’s hilarious, and I never fail to find myself amused when rereading this. And for some reason, I thought I had already recced this. Oops.
One-shot, complete.

To Broken Men
Characters/Pairings: Naruto/Sakura/Kakashi. No, really.
Warnings: None.
Summary: A year before they leave to go find Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura decide it would be a good idea to seduce Kakashi.
Comments: It’s well written, a fascinating couple, and just made me grin madly. (I also desperately want to read the promised sequel, where they seduce Sasuke. Um. It probably won’t be as porny as it sounds.)
One-shot, complete.

Sakura and the Prince of Flowers
Characters/Pairings: Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto, Lee. Other characters make appearances. Various pairings are brought in during the story, but there’s no settled pairing yet.
Warnings: Character death. No, I’m not saying who.
Summary: As a monster haunts the woods around Konoha, Sakura dreams of a mysterious Prince of Flowers that she met in her childhood.
Comments: I don’t know. I almost wasn’t going to rec it - but hell, it kept me reading after one of my favorite characters died. God knows that’s a pretty difficult task, considering how much I hate, loathe, and despise deathfics. It’s an interesting fic. I think the plot has potential, and I’m curious to see what happens. I think it’s decently written, although… something about it bugs me. I just have no idea what. …Besides the fact that there’s an underlying romantic rivalry between Sasuke and Naruto for Sakura, and um, anyone who’s seen my threesomes section knows how I feel about that. Love triangles irritate the shit out of me. But, as I said before, it’s good enough to keep me reading despite a number of things that tend to make me hit the back button. So I don’t know.
Multi-chapter, incomplete.

The Strip Poker Scandal
Characters/Pairings: Genma, Sakura, Kakashi, Ibiki, Anko, Shikamaru, Shizune, in no particular order.
Warnings: Those inherent to strip poker.
Spoilers: Mild post time skip Gaara spoilers. (Some day, I will remember when and how to use hyphens without having to look it up. Until then, accept errors.)
Summary: “Strip poker and other forms of inappropriate behavior. In which Genma and Sakura get tipsy and sarcastic, Kakashi giggles like a little girl, Ibiki chokes on a peanut and Shizune cleans everyone out. Plus a blushing Hokage.”
Comments: I could’ve sworn I recced this already. But apparently not! Anyway, this made me giggle madly. And the idea of Shizune and Sakura cleaning everyone else out because Shizune learned how to play cards while watching the other people Tsunade played seems highly appropriate. And it’s just a cute, funny fic.
One-shot, complete.

A Touch of Velvet
Characters/Pairings: Kakashi/Iruka
Warnings: None
Summary: The jounin get an impromptu lecture on what Iruka was like as a child when Hyuga Hiashi attempts to publicly pressure Iruka into graduating Hanabi early.
Comments: There’s a couple of things about this that really bug me (namely, the fact that the jounins had no clue about Iruka’s life as a prankster, as well as the, to my mind, excessive bashing of Hiashi’s character - I’m not too fond of him myself, but I have an instantaneous twitch reaction to anything resembling bashing). But I overall enjoyed this fic. I liked the tales of Iruka’s somewhat checkered past. And the story of how he told Sasuke’s father off for trying to pressure him into graduating Sasuke early. And most of this fic just made me grin with glee.
One-shot, complete.

Sand and Glass
Characters/Pairings: Neji/Hinata/Naruto
Warnings: None
Summary: When Naruto comes back to Konoha, nothing is the same.
Comments: A fairly long, well done fic. At first, I wasn’t thrilled with it. For some reason, while I like Neji/Hinata and Naruto/Hinata, I’m usually not a big fan of this threesome. (And this is me saying that. Did you know that approximately 8 percent of my recs are threesomes? And that it’s one of my bigger categories?) But I like this. It has a very soft feel to it, and it was kind of slow to draw me in. I’m still a little confused as to why Naruto was gone so long, and how the author resolved the whole Sasuke situation. And that, frankly, bugged me the entire time. But it’s still nicely written, and the relationship itself is very nicely done. I think I’m just being nitpicky.
One-shot, complete.

More than Words
Characters/Pairings: Sakura
Warnings: None
Summary: Sakura hates words, because words alone accomplish nothing.
Comments: Beautifully in canon. It’s just one of those fics that make me go “Damn, Sakura kicks ass”. A little short, but nicely done.
One-shot, complete.

Rituals
Characters/Pairings: Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke
Warnings: Crossdressing
Summary: After the bad missions, the three have their own rituals to recovery
Comments: Very nice. It’s angsty, but almost fluffy angst. I’m a bit iffy about some issues of Sasuke’s characterization (Well, more than a bit, really), but I think the author did a nice job of absolutely nailing Naruto’s and Sakura’s characterization.
One-shot, complete.

Every Ninja Has His Secrets
Characters/Pairings: Itachi, Neji
Warnings: None
Summary: Itachi has many secrets. Including some small, cute, purring ones.
Comments: God, I love CFUD. And Itachi and Neji here are absolutely hilarious.
One-shot, complete.

How to File Form 39-B
Characters/Pairings: Kakashi/Iruka
Warnings: Sex
Spoilers: For the end of the Chuunin exams
Summary: THe evolution of Kakashi and Iruka’s relationship.
Comments: I’m really not much for Kakashi/Iruka. Much of it’s just too cutesy and unrealistic for a pair of highly trained ninjas. This, however, while making me go kind of um at some isses of characterization, is overall nicely done and nicely characterized. It’s funny and charming and cute, while still at least touching on the issues that Kakashi and Iruka would face. (Frankly, I tend to be more of the opinion that Kakashi’s too screwed up to be in a healthy relationship, so that’s a lot of my problem with this fic. But it is good. I just don’t agree with it, necessarily.)
One-shot, complete.

Doll
Characters/Pairings: Hanabi, Hinata.
Warnings: None
Summary: Once, for Hanabi’s birthday, Hinata gave Hanabi a doll.
Comments: Hanabi and Hinata’s relationship has always interested me because there’s just so much you could do with it. And I like what this author did with it. It’s… Despite everything, they’re still sisters, even though their family seems determined to make sure neither of them think of the other as anything more than a rival. And Hinata and Hanabi are just beautifully characterized, and I’ve been wanting to read a fic like this for ages.
One-shot, complete.